The new kid on the blog

Meet "T3".  Donna names all her vehicles.  T3 stands for Tinee #3 and is named after our first and second Chevy Suburbans.  Somehow the 2001 F250 was named "250", and the 2009 F450 was named "450".

Basically T3 is a Lincoln in a Ford F350 crew cab truck body.  We're getting use to it.  We're missing the F450's tighter turn radius and firmer brake pedal feel.  We love the comfort, power and fuel mileage -though we haven't towed, yet.  That comes Wednesday.  Oh, and for me that standard 48 gallon fuel tank rocks!  For Donna the heated/cooled, massaging seats rock!  We got away from the off-road package and chose the standard highway tires to help in the ride.  These light truck tires don't seem to wander like the commercial tires on the F450.  They won't last as long as those commercial tires, so there's always trade offs.

For you power guys, we went from 300 hp to 440 hp and 600 ft-lbs of torque to 900 ft-lbs of torque.  F450's rear end ratio was 4.3/1.  F350's is 4.1/1 (standard is 3.55/1).  Due to adding a rapid supplemental heating element to the heating system, we know have two heavy duty alternators (220 amps each, I believe).  We went from 19.5 inch wheels to 17 inch wheels which look way too small on the truck.  Looks kinda took a back seat in the purchase decision, though.  While everyone's half-ton trucks are pretty, I think there's a contest on to see who can make the ugliest dual rear-wheel truck.  There's nothing better for towing a big 5th wheel trailer than a dual rear-wheel truck, but they're all ugly!

We can tow safely, but we'll have to adjust the trailer's suspension for the trailer to ride level.  We're talking with folks as to whether the suspension adjustments available on the trailer will accomplish the lift we need, or just go on to MOR/ryde and get a new suspension installed.   When making the decision of whether to try another Ford, we did include the cost of the MOR/ryde suspension in our cost calculations.  We knew the risks.

So far T3's got about 620 miles on it in the 6 days we've had it.  We ordered it in Birmingham Thanksgiving week and went back up there to get it.  We took it to Pensacola yesterday to show it off to Steve & Susan while having another too-short visit.  Consequently, we've been able to get some good mileage on it before traveling with the trailer.  We're not sure, but I think it had it's first cleaning (regen) of the diesel particulate filter (dpf) yesterday.  We just know we're gonna learn a lot in the next week when we put the Mobile Suites on and head out!  Also, this is our first vehicle to require diesel exhaust fluid, so we're newbies at that, too.

Anyway, that's it from here.  We've had another good week though we ate too much and exercised too little.  Be that way for another week until we get down to Mount Dora.  Thanks for dropping by.  Hope everyone is doing well.  David

Another Bi-weekly Update

This is our last full week here on the gulf coast for this season.  We're doing well, had a visit & dinner with Steve & Susan.  And then, today, we said goodbye to an old friend.

Despite being advertised as an ultra-low sulfur, bio-diesel compliant vehicle, our 2009 F450 had shown (expensively) that it wasn't as compliant as we were led to believe.  However, it has served us well.  We'd even had one dealer ask us why we were getting rid of such a nice truck.  After I told him my long story, he shook his head in empathy and noted that he knew several people with over-the-road HDTs (18-wheeler tractors) with the same issues.  Well, today we picked up it's replacement.

Seeking a replacement was fun, but purchasing another truck and fearing that we were making a bad decision weighted heavily on me.  We wanted better seats, and I dearly craved the 360 degree camera system that Ford was putting on the 2017 model Superduty trucks.   That 360 degree camera system came on a Ford.  And Donna liked Ford's Platinum seats the best of all she got a chance to sit in.  But we'd been "fooled" by Ford once.  If you've ever been in the military, you know the term "heavy duty, military grade..." doesn't impress you all that much, either.   And what if we hated the new truck?  And we won't go into how the new Ford pickup beds are 2 inches higher which - potentially - could mean major adjustments will need to be made to our trailer's suspension.   Well, we took a chance and ordered/purchased another Ford.

There'll be more about our new truck in a later post.  This post is us saying goodbye to a friend that took us around the US twice with a 5th wheel in tow.  We'd retired with it.  We'd learned to tow a 5th wheel trailer with it.  We'd begun to learn to back up a 5th wheel trailer with it.  We'd even struggled to hitch and unhitch our trailer with it until a friend told us our hitch was installed incorrectly.  It was strange to say goodbye to it.  Even stranger to be making a u-turn this afternoon and realize we were following it as the dealer's mechanics were giving it a shakedown run before putting it on the used truck lot.  Strange to see it without South Dakota plates.  I'm gonna miss the notoriety of having a F450, too.  But what's done is done.

If all goes well, we'll leave Alabama's gulf coast next week.  Stops in Tallahassee and Mount Dora are planned before we head back north.  As always that's the plan...until it changes.

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope everyone is enjoying this warm winter and for our California friends, staying afloat!  Later, David
    

Bi-Weekly Update

Well, we're still here and doing fine.  Excitement over the past couple of weeks was an electrical short  last Friday that burned out our Progressive Energy Management System (EMS) leaving us without 120 volt power (including the generator) for a little over half a day and some strong storms this past Tuesday.   Oh, and we did the tax thing this week, too.

Concerning the electrical short, we have a 50-amp trailer which is a fancy way of saying we have  two lines (or legs) of 120 volts sharing the power cord - each providing up to 6,000 watts of power to the trailer. When the trailer is plugged into a properly wired, 50-amp campground power pedestal, you usually get to run all the appliances that you want at the same time.   According to the RV tech, one of the connections where our power cord actually connects into the trailer came apart and sent 240 volts down one leg.  The Progressive EMS sacrificed itself to protect all the electronics.  And it did it's job, too - nothing else was damaged.

We now have a TRC Surge Guard in it's place that is somewhat "stronger" and is suppose to be able to handle such things without damaging itself.  So far, so good.  And the battery charger that we'd carried around with us since we retired finally came in handy.  I kept it with us when I read where someone had lost the use of their RV's converter and bought a battery charger to keep the RV's batteries charged until the converter was replaced. We took the opportunity to play with our battery charger and found that we could set it on a stool & use it to charge the trailer's batteries until we could get the trailer's wiring repaired.  Worked like a charm!

And the weather.  It's been a warm winter here in the Gulf Shores area, and this is resulting in stronger storms this season than we've experienced over the past few years.  The worst storms tend to go around us, but Tuesday's set us up for thunderstorms to "train" over the park area for the afternoon.  Since we've learned to pick up & store all our loose items and stow rooftop antennas (depending on predicted winds and the weather watches that are posted), we normally don't lose anything.  At most the trailer bounces as the wind gusts come through.  We rode this one out just fine and appreciate all the texts and phone calls checking up on us.  And, as of this afternoon, the water has just about drained from the park.  I guess people will have to go back to the lakes to fish now!

Anyway, that's been our past two weeks.  We hope everyone is enjoying their February.  Thanks for dropping by and checking on us!  David