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Ford Super Duty - Continued V
This topic is a continuation of Topic 1356....
Ford Super Duty - Continued IV. Please continue
these discussions here.
Ford Super Duty - Continued IV. Please continue
these discussions here.
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Y2K F250 XLT 4x2 SC 5.4L 5sp 4.10LS White
The only concern I have is the FDAF cost is $250. Is that a bit high? And do you know if that can be negotiated...although I am tempted to just let it go only because it has been so easy to get a good deal on all other fronts. You said you ordered your truck in November. When did you receive it? I am thinking that the wait for a super cab is not quite what it is for a crew. Tim said about 3-4 months, but you didn't seem to wait that long. I am getting a '00 F250 SD SC 4X4 auto SWB V10 XLT 3.73 reg. axle toreador red/silver. Quite similar to yours. I'll be ordering in the next day or so, so the wait will be on.
Thanks for your input on the Maine truck buying experience. Now you can even use your 4X4. We got about 10" of snow here in Lincolnville!
sailboat: Hold the faith. In three days, I'll have been on order for exactly three months for my 2000 V10,CC,4X4,3.73, shortbed,auto,265s,etc. too. I'm starting to wonder if I ought to look on the lots agains, but I really don't think I want a diesel as good as they are. Hang in there.
(but if YOU cancel, maybe, I'll move up one notch and get off this "clean and unscheduled hook,hmmmmmm.....) Just kidding, just kidding.
Happy trucking,and be patient!
Jeff L
P.S. about 20 inches of the white stuff out in the yard this morning, I guess I'll go fire up the snow blower.
Dave
The Dodge Power Wagon was a wonderful truck to behold though. Wow!!! It looks great and 780 lb/lbs of torque$#^## Wow wow!!!
Also, 4Wheel Parts is having a grand-opening at their Southern Cal Redondo Beach Branch this Saturday. The guy at the auto show said that everyhting will be up to %60 off on parts and %50 off on labor. I went there last week and it was huge!
Where can you get these? Any pictures to share with us?
FYI I drive with a very light foot. Still, I can't wait to get a few more miles on it so I can see how it does when I really floor it!
Site 1: www.sportwing.com
Site 2: www.protruckoutfitters.com
The third site is the Rowell's Inc. From this site you can order a Ford catalog which will be sent to you. The catch-all floormats are advertised in the catalog. (They are not shown on the website) The address is www.rowells.com
Thanks
jlapointe1- You didn't mislead me don't you worry! You did have my hopes up for a minute, however... You are one lucky fellow to have found one on the lot! I asked Tim whether the FDAF is negotiable and he said no, that Ford sets that price not the dealer. I don't really even want to know if that's the case because like you I feel that I am getting a pretty great deal. I plowed my farm yesterday with my '93 F150 and got a bit sad thinking I was getting rid of it. I get attached to vehicles that have been good to me, and that is one good little plow truck!
The limited slip does not eat tires like full locking diff (ie detroit locker etc) will.
Resale will be the same. With the 4.30 you can even re-sell to folks who want to do heavy towing or who want to put huge lifts and big rubber on it.
The only difficult part about re-sale is some say that its hard to re-sell with a stick shift.. I don't agree but we all have our opinions.
Y2K F250 XLT 4x2 SC 5.4L 5sp 4.10LS
Do it...
Paul
I took delivery of a 99 350 supercab,sb v10 5spd 4.30 a year ago. Commute 10 mi in the city to work most of the time and pull a 7000 lb 5th wheel for pleasure. Now 13K mi, no problems and still love the truck.
I still remember my lessons 40+ years ago when my dad was trying to teach his 14 year-old son how to drive his trucks (pickups, stake-beds through 18 wheelers). His main point regarding shifting, was that the engine and the rest of the drive train was most happy running in the rpm range from 1500 to 2500. Lugging loads below 1500 rpm is very bad; going over 2500 rpm occasionally for more rapid acceleration or pulling uphill was ok. A helpful rule of thumb is that if you can go faster in another gear (either up or down) at the same throttle position, you should shift.
Nowadays, automatic transmissions have taken much of the fun and skill out shifting, and federally-mandated fuel-economy standards have pushed cars and light trucks to higher axle ratios. However, it really bugs me to drive my wife's car and have it shift back and forth between 3rd and 4th with small speed changes in the city or to have it downshift when gently accelerating out of a curve in the country. It can't be doing the car any good either.
