road turtle

It popped open on a very rough road. No damage to trailer, but I did lose some stuff out of the bed. Was not happy to get to my first overnight stop and not have my anderson buckets for the rear jack. Luckily I also had some blocks in the pass through. My rear jacks are set to high, and even slightly out of level, I run out of stroke.

Towing a 13'5" high 5th wheel, underbody aero is not a big concern of mine, nor anybody else towing big trailers The difference between losing 10mpg and 9.75 mpg is meaningless, even in 300k miles.

I bought a sleeve for 3"-->2.5"-->2"

Are you for capitalism or socialism? If Granger can sell 500, then let them sell 500. Support the successful dealers, let let the ones doing bonus markups and not selling qty fail. Yes it sucks, but Ford should not be propping up the dealers who are incapable of selling.

Set key on top of a mostly open cover, realized I needed to open it a bit more, an a whole bunch of bad words came out of my mouth as I watched it slide down the opening Any suggestions on the easiest way to get my key back? Looking at the installation manual, I'm thinking loosen the rails, slide it rearward and take off the front/top cover. Open to any and all suggestions except don't put the key on top of the cover while opening it I got that one covered!

Salary Employee. Long time coming, but it was the right time for me to go. A most interesting career around some most interesting projects. Some of the highlights Started Jan '99 as contract Worked on the development of 2002 Thunderbird complete vehicle, developed a successful process for tracking engineering progression. Worked on Ford 500, setting up a project support team for the CNE. Saw one person go from FCG directly to LL6. She was all about face time, and no substance. Luckily she didn't last. Short stint on minivan again for CNE 2005 Mustang, was there for the BATTLE over independent rear suspension, interim PMT lead as a contract engineer. Worked for CNE on Flex/MLT - side note, CNE was on my extremely short list of high quality manager types. Laid off in Jan '09 as contract, in the last wave to hit in that era. Went back to school, picked up Masters in project management and MBA. Starting back as contract Jan '11 Don't recall the 1st project, it never got off 1st base Went into transmission working on superduty transmission, it was short term project Went on to body project management on large body stamping dies. Worked for one of the most flamboyant chief engineers in my entire career. Watched him throw reams of paper up in the air during a director level meeting. Jan '13, hired into transmission on superduty as project engineer. Moved to Hybrid transmissions, and kind of found a niche that was good for Ford and myself. While up to my eyeballs in project management on hybrid transmissions, given a special project to manage that IMO was the pinnacle of my career. I did the electric rear drive proof of concept attached to a hybrid vehicle.. Essentially given 2 months to do a forecasted 6 month long project. Not only was project finished on time, was actually finished a week or two early. It was so successful, mgt decided to skip an entire phase (or two) of prototypes. I received an award from Lincoln director of engineering for that project. Had a panic just before mgt drive, and we had to do an emergency shipment back to allen park from MI UP. It arrived and before I could even get down to allen park, the very minor issue was repaired and back on the truck to UP. Literally it was a 45 minute repair. Finished up on HF55 and BEV managing prototype builds. It was a lot of fun, and stressful. My supv said in a recent review, I have no idea what you do, I know things are getting done, and nobody is complaining, so I guess you're doing ok Basically, give me a goal, give me the resources and help when I ask for it, other than that, just let me manage the projects. Most supervisors were good with that. The one I struggled with the most... well, he wasn't a fan favorite, even at the director level. Long list of industry credentials, and performance awards. Three awards stood out, one mentioned above, second was VP of engineering for navigating through covid shutdowns and not missing one single delivery to program, and lastly was from a LL6 for solving a problem that had them stymied. I worked with some incredibly talented and highly intelligent people. Without their direct and indirect support, I wouldn't have been 1/10 as successful. Finished up working for a great LL6 and LL4 (who should be a LL2), and the LL2 Already on to my next life stage, dragging a 5th wheel around the country.

This has not been a good day for a whole bunch of reasons. . Went through some pretty rough roads heading west I44 --> I40. Decided to I49 to avoid toll road, AND see something other than white line fever. That was not a good decision as somewhere along the less than sooth roads, tail gate popped open. Lost some relatively minor stuff, maybe total $200, and I'm not seeing any damage to the 5th wheel, but it was kind of icing on this messed up day. . 2022 SD, anybody had this happen before?

After coming unglued on my dealer for NOT doing the TSB the first time around, they finally did it last week. Their excuse, we couldn't duplicate the issue. OF COURSE NOT, it's intermittent, mostly happens in tow haul mode and more frequently while towing a 5th wheel. Just do the GD reprogramming and stop playing games. . Deep Breath It got reprogrammed and transmission in general seems to be a bit smoother in shifting. Because it was intermittent, it will be hard to tell if it was fixed. Pretty disconcerting to coming up to a traffic light towing a big 5th wheel and feel the transmission slam into 1st gear. I suspect it had to do with clutch timing, prior set of clutches were not disengaged before the next set engaged, but that's only a guess on my part.

It's magic

Long bed will have a slightly smoother ride over the equivalent short bed. IRC long bed had a slightly improved payload, but haven't looked at the published data in awhile.

I went from 2018 F150 to 2022 CCLB F350. Ride isn't bad, and the LONG package does make for a smoother ride. Parking lots can be a little bit challenging.

you won't see a difference between 250 and 350. The only real difference is the helper spring, which doesn't come into play until bed is loaded with sufficient weight.

Wife vetoed dually. I said then you're not getting the monster 5th wheel If we had gone dually, definitely would have been 450.

Because of the way the factory did the wiring, I really don't have a choice to limit charging solutions. I'm going to work this winter on understanding how victron equipment may help me sort this mess out. Since I have since set up to feed the entire trailer off of the inverter, I did install a switch to turn off the 120V charger when boon docking. Haven't gone boon docking yet to see how the 200ah in Lithium is going to support overnight or multiple overnight stops with solar and truck charging.

8' Bed Advantages Larger factory fuel tank Additional bed space Smoother Ride I believe higher payload Disadvantages Turning radius of the Queen Mary Parking, see above, and sticks way out further than any other vehicle. While towing the 5th wheel, I always use truck lanes. Appreciate the faster fill Given disadvantages of 8' bed, I'd still go with it. Especially since I ordered the factory retrak roll up top, which rolls down into the bed space.

Yes, thank you. Compounding my issue is the solar panels always charging during the day too.

You may have success pouring through Ford's investor site, which should have monthly or quarterly sales data posted from their press releases.

It looks like that pin is protected by 30a fuse. Does that mean the trailer batteries will see 30a?

Battleship Gray?

Are PCO tied to a specific dealer?

Start looking for another dealer.

Many insiders will completely disagree with your assessment on being a smart businessman and great car guy. Autoextremeists web site has had Farley in their sights while he was still in Europe. Peter DeLorenzo has some phenomenal insider sources in many of OEMS, especially GM and Ford.

Hackett was brought in to cut costs and he did a lousy job of it. Current CEO is on his own level, and it's not a good one.

Your dealer is an idiot. Has the dealership asked ford for priority to be moved to "2"? Are you sure it's been entered as a retail order? Did you get an email acknowledging your initial order? Personally, I'd find another dealer on 10/20 and order a 2023.

just replace the rotor and be done. When coming to a hard stop, if at all possible, roll the car forward a bit and put it in neutral. That heat soaking of leaving brakes pressed warps the poor quality material they put into today's vehicles.