written by Julie Hackler and David FinkOur Truck and Trailer has been a learning experience where we needed both patience and a flexible frame of mind.
Our rig is made is made up of a 1999 Ford F-150, extended cab, with a short bed, a 5.4 liter engine, 4x4 and a 3.55 limited slip differential. This is pulling a 19 foot 1988 Fleetwood Yukon Wilderness trailer.
The truck is brand new,
The Ford accessory extended mirrors The Ford bed mat was a great addition. I personally think it is better than a bed liner because number one, a liner shifts a lot and scratches the paint underneath and number two, things slide around easy. The mat keeps everything from sliding abound including itself so it doesn't scratch the paint.
The bug shield has helped We found the daytime running lights have also been a good addition. A lot of places out West ask you to use your lights in the daytime anyway, due to animals, driving through mountains, etc. I believe they have helped in a few close calls in some of the national parks. Since the Fords do not have a factory option our local Ford dealer (Chapman Ford in Pleasantville, NJ) sold us the kit (part number F6SZ13B218AA) for $54 and charged us $163 for installation that requires splicing wires. What I should have done is bought part number F65Z15A272AA, for $50 and we could have plugged it into oval shaped plug behind the left headlight ourselves. You see most Fords are already equipped with the DRL module receptacle (trucks at least), you just have to add the plug that all the F-150's going to Canada get. We could have used the $165 for something else. We don't 'really' blame the dealer, but it sure would have been nice if the dealer had known about the plug in adapter that Ford sales. We learned about this through the F-150 Online web site and mail list. This was after we had already spent $217. Another good web site for information on Ford trucks is Ford Truck Enthusiasts. BUT BE CAREFUL, there have been some reports that Ford may not have the receptacle in all trucks and may have moved the location in others. So make sure that you find the receptacle first. Two additional things we added to the truck not made by Ford have been a hard toneau cover made by Leer and the Tire Sentry, an electronic tire pressure sensor and monitor made by Fleet Specialties.
The toneau cover is a great
The Tire Sentry remote tire UPDATE. Most of the senders have stopped working and therefore the tire pressure monitor is not really working. I called Fleet Specialties and they said to send the nonworking senders back, but because of other things I had to do, I did not do it. Hope when I call them they will still say send them. I'll let you know how I make out with Fleet Specialties. The truck has been doing good. The 5.4-liter engine has plenty of power to pull the trailer up the grades we have experienced, even though we are heavier than we expected we would be. We are under all the weight limits on the trailer and truck, but much closer than we originally estimated. We have a squeaky right side front end that when we had the local Ford dealer check it out and said there was nothing wrong that was a safety issue. That was after they had replaced the right front disk and pads and rear right drum and pads and still not solved the problem and caused a wheel balance problem. We finally asked them if anu of it was unsafe condation and when they said no, we would not let them do anything else on the truck. We did have them record in the Ford computer that the brakes should be checked when we have it in for an oil change. A Ford dealer in Durango, CO thinks they may have found the problem - the seals in the front differential. The noise went away after they did the work, only time will tell if it was a permanent fix (It wasn't - it's back!). Another sound we have comes from a dry start problem when we first start the engine. Once it warms up it goes away. We don't believe that this is the piston slap problem that the new Ford engines have. Ford says that as long as we use the recommended oil (5W-30) and their oil filters with the anti-drain valve (FL-820S) that the dry start will cause no problems. We'll see? We also brought along a scanner to listen to the local weather and the trucker's conversations. It does help with traffic and any detours that we might want to avoid. A CB radio allows us to talk to one another to help back into tight spots. The cell phone helps keep us in contact with the rest of the world. The trailer is another story. With our inexperience as RV'ers we've come face to face with a few trying times. Our first small disaster came with the water pump. All of a sudden it wasn't working. Had we burned it out? I immediately went to the manual. But found no help there. Dave just went right to the root of the problem and found it. It turned out the few things we had stored near it got jumbled around and knocked the wires loose. So it was an easy fix. Thank goodness. Another time we thought we had a propane leak. We finished our drive from Las Vegas to Death Valley, got out of the truck and heard a faint hissing sound. I of course panicked thinking we're going to blow up at any minute. But a nice older gentleman saw our confusion and came over to help. It wasn't a leak only the release valve letting some gas out since the dodo brain at the propane filling station filled a 6 gallon tank with 8.5 gallons of propane. We just assumed he knew what he was doing. We won't take that for granted again. We have had two things break on us. One, the water heater release valve. When we hooked the trailer up to pressurized water, water sprayed out of the tank like a fountain. But we were in Tucson so we could easily get it taken care of. For about $100 we got it fixed and were on the road again. Recently, we had a problem with the axle. It broke. It seems as though when we had the bearings repacked before our trip they weren't done correctly, according to the Colorado mechanic. The grease leaked out of the bearing in the front left wheel and caused metal to rub against metal which ultimately caused the castle nut to melt to the axle. We spent almost two weeks in Colorado waiting for the axle to be shipped from Fleetwood. You can read about our little adventure in Colorado while waiting to get the axle repaired. Other than a few small incidents the trailer had been little maintenance and fairly easy. But we still have many miles to travel where just about anything can happen.
Page hits since March 1, 1999
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| Grand Canyon NP | Mesa Verde, CO; Durango, CO; Colorado Springs, CO |
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We welcome any suggestions or comments. hacklerj@mindspring.com Copyright by Julie Hackler © 1999, 2000, 2001 |
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so what this means is we are basically the guinea pigs for high mileage road testing the towing capabilities of the new trucks. So far we've found that the XLT package we got on it has come in pretty handy. We enjoyed using the cruise control whenever possible and the added 4x4 shift on the fly came in useful in Death Valley on the Titus Canyon off road trail. Real fun! The extended cab makes for nice storage of books, coats, pillows and a cooler and gives us a little extra room. We installed several options after we got the truck, such as extended mirrors for towing, a bed mat, a bug shield and daytime running lights.
help in the blind spots, but they don't quite extend far enough to see behind the trailer. So when we are towing we can't see what is behind us until we turn a corner and take a quick glance.
in keeping the windshield cleaner. We still get a buggy mess, but it's not a bug graveyard after so many miles.
idea for storage in the truck bed. But we've had some problems with the Leer toneau popping open while driving. The lock is a pulley system that pulls a bar on either side to open and close the lid. On bumpy roads such as dirt roads and 4x4 roads (sometimes uneven paved roads) the toneau cover would come open. It seems as though the brackets holding the bars on either side shift with the bumps. They shift until they don't line up anymore with the side and alas pop up. We keep adjusting the bracket and hoping it won't happen again. Leer can be reached at 800-321-5337.
pressure monitor will hopefully save us from a blow out and complications due to a flat tire while driving. It's been working great so far sometimes when the temperature falls at night the lower air pressure will trigger the alarm. The monitor will keep flashing a warning until we drive and warm the tires back up to the correct pressure. We realize the monitor is working exactly the way they are supposed to work, but we were just lazy. The correct action is to add air to the low tires before driving. The sensors are designed to alarm when the tires are 2-4 pounds UNDER the COLD inflation pressure. Fleet Specialties can be reached at 800-350-3556.