As you have probably gathered by now, I like the control over engine rpm's that I get from the 5-spd manual. Now the relevance to axle ratios - For my type of driving with the 5 spd, it doesn't make much difference what axle ratio that I have. In the city or in the mountains, I cruise along between 1500 and 2000 rpm using 3rd or 4th gear, depending on the speed that I am trying to maintain. On the highway, I upshift to 5th, but don't have to rev much over 2000 rpm, even at 70 mph. I opted for the 4.30 ratio, mostly to get the ultra-low granny for parking and maneuvering the 5th wheel and normally start-out in 2nd.
I also have an Explorer with the 3.73 ratio and 5-spd manual. With this vehicle, I start-out in 1st and almost never use 5th, except when I'm cruising over 70 mph on level ground. The point of these two examples is that with the 5 spd, I have an "extra" gear in both, 1st in the Superduty and 5th in the Explorer - While driving, I choose the appropriate gear to maintain 1500 to 2000 rpm while cruising. For the record, I have been getting about 12 mpg in the Superduty, both city and highway - 10 to 12 mpg while towing (mountains included).
Now some towing-performance stories for Sailboat: I live in Southern California, but have relatives near Florence, Az. Over Christmas, we pulled the 5th wheel from Florence through Phoenix and on up to Flagstaff. Cruised most of the way in 5th and only had to drop to 4th near the top of some of the steeper grades. Don't remember dropping to 3rd for any of them. In California, I am able to easily go up the Grapevine at 55 mph in 4th.
One of my favorite towing experiences last summer was going up Tioga Pass (backside of Yosimite) at about 35 to 40 mph in 3rd - Some kids in a compact car had to use a turnout to let us through.
Jim
While I prefer a 5speed one thing that bugged me on my '89 F350 CC 5speed was when I tried to sell it private party there were no takers. I did get wholesale for it on trade in at the dealer but I was hoping for more. Have no idea if an Auto would have sold quicker but the 5speed was the reason people claimed they weren't interested.
For every one trying to figure out tire sizes and gear ratios check out http://www.4lo.com they have got lots of useful info.
John
For your info: Talked to a guy that hauls horse trailers all over the country. He had two 99 - 350 PSD duallys with 6 speed. He couldn't keep clutches in them so when he ordered new 2000 models, he got the Automatic tranny with the PSD's.
For your info II: When talking fuel economy and automatic versus 5-speed, don't forget that the automatics torque converter locks up in 3rd and 4th which makes it just as efficient as the manual shifter when cruising.
For your info III: To confirm a previous post, my 250 auto V-10 3.73ls 4x4 with 265 tires runs 2000 rpm at 70 mph and 2200 rpm at 75 mph.
Bess.... Was it you that had the fix for the drink holders? If so, would you mind repeating the steps .... I would sure appreciate it!
Happy motoring!!!
www.hellausa.com.
To those who responded to my ESOF illumination problem....I pulled the ESOF panel. There is an obvious space for the bulb but there's no wiring
to it.I don't know if this was a factory slip-up
or they just don't wire them any longer. I plan to check it with the dealer when I take it back
for warranty work. (the cupholder was broken from day one) Also I noticed headlight switch panel and symbols do not illuminate when you turn on the lights. The very center of the headlight switch does show a faint glow. Is this the way it is or is this another missing bulb/wiring?(I haven't pulled this panel yet.)
99 F-350 SC 4x4 V-10 auto trans 4.30 dually A/T tires (235s for the dually)
Interesting to hear about the clutches. I'll see what happens with my PSD/6SPD combo when I get my fifth wheel. I asked a service manager before I ordered which was more reliable (auto or std). He said they had about the same number of problems either way (including clutch problems) and I prefer the standard for everyday driving so that's what I got. (Also, I liked the fact that the six speed was supposed to be heavy duty.)
Just passed 2500 miles and got 18.5 mpg on my last tank (F350/SC/LB/PSD/6SPD/4WD/3.73/ESOF/SRW). Two trips to Breckenridge and no noticeable loss of power going over Hoosier pass (about 12,500').
We received a prompt enough schedule & build to subsequently receive the truck basically "on-time" or a few days one way or the other. However; what has occurred since the build has been a complete "disaster" 7 weeks after the build & still the truck has "allegedly" not arrived at the rail head.
Crazyelvis there's TWO rail yards in TAMPA! One of those is the "main" CSX railhead and the other is the Allied shipping railhead (which you probably got involved with) & they are "connected" by rail (not road tractor). Trucks come out of the factory & are FIRST delivered to the CSX railhead & those being shipped via Allied THEN go over to that railhead (a couple of miles apart from what Ken told me). When the truck arrives at the "final" Allied railhead you then get the VOPC message update (a few days later) that the vehicle is "at-the-ramp".
