When buyers are shopping in the heavy-duty consumer truck segment, fuel economy is often not a concern at all. These trucks with big gas V8 engines or diesel power and are made to tow and haul, not sip fuel. It’s a good thing fuel economy figures aren’t at the top of the priority list for heavy-duty truck buyers because most of them don’t even report fuel economy numbers, the Ford F-250 Super Duty doesn’t.
The reason for this is that the EPA says that any vehicle with a vehicle weight rating exceeding 8,500 pounds doesn’t need to report numbers. If you do care what the fuel economy is for a 2019 Ford F-250 Super Duty before you plunk down the money, here are some real-world figures.
The folks over at PickupTrucks.com spent a few hundred miles in an F-250 Super Duty to see how much fuel the beast sipped. The truck tested was the 2019 F-250 XL with a 176-inch wheelbase, 8-foot bed, crew cab, and rear-wheel drive. Power in this base work truck is from the standard 6.2-liter gas V8 that makes 385 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque paired with a 6-speed automatic. The truck had a few options thrown in for an as-tested price of $44,301.
The fuel economy test loop the publication used is in southeast Michigan and is 200-miles long with 25 percent city driving and 75 percent highway. The truck was empty with only the driver and no trailer or payload. Speeds are said to have never gone more than five mph over the speed limit. Fuel economy figures were taken from the onboard computer.
The Ford F-250 Super Duty showed an average in city driving of 14.6 mpg in stop-and-go-traffic. On the highway, the F-250 averaged 15.5 mpg. At the end of the trip, the full 48-gallon fuel tank had burned 12.75 gallons of fuel with the publication’s calculations showing 15.7 mpg of combined mileage. Those are not bad numbers at all for a heavy duty truck with a big V8. We wonder what sort of fuel economy the giant 7.3-liter V8 Ford is introducing for the 2020 Super Duty might offer. Ford has shown off a hybrid Super Duty truck that would have better fuel economy.
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Source: PickupTrucks.com
Comments
First that is NOT a F250..if you look closer it’s a F450 the F250 does not come in a duel rear wheel drive model! So more research needs to be done before publishing the article…
Hey Jim, that wasn’t the truck the source tested, we couldn’t use photos of the truck they tested for copyright reasons. I’ve updated the photos to shots of the F-250 Ford has on their media site. Thanks for reading!
Mine gets 8.8 gas they are lying
I have a 2018 F250 6.2l short box Platinum and I cannot get anywhere close to these numbers. I barely get 10 mpg in city and 14 mpg on highway, and this is driving conservative otherwise it is worse. Also, when I tow the fifth wheel, I barely get 8 mpg on highway. And btw, the fuel capacity on mine is 34 gallon. You need the crew cab long bed to get a 48 gallon tank.
Take onboard computer numbers with a grain of salt. They may rely on the fuel gauge being accurate. Ever seen a fuel gauge stay high for the first 2/3 tank then drop rapidly near empty? Or show a different level with the vehicle parked on a slope?
Check actual fuel use by filling, driving, then filling the same way.
“The Ford F-250 Super Duty showed an average in city driving of 14.6 mpg in stop-and-go-traffic. On the highway, the F-250 averaged 15.5 mpg. At the end of the trip, the full 48-gallon fuel tank had burned 12.75 gallons of fuel with the publication’s calculations showing 15.7 mpg of combined mileage.”
Huh? How can the combined average be greater than either of the two components of that average?
That just shows that “any thing” is possible when we are supposed to believe fuel mileage. Heck, if you listen to the bull GM spouts out ,I bet their truck even make gas when they drop a cylinder. They get 50 mpg behind a wrecker with all their recalls.
I have checked mine often and these numbers are close to what I get.
Driving a 2019 F=220 6.2 with 6 speed gm/ford tranny. with less than 5k for mileage I am getting Hy 16.13, in town 14.4 and towing a 9K trailer I am getting 6.8 mpg. I am confident I will improve as the engine brakes in. Hwy mpg was driven at 64 mph using cruse control, traveling 302 miles of interstate. On return trip over the same course traveling at a constant speed of Just over 65 my MPG dropped down to less than 5.3 Hauling .Also Note the hauling trailer was over the same interstate of 302 miles using cruse control. I hope MPG will improve as the engine brakes in. But If I can Afford a F250 than I better be able to afford gas MPG of around 15 MPH.
