2012 Ford F-150 buying advice

[Pixguy]

Your avatar looks like we have pretty similar trucks. Mine is also dark blue pearl metallic with silver along the bottom.
I'm on my umpteenth F150 and second second one with Sync. Pretty handy for hands free phone operation and voice activated functions. Nice to have the options of a USB port for the iPod as well as Sirius and CD.
I just got a new dump trailer the other day so I'm still experimenting with putting in a name for it along with the other couple of trailers that I have. I just discovered yesterday that that was a feature in the apps.
Just bought a stainless bull bar that I'm going to install on the front today. Just a little extra protection against a potential deer hit. It's the time of the year where they're moving in this area.

You have good taste!! :thumbsup:

Not sure what you mean by putting in the trailers? In Sync? Apps? Please expound on that.

 

[JJZ 109]

You have good taste!! :thumbsup:

Not sure what you mean by putting in the trailers? In Sync? Apps? Please expound on that.

I haven't gone back to mess with it yet, so I can't tell you a whole lot. But you know how you can set it up to keep track of the miles put on individual trailers? The other day I stumbled onto a function where you can input a name for each of the trailers. I won't be getting to it until sometime later today, but if you happen to go out and play with your own display and discover how to complete it, give a post. I'll do likewise if I figure it out.
I believe you have to have a trailer plugged into the truck to complete the function.

 

[jejeosborne]

I haven't gone back to mess with it yet, so I can't tell you a whole lot. But you know how you can set it up to keep track of the miles put on individual trailers? The other day I stumbled onto a function where you can input a name for each of the trailers. I won't be getting to it until sometime later today, but if you happen to go out and play with your own display and discover how to complete it, give a post. I'll do likewise if I figure it out.
I believe you have to have a trailer plugged into the truck to complete the function.

I don't think you have to have a trailer plugged in but you cannot be moving to see the option on the screen. I added three of my trailers but never change to which one I am using. The only benefit I see is that the gain adjustment sticks with each trailer and accumulated miles are tracked per trailer. Could be handy to track mileage for maintenance but I am too lazy to switch each time I swap trailers. I thought it also showed mpg for each trailer but not sure.

 

[JJZ 109]

I don't think you have to have a trailer plugged in but you cannot be moving to see the option on the screen.

If you've added 3 trailers, then you have at least 3X the experience I have with it! But anyway, I'll list the step by step I just did for Pixguy.
Bear in mind that I'm no technical writer, so I hope that I get the idea across well enough for him to get the info he wants.

1) Plug in trailer, turn key to ON position.
2) A display with the brake gain number will appear. Press OK.
3) Select "Change Active Trailer".
4) Select "New Trailer".
5) Use the UP/DOWN arrows to select letters. Keep pushing UP and you'll be in caps. DOWN is lower case.
6) Once you have the correct letter in the first space, use the side to side arrows to advance to next letter. Previous letter will be saved. Use the UP/DOWN again to select the next letter.
7) After the last letter of your trailer name has been selected, hit the left arrow to backtrack one spot. If not, you'll have an "a" in the spot after your last selected letter. As an example, I entered Dump for my dump trailer. I didn't backtrack a spot after the "p". The computer had already advanced to the next space and started with an "a". So my trailer was shown as Dumpa. I had to start from the beginning and choose to delete the trailer and start over.
8) Hit OK and that should be it.

If anyone discovers or knows of any shortcuts, please give a post and correct any of the steps I've listed.

 

[EddieWalker]

I did my first actual milage calculations and found out the milage on my display is wrong. I did the math several times and it's pretty solid. The dash display is saying that I'm averaging 17.0 mpg, but I'm really getting 17.5 mpg. In every case, it's always been the other way around. I've never had it read low. I'm at 2,500 miles and it's slowed down in increasing what it says I'm getting, but I'm not sure if it's done.

I'm still very impressed and happy with the truck!!!!

Eddie

 

[greasemonkeyok]

My guess is that the truck computer cannot obtain an exact volume of fuel from the fuel gauge, as compared to the gallons displayed on the pump when you fill up. Still, having the truck computer is a good relative fuel consumption indicator.

 

[podagrower]

I did my first actual milage calculations and found out the milage on my display is wrong. I did the math several times and it's pretty solid. The dash display is saying that I'm averaging 17.0 mpg, but I'm really getting 17.5 mpg. In every case, it's always been the other way around. I've never had it read low. I'm at 2,500 miles and it's slowed down in increasing what it says I'm getting, but I'm not sure if it's done.

I'm still very impressed and happy with the truck!!!!

Eddie

I've been pondering this with everybody's fuel mileage numbers-how accurate is the odometer? My truck has tires that are 10% larger than stock, resulting in a speedometer and odometer showing 10% high, right? Wrong, the speedometer is now dead accurate according to GPS and Radar, meaning it was 10% slow out of the factory. So are you getting 17, 17.5, or 18.7?

My wife could not figure out why people were passing her all the time in her old car, and I whipped out the GPS, speedometer showed 60, GPS showed 52-that would be why.

 

[jejeosborne]

My 2011 is within .1 mpg of hand calculations at every tank. Last night I filled up and the gallons used was exactly what I put in. I always fill the same way, two extra quick shots after auto shutoff.

 

[Diamondpilot]

My 2011 is within .1 mpg of hand calculations at every tank. Last night I filled up and the gallons used was exactly what I put in. I always fill the same way, two extra quick shots after auto shutoff.

Same with my F350 and Titan. I use a app on my phone to track mpg, ect. Both have never been off from the dash and math by more than .2 or so.

I also check all my speedo's with GPS. All 3 vehicles are within 1mph.

Chris

 

[s219]

My guess is that the truck computer cannot obtain an exact volume of fuel from the fuel gauge, as compared to the gallons displayed on the pump when you fill up. Still, having the truck computer is a good relative fuel consumption indicator.

They actually measure instaneous fuel flow rate and compute mpg from speed and flow rate -- for example, you can get mpg = mph/gph (that's miles per hour divided by gallons per hour). It's fairly accurate.