The dealer now has Ford involved with tracing the whereabouts of the truck (which they SHOULD have done weeks ago). Ford says SOMEONE "signed" for the truck at the CSX railhead on 12.31.99. Guess what? The CSX railhead was shut down that day due to the holiday (we now assume "ghosts" are in the "mix")! So Ford's "story" is obviously bogus. Upon hearing this news Ford's gone back to the "drawing board" (for subsequent design of their latest "excuse"?). They're going to report their "findings" of the trace to the dealership tomorrow & the dealership's going to relay that info to us.
So MAYBE we'll actually "see" this truck b4 the thing "rusts" away.
my .02: as Chrispal mentioned; we're a mite curious about the clutch replacements. what driver habits are involved? some people "ride" their brakes & don't even know it. others apply brakes for NO reason whatsoever (watch the red lights on the interstate anytime). and others ride their clutch petal w/o being aware of it. and others "slip" their clutch to hold the load on steep upgrades. well, these practices will fry any clutch b4 it's "time". generally, the less time a clutch spends around the friction point the better. the thing ought to be fully engaged or disengaged. I also neutral the tranny for long standing periods to minimize throw-out bearing wear. this practice has resulted in NEVER having the distasteful opportunity of replacing one (& most of my driving years have been on manuals).
suspension package. Is there any advantage to
purchase the camper package instead? From the
specs, the only difference is the rear stabilizer
bar and the camper certification. I don't plan on
having a camper, so is there any advantage to
paying more for the camper package?
Even with the torque converter locked, there is more energy drain in the auto tranny vs stickshift, (lots of fluid pressures etc). Although the torque converter lock is a huge improvement.
Here is my cupholder fix:
From what I've heard, the SD dash cup holders don't hold drinks all that well. Now that my SD has arrived, I agree that the design could be improved upon..
It seems like the open sides (on the outside) are the key problem.. I've implemented a very cheap home remedy fix, that can be installed in about 1/2 hour and completly uninstalled in 10 secs if it turns out you don't like the fix.
Parts needed:
2 10" x 4mm stretch cords (available at your favorite wal-mart for 1.97 or so. In the auto section)
1 small piece of wire
tools needed:
3/16 in drill bit w/cordless drill (don't worry there are NO visible holes)
Pair of needlenose pliers
Procedure:
Open the cupholder and examine the 2 'jaws I'll call them' that pop up. Each jaw has a slit where a rubberized type of material is inserted. Basically we're going to put a cord that attaches to both jaws, so when the cup holder is 'out', the cord will support the side of the cup especially when cornering. When folded, the jaws collapse down, pulling the cord down nicely out of the way.
a. Gently pull part of the rubberized material out of the slot. You don't have to pull the whole thing out, just enough to see the slot.
Do this on the 4 outside corners of the cupholder.
b. Place the drill bit on the outside most part of the slot and make a rounded hole there.. (I tried to squeeze the cord in the slot without drilling, but it needed to be a tiny bit wider, thus the drilling).
Do this on all 4 corners.
c. Take the stretch cord, and cut 1 end off, remove the 2 hooks from the stretch cord and discard them.
(Note how the hooks were attached to the cord.. We're doing the same thing later on in step f).
d. Feed the cord from the back side of the jaw closest to the dash out the front of that jaw, then in the front of the opposing jaw and out the back. So the long end of the cord is closest to you..
e. With the cupholder fully open, I made it so the cord was a straight line but not stretched, and cut the excess part of the cord off. Leave a little extra cord so you can tie it off.
If you cut the cord too short, it will probably intefere with the jaws automatically opening. If you leave it too long, when the jaws close up on folding, the cord might snag/get pinched in the slide mechanism.
f. Now I hold the jaws down which allows me to pull the cord farther out the back so its easier to fold/loop the cord back onto itself at the tip and use the wire to hold the loop..
Repeat this on the other side.
g. Put the rubberized material back in the slot.
I wish I had a digital camera so I could show pictures, it would make it
much easier..
With mine, the little loop/knot tucks nicely in the little groove in the
back.
Removal:
If for some reason you want to remove this, just cut the cord and slide it out. No one will even know you hacked it..
I'm not a technical writer by trade, so if I'm not clear, let me know and I'll try to
explain better.
I hope this helps
Roger Bess
Thanks