Hi, this is my first post to this forum.

I joined your site in 2008, and was unable to log on until recently. Working 90 hours a week leaves little time for anything else. I usually check forms at night when at work after we have all of our work caught up and our patients are tucked in and sleeping. I am a registered nurse at a tribal hospital on an indian reservation. Management does not mind if we do personal stuff on the hospital computers as long as our work is done and our patients come first. Unfortunately the system has blocks and safeguards designed to protect the hospital network from hackers and viruses. The system also blocks a lot of other types of media, and was blocking this site until a recent update. It's cool to finally be able to access this site.

Our truck is a 2002 F-350, (Big Red) is a 4x4, Crewcab, dually, XLT, Powerstroke, with a 6 speed stick, 4:10 gears, and an 8 foot bed. It was ordered with lots of options. The truck has the digital throttle control, PTO, and tow package. Inside we have the dual 6 way captain's chairs, center console, CD6, and most do-dads that usually only come on Lariat's. We don't have leather seats, but we did not want them. We purchased the truck new in September 02, and it has 46K actual miles on it. The truck was purchased to tow toys, and was never intended fo use as a DD. We have two Crown Vics and an old Expedition for DD duties. When the truck was new I added an A.R.E. bed cover color matched to the truck, a bed rug, and a B&W gooseneck hitch with a 5th wheel adaptor. I also purchased a new 12,500 lb capicity hydrolic dump trailer, so I would never have to haul anything that would scratch the bed of the truck. The truck is torador red. Since that time I upgraded the CD6 to a later model Audiophile unit, which has a much better CD mechinism, and a better amplifier. It is Siruis ready, and we have the sat tuner on it. I updated the speakers to Rockford Fosgate in the stock size and location. Also installed a RF 150 x 2 amplifier, and a RF 250 x 1 subwoofer amp with a Kicker 10 inch sub under the rear seat.

For toys we tow a 36 foot Holiday Imperial 5th wheel, a 22 foot Mach I boat with a 454 Chevy engine, an enclosed car trailer that we haul one of our two Trans AM's that are trailer queens and show cars. The 82 Trans AM is an all original WS7 t-top car with 24,300 actual miles on it. Think Knightrider, except in white. The other TA is a 1986 WS6 TPI car with T-tops. It has 29,800 miles on it, and is original. When we have to haul materials for a project, the dump trailer is pressed into service. Otherwise you will find Big Red inside of the garage waiting on her next towing assignment.

Big Red is pretty much flawless, and has never seen a body shop. I sure love this beast, and plan to keep the truck for the rest of my life. Besides the costs of a new one, I don't believe that there is or ever was a better truck built. I have resisted mods to the engine or driveline due to reliability issues with aftermarket stuff and wanting to keep the truck stock so that it is servicable by any Ford dealer. Our local dealer is a great bunch of folks. We live in very rural town in the middle of no-where. Our dealership has to maintain a loyal following of repeat customers to stay in business, unlike some of the big city dealerships who don't care if you come back or not. Big Red has only been worked on by me and the diesel mechanic at our Ford garage. I follow the factory recommendations for service, except for oil changes which are every 6 months. Two years ago we replaced the original batteries and tires with Michelins. I install the Ford cooling system conditioner every fall, and use Opti-Lube oil additive in the crankcase with Motorcraft oll to pevent injector problems. I use the Opti-Lube fuel additive with the fuel.

Big Red has to work once in a while, but overall she lives a pretty easy life for an F-350. This post is already too long, so I will stop here.

Betty and Charles

 

Sounds like a great truck.
I'm sure with the manual trans it helps with not needing a chip or mods.
You would be surprised at how little mods will affect how your dealer works on the truck though.
Many upgrades like the high pressure oil crossover and the fuel crossover will help idle and reduce noise in the engine, as well as putting more consistant oil to injectors (potential better life) and help remove air from the fuel before it gets to the injectors (less noise and better fuel atomization)
These mods will only help the engine stay top notch. I'd reccomend riffraff diesel for those two items. They are called "frx" and "hpx" if you want to look them up. I'm sure you've read about them since you joined in 08.
A chip or programmer is possibly what your thinking will make it tricky for your ford dealer to work on it.
With most power adders, it will not hinder the diagnostic ability of the truck. The obd2 port is still functional and as long as the dealer doesn't try to flash an update (which they haven't needed to since 03-04) you'll be all set.
If stock power is good for you, no worries.

 

 

Above is a picture of Big Red and our boat. The old fat dude in the pic is me.

Thanks for the welcome and suggestions. I will have to check out the mods you mentioned. As for power the truck is fine as is. It runs great and pulls hard. The six speed stick and 4:10 gears gives the truck great drivability, and fantastic control. I have driven the same truck with an automatic, and there is a lot of differences between them.

 

Here is a pic of the two TA's that Big Red hauls to the car shows.

 

Great looking truck!

Glad you finally get to access the network. We can sure help you keep this thing up to like new condition.

