Originally Posted by Y2KW57

How does that expression go? "You'd have to wake up pretty early in the morning to fool me."

Although 2:00 AM to 2:48 AM is pretty darn early in the morning.

Let's have a look:













We all benefit when FTE thrives as an authentic community of folks who find this forum to be fun and friendly. The resiliency of FTE as a reliable resource of information hinges on the integrity of the individuals who contribute to it.

It is perfectly understandable to forget a password and lose an email address. Changes in ISPs, marital status, domiciles, etc happen. And in the frustration of not remembering previous log in credentials and lacking access to old emails, people sometimes do re-register under a different user name, even though guidelines do not permit this. However, starting over with a new user name is very different than having a public conversation with one's self under two different user names in the same currently active thread, with the intent to imply to FTE readers that two different individuals are involved. That is a technique that internet marketers use to create false buzz about products... fabricating personas with problems, and fabricating new personas with solutions to those problems that appear to be organically recommended by word of mouth. When forums become full of these shenanigans, the value of the forum degrades, because members seek authenticity.

@6.0L and @03diesel You would "both" do well to either clarify or correct this coincidence, before your upcoming birthday that you share in common. Please reach out to Super Moderator @Maxium4x4 via Private Messaging to get this sorted.

Thanks for understanding!

Originally Posted by Y2KW57

A second train is on it's way...

Originally Posted by 6.0L

That's not my birthday, its 10 years and a few weeks off.

Originally Posted by F2504x4SD

For years I've been fighting with both of my diesel trucks, particularly this one. In 1239 miles I've had 5 sets of batteries, and the dealer has replaced the alternator 7 times.
I don't use the truck daily, its only here to haul my toys around, I use it to tow my boat, my camper, and a few small trailers. In 16 years its not been driven more than 10 hours, but when it does go out, it runs for at least an hour or so.
This morning I took a 2 hour ride with it to pickup a free boat trailer in MD. I went out around 6am, pulled it out of the garage and let it warm up, then headed out. It sat there for about an hour, plus two stops to eat and top off the fuel along the way. I got home around 3pm. I parked the truck and did a few things to the new boat trailer in the garage. It looked like rain so I went to pull the truck into the garage, and its dead, both batteries are stone dead. Not low, completely dead.
The truck is bone stock, no accessories, nothing plugged in. Both batteries are less than 3 months old, as is the alternator. (I've got shelf full of supposedly 'bad' alternators off this and my other two trucks that were likely replaced for no reason). I ran an extension cord out and the batteries are charging back up.
Every time the batteries will charge right back up, and likely be fine for another month, or more. Then all at once they'll be stone dead again. The truck gets parked with a battery maintenance minder which I plug in roughly once a week but its never made any difference. When they go dead, there's no draw, nothing that doesn't belong there. Its as if it's not capable of maintaining its batteries on its own, If I let it sit more than three or four days without a charger on it, it goes dead, regardless of use.
The alternator is charging at 14.4 volts, the battery draw is .23 amps, (Less than the draw on my car battery), and load tests at 111.5 amps at idle.
The batteries are 3 month old OEM Motorcraft, the last set were Interstate, (put in by a dealer in MO), before that a set of Duralast batteries because they died 100 miles from home two years ago.each time, the batteries charged right up and tested fine. The part that gets me is that its done this repeatedly. The last time I died, I had just come home from an hour drive, I stopped down by the road to talk to a neighbor, I shut the truck off for 5 minutes, and it started right back up just fine, I pulled up the garage, shut the truck off to go open the door, I walked around came back out through the open door and the batteries were stone dead? zero volts, nada, nothing. The same thing it did today, only today it had two hours to sit after I shut it off last.
Except for one time, its only done this at home, the one time it did it away from home, I was at my old place, making the last trip of the move from PA. I had shut it off to make one last walk through and went back out and it was completely dead. At that time I had no means to jump start it or charge it so I was forced to go to Walmart and buy a pair of batteries. When I got home, the two completely dead batteries charged right back up over night.
Its also only done this once in the winter, it happens more often in the warm weather. Once I get it started again today, I likely won't need it for another few weeks.
I don't think the battery minder makes any difference, its died just as often after a long ride as after sitting. Before today, I last drove it about a week ago but only for a few miles across town and back.

