My wife wants one too, will be interested in what you find.

DC wrote:

Anybody have a new Bronco?

Which new Bronco? There are two of them- one is a unibody "mall crawler" built on the Escape platform as I recall and the other one is a full frame off-road Bronco similar to the original.
 

DC wrote:

Since it has to be a Kid hauler, she is looking at the 4 door. Since she loves her Escape, it should work! My problem is that I don't know enough about the engines to know if I should spring for the bigger one?

Seriously?  Should you get the bigger engine?  Who are you and what have you done with the real DC?

LOL, I appreciate your comments TKO and Bullet Bob, but I just don't have any experience with the Ecoboost stuff. I have been so focused on the race motors with push rods that I haven't kept up with the newer stuff. Was just wondering if anyone had problems with them? I did renew my racing license this year so I guess whoever said there is no cure for racing is still right!

My wife has a 2014 Escape with the EcoBoost 1.6 (I think) and it will scoot and so far (knock on wood) we've not had any issues. II imagine I am jinxed now.

I've got the 3.5 Ecoboost in my 2019 F-150 and LOVE it. Fantastic fuel mileage, and is a great tow vehicle. In October I towed my 95 Lightning up to Maryland and back and it never missed a beat, tons of low end power.

I got the 3.5 Eco-boost in my 2016 F-150. Great power, no problems and the truck drives as good as any car I ever had. I'll be cruising 80 MPH down the interstate and never realize it.

I've got almost 48K on my 2017 Explorer with the 3.5 Ecoboost engine and have zero problems with it. I am impressed with the get up and go of that engine in the Explorer. Haven't done too many long trips with it, but when I did I got about 23 mpg. Around town, not as good, maybe 17 mpg. It may be my foot and not the vehicle.

120K miles on a '13 F150, 3.5 EB, 4WD, 3.73 gears.  We tow a +- 7500 lb travel trailer a few thousand miles a year.   Overall I'm happy with the truck/engine.  It pulls like a little Diesel and gets tolerable MPG when not towing.  The one thing I discovered...or should say woke up too...was the fact that while it'll go like hell up hill pulling that trailer, it's still only 3.5 liters coming down.  In other words it's not much for compression braking so you really gotta be careful around here (6000' +).  The other thing I've discovered is that it is perfectly capable of injuring itself.  If the ambient temp is over 75F my uphill speed towing is determined by the temp gauge. 
It has had four problems, two of which would have been minor were I not 1000 miles from  "Resume Speed, MO" and towing.  First was what the dealer said was a bad thermostat.  Took them three days to decide that but I haven't had any "instant" overheating problems since.  The second was about 60 miles from MS's place when it ate a coil pack (#5).  Thank goodness for AAA with RV Plus.  The next summer it ate another coil pack (#4) while pulling home from Las Vegas.  That time I was prepared...pulled the code, dug a new coil and 8mm socket out of the toolbox...20 minutes later all good.
Then in '19 the throttle body took a dump while we were at Bob and Cindy's MS Bash 16.  We had driven through serious rain getting there and the intercooler has a rep for condensing water which gets to the TM.  There are some other issues that I'm told will likely happen now that I have over 120K on it.  Mostly related to Turbo leaks.  Not really hard to fix but.....
Josh asked how I liked the truck and I honestly told him that I loved the truck butt (TS&T), if I wern't towing a trailer I'd buy the 5.0.   He did.

BB1
 

Bullet Bob wrote:

