2015 F-150 King Ranch Review

For the next week I get to drive around a 2015 Ford F-150 FX4 4wd King Ranch 3.5 Ecoboost four door pickup. 

I can't keep it because it only seats five and there are six of us, but I do get to play with it, so I might as well write about it, right? 
The big reason I want to borrow it is because it gives me the chance to drive around the 3.5 Ecobost which is what I would order in a Transit if I ever convinced myself that I wanted a new family car. This truck has the six speed auto box and the newest Transits come with the 10, so it's not exactly the same drivetrain, but it's close enough. 

Frankly, the motor is awesome. There is a huge mountain of torque waiting for you to ask. Give it enough pedal and it will gladly hold second gear to 5500rpm and the speed limit. There are times it feels a little weird as it hunts for the appropriate amount of power to give you (word is that they're torque limited by gear) but the truck is much faster than it has any right to be at normal street speeds. 0-60, 65-80, all of it is done seamlessly and quickly. I'm not going to get a chance to tow, but it has the integrated trailer brake which kind of makes me want to try. 

As for the rest of the truck, lots of leather and real wood. 

It's comfy. Heated cooled and massaging seats in front. Stereo is great. I'm deciding if I like Sync or I love Sync. There are lots of menus and so far they are all easy to figure out. I like all of the different things I can put on the dash and all of the stuff that can be shown on the infotainment screen. I want to be the old curmedgeon that doesn't like tech, but I do. This is good as far as the potential van purchase goes too, spending a pile of money on the good tech is an option. 

I'm going to drive around, play with it, see what's good and bad. It's a significant step up from my 2007 Silverado so I'm trying to recalibrate my expectations. I'm just going to poke around and jot down my thoughts as they come to me and ask/answer any questions that come up. 

To start with, are there any problems popping up with the 3.5? 

Looks like the seats might not be made of saddle leather anymore.  That would be good.  The only 3.5 problem I am aware of is a customer who bought one with 150,000km and tried to tow his travel trailer on the flat lands of Saskatchewan.  It would set codes for too much knock retard, too long, and burned oil like a bitch under load.

These are the seats with AC in them so the middle part is all perforated, not sure if that makes a difference. The leather is soft and just a bit grippy. Seats are broad and flat and I wish they had bolsters, but they don't. They're comfortable so far. 

A buddy of mine works at a dealership, and he says that they see a lot of "rear turbo" failures because people drive, then shut off the engine right away. This apparently causes oil to get hot and gum up in the line, which then causes the turbo to not get enough oil. 

Seth you tire me out brah.....was this waiting for you after the swap meet perchance???

In reply to 759NRNG :

Nah, a friend came to visit and we swapped cars. He's trying to decide if he wants to buy the R63 so he took it home for a week. It's fun to get to spend time in a car without actually buying it. If I could find people to do this with 3-4 times a year maybe my automotive ADD would calm down. 

"maybe my automotive ADD would calm down. " Not in this life time my friend......hey if the R63 is still available may I have 'test ' drive?

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I'm leaning toward rentals, though they don't have the most interesting selection. After having a Frontier for a week, I liked it, but not enough to pay good money to own one. I'm starting to think ~$200 for checking out a vehicle - or at least the basic platform - that you're interested in owning, is money well spent. 

snailmont5oh said:

A buddy of mine works at a dealership, and he says that they see a lot of "rear turbo" failures...

What in the world does the rear turbo refer to on this engine?

Oil coking is a pretty common failure mode for many turbos but I'm unaware of it being a significant problem on the 3.5L Ecoboost. I know some of the early ones (2011 or so) had issues with carbon deposits on the valves due to DI but I think that has since been resolved. Overall there aren't really any glaring issues with that engine that I know of.

Sync..... The more you get to know each other the more you'll grow to hate each other. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

What is the steering ratio like on that? One of my biggest pet peeves on Ford trucks is the super slow steering and the amount of turns lock to lock. All of my experience is in the more basic work trucks though. Curious if the nicer trucks have the same issue. 