If it were a draw, it would have to be massive, like the glow plugs or bigger but for it to be fine one minute and completely dead the next don't make sense.
The truck is like new, its been garage kept since new, as has my other 03 F250, (I have two, both have under 10K on them). Both have had these issues over the years. I've bought four brands of battery tenders, dozens of batteries, and dozens of alternators. Through all this, my 1985 F150 starts every time no matter how long it sits. It just turned 1700 miles.

This issue started right from the start of buying the first truck, I brought it home, went to FL for the winter and came home to a dead truck. They towed it in with 12 miles on it and replaced the batteries and alternator. I drove it home, and a month later it was dead again. The second truck belonged to a relative who passed, it has less miles but has had the same issues.
Last year I bought a new Powerstroke, it too has the same issues, it can't seem to sit for more than 2 weeks without going dead.

Is it the batteries or the trucks?

Originally Posted by F2504x4SD

I guess I should first start off by saying I've got an '03 F250 4x4 with a 6.0L that's been kept in storage for the better part of its life. For the past 14 years I drove a company supplied vehicle so mine just sat.
Lately I've been getting my F250 back into shape and ready for use again. Its got only 7100 miles on it, but the original BF Goodrich Rugged Trail tires are showing some pretty concerning cracks, which I'm sure is to be expected after 14 years. The truck basically got driven the first few months after I bought it and then it was put up in the garage and stored since then.

I was originally just planning on buying four new Rugged Trail 10 ply tires for it but they are no longer made in the LT sizes.
I drive 99% of the time on the highway, but my driveway is about 3 miles of winding gravel up and down over a few rolling hills before I get back to the house. This is not a big concern unless we have snow or a lot of rain, where as a few areas get pretty slick.
I also have a few areas around the back of the one barn that get a bit muddy. I've had no real issues with the stock tires, they handle everything I need to deal with here but any less of a tire and I think I'd be getting stuck at times. I should also add that I only use this truck for towing, it rarely ever leaves the yard without an equipment trailer attached.
The biggest traction issue I've had so far was on wet grass.

I've looked at various tires and suppose I'm looking for either a good All Season tire or a mild A/T rated tire.
A neighbor has a similar truck and is running Ironman A/T tires but he complains about road noise and they don't seem to be lasting very long.
My company truck was similar to mine only newer, I ran both Michelin LTX M&S tires for a while and later a set of Cooper Discoverer AT3 tires. The Michelin tires were great for the most part but felt a bit loose under load and would get stuck on wet grass. The AT3 tires were great when they were new but they got really loud after only a few thousand miles. They also didn't last very long, the rear tires were nearly smooth after only 17,000 miles.

My biggest concern is that I don't want to dump a grand on a set of new tires only to find out they're noisy or don't last.
The Rugged Trail tires are ok but not super quiet, but the AT3 tires are just plain loud. (I road in my neighbors F250 with the Ironman All Country AT tires and that wasn't as loud as the Cooper tires but still not acceptable.

When I use this truck, it only goes longer distances towing a trailer that can weigh up to 5 tons loaded. The only place I need any sort of off road traction is in my own driveway and around the barn. Backing the trailer into the barn loaded means backing up a steep hill into the barn on loose gravel and sometimes mud or wet grass. Putting the truck into 4x4 usually solves the problem with the current tires but there's a 40 foot drop off next to that driveway, so there's not much room for error if the truck starts to slip.
I live in rather hilly country and a ways off the road so that has to be a concern when choosing a tire.

I've been looking at the Firestone Destination AT, and Goodyear Wrangler Armortracs in LT265/75R16.
Since no local tire dealers carry them, I'd be mail ordering them and getting them mounted at the dealer I suppose. (The dealer is pushing Hankook Dynapro AT-M, or General Grabber AT2 tires).
The Hankook tires are made in China, and I've read nothing good about the General tires.
Another concern of mine is fuel economy, the truck consistently gets over 20 mpg even when towing, empty its gotten over 24 mpg with the original tires. I know from past experience that the wrong tire can really hurt mpg.
Years ago I switched tires on my E350 van going from Michelin to Cooper Discoverer HT tires and I lost 4 mpg. The difference was so noticeable that I only ran the Cooper tires for a few months before tossing them in favor of another set of Michelin tires. I was quickly eating up any savings on the tires in fuel.

