Your truck is ready, but there's a couple of things not working...

Finally!  We've made it to Gulf State Park near Gulf Shores, AL.  Only a few weeks late.  Many folks are already here though the state park looks a little sparse of people.  During a brief walk around the state park campground this afternoon, we found many sites still available.  We still got ants, and our current site is full of ant hills. So we've put out a barrier of Comet around anything of the trailer that touches the ground.  Donna's now spraying clear ammonia inside the trailer as it's a little more environmentally friendly.  We continue to get an ant attack about every other day though the quantities of ants are dwindling.

We finally got away from B'ham, yesterday.  Town & Country Ford, Bessemer, AL called Monday saying the truck was ready, but there were a couple of things not working....wait a minute!  Didn't you just say the truck was ready?  Hope their mechanics are better than their management's communication skills!  Anyway, they found an electrical problem on reassembly.  Got that done and we had the truck back just after noon on Tuesday.  We completed as detailed of tests as we could with everything on the truck before we left the dealership. Transferflow tank status indicated it was OK, but we couldn't test a transfer of fuel.  Also, no good place to check the 4-wheel drive. Everything checked out, so off we went.  One word of advice:  never call Donna and tell her the truck is ready, but there's a "couple things not working".  

Ford's advice to us is to now drain the water separator after every two tank fulls of diesel (originally once per month and is one of the most unbelievable pain-in-the-butt things to do) and continue to change the fuel filters every 8-10,000 miles - which we had been doing.  I take that as "We at Ford built and sold you a truck that there's no physical way you can protect it from water or contaminated fuel.  Since it has over 100,000 miles - meaning Donna & I, as owners, actually use the darn thing - we, at Ford, won't cover or reimburse any of the $10,000 you just spent to repair the thing even though our maintenance schedule and procedures are totally inadequate & incapable of protecting the truck because, if they had, you wouldn't have needed to spend $10,000 to fix your truck. Oh, and please use our fuel additive at each fill up of fuel even though there's no convenient place to carry a bottle of it in the truck, and you can't pour it into the tank without spilling it all over you and your truck.  We appreciate your business.  Oh, and there's a two year parts & labor warranty on the parts installed on your truck.  Just don't count on us honoring that warranty, either."

So the clock begins ticking down to the next major tear down.  At least we were able to transfer fuel on the way down.  We'll try to check the 4-wheel drive when we go over to visit Bill & Debra Sunday.

Now wait until you hear the news we got after getting here (actually the discussions started while we were in Pelham.)  It appears these problems are happening everywhere.  While we set in Pelham, AL we noticed several motor homes having a mobile tech visiting them before the motor homes left. Way more than normal.  Now it seems there's a rash of people who are buying new trucks once they get here at Gulf Shores after experiencing major issues with their previous truck.  And poor Greg & Judy, after taking two weeks to get a new toilet installed a month or so ago, their frig quit last night. (And they have a new truck.)  I think they're all just trying to make Donna and I feel better!  (it isn't working)

So that's our welcoming committee to Gulf Shores, AL.  Man it's hard not to eat out at least once a day here!  And we've only been here one full day!

Later, David