I just got back home from a nice trip way up in the woods of Canada. Overall I have to say the truck ran like a top the whole way. I wasn't pulling anything but we did have the truck loaded pretty good. The only gauge as to the weight is my rear axle was riding on the overload springs on the way up. I don't know how far they were compressed, but the overloads were riding on the bumpers. I wasn't sagging by any means, just nice and level.

The truck is an F350 CCLB for reference.

I have never spent much time in the back seat in either of the SD's I've had. I rode for about 1/3 the trip in the back seat this trip and I have to say the space is great. I didn't realize how big the cab was until I was trying to read the nav screen from the rear seat

I will comment that it would be nice to recline the rear seats somehow. I have a real hard time trying to get any reasonable rest on the road and having the back of the seat fixed in the vertical position doesn't help much. On long hauls we swap drivers whenever one gets tired. The ones that arent driving need to be well rested to take over again later.

Since I wasn't pulling anything I really can't compare to those that have done some heavy hauling with these trucks, but I will comment that the engine and transmission combo works well with how we were loaded. I never noticed if my 2010 would down shift on cruze or not but we noticed that navigating steep grades all the time in this 2011. It works quite well. We dropped quite a ways down in to a valley and I tried to experiment with the down shifting on cruze. I put the truck in tow/haul mode and it went down to 3ord at 45mph or so. I had to hit the brake because the road was so windy I didn't want to throw everyone and everything else around in the cab through the turns. On the open road it would hold us within 5mph of cruzing speed. I never thought to check the grades on my computer...

I have noticed a bit of a vibration in the past around 35-45mph. With the load on this trip I never noticed it. The transmission may shift a bit "rough" occasionally. I have to say I attribute that to the accelerator input some too. If you hold the accelerator petal in one spot and don't "play" it the shifting is fine. If you put more and more pressure on it sometimes it gets a bit rough. If you "shift" the petal then the transmission really goes a bit jerky. Keeping a steady foot on it works just fine. I wouldn't call this a "problem", just a characteristic I have noticed.

On the way out we averaged just a hair over 18mpg. On the way back we were about 17.3mpg, but at the same time we were skipping along a bit faster making good time too. My last fill up I got back over 18 before we pulled in the driveway - there were some country roads at 55-60mph in there though.

The only complaint all of us have is this truck really gets rocking on uneven roads. I have noticed this before one a specific stretch of road near home, but we hit MILES and MILES of the same type of uneven road and we really had a hard time. On the way up we hit the "rocky miles" between about 2:30-4:00AM. By that time all of our drivers were about done for and then we went rocking. We started switching drivers about every 30-45 minutes so no one fell asleep and ran us off the road.

On the way back last night I experimented with my speed and between 60 and 80mph I couldn't get out of the "rocking". The speed limit was 65 so I didn't want to get too creative with things, so I just put it back to about 73 and left it.

I am pretty sure it is the concrete road bed that does this - they split it every so many feet so it has a natural "break" to it and won't crack, but the breaks are spaced out perfectly to get rocking and rolling.

One last comment - I played with the hill descent control on some gravel roads. I need to figure out the sequence a little better to engage this. I got it to kick in a couple times and it was pretty neat. The roads werent long enough between intersections or leveling off enough to really make use of it. Neat feature though.

 

Great report Steve, lots of good detail. I know what you're saying about the expansion joints on some roads. If spaced right, the rythm can really get the truck rocking. We have a stretch of concrete north of Salt Lake City that is like that. It's worse in the more worn lane so I just camp out in the hammer lane for the stretch. Love a good road trip.

 

You should read my post "Death Wobble Update". Ford engineers replaced my rear shocks and eliminated that rocking on concrete highways. They said they were weak. I was ready to buy the Firestone R4Tech air bag system just for that reason and was told shocks won't change that symptom. Shocks did change it and now my wife is happy. We just got off a 2000 mile trip - colorado to California and back and she noted when we got back how she never noticed the rocking.

I think a combination of front and rear inadequate shocks contribute to that.

 

Thats interesting. I will have to read through that thread when I get a chance. So the rancho shocks that come with the FX4 package might be a load of crap?

 

Yes, they very well could be. My service writer at the dealership says there have been a lot of trucks in for these shocks. For me, the first set had blown seals and weren't holding any pressure, same with the second set. The third set were ordered by Ford engineers and were supposedly "certified" as upgraded.