Drove my 2002 F350 SRW 4x4 on a 1250 mile round trip to southern CO for family vacation. Pulled a Polaris RZR4 a bud loaned me on a utility trailer I built in my spare time the last couple months. Had another 6-700 pounds of "stuff" piled in the bed.
Old truck did fine but I do need to hunt down a set of stock wheels and tires for traveling. Factory gearing was 4:10s but the 35" Toyo MTs the previous owner hung on it makes the effective ratio more like 3:40. That's way too high for the 260hp 5.4 that makes all of it's power up around 3000 rpm. But I just kept it out of 6th gear and buzzed along at 2750rpm at 65mph. Checked mileage at every fill up and averged almost exactly 10mpg. Used one quart of oil.
I wish it was a diesel or better yet a newer SuperDuty with a 6.2 gas but for a guy who just started over by moving thousands of miles, buying a house, starting a new career, and raising a little family on one income for now, getting by with a pretty good old $5k truck allows us to take our little boy on vacation and me to go on hunting trips with my family. I guess I'll keep it running for a while longer if I can.