Why only 5 seats? Aren’t crew cabs 6 seaters?

Edit: just two up front duh... sorry.

In reply to ebonyandivory :

My guess is big gigantic console/work station in the middle up front.

Nick Comstock said:

In reply to ebonyandivory :

My guess is big gigantic console/work station in the middle up front.

Yeah, I’m dumb.

In reply to Nick Comstock :

I'll measure lock to lock for you tomorrow. It's hugely overboosted on center. It seems like they think light steering will make the truck feel light where it really just makes it feel vague. It tracks well down the road and turns ok it just doesn't take a set in corners very well, which is a pretty trucky characteristic. 

ebonyandivory said:

Why only 5 seats? Aren’t crew cabs 6 seaters?

Edit: just two up front duh... sorry.

Yup, console. The cup holders are on the passenger side of it and it's a reach to get to them. Not quite like an H1 Humvee, but close. I need to measure door to door inside, it feels larger than my Chevy.

I forgot to mention here on GRM that i did finally drive an Ecoboost 3.5 Transit. It had a fair amount of weight in it (they're work vehicles 98% of the time, right?) but i got the feel of it. I'd say in a vehicle that size it just felt 'not slow'. It definitely didn't feel like the F150s ive driven. But, the empty 1/4 mile time makes me feel like the passenger version might still be sprightly. I would hope that they get the new transmission soon. The one i drove had the 6 spd and i wasn't overly fond of it. 

Speaking of r63, i also drove an r500, but that's a story for another thread. 

I would just say don't expect an empty Transit to be as fast as even a heavy version of an f150. There may actually be something to those ratings differences.

I have an older F150 (2013) but the same drive train and in  XL trim so lighter (About 5K lbs). I too like the power.  When not towing the truck gets up to speed so effortlessly that I hardy get into the boost.  It seems to feel faster when I'm pulling my open trailer as the load seems to allow the engine to build boost.  Even with my race car on the trailer I can pull away from other cars from a traffic light.  It's must freak other drivers out to see a PU truck and trailer with a car on it walk away from them when the light turns green.

Oh, by the way I bought this one used last year with 144K miles on it and it runs and drives like a truck with 44K. The only issue; minor in nature; is a noise from the steering on right had turns. It has the electric powered rack so I'm not sure what's causing the noise but it doesn't seem to be anything other than a noise.

The Ecboost V6 in the Transit is "detuned" from the power level of the F150.  I was at the Chicago Auto Show last week and spent some time talking to a Ford Employee from their KC plant. That's where they build the large Transit van.  The  power rating for 2018  in the Transit is 310 HP/400 Tq vrs. 365 HP/420 Tq for the older F150's, 2018 F150's get  the second gen. Ecoboost rated at 370 HP/470 Tq. The  torque number is at  3500 rpm however where in the first gen. it peaked at 2500 rpm.

jimbbski said:

 

The Ecboost V6 in the Transit is "detuned" from the power level of the F150.  I was at the Chicago Auto Show last week and spent some time talking to a Ford Employee from their KC plant. That's where they build the large Transit van.  The  power rating for 2018  in the Transit is 310 HP/400 Tq vrs. 365 HP/420 Tq for the older F150's, 2018 F150's get  the second gen. Ecoboost rated at 370 HP/470 Tq. The  torque number is at  3500 rpm however where in the first gen. it peaked at 2500 rpm.

I knew this, but I'm also aware that all of the 3.5's take to tuning well if I were to feel that I needed more power. Frankly the KR has more than enough and it looks like it weights somewhere around 5200lbs with 4x4 and the sunroof an all of that. It's harder to find weights on the Transit, but I'm looking at a low roof short wheelbase passenger wagon and that should be somewhere around 5500lbs. I still need to see how they drive. I like full size vans, but I've really only driven older ones. 

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I'm leaning toward rentals, though they don't have the most interesting selection. After having a Frontier for a week, I liked it, but not enough to pay good money to own one. I'm starting to think ~$200 for checking out a vehicle - or at least the basic platform - that you're interested in owning, is money well spent. 

