Saga of the Truck - Chapter 11 (the last one)

This saga of what it has been like to replace a fifth-wheel fulltimer's tow vehicle is coming to a close.  It has been a 25 month ordeal with the bulk of that time spent maneuvering in the throws of a pandemic.  Countless hours of research on the internet, dozens of hours on the phone negotiating with fleet services, weeks of haggling with insurance providers, a bi-coastal trip to take possession of half a truck, and two 1,400 mile round trips from Georgia to Indiana to get the truck finished.  The shortages I wrote about in Chapter 3 were the single biggest factor in the time it took to get everything done.

But it is done; almost.  Now it is time to shake out the annoying little things that invariably come up with a new vehicle purchase.  Unlike the purchase of our original truck, the 2006 6.0L F-550, nothing mechanical has reared an ugly head.  But I do have a crop of electronic issues, one of them critical to towing.

Immediately upon being a registered owner I received notice that there was a recall for my (and a gazillion other) truck because of the integrated trailer brake controller.  It seems it will simply turn off without notice, leaving you unknowingly without any trailer brakes.  Yikes!  Nothing like getting pushed right through a red light into a busy, high-speed intersection.  So I called a Ford dealership I trust to schedule the fix (a re-loading of the brake controller software) and was given an earliest possible appointment of nine weeks from the day I called.  Nine weeks!  The effects of the pandemic are still haunting me.

Additionally I have found a missing feature in the navigation system.  It does not have the trailer towing application that lets you input your trailer dimensions and other stats so that the nav system can route you safely through underpasses, tunnels and weight limited bridges.  And lastly, the rear view camera has horribly low resolution and is very dark.  The image is supposed to be of high enough resolution that I should be able to see the hitch so that it can assist me in hooking up the trailer.  It is not even close.

Anyway, the dealership will take a look at these issues while they have it for the recall work.

Meanwhile, I am getting familiar with everything else.  One thing I can say is that having all that fuel on board is very convenient.  I drove it from Indiana to our location in Georgia (670 mi) on a partially filled tank and didn't have to stop for fuel.  But when I did have to fuel up I learned;

Large fuel capacity: Good.  Paying for fill-up: Bad.

My actual capacity is 100 gallons.  Of course you can't use to the last drop but I got pretty close for the first fill-up and it cost me $470.  The credit card cut me off twice at $175 and wouldn't let me do the third swipe until the next day.  With that annoyance in mind I probably won't let it run that low again unless necessary.

Well, that's if for the saga.  Future posts will get back to our adventures in fulltiming.  Oh, I'm sure that subject matter will still include truck stuff.  After all, we are still stranded until the trailer brake controller is fixed in late August.