Hello all, been a long time since I last visited or posted. I really don't know where to begin so I'll just jump in. I don't remember if I shared with anyone last year about my wife getting cancer again, but she did, stage four in the lungs and spot in the bone. Found this out after our trip out to Washington state and back. The Good Lord healed her again. Fastforward to now, we just returned from Utah and Colorado and other than a water pump replacement on the truck we had a reasonably good time. The point is she is tired of it because of the noise level especially at highway speeds. I have to admit it gets to me sometimes as well. It just turned over 330,000 miles and runs just as strong as ever. No rust in the body panels, a little surface rust in the wheel wells but you have to lay on the ground to see it.
I retired in Feb. this year after 44 years, purchased a 2017 Wrangler JKU in March and been using it as my daily driver since to avoid putting a lot of miles on the truck. Another reason she wants to get rid of it. We have looked at other campers and motor homes but I can't bring myself to sell the truck camper, its just really handy and paid for. At this point I'm not making any decisions, if I sell the truck and camper, a big if, mind you, a newer F150 will be in the garage.
BTW, I've still been lurking the forum now and then, lol.
Later, Bill

 

Hey,

Remember when you had that muscle car before you had a family.

Hurdles my friend.

Do what makes everyone happy and put yourself on the bottom of the deck.

It seems lately, it's not how long your here, but how great it is while your here.

Denny

 

Bill, I was at that cross road myself and am pleased with the decisions I made. Do what you feel is best for your situation. I "downsized", somewhat, by going from my fifth wheel camper to a lighter weight travel trailer and getting out of the side business of cattle raising. This gave me less of a need for a larger diesel powered truck. I do miss the diesel torque, at times when towing, but I don't regret buying my F150.
I am glad to hear Mary is doing well and hope that we all can meet up again some day.

 

Bill,

Have you considered going to a quieter exhaust and doing the quiet mods? My stock 02 with the extra quieting things they added in 02 and stock exhaust is very quiet on the highway. It easily passes the "Bic" test. I also did the door seal tubing mod, which eliminated all door thumping completely.

A while back I considered a lighter truck to tow a 20-24 ft TT with but I don't think that is ideal. All the stuff we will want to pack along, I still want the heavy truck. I also feel safer when the tow vehicle is heavier than the TT.

Just my .02

PS Very happy to hear your wife is well again.

 

And I thought DISLFVR meant Diesel Forever...isn't the F150 a gasser?

 

The F-150 is getting a diesel 3.0L.

 

It was meant to be short for "diesel fever". And as far as the newer diesel trucks go, I wouldn't touch them. Too much junk on them to go wrong.

 

The system on it has a muffler, straight thru design similar to the Walker I had before. I appreciate the concerns for Mary, doing well just short of breath most times.

 

Roland, thank you. I may try to talk her in to going to Texas to spend a few weeks this winter.

 

First... congratulations on beating the big C back! My wife just wrapped up that little adventure (including a chunk of lung removed), and we are waiting for the final scan with a lot of optimism.

Second... I completely get the "reset button", we are going through that ourselves. Our master plan is to sell everything, get a diesel pusher, and pull our boat all over the country when I echo my wife's retirement. Until that time, I'll keep Stinky rollin' down the road because I need him to pull the boat to our regional waters.

Saying that... Stinky has been a pretty quiet rig at cruise. I can't help but wonder if maybe some noise abatement isn't all that stands between you and a decision to keep your rig. Wrap the exhaust, Line-X the valve covers, line the hood, line the door panels, and maybe some inexpensive floor matting. I have the Lariat trim, and it has a lot of that noise abatement stuff already in there.

Just some mull material.