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
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