I am looking at buying an Excursion to tow my boat. I have a Dodge Ram 1500 Hemi that just isn't cutting it as far as towing is concerned. The boat weighs about 8500# loaded on the trailer. It pulls it fine, but the rear end porposes a lot and also sways a lot. Braking is marginal at best even with trailer brakes. I mainly tow locally about 1 time a month to fill up the gas on land, though I do want to do longer range towing(MD to NC or FL), which is why the question has come up. The two I have looked at are an '02 Limited 7.3L PSD with about 112K miles and a Triton V-10 with about 67K miles. The V-10 is a $2000 cheaper, they are both in about the same condition body and interior wise.
How much life can I expect from a V-10? I'm not worried about the diesel having high milage because it doesn't. The reason the V-10 has even entered the equation is because I don't drive my truck for anything but towing and short jaunts around town with the family. I have a beater VW that I drive to and from work. What kind of fuel econmoy can I expect from the V-10 towing that kind of load? The salesman I talked to said he has an F-250 with a V-10 and gets 6 city and 8 hwy, not towing.
That seems low. With my Ram I get about 12 mixed driving and 8 towing, but then again I drive with a heavy foot.