I'd be interested in hearing some other opinions on what to buy.
I did read through a handful of older posts here but most are for more aggressive off road tires, which I don't need and don't care to deal with the road noise such a tire would give me.

Originally Posted by 6.0L

I got the truck back here last night, first thing this morning I changed the engine oil, fuel filter, trans fluid, (not sure if that was needed or not but its got a pan drain plug, so I dumped what came out the plug and refilled it).
I gave it four new Cooper AT3's I sucked out the brake fluid and refilled it as well.
Once I was powered up, it cranked about 6 times and fired right up.
I didn't change the coolant yet, I wasn't sure which to use, the dealer had only yellow stuff, Walmart had only green. The manual says to use only Motorcraft?
I did use synthetic oil, the manual spec'd out 5W/40 if using Synthetic so I used Delo 400 full synthetic since it was so much less than Mobil 1.

After letting it warm up, I hung the license plate and took it for a ride. I put about 80 miles on it making my rounds to various auctions and flea markets all day.

It runs great, and surprisingly seems to get pretty decent mileage. I filled the near empty tank when I left, ran it for 80 miles and it took only 3.65 gallons when I got back.

One thing I do notice is that the transmission feels a lot different than my car, I can 'feel' every shift, up and down, especially when coming to a complete stop and taking back off.
It concerned my so i stopped at a used car dealer and drove another truck with the same engine/trans combo and it felt the same.

I went with Walmart batteries after reading they're likely East Penn made now, two 850 CCA Groupe 65's for $189 out the door.. The local Interstate dealer wanted nearly $400. One garage wanted $165 each for Deka batteries.

The Cooper tires weren't my first choice but I found I couldn't buy the OEM BF Goodrich tires any longer and I read too many horror stories on so many other brands.

The OEM tires looked perfect on the outside, but were badly cracked on the inside.
I bought a new belt and I ordered all new hoses for it but what's on it look good, so I'm not too concerned about them. I'll deal with the hoses when I change the coolant before winter.
The truck won't be getting a lot o use, it'll spend most of its time in my garage once I know its completely reliable.
So far so good.

I have to say, its pretty quick for a big truck, when I step down on the throttle it really gets up and goes. After driving the one used truck for comparison, this one is a lot faster.

It does have a lot of rattles, the doors, seat backs, glove box, and doors them selves make a lot of noise over rough roads. But the super cab door layout doesn't look like its all that sturdy to me.

The overall ride is great, but it lets you know your in a 3/4 ton 4x4 with 10 ply tires fully inflated when you run over a bump or pothole in the road.
I ran down a few PA back roads with 45 mph speed limits and anything over 30 mph the truck wanted to bounce off the road, but on the open highway it felt great.
I dropped it off tonight to be fully detailed, a buddy is going to buff and wax it for me. I'm not sure how he's going to reach the roof, but I can't even reach the middle of the roof standing in the bed.
He said he should be able to buff out 90% of the scratches in the paint.

It has a sunvisor on it, I told him to see about removing it if won't leave any open holes in the body. The thing is in my line of sight when driving and I seem to be getting a lot of wind noise from it.