I’m just getting to leave for Virginia International Race way from the UP of Michigan pulling my 8,500# ATC trailer.
I’ve pulled this trailer ~ 20,000 miles with this truck which has a 3:73 rear gear ratio, I wish I had gotten the 4:30 gear ration which was available.
I get ~ 7.5mpg @ 65 to 70 mph but it will go as high as 9.5 mpg if I slow to 60 mph.
MPG is highly dependent , mostly on wind and to a lessor degree on hills.
My truck is a 2017 xlt with 6.2L
My non pulling miles/gallon are real close to yours.
I should have also mentioned I run exclusively Mobile 1 5W30 extended performance oil and not the spec Ford oil for this truck which is a semi synthetic.
The oil specs are 5W-20, and not 5W-30, but that would not make a difference enough. Also his type oil . I have over 120K miles on mine. Wind & speed are the biggest factors-period. Sweet spot is 63 mph,empty or towing-15+ empty. 10 to13 towing, depending on trailer,load& traffic. Stop & go city sucks-maybe 11 if lucky. This is all average. On 2 rare times 17.7 @63mph. empty. Good fuel / no ethonal ,also Lucas is a big help-about 6%. A bed cover is good for1/2 mpg under certain conditions. There are a gob of variables, mostly wind & the use of the skinny pedal. Also be real, average is what it says-AVERAGE.
Oil spec on 2017 superduty is not 5W20 it is 5W30 on mine.
6.2L
2014 F-250 w/ 3.73s and 6.2L Gasser. 11.8 Avg. Maybe 14 Hwy empty @ 75mph. 37,000 miles. Towing 13,000lb 5th Wheel, >65 MPG, 6-7 MPG tops.
I meant <65 MPH, 6-7 MPG tops.
I just came back from 3,000 miles of towing with a 28 foot, 6′ 6″ ceiling height and a trailer weight of 8,000#. About 70% of time was between 65mph and 75mph and the balance at ~62mph on 2 lane highways.
I averaged 8.1 mpg on the entire trip. As you might expect, if I tucked behind a semi at 70mph my digital read showed an improvement of about 2mph over the non drafting at the same speed.
Somebody previously said 5W20 oil is specification for the gasser motor but that is not the case for mine which says 5W30 in the manual and on the fill cap.
2019 F250 is getting 18.5 gpm. 2015 F350 got 14.8. 2013 f350 got 15.2. Towing about 6500 lbs with 2013 and 2015 was about 10=11 gpm.
Sounds great but there are too many variables to really make real worl fuel mileage accurate when towing. In my 2011 F250 it varies from 9.6 to 14.3. That is with the same trailer towing basically the same load. Wind, altitude,weather,fuel,traffic, and mostly driving style effects mpg. Also, sometimes for no real reason it just does what it wants to. I call it the female mode. What the heck, I didn’t buy a truck for fuel mileage, if it pulls strong, rides great, & does the job & is easy and cheap to maintain, then I’ll give up a little mpg. That’s why I buy Fords instead of GMC crap. Good mpg, but too much shop time.
I saw your publications earlier, but this one I consider the ideal.
Disclaimer: I don’t drive a lot, I’m retired.
I bought new a 2018 F-150 V8 Coyote SuperCrew Fx4. LOVE IT.
But per the driver information center, lol, It shows I’m getting 12.4 mph!!
All 18 months and 4,108 miles, I’m getting 12.4 mpg..~ CRAP.. ok, I drive
fast, a lot of it shorter highways. But I don’t brake fast. (maybe my
horn takes more gas these days?) So, looking at the F250, I’m encouraged
that I at the least won’t be WORSE!
If you’re gonna pony up $44,000 for a truck be a man and go the extra $9000 and get the 6.7 Power Stroke you’ll be a lot happier with the better fuel economy and durability of the Diesel.
Pray you don’t get any water in your diesel fuel. C4 = boom
That’s why I chose a 6.2 > 6.7