I took my beat up fender trim off, here it is now.

 

Got the rear chassis pressure washed, and found my leak. Turned out it was as simple as the return line being caught between the tank & crossmember when I had reinstalled the tank before. Just had the connector in a slight bind causing the leak. After I loosened the tank & routed the line properly the leak stopped. Went ahead and cleaned the rest of the truck up while I had the pressure washer out. Also sanded down my fifth wheel hitch and rails and repainted them while they were out of the truck. I also fixed the front tanks pickup tube while the beds off. I let the truck run for about 30min. and checked each tank assembly for any sign of leaks. All is good now. Tomorrow morning I'll put the bed back on & get everything bolted back up. I have to take a friends tow dolly to them on Friday about 75 miles away. And then on Tues. we are leaving for a month long stay in Gatlinburg, Tn. with our fifth wheel. The last two things on my "To Do" list is waxing the truck on Sat., and then changing the oil & filter.

 

Replaced the transfer case tail housing bronze bushing & seal. The old one was a little sloppy, and gave me an intermittent growl/vibration above 65mph. Much smoother now, and no vibration through the floor boards. Had a shop push the old bushing out & new bushing in, charged me $10--don't know how they can keep the doors open for that price.

Also just ordered some Bilstein 4600's and poly bushings for the sway bars, radius arms, and axle pivots (rubber ones lasted less than 25,000 miles!). Ought to take care of the bouncing around and imprecise (more so than normal) steering.

 

Filled the gas tank up this morning on the way home...$50 was it'd hold, period.

Gas is $3.899/gallon here in Eastern KY.

251.4 miles on the tank, ans 12.82 gallons topped the tank off and a tad ran out the filler neck.

So if my math is coorect; those numbers = 19.60 mpg mixed.

The trip included highways, hills and a lot of in town driving (Very little idling though)

I did keep the max speed to 60-65mph, even in the 70mph sections of highway.

 

Pulled the Motor

 

Checked the front steering parts for slop - couldn't find any.

I've gotten pretty spoiled by modern rack and pinion steering and have forgotten how things used to feel.

 

Pretty damn good, Wes! I had some gas reward points, filled mine up today at 2.53/gal. Managed to squeeze 33 gallons in.

 

Compared to me, that is damn good... I filled mine as well. Only the front tank and it was $48. My mileage worked out to 10.2 MPG with about 80% highway driving. I honestly am at a loss here as to why the mileage is so bad now.

 

Wow, that is pretty bad. Maybe a brake dragging or something? I know you're running 33s, but that shouldn't affect mileage that much.

In comparison, I'm running 33s, but they're 285/70/17s. About an inch narrower than the average 33x12.5. I averaged a couple tanks after installing them, and I'm still getting a little over 16 in mixed driving, about 90% of my driving is on a rural highway, speed limit of 50.

 

2.53 a gallon? How much did the points take of off the price. At that price I could drive my cc as a dd.

 

Bob are your tires equivalent to the 33x10.50's if so how do you like them

 

$1.20 a gallon. Normal price is $3.73 (for those that don't math well, lol).

My daily commute is around 20 miles, so if we don't use the truck for anything but me commuting back and forth to work, my 38 gallon tank lasts about a month. Which, btw, is plenty of time for the War Department to do enough food shopping to get more reward points.

According to Michelin, they're 32.7 x 11.2. So far, I love them! Michelin LTX AT2. I found a great deal on Craigslist, they were take-offs from a Dodge with about 5k miles on them. They're load range D, but that's fine for my F150.

I did have 33 x 10.5s on a Suburban I owned a long while ago, and didn't care for them. They seemed really "squishy". Unstable, I guess you could call it. But, those were on a 15" wheel, resulting in more sidewall. On the 17" wheels I have, there's less sidewall and these Michelins are extremely stable.

 

I honestly have no idea. Brakes don't seem to drag. No codes for anything, new plugs less than 500 miles ago, old plugs looked great with no ash like deposites or oil, cap rotor and wires all less than 10k on them. Timing is at 12* and plugs are gapped at .055". I only do 55 on the highway as well. Exhaust is all new and free flowing as many of you know. Hell, even the injectors got a full cleaning a few thousand mile ago. I really just have no clue. I did a tank a couple weeks ago that was all city and that netted about 8.5 MPG...

Even with only having 50k on the engine it is a fuel pig...

 

That's what I was thinking kind of narrow for a tall tire especially on a full size. I like the way they look.

Hey Evan do you think the 3.55' aren't liking the 33's maybe 3.73's would get you some mileage back.

 

I know for a fact they are not helping. But I think Bob has 3.55's as well with 33's and hes getting 16 mixed...