One thing that the dealer won't be able to do for you is grease the front wheel bearings for the 4x4 hub and bearing assembly. You can do that yourself if you have ABS. Remove the wheels, pull the calipers and rotors, and take the ABS sensor out. Shoot plenty of grease into the ABS hole and it will keep the bearings healthy for years to come. There's also a needle bearing that needs to be greased, but the hub assembly has to be removed, which can prove to be a PITA. On the other hand, it's a PITA to replace the whole hub and bearing assembly as well...

You can check out the last three links in my signature for some really valuable maintenance and repair items.

 

hey jeff could ya post that video back up for em...?

 

you mean this one?

 

double post

 

Good idea to grease wheel bearings.
Riffraff also sells the abs adaptor to grease them very easy.

Nice cars. I know some people say blah to Chevy and blah to stock, but I can appreciate them the same way you do. Those are great low mile cars. I bet they can bring quite a few good looks and comments at the shows.

 

Are you S**tin me! Now what are these odds ! 2 Red Duallys from the same podunk town !! Can't believe we have not met ? There are not that many trucks like that around!! Other than my mods and 1 year newer could be twins! When I get back from FL with the fiver we gonna have to have a GTG !! And you can see how yer truck would run with mods added! Take care !

Smokie

 

Sounds good Smokie! Let me know when you get back in BC. I will PM you my phone number. You sound like part-time residents? FL-winter-NC-summer? We live just west of town a couple of miles, a place called Lower Alarka, or LA to the locals. We are close to the east end of Fontana Lake.

I have seen a few red duallys around. Figured that they were mostly folks just passing through, as we have a lot of tourists here with the national park Cherokee and such. Ford produced that Torador Red in about 7 color varations. Some look candy-apple red, and others look burgundy. Did the 01's and 02's use the same paint code? Your truck has the better engine in it.

You probably have not seen my truck because it stays in the garage most of the time. Usually we drive it on trips, and that is where most of the miles 46K miles have come from. Usually when I am uptown I am in an blue 07 Crown Vic, or a silver 01 Expedition. The wife drives a burgundy 08 Crown Vic. Big Red does not see a lot of time outside of the garage, and when she does she is usually connected to a trailer with a toy heading out of town. A lot of people don't know that I own the truck, because they have never seen it.

We have made two trips the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway with the 5th wheel, and the truck performed awesome, towing the 10K camper. One reason I wanted the 4:10 gears and the six speed stick was for good torque transfer and total control in steep mountain driving. The truck has never disappointed us in its ability to perform under all sorts of loads and steep grades. My Expy has a 4R100 in it, and I have had problems with it. I am glad that I did not choose an F-350 with that weak link of a slush box behind a 7.3 turbo diesel.

Charles

 

Thanks for the info. I will check this out.

Three years ago we had the front brakes reworked because the front rotors had warped. The truck had 34K miles on it, and the rotors started to go bad at 25K. The pads still looked new. I figured that it was because we tow heavy stuff in mountain country, and had just overworked the brakes.

I ordered Powerslots cyro treated rotors and Hawk's Superduty pads. Mountain Ford installed them for me, and they work fantastic. I asked them at that time to grease the front hubs, and they told me that everything is sealed, and can't be greased. It is good to know that there is a way to do that job, however it looks like I will have to do the job myself. My big problem is time... Working 90 hours a week, I would just as soon pay the dealer to work on the truck. That way when I get a very rare day off and we have plans, I can wash the truck, check the tire pressures, check the fluids, do a quick walk around and and am ready to roll. It figures that Ford would make it sealed, but than it really needs to be serviced. I also know that bearing failure is possible as a friend's 06 F-350 needed new front bearings at 55K miles.

If I have to pull the hubs, I may install manual locking hubs and do away with those vacuum operated factory things. Will manual hubs eliminate those needle bearings you mentioned? My previous truck was a Chevy CC dually 4x4 that had manual locking hubs, and a stick shift trans. It had an SM-465 4 speed, and I added a US Gear two speed spliter. It was a sweet set-up, but with a 502 gas engine it was a big gas hog. I would unlock the hubs and place the truck in 4x4 low range for handling the boat on a very steep ramp on the side of the mountain. The ramp has a 20% grade. It allowed us to use the low range part of the transfer case without the risks of damaging the 4x4 drive train by operating the system engaged on concrete.

Thanks for the information. It looks like I am going to have to make some time to work on these issues.

Charles

 

The rotors likely went bad due to stuck slide pins in the calipers. Common issue, and I recommend greasing the slide pins anytime you do a break inspection or or grease the bearings at all to prevent it.

As far as the needle bearings, they are apart of the hub/bearing assembly, but can be replaced without buying the whole assembly, where the main bearing cannot. Guzzle has the all the part numbers and pictures if you want to visualize it. (Link is in my sig).

The factory hub locks are actually not bad locks, there are just a few failure points in the vacuum system. But, you can still lock and unlock manually. As a matter of fact, you can run a switch in the cab from the vacuum solenoid to turn it off when you just want low gear but not 4wd. Here is a very recent thread on the topic. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...atio-haul.html

Obviously, there's nothing wrong with putting aftermarket hub locks, but the stock hubs locks are decent locks.

 

Thanks for the tips.