It took a week to find the time to get photos, but here's my "new" truck. 2015 F350 XL SRW CC LB 172" 6.2L that my co-workers are referring to as Stormtrooper :









Please don't laugh too hard at the 70's/80's era cap. This is the third truck I've put it on : Ole Babe '79 F250, Blue Mule '92 F150, now Stormtrooper.

I'm really liking this truck. I had some nostalgic remorse going from the '79 to the '92, but not really having it with this one. I miss the '79 more than the '92. But this was the right move. I've got 2 kids with oldest about to start preschool and needed something I could put a carseat safely in.

The wife and I decided on a 4dr crew cab (full bench seats 3, I have the room for 2 carseats and an adult) and a long bed is a must for me. We wanted less 75k miles for less than $30k that still had some remaining Ford warrantee. That narrowed us down to the SD line, 2013-up.

This one has 52k miles, basic warrantee is time expired, but the drivetrain, emissions, and exhaust warrantees have a little less than 50k miles and 3 years left on them (per Ford's website). And we got it under budget. Had to drive a little better than 100 miles for it, but here it is.

I'm still learning the truck. Rides very well. Being a 350, I was expecting a brick ride, it's clearly a beefy suspension, but it's not harsh at all. Got to watch the rapid washboard pot holes, when unloaded the truck will tail drift a little over such bad sections, but not bad enough to be a real issue. I did haul about 750lbs of lumber yesterday, truck didn't even know it was there and the ride barely changed. My F150 would squat a couple of inches and ride like a pillow with that load.

I'm amazed at how well it accelerates, shouldn't be with the hoss of 6.2. Certainly not a racer, but it smoothly climbs north of 70mph without breaking 3000rpm and will noticeably climb another 5-10mph without a downshift.

The only thing I really miss is the manual transmission. I accepted that loss as soon as I started looking for a new truck.

As for looking, white was the vastly common option for my price range, which for the stock color options was my second favorite, a very close second, to Denim Blue. As for white trucks, I wanted the black nose (got it), black running boards if equipped (got it), and the least possible amount of chrome (got it). Hopefully it didn't have the stock steel wheels, instead aftermarket black aluminum alloys, nice. My co-worker said it looks like a Stormtrooper, I'm cool with that.

As for not looking like a fleet truck, it has a black double pinstripe running below the window/bed line, nice. Jury's still out on the little Ford logo on the rear doors, at least it's black too. The black wheels definitely set it apart from the fleet trucks roaming around my work's campus.

So what to change : I'm hoping to get a fiberglass bed cap and maybe a load rack after tax season, if not the current will suffice for a while. Want to swap the factory AM/FM radio for something with a CD player and external input. I can't decide if I like the black lug nuts. Chrome lug nuts might be the only chrome I like. When the current tires wear out (Hemisphere brand???), I'll shoe it with a set of BFG AT KO's with the white letters out, my favorite truck tires, not too off-roady, not too streety, just very sure footed regardless of conditions. I do need to get a trailer hitch, got the receiver.

I'm ready to take the family and all of their stuff, kayaks, bikes, and all for a vacation.

 

Badass!!!! I have a red one like that it is loooooonnnnnngggg all the guys at work mess with me I love it

 

Thanks. I chuckle overtime I unlock it, the roof lights come on. That's my big boy truck.

Looking at the prices of new caps ($1400 and up) and load racks ($700 and up), I'm considering making some repairs to mine, replace the bubbles with flat tinted polycarbonite, paint the aluminum white, and building an load rack painted black.

I'm also not really a fan of the stock bed liner. Actually, I don't really like any bed liner that wraps up the sides. I was crawling around in the back the other day and thinking about cutting the sides off the liner. Maybe rendering it so I can slide it out of the truck.

In both of my last trucks, actually both came with liners and I got rid of them, I used a thin sheet of plywood as a loading skid. Load the skid and push it in, or pulled the skid out to reach things that slid forward.

Maybe just cut the sides off and continue the skid idea with sliding on the liner rather than the floor of the bed.

Something I had done with both past trucks was sheet metal screw it some perforated angle running horizontally a few inches below the side rail and a few inches above the floor. It gave near endless options for tying/strapping stuff down inside.

