Thub

The truck is averaging 16 mpg with my mixed city and highway driving, I try to drive for economy but its really not my style, I just have a more spirited driving style. I've been going around 250-275 miles between fillups, I won't run much past half a tank on that thing, its sickening to pay to fill that 36 gallon tank up from empty. So 500 or so miles on a full tank is pretty good. Max range is supposed to be around 800 miles on a tank and I can believe that because when you drive it really nice it will pull 20mpg easy. So I drive the F150 to work and then I hop in the same year of Chevy Silverado equipped the same as my truck, crew cab short box 4x4 with the 5.3L V8. Now it is a work truck so it takes more abuse but the power, handling, steering control, feedback, its like night and day. I could be a bit biased but I honestly don't know why anyone would have bought a GM truck during the 2011 to 2014 period because the F150 is superior in every single aspect hands down. Last year I really kinda liked the Silverado and thought it was pretty decent, thank goodness my senses took over and I test drove an F150. I think GM let that GMT900 chassis drag out 2-3 years too long it was not competitive at all in its final years, I think it only sold due to the (GM fan factor) and GM knew that, how else could you explain a refresh and then a total redesign 9 months later. The GMT 800 was definitely better than the F150 of that era, but once Ford ditched the Trition engines things changed. I think GM has tried really hard to catch back up but using that same chassis for 8 years without any major updates really cost them, meanwhile Ford and even Chrysler were cooking up a lot better ideas. I didn't want that to seem like a rant but its almost hard to explain how 2 trucks that compete head to head from the same MY can be so different.

I have a big road trip coming up next week I'll keep track of how the truck does but I doubt a 6" piece of plastic has a big effect on that 6000lb big brick of a truck.

The F150 got its sea legs last weekend. I think its kinda neat when a vehicle gets to leave the pavement and move across the water. With a full load of cars that ferry ride was pretty smooth, the first leg of the trip the ferry was only half loaded and you could really tell the extra weight smooths things out, but also slows the ferry down considerably. This weekend I removed the massive lower air valance, so now it looks like the truck actually has some ground clearance.

Good thing I checked my calendar, I have a wedding to be at the weekend too, so I'm out.

An hour south of me. And yah they live 15min from Road America. Sheboygan is a nice area, a little too much Milwaukee influence for me but outside of the city its good old rural Wisconsin farm land.

Like the title says, I no longer need the factory service manuals for the 2002. I'd be willing to let them go for the cost of shipping to someone on the forum who wants them. So pay me for a USPS flat rate box and we'll call it good. Set includes all 3 books, Volume 1, Volume 2, and the electrical book.

I will seriously have to think about this for this year.

There she was a few weeks ago with the 150.

Today the 2002 Taurus was sold, took $2000. It was a little hard watching that car drive away. A single mom bought it for her daughter. I made it pretty clear that it has been and will be a good car, just have to give it a little care.

Changed the rear differential and transfer case/PTO unit fluid on the CX5. Wasn't the worst job, getting to the drain and fill plugs on the rear differential was a little tight but not horrible. Figured I would change the fluid out now before my sister takes the car over, that way its good to go for another 60,000+ miles. Filled with Mobil 1 75W-90 full synthetic.

Got all the work done on the F150 related to the bed/cargo area. Getting finished up in the shop this afternoon. The massive paint booth that would fit a dump truck in the background. When I stopped by the first time they were spaying Line-x on Fire truck bodies for Pierce...So they really do spray that stuff on just about anything. Someone in a V8 SHO trying to keep up on the way home. Finished product is amazing. I'm glad I spent the money to get Line-X, I recommend it to anyone looking for a bed liner option. Also installed the Lund Genesis Elite roll up tonneau cover this evening. That pretty much wraps up any functional modifications or improvements I was planning.

At least you have the limited slip going for you there, in normal driving the F150 is stuck in 1 wheeler peeler mode. The e-locker works great but you can't use it unless you are doing a burn out or off road, any sort of turn and the rear tires are binding. Its really the best of both words though, I don't have to worry about any sort of springs wearing out or special fluids like a limited slip, and when I need traction to both wheels I know that both wheels are 100% locked together with the flip of a switch.

F150 goes in for Line-x next week so I figured I would get around to try and removing the broken bolt from one of the tie down hooks. I started out easy by soaking it for 2 days with liquid wrench and then cranked on it with a vice grips, well it started to go and then sure enough it snapped off flush with the bed...So I get the drill and a bunch of bits and start to drill that sucker out, round up a tap and die set and try to cut new threads but the "Built Ford Tough" steel was so strong it just wrecked the cheap thread tap. So now I have a slightly larger than stock bolt hole with no threads in my bed. Its never easy. I might just see if I can find a self tapping bolt or something along those lines. In other news, i've gotten pretty use to the handling of the truck, its no sports car but you can toss it around pretty good on dry pavement without any issues. So today when I'm out running some errands and its raining pretty good, I go to make a left turn though a busy intersection at a reasonable pace but not near tire squealing on dry pavement. I'm just focusing on making a nice turn and suddenly I'm in the "oh shit why is the truck at a 45 degree angle". I caught it and corrected reasonably well but holy cow it was insane with how little effort the back end of the truck just floated away. No traction control lights flashing or advance trac yelling at me either, just sliding sideways though an intersection. Maybe the tires aren't the best in heavy rain but I know they have tons of tread left. That was kinda a wake up call for me that the handling dynamics of the truck change dramatically when its unloaded and there is a good amount of water on the road...you cannot put even moderate power down and expect it to stay planted.

Yah your right Eric, if only I had more space, time, and money. I had to beg a little but I finally got someone to take a picture of me with the two cars. For 15 years living in Wisconsin the whole time the Taurus still looks great too.

That's right one of the long time classic Gen 4 cars on this website is going to be sold. I've never really had a project log for this car so I figure I will do a little "goodbye tour/show and tell" as I say goodbye to the car. I'll post some old pictures and whatnot and a few pictures of it currently this weekend. We bought the 02 Taurus in 2008 when I was 16, it was my first car and always will be. As a family we have put about 70,000 miles on the car since we got it. It has always been there for us and never let us down (except for the blown heater hose and bad starter). Its the car that got me interested in vehicles and working on them and I'll always remember it for that. There are a lot of good memories and experiences with that car. Over the past 2 years it had become more of the family car, being shared between myself, my sister, and my mom. I would keep the car but seeing that my sister finally got a car of her own (2014 Mazda CX 5 AWD) there is just no reason to have 3 vehicles for one person. Some people just see it as a car, an appliance and nothing more but I think most of the people here understand that its a little tough to say goodbye to any vehicle they have owned, especially their first car. I just hope it can be a great vehicle for whoever decides to buy it. Here's a picture of it in Spring 2015 sporting the Centennial rims, it sure looked sharp.