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Does a PB make sense for rural living?

JTmass

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Wife and I are planning a move to the plains of Colorado. I have planned to buy a F150 hybrid for a while now but now I'm wondering if that makes sense if we live in a rural area. Most trips will be at least 30 minutes one way on highways. Also I know that changing tires tends to hurt MPG more on the hybrid. Thinking about more aggressive tires or snow tires. Should I be considering another engine?

Notably, the power backup will be very important to me. Is that only on the PB?
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Pedaldude

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You can always just get a generator like the dude from Toyota said.

Because of all the city folk moving out of their urban hell holes that they created by voting for idiots, you might be surprised that there is traffic in the west and it's not going to be the wide open country from some fish out of water 1970's buddy comedy :p

I usually discourage people from getting turbos but in Colorado you will be glad to have them. The 2.7 is a pretty good little engine and was purpose designed for forced induction.
 

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At this point, my Powerboost ownership will be one and done. My brainy idea of being able to easily backfeed the house with it like I did with a portable generator in Florida is not easy or economical. And, location has nothing to do with one and done. If I had to replace it today, it would be with a "normal" King Ranch 3.5l Ecoboost.
Short trips, freezing temps the Powerboost is useless. Example, last night I picked up carry out dinner. 3 miles each way. Going there, the trip summary was 0 electric miles and 11 mpg. On the way back, I got 0.2 electric miles and 15 mpg.
 

Vspec

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It depends if you are looking a the PB for fuel efficiency or power backup capabilities.

The PB, like any other hybrid excels at fuel efficiency in town and is average on the highway.

If one is looking primarily at fuel efficiency, the EB 2.7 is the best choice (as long as one stays conservative with the go pedal, they like to drink fuel when on boost).

I'll echo was what said before, for higher elevations, turbo is preferable to naturally aspirated.

When looking at the PB, one must look at the superior fuel efficiency in urban setting as an added bonus.

Let's not kid ourselves here, if fuel efficiency is the end goal, a truck is a terrible idea.
 

Str8Shooter

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You can get 2KW with the non PB, but the engine has to be on all the time. With the PB, you get 2.4KW or 7.2KW and the engine cycles on and off (off mostly).

But here's another reason why I recommend the PB. I think the roads of Colorado would be perfect for it. All that charging and electric from hills and mountains. My PB loves going up and down hills 35-50 mph...I often get 26-28.5 mpg on those roads. The best I do on flat roads is about 23 mpg. So, even with more aggressive tires you would probably do a few mpg better than with a straight Ecoboost. Now, if you think you will be going more than 55 plus all the time then the PB isn't going to help that much.
 
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JTmass

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You can always just get a generator like the dude from Toyota said.

Because of all the city folk moving out of their urban hell holes that they created by voting for idiots, you might be surprised that there is traffic in the west and it's not going to be the wide open country from some fish out of water 1970's buddy comedy :p

I usually discourage people from getting turbos but in Colorado you will be glad to have them. The 2.7 is a pretty good little engine and was purpose designed for forced induction.
Thanks for the advice on the engine. Not sure what politics has to do with this but OK. Is everyone gonna be like this out there? Or is it possible to have a grown up conversation without resorting to name calling and tribalism?
 
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JTmass

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It depends if you are looking a the PB for fuel efficiency or power backup capabilities.

The PB, like any other hybrid excels at fuel efficiency in town and is average on the highway.

If one is looking primarily at fuel efficiency, the EB 2.7 is the best choice (as long as one stays conservative with the go pedal, they like to drink fuel when on boost).

I'll echo was what said before, for higher elevations, turbo is preferable to naturally aspirated.

When looking at the PB, one must look at the superior fuel efficiency in urban setting as an added bonus.

Let's not kid ourselves here, if fuel efficiency is the end goal, a truck is a terrible idea.
Yeah that's the thing. My former work commute was stop and go traffic for 10 miles and I thought the PB was perfect. Now I may be looking at a different use case and it has me wondering if it'll be the right fit. It's gonna be mostly flat out there if that's indeed where we end up. Power backup is important but I mean yeah, the truck isn't gonna be good on gas and I thought well maybe the PB will be less bad? Dunno. I'll have to investigate the turbo. Never considered it, really.
 
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JTmass

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At this point, my Powerboost ownership will be one and done. My brainy idea of being able to easily backfeed the house with it like I did with a portable generator in Florida is not easy or economical. And, location has nothing to do with one and done. If I had to replace it today, it would be with a "normal" King Ranch 3.5l Ecoboost.
Short trips, freezing temps the Powerboost is useless. Example, last night I picked up carry out dinner. 3 miles each way. Going there, the trip summary was 0 electric miles and 11 mpg. On the way back, I got 0.2 electric miles and 15 mpg.
The transfer switch is a legitimate concern so thank you for the feedback. I have no idea what the fuel efficiency is on other engines so I'd have to compare. I want a truck regardless for hauling lumber and things like that no matter where we end up but if I have to worry about tires and terrain and whatnot, maybe the fuel efficiency won't be as important?
 

ryanc111

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Wife and I are planning a move to the plains of Colorado. I have planned to buy a F150 hybrid for a while now but now I'm wondering if that makes sense if we live in a rural area. Most trips will be at least 30 minutes one way on highways. Also I know that changing tires tends to hurt MPG more on the hybrid. Thinking about more aggressive tires or snow tires. Should I be considering another engine?

