My MIL bought a new Class C motorhome on an E450 chassis back in September. To my surprise, it came with the new 7.3L Godzilla in it. For some reason I thought it had a 5.4L Triton, which I had driven in a E350 Penske moving truck 6 years ago and was a complete dog.
I got the opportunity to drive this thing for probably 4 hours total on Sunday when my F150 transmission line blew and left us stranded for a while. I had to bring the motorhome from our campground at 6500' up to about 8000' up some pretty steep grades with lots of switchbacks, then back down again. Then I drove it the 2.5 hours back to home with some 65mph meandering 2 lane roads and about 75 miles on I-80 in some winds.
The engine is pretty stout and comes paired with a 6R140. This is the "detuned" chassis cab version with 350hp and 468 ft-lbs of torque, both at 3900 rpm, but I believe it also has a set of 4.56 gears as it would run at around 2500 rpm in 6th gear at 75mph. It had zero issue lugging that 12000+ lb motorhome up the mountain and back down. I don't think it ever revved much more than 3500 rpm and the grade braking was fantastic. It would actually slow the camper down on 7% sections coming into corners. I really never had to touch the brakes.
On the open road it ran strong. Once I got onto I-80 i had the cruise set to 75mph and it just churned along mostly in 6th gear. I would say that the Ecoboost has some more grunt below 3000 rpm, only because of the elevation, but it was not like this thing was struggling. 5th or 4th gear was enough to keep it charging up any grade at 75mph. At sea level I think this thing would outpull my Ecoboost at lower RPM.
The round trip average MPG was 10.4 according to the readout, so seems to be pretty efficient. On the way out my F150 got just about the same towing my 5500 lbs TT. This thing is much taller though and probably weighs about the same as my truck+trailer.
I bet this motor is stellar in the Superduty with the 10 speed and the uprated 430hp/475tq. Pair it with the 4.30 gears and the 10 speed and I bet it pulls extremely well. while this E450 engine is derated, its not really actually derated below 4000 rpm. The peak torque is basically the same at the same RPM, so if it never has to rev above 4000 rpm in the derated form I am guessing the superduty version does not either.
I got the opportunity to drive this thing for probably 4 hours total on Sunday when my F150 transmission line blew and left us stranded for a while. I had to bring the motorhome from our campground at 6500' up to about 8000' up some pretty steep grades with lots of switchbacks, then back down again. Then I drove it the 2.5 hours back to home with some 65mph meandering 2 lane roads and about 75 miles on I-80 in some winds.
The engine is pretty stout and comes paired with a 6R140. This is the "detuned" chassis cab version with 350hp and 468 ft-lbs of torque, both at 3900 rpm, but I believe it also has a set of 4.56 gears as it would run at around 2500 rpm in 6th gear at 75mph. It had zero issue lugging that 12000+ lb motorhome up the mountain and back down. I don't think it ever revved much more than 3500 rpm and the grade braking was fantastic. It would actually slow the camper down on 7% sections coming into corners. I really never had to touch the brakes.
On the open road it ran strong. Once I got onto I-80 i had the cruise set to 75mph and it just churned along mostly in 6th gear. I would say that the Ecoboost has some more grunt below 3000 rpm, only because of the elevation, but it was not like this thing was struggling. 5th or 4th gear was enough to keep it charging up any grade at 75mph. At sea level I think this thing would outpull my Ecoboost at lower RPM.
The round trip average MPG was 10.4 according to the readout, so seems to be pretty efficient. On the way out my F150 got just about the same towing my 5500 lbs TT. This thing is much taller though and probably weighs about the same as my truck+trailer.
I bet this motor is stellar in the Superduty with the 10 speed and the uprated 430hp/475tq. Pair it with the 4.30 gears and the 10 speed and I bet it pulls extremely well. while this E450 engine is derated, its not really actually derated below 4000 rpm. The peak torque is basically the same at the same RPM, so if it never has to rev above 4000 rpm in the derated form I am guessing the superduty version does not either.
