# 2013 F150 EB FX4 vs. 2013 Ram 1500 4x4 Hemi



## GCslayer (Oct 13, 2010)

Test drove both vehicles for 2 days each and still cant decide. Love the Hemi engine, gets surprisingly good gas mileage, 18 doing 68 on highway, and I love the power on the low end, though if your not careful you can really drink some gas quick. Interior is surprisingly beautiful. But I hear bad things about dodge interior, dash cracking, etc. Loved the ecoboost as well though. Driving on the highway is great and more responsive than the hemi was without dropping into lower gear, 16 mpg doing about 73, didnt slow down to check how id do doing 68 like i did in the hemi. But its a little slow off the line until the turbos kick in. However its more comfortable and bigger interior is a big bonus. Also has the 6.5 foot bed which i like and the key pad entry, meaning no more hiding my keys when I'm out surfing lol. 

Man problem is I keep hearing horror stories about the ecoboost, especially on ford forums. Though they appear to be few and there is always 6 guys after one complaint who say its better than they expected, still worried mine will be one in 6. I think either way ill be extremely happy with whichever i choose, but it's definitely a hard decision.

Anyone else been in the same boat? what changed your mind?


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## Boomhauer75 (Jan 3, 2010)

I have had he Hemi and the Tundra. Took a ride with a buddy that had an ecoboost and was sold after he pulled what he did. There are horror stories with all makers. I know several folks with the ecoboost and none have had any problems. I put a tuner and an exhaust on mine. That really woke it up and improved the gas mileage.

I pull a heavy boat with no problem. So far I am very impressed with mine. It is no diesel but it is better than most v-8's in my opinion.


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## goodwood (Mar 30, 2009)

what are the prices?


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## GCslayer (Oct 13, 2010)

36k for the dogde, 40 for the Ford. Ended up going with the ford, liked some of the features on it better: 6.5 ft bed, keypad entry for when I'm surfing in surfside or galveston, Bigger back seat area, etc. Happy with my decision. Looking forward to going down Padre Island in a few weeks in my first 4x4.


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## Pocketfisherman (May 30, 2005)

A cracking dash is easily preventable with a $10 sunshade in the front window when parked.


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## C.Hern5972 (Jul 17, 2009)

Im in the same boat now. Although i like the ford, that 2013 hemi is nice and the interior has come a long way. Ill be buying saturday for sure.

To me i think the ford is more practicle for towing a boat. Im ordering mine today.


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## ReelWork (May 21, 2004)

Good choice Chris


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## acoastalbender (Jul 16, 2011)

Friend bought a '13 eco recently and it's got some get up and go but not as quick as my '09 hemi. He wanted to see how it would tow my offshore boat and let him at it. Did fine to the causeway bridge then started to strain and lose speed and drop gears as we climbed, it was reving pretty high to make it over. My old 5.7 hemi hardly breaks a sweat...I have always liked the ford interiors and it's amazing the extra oooophf they get with the turbos but as a pure working vehicle I like my dodge...jmo


.


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## C.Hern5972 (Jul 17, 2009)

I actually like the 2013 Hemi Larime Sport interior better. The interior changed quiet a bit and they do have power. I like the truck all together and would have bought the truck. Only thing is the EB pulled a bit better, i dont have the rumble of the V8 and i do love it but for be practical the EB was for me.


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## cobrayakker (Mar 23, 2006)

Just went through the same debate. My wife picked up her new goat with the 5.7 hemi. Tuesday. Got to love a woman who wants a 4x4 truck for her car. I never have to fear a mini van in our garage! The ford was really nice, but she said the ram fit her better and I thought we got more bang for our buck. The mpg on the ecoboost really doesn't impress me talking with folks that own them. They do have a ton of power. 

We now have two goats to feed, one cummins and one hemi.


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## brodyfisher (Jul 12, 2011)

I did test drive both also and I chose the ecoboost but when we test drove the dodge the salesman started it up and was knocking its butt off so had to go to another new truck and the back seat on the dodge is to small for me and then when I drove the ecoboost I was shocked on the technology it has and how big the back seat is


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## AMC (Aug 7, 2013)

*My 2 cents...*

I traded in my '09 Crew Cab, Lone Star, Hemi 2wd for a '13 F150, XLT, Crew Cab, EcoBoost, 4x4 - so it's obvious which one I'd recommend.

My Hemi was a pretty good truck but here're some quirks and good stuff I think you should know about it:

1 - It gets good mileage by disabling 4 cylinders on the highway. That's great, except it kicks that off at 70 mph. So I was getting 21 mpg at 69 mph, 19 mpg at 72 mph, 18 mpg at 75, and around 17 at 79. Which means just going the speed limit on a road with a speed limit of 75 would kill your mileage. The highway mileage was all about the same of 21-22 mpg from 50 to 69 mph.

2 - Towing was a breeze with it. I could pull my around 3,500 lbs w/ trailer Four Winns 190 Freedom without putting it in tow mode. I'd get around 15 - 16 mpg when at 70 mph with it behind me. The 2wd in it had no problems getting it up wet boat ramps on Pirelli Scorpion tires.

When I had a 24' RV or 8,000 lbs of stock trailer behind it going through the hill country it did great. It had no problems moving it. But it also got around 12 mpg pulling them. Not that I'd expect much else pull something with high wind resistance and weighing over 75% of the max pulling weight.

3 - The Hemi uses 16x copper spark plugs and that's what's recommended by the dealership and ALL forums. They sell platinum plugs for it, but it is recommended by everyone to not use them. They'll go in and work, but apparently getting them out is a different story.

4 - The lack of platinum plugs also means it needs new plugs ever 30k miles. I used to swap them myself (and 3 of them are a royal pain to get to) and it was $90 bucks to get the plugs at the dealership. Not bad IMO. But people said it was $300-$400 to get the dealership to do it. That's a significant sum for routine maintenance. It's like having to buy 2 additional tires every 30k miles.

So far my EB seems to have only had one quirk. When I picked it up at the dealership the first tank gave me about 22 mpg at 76 mph and 23 mpg at 70 mph. My next tank gave me about 16.8 mpg at 76 mph. I decided to try something and threw in $40 of premium fuel and it jumped back up to the original mileage. It seems this motor loves premium for mileage. Power seems the same, but I haven't driven it more than about 50 miles since putting that fuel in it. I'm going to have to crunch the numbers to see if the mileage increase is worth the additional fuel cost or pouring in a bottle of 104+ octane booster with each tank.

I've only had at most around 1,000 lbs in my F150 and it handled that like nothing. I'll see what it does once I have something hooked up to it. I'm just at 1,000 miles on it.

Overall, they're both good trucks. The Dodge had a lot of common problems (exhaust manifold bolts breaking off in the head, power door lock actuators died, lots of recalls) plus some uncommon ones (front suspension wore out in 90k miles). Weâ€™ll see if the EcoScrew does any better.

The EB also conistantly posts faster 1/4 mile times than the 5.0 F150 and the Ram 1500 Hemi. Plus the dealership and after market dynos all agree the EB puts out more power than the 5.0 and 10 less HP and 20 more ft / lbs than the Hemi. And from driving both I can say the EB F150 is definitely faster.

I drove a Tundra Crew Cab Texas Edition for 3 days and Sierra 1500 Texas Edition for a week before I bought the F150. The Tundra has tons of room and power, but it gets terrible mileage and has a huge cost premium. I liked the Sierra, but it doesn't have nearly as much power or towing capacity. I liked the interior on all the trucks, but the Tundra had to grow on me. I didn't care for the Titan's interior so I didn't even bother with it.

I hope this helps some people out.


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