I love the heavy duty strapping points in the bed corners.

 

Congratulations on your new truck. Nice looking ride!

 

Love the truck, white XL, that's my style. Congrats!

 

Awesome looking truck, enjoy and congrats!

 

nice looking truck

 

I love XL trucks, is yours manual windows, 4wd etc or powered optioned ?

 

Hey OP,

You should tell them, "If you think my truck is long, you should see my... "

Oh, wait.

And I like white trucks.

 

LOL at the Stormtrooper tag. Well ever truck has a nickname from it's owner looks like you have yours. The canopy is old school my folks had an Ext Cab F150 and that thing ran for years and years and towed the family trailer all over the place. When that truck was in an accident my folks took the canopy off and it sat in the yard and then my brother got it and put it on his old chev and it was on that truck till about 8 months ago when my brother passed, and then went onto to a family friend who threw it on his early 7.3 and being used on the farm.

If you ever looking for a new canopy I would keep an eye on Craigslit and on auction sites. People buy canopys and then for some reason the canopy no longer is needed so they put them on their to sell.

Auctions are famous for taking the canopys. bed tool boxes, service canopies off of trucks that are coming into to be sold by companies/individuals and then putting them up for sale in an auction. I have seen 1800.00 and up to 2400.00 go for between 500.00 to a 1000.00 depending on the canopy make and set up ( windows with sliders and screens, lots of windows, side locking doors etc ) you juts have to keep an eye out for em

But as long as it works for ya, and keeps your stuff in and dry, that's what matters. Now the question will be what mods your throw on your truck as time goes along if ya desire

I am sure you will love it, the 6.2's have been a very good engine for Ford and it's owners. You'll enjoy having that bad boy

 

Power windows and locks. I'd prefer manuals, but the power options are good for the kids, I can keep them locked in and up. That's about the only power accessories. I prefer spartan, never been much of a creature comforts guy.

Maybe I'm being too old school. Is there a way to turn off the alarm without using the key buttons? If I open the door with the key (remember those?) the internal alarm starts beeping, then I press the unlock button on the key and the alarm stops, which kind of defeats the purpose of using the key in the first place.

The cap ... I've been thinking more about that. A new one would look nice, but the reality is that I'll haul stuff in the back that will easily risk damage to the cap. Probably at least once a month, I'll haul an extension ladder, pipes, or other long items that will easily damage a fiberglass cap. If I damage my current one, no big loss and it's relatively easy to repair. I'm now leaning towards giving it an overhaul, paint, and building a more substantial load rack on top that structures down to the bed rails. Paint the aluminum white, tint the windows, replace the bubbles with tinted glass, and paint the rack black. Push the Stormtrooper look a little further. Probably do it all for a couple hundred dollars and a couple of weekends.

Mods ...
I browsed the Performance Forum and did a little reading on tuners. It would be nice to customize the shift points a little. One poster referenced the laziness of the throttle response, it feels like the response could be a tad quicker. Splitting hairs though, it's vastly more powerful and quicker than my '92 F150 5.0L and my old '79 F250 300L6.

I have 4 accessory power switches : I wonder what I'd like to hook those up to? An AC power inverter perhaps? Auxiliary exterior "work" lighting? 2 more switches, hmmm...

Maybe a back-up camera. It'll make backing up to the loading door easier.

Definitely a radio upgrade, the AM/FM only is going to old pretty quick.

I'm sure other "needs" will present themselves. Things I won't do : giant wheel / low-profile tires, under carriage lighting, wild graphics... This working man's truck, not an ego compensator.

Regardless of all, and not knocking my previous trucks, this is the best truck I've ever driven. My very few quibbles are so minor they're irrelevant. I am far more satisfied than I ever expected to be.

 

Nice truck! Can't beat the crew cab long bed for carrying ability.

 

Exhaust system. The sound is little on the docile side. Doubtful I'll change anything until after the exhaust warrantee expires and it starts coming apart (any idea how long the stock system will last?).

It has dual mufflers and a single behind the wheel side exhaust. Maybe reduce to 1 muffler with dual side exits before the rear wheels. Or same with dual out the back exits. Hmmm. Definitely have some time before that happens.