120K miles on a '13 F150, 3.5 EB, 4WD, 3.73 gears.  We tow a +- 7500 lb travel trailer a few thousand miles a year.   Overall I'm happy with the truck/engine.  It pulls like a little Diesel and gets tolerable MPG when not towing.  The one thing I discovered...or should say woke up too...was the fact that while it'll go like hell up hill pulling that trailer, it's still only 3.5 liters coming down.  In other words it's not much for compression braking so you really gotta be careful around here (6000' +).  The other thing I've discovered is that it is perfectly capable of injuring itself.  If the ambient temp is over 75F my uphill speed towing is determined by the temp gauge. 
It has had four problems, two of which would have been minor were I not 1000 miles from  "Resume Speed, MO" and towing.  First was what the dealer said was a bad thermostat.  Took them three days to decide that but I haven't had any "instant" overheating problems since.  The second was about 60 miles from MS's place when it ate a coil pack (#5).  Thank goodness for AAA with RV Plus.  The next summer it ate another coil pack (#4) while pulling home from Las Vegas.  That time I was prepared...pulled the code, dug a new coil and 8mm socket out of the toolbox...20 minutes later all good.
Then in '19 the throttle body took a dump while we were at Bob and Cindy's MS Bash 16.  We had driven through serious rain getting there and the intercooler has a rep for condensing water which gets to the TM.  There are some other issues that I'm told will likely happen now that I have over 120K on it.  Mostly related to Turbo leaks.  Not really hard to fix but.....
Josh asked how I liked the truck and I honestly told him that I loved the truck butt (TS&T), if I wern't towing a trailer I'd buy the 5.0.   He did.

BB1
 

It's funny you mention compression braking and the little engine. I'm not sure about all the differences in the years, but mine has a mode (forget the name) you can put it in when going downhill and if you go over a certain speed accel limit it'll start dropping gears and *I think* it fiddles with the trailer brakes too. That's where the 10 speed comes in handy. I used it when coming back from Maryland with the Lightning on the back. I now need to read the owner's manual to remember what all it does

Here's what it looked like all loaded up


 

Chaplin wrote:

My F-150 has the 5.0 in it and I purposely avoided the EB when I bought it. The 5.0 is also a great engine and has all the power I need to tow my boat and will pull a car on an open trailer easily. But if I was pulling something big, the EB would be the winner.

If you were pulling something big it would be time to step up to the Super Duty and get a Diesel.  My F250 could flat tow that F150 connected to the trailer with the Lightning on it and I'd still have to keep looking in my rearview to remember it was even there.  The couple times I've towed a vehicle at least once during each trip I looked back and wondered who the a-hole in the lifted truck behind me was that was tailgating me, only to remember it was a truck on a trailer I was towing!  The abilities of the 1/2 tons have come a long way, but the abilities of the workhorse trucks have come even further with the explosion of Diesel technology.  The trannys are also amazing now as HudginJ3 said. 

I just have to throw my 2 cents into the towing aspects of these trucks. Getting weight moving is the easy part, I tow a car a lot, and over the years have towed with everything from a Ranger / Explorer / Expedition / and several F150's. They all pulled the weight, some obviously easier than others. I have always kept exceptional brakes on both axles of the trailer, so stopping isn't an issue. 

After using my buddy's F250 (Gas V10) couple times, its amazing the difference weight /  wheel base / heavier frame / make at not towing but handling a load. I now have a Gas F250 and love it. I will admit that the MPG sucks, but it sucks ALL the time loaded or empty. I would love to drive one with the new 7.3 Gas motor.

A friend has the F150 with the 3.5 Ecoboost and has had a few issues with overheating when towing.

kardad wrote:

I just have to throw my 2 cents into the towing aspects of these trucks. Getting weight moving is the easy part, I tow a car a lot, and over the years have towed with everything from a Ranger / Explorer / Expedition / and several F150's. They all pulled the weight, some obviously easier than others. I have always kept exceptional brakes on both axles of the trailer, so stopping isn't an issue. 

After using my buddy's F250 (Gas V10) couple times, its amazing the difference weight /  wheel base / heavier frame / make at not towing but handling a load. I now have a Gas F250 and love it. I will admit that the MPG sucks, but it sucks ALL the time loaded or empty. I would love to drive one with the new 7.3 Gas motor.

A friend has the F150 with the 3.5 Ecoboost and has had a few issues with overheating when towing.

I 100% agree with the statement around the larger, heavier, longer wheel base. If I towed a lot I would move up to a 250, but as mine is just a few times a year and what I tow fits well within the GVW rating I stayed with the 150. 

Weird on the overheating, I checked both engine and trans temp especially in the hills and had no problems. Although outside temps only  ranged from the 50s to 70's.