I've had this same thought recently. Last week I had a '17 Tahoe for a work rental and drove it about 500 miles round trip. It wasn't a bad vehicle. Like, it might have changed my mind about owning a newer one. But I had a nearly identical Tahoe at the end of last year and it drove okay but I could never get comfortable. I'm not sure what was different...

Anyway, I have yet to drive one of the EBs but I know several guys that have them and have yet to hear anything bad about them.

Those EcoBoost 3.5s are stronk. We took one in on trade at work and as part of the used vehicle inspection I had to drive it. Hypothetically that thing will annihilate the rear tires with little coercing. Hypothetically, of course. I was skeptical of a small-ish twin turbo V6 in trucks until I went to a truck pull and a pair of stock EcoBoosts outpulled everything in the gas 5800lb class, and one even made a full pull past the 300ft mark.

In reply to NickD :

And, when you get bored, you can go Freak-o-Boost on it and dial the thing up to 11. The current evolutionary state of the Duratec motors are freaking amazing.

I had a 2014 Ecoboost F150 as a company car for a while.  I thought it was a great truck if you didn't try and use it as a truck and if someone else was buying the fuel.

Part of my objection to it as a truck was related to the way the specific truck was optioned.  The way I use a truck the tiny little bed that was on mine was really annoying.  I really only like 8' beds. 

The bigger problem for me was that it didn't tow very well.  It had plenty of power and the transmission worked well but moved around a lot more than I was comfortable with.  Even with an empty car trailer it was unstable at highway speeds, which is 80 MPH here in the southwest.  Loaded I didn't even think about running it on the highway.  To be fair, I have no idea how it was optioned suspension wise.

As far as fuel mileage is concerned I never saw higher than 15 MPG and most of the time it was in the low 14s.  I have no idea what gears were in it and certainly the 5,000'+ elevation and the 75 MPH speed limit didn't help.

I did really enjoy driving the truck and if I were looking for a 4x4 pickup with four doors for light duty, small cargo truck stuff.  I'd be looking hard at buying one.  Even if I did have to pay for the fuel.

In reply to APEowner :

Some of that squishiness may have been the tires.  Half-tons don't tend to be nearly as over-speced tire-wise as the bigger pickups and are often running P tires, not LT.  So the sidewalls aren't super stiff and will let things wiggle around when loaded.  

Still driving the truck around for the rest of the week. Kids are digging it. The back outboard seats are heated and they have a power outlet. They haven't plugged anything in, but they've been thinking about it. 

Also a power outlet in the dash. Ford did accessories right. 

I took some measurments this morning. The truck is about 66 inches wide between the tops of the door panels vs. 65 in my truck. Ford did some witchcraft with space as it feels much wider. The big measurement for the kids is the distance between the back of the front seat with me in it and the front of the back seat. In my truck they have 31 inches, in the KR they have 38. Seven more inches of leg room is HUGE when you have short legs. 

When it all comes down to it, I have to make myself drive it. With a fleet of cars, even with the van being gone, it's still way way down the list for me as a driver. The tech is great and l love getting my butt massaged on the way to the store, but it's not any more dynamically engaging than my truck. 

When I bought my truck I was in a position where I needed to downsize to one vehicle that could do it all for me as a stay at home dad. Haul around the whole family safely, drag home dead cars, haul lumber to build a garage, and it worked great. The only thing it was lacking was driving dynamics and pleasant interaction between the driver and the car. When I have a fleet though, I almost NEVER chose the truck unless I have a reason. It sits and I drive other things. I can get just as much utility from a single cab short box as I get from mine as soon as I'm done hauling kids. Doesn't matter if it's a bit coarse and cheap if I only drive it once a week or so, in fact I kind of prefer it so that I have a different experience from my other cars. The price difference between a KR and a regular F-150 would buy a whole fleet of Challenge price cars, and for a guy who has the space, that makes life a LOT more fun.