Long story short,

I went fishing this morning and when I came home I parked in front of the house. Two hours later I notices glass on the ground under my truck. It looks to me that a stone was kicked up and the window shattered but the cop who filled out a report thinks that it might have been something else. All I see is a small quarts stone with angular edges sitting on the tonneau cover.

How hard is it to do myself and would it be just as easy to install a rear slider in place of the one piece rear window?

 

The rear window bolts in. It's not a really difficult job but a bit time consuming.
You need to remove all the trim panels inside the truck, around the window. After you've got them out then there are some nuts that hold the window in.
A slider or a fixed window bolts in the same.

 

I just got a quote from Ford for a non-sliding rear window assembly for $600. I new this would be expensive but does anybody know what that includes or what I would have to get extra? The parts guy wasn’t much help. I’m also going to check a few auto body and glass shops and see what the whole thing will cost.

I kind of gave up on the rear slider idea after a read about so many of the leaking

 

Try calling around to one of your local aftermarket glass places near you. Im sure they can beat the price Ford gave you. Most of the time, the dealers call in the glass people so they don't have to mess with it. I got my 97 F150 replace for around $300 last year. I even got a tinted one to replace the nontinted slider. As for the leaks in the factory sliders, the guy who replaced mind said that they have redesigned the windows and they do not leak. Even the aftermarket sliders!!!!

 

I got a quote from Diamond Auto Glass and it was $275 for the solid window installed and $325 for a slider installed. This is for the privacy tinting the XLT had and I was also told that the slider had Carlite glass in it. I was pretty surprised but the guy I talked to on the phone assured me that it was.

 

I went with Diamond Auto Glass. They wanted $275 installed for the one piece rear window and $325 for a slider. I went with the slider and it was actually a Carlite piece in a Carlite box. It’s nice to see a Ford part back on there but the tint looks slightly warmer in color compared to the original.