I've always been a hot-rodder, cars mainly, chevrolet, bmw, and pontiac. Rebuilt my first engine at 17 years old with my friend of the same age, beat many many cars racing back then, people almost couldn't believe someone didn't do this for me. I'm just a tad over 40 now, of course I still like to go fast but I also want something I can use. I got into computers back in the early 90's when I learned I could play video games on them. I did go to college yet it taught me nearly zero of what I use as a systems admin. Most of what I use is self taught, same as with my old car, people have a hard time believing it.

I suddenly got the itch to have a big badass truck, I've never owned a truck before in my life. So after much research and reading I decided on the 6.0 powerstroke, regardless of it's problems, it fit into what I feel comfortable purchasing and fixing up. I'll never own a new vehicle, ever, I can't live with the depreciation, I'm a person who always finds good deals and who isn't afraid of doing a little work himself. I want to travel the US/Canada via truck/5th wheel all of a sudden and had decided I needed a DRW. After talking with the most friendly/wise 5th wheel dealer/owner I was informed that a SRW would be just fine so long as I had good tires and didn't ignore maintenance. Well, that's easy for me, I've always been preemptive on maintenance my entire life. So I found a 2006 F-250 crew cab 6.0, research told me the 06 had an integrated trailer brake, stiffer frame, and better brakes, not to mention a few upgrades to the problem prone 6.0. This particular 2006 was two tone, a Lariat, and it had the wheels from an 08 King Ranch, I immediately fell in love with it. It looks exactly like this except for the nicer 20" King Ranch wheels. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...Q-KVeDbIoYHP8=

I bought an SCT X4 tuner "brand new", custom tunes from Mike at Gearhead, cold air intake, arp head bolts, new oil cooler, EGR delete, hpop upgraded fittings, blue spring upgrade, and many other items I'm probably forgetting. Coming from a guy that has only had very fast cars his entire life, I absolutely love my F-250 diesel, the previous owner upgraded the exhaust and deleted the cat so it has the most awesome turbo sound coming from the exhaust upon the slightest acceleration. One of my neighbors gave me a thumbs up the second day I had it as I accelerated away from my house. I refuse to say I'm a chevy/ford/dodge/bmw guy, all of them have great vehicles, all of them have horrible vehicles, I only pick the good ones.

These forums have been such a great help to me during my research. I personally want to thank all of you that have contributed. Without your input many of us would be in the dark. Because of you I have a truck that weighs over 7000lb's and can break the tires loose easily at 15-20mph, gets better gas mileage than stock, and is far more reliable than it was from it's factory configuration. I now have something I can use to pull a 5th wheel, haul whatever I see fit, and outrun most vehicles on the street. All this with 4 doors, enough interior room for a small motel, and it looks good while doing all of this.