Notably, the power backup will be very important to me. Is that only on the PB?
I live outside of town up here in Bozeman and love my Powerboost. I have 34" Toyo AT3 tires that are siped, does great in the snow (although would be even better with dedicated snow tires), I'm getting up to 25% electric miles even with those tires. They definitely impact MPG but I don't think the impact to the hybrid is any greater than it would be for the 3.5EB - or to state it better, I think the gas mileage between the two would be at worst identical and more than likely you could see better mileage with the hybrid depending on the characteristics of a particular drive. I'm still seeing a ~25% increase in gas mileage compared to what I was seeing in my similarly equipped 2019 RAM 1500. Combine that with the backup power generator and it is a clear winner for me.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the hybrid for your use one bit.
 

Oxford_Powerboost

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I live in the northern VA/DC area. Obviously for me, the Powerboost is great up here. I always said if I still lived where I grew up where it’s much more rural, I would’ve probably gotten a 5.0 just cause the Powerboost wouldn’t be as beneficial since down there I’m just running 65mph all the time red light to red light, and I like the V8 sound. With that said, the 5.0 still would’ve been worse on fuel, just not as much worse.

My opinion is this: if you want the generator, the Powerboost is the way too go. I haven’t heard of people really liking the 2kW generator on the gas engines because it has to be running constantly. If you want flat out highway fuel economy, get the 2.7. If you don’t tow so much that you need the payload, I don’t see a reason to get a regular 3.5 personally. And 5.0 if you like the sound but I prefer the torque curve of boosted motors.

FWIW: my Powerboost on a highway trip back to my hometown sees 24-25mpg, but that’s usually sitting in a little I-95 traffic and then 60mph speed limit back roads, with a couple of small towns to drive through. Same Powerboost on a highway trip to my alma mater in southwest VA (mountains), with cruise set to 79 almost the whole way - looking at 21, maybe 22 mpg
 

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JTmass

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I live outside of town up here in Bozeman and love my Powerboost. I have 34" Toyo AT3 tires that are siped, does great in the snow (although would be even better with dedicated snow tires), I'm getting up to 25% electric miles even with those tires. They definitely impact MPG but I don't think the impact to the hybrid is any greater than it would be for the 3.5EB - or to state it better, I think the gas mileage between the two would be at worst identical and more than likely you could see better mileage with the hybrid depending on the characteristics of a particular drive. I'm still seeing a ~25% increase in gas mileage compared to what I was seeing in my similarly equipped 2019 RAM 1500. Combine that with the backup power generator and it is a clear winner for me.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the hybrid for your use one bit.
Thank you, that is super helpful to get firsthand experience! Yeah I mean when I really think about it, that generator is really important to me if we do end up more rural. Even if I don't use it with a transfer switch. Nice to hear that it's been good for you in Bozeman.
 

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I live about an hour north of Mpls on acreage and love my powerboost...but not becuase of the mileage but rather the functionality. If I need power I just plug it into the truck things like vacuuming the truck, airing up tires on a trailer no where near power, etc make the 7.2Kw worth it to me. Re mileage I have about 1800 miles on the truck and I'm at like 20ish overall. Coming back from PA I got 21.9 avg over the 1300 miles drive while averaging about 77 mph for nearly 1000 miles of that. My 2015 Canyon would get about the same but weighed much less then this truck so for me the mileage is great. I will say that cold weather really limits the amount of electric miles big time as others have stated. we have been in negative temps lately and I cant even back out of the heated garage without the engine turning on :)
 

herothedog

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I'd suggest if you can afford the extra cost why not?
It has f'n fantastic power!

I'm up at 9500ft and to go to any store (any place for that matter), I have about 1500ft descent down to Hwy 285. Even with cold temperatures (single digits at night), I'm registering an average mpg of 19 (each fuel up) and over 3800 miles also 19 mpg. 19 mpg is what we averaged in our 2020 Honda Passport. I can drive down Hwy 285 mostly on electric, and driving to Evergreen I go about 40% of the way on electric (most times).

I also like to play the game of what mpg can I get going down the mountain (yeah only 2.5 miles when I took the photo but still kinda cool).

Ford F-150 Does a PB make sense for rural living? IMG_0546
 

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At this point, my Powerboost ownership will be one and done. My brainy idea of being able to easily backfeed the house with it like I did with a portable generator in Florida is not easy or economical. And, location has nothing to do with one and done. If I had to replace it today, it would be with a "normal" King Ranch 3.5l Ecoboost.
Short trips, freezing temps the Powerboost is useless. Example, last night I picked up carry out dinner. 3 miles each way. Going there, the trip summary was 0 electric miles and 11 mpg. On the way back, I got 0.2 electric miles and 15 mpg.
This must be something wrong with your truck... I'm in the coldest town in the lower 48, routinely see temps of -30, and have yet to get that low MPG, even while towing. I'm usually hovering around 19-20mpg when temps are below 0F (most of the past month).
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