Originally Posted by freeisforme

I guess is tall depends on which Walmart you go to? I bought an Everstart Maxx group 65 four years ago, it failed after only 14 months. I took it back to the store where I bought it, a Super Walmart, and was told that they only sell batteries and to get it replaced I'd have to take it to a Walmart with an automotive department where it could be tested. Then if they didn't have that battery in stock, they would give me a voucher to return to the selling store with to get my battery replaced.
The closest Walmart with testing capabilities was 22 miles away. I made the drive, they replaced the battery on the spot but I had to wait in line for an hour as if I was there for a repair. I carried the battery in, they wrote up a repair order and told me if the battery wasn't bad there would be a minimum labor charge for the test.
It was around that time that Walmart batteries starting showing up marked as being made by Johnson Controls, and the replacement has lasted 4 years now.
I've bought Walmart batteries for years, still do, but the warranty is a hassle here.
The last two from Walmart no longer say made by Johnson Controls and the price went way up over this past summer. The batteries that were $93 are now $165. They now offer an unbranded super cheap option for $50 in most common sizes. Its lighter than the Everstart and Everstart Maxx batteries by about 10 lbs on average.
The warranty on all of mine says 3 years, not 5, no prorate at all. That must be something new?
I have found that those that fail early, fail before the 3 year point, those that last, tend to last far past the warranty period. I've got one in my tractor that's over 8 years old now.

I made the mistake of buying Interstate batteries for my one F250, they're pushing two years old now and were replaced twice already. Even with fresh batteries, it will not cycle the glow plugs twice and crank the engine. I kept getting told it had to be something wrong with the truck, so I switched them to the other truck that didn't have the issue, which had a pair of Walmart batteries in it, and the problem followed the batteries.

I was always a big fan of East Penn batteries but the last four or five I had in various pieces of equipment were junk and didn't last a year. I put a Federal group 65 in my 4 cylinder Ranger and it lasted only 9 months.

I bought a brand new Walmart Everstart Deep cycle for my boat in June, it runs a trolling motor and the fish finder. I keep it out of the boat on an automatic battery maintainer made for deep cycle batteries. I noticed last night that the maintainer's red light was on and that the battery volts were barely 12.01 v. A specific gravity test shows two weak cells. Its got a pro-rated 1 year warranty. Maybe I should have gone with the $49 Value version if all I was going to get is 5 months out of it.

The problem seems to be that they all have issues these days, the days of rock solid batteries seem to be gone. I've had good and bad from nearly all makes lately.

Originally Posted by freeisforme

I think I pretty much eliminated the truck as being the issue here this weekend. I borrowed a 20' long 6 ton trailer and took a 500 mile round trip across PA to pick up a tractor and I didn't feel so much as a jiggle out of the that trailer at any speed. I ran full highway speeds the whole way.
Its got to be an issue with the trailer. The tires on that trailer can't be balanced since they have no centers, (low boy wheels), and not a single tire is perfectly round, nor were the last set. When you tighten the clamps, you go mainly for getting all the bolts even so the tire don't wobble, there's not much you can do about lateral runout in the tires. The tires on it now are name brand 7x14.5LT, I tried balancing them with their matching hubs attached but I don't feel any difference. I even tried moving the tires around to different positions but it made no difference.
Turning a corner definitely makes a difference, I drove 20 miles with out any bouncing on Sunday, after I made the first turn, it bounced like crazy, then two more turns, and it was gone. I'm starting to think that at certain times all the wheels get lined up just right so they all are off balance in the same direction of all the high spots all line up or something to that effect. When its not doing it, nothing will start it up other than making a turn. The tires are high pressure 14 ply trailer tires. The wear pattern is good, there's no uneven wear, but they are wearing fast. They were new last summer but they're probably half way worn down already in only a few thousand miles.
They also crown a lot when inflated, they look over inflated at only 35 psi, yet they're marked 120 psi max.

Originally Posted by freeisforme

Let me start out by saying that the truck with the issues has only 1100 miles on it. It was bought by my former employer who decided to sell the company and retire a month after getting me a new truck to drive. It took me three months but I was able to buy the F250 4x4 Diesel pickup for about half what it would have cost me new.

I own 10+ trailers, the main purpose of this truck is for towing. I've got a 30' travel trailer, a 14' enclosed toy hauler, a 32' 3 axle enclosed car trailer, a 24' enclosed car trailer that's used for swap meets, a 16' open center car trailer,
a 14' BriMar dump trailer, one open single axle utility trailer, a 24' boat on a trailer, a 16' aluminum boat, and two equipment trailers, one is a year old Cam Superliner Warrior with optional steel deck, and the other a mid deck flat bed which was sold by a local farm supply about 40 years ago, most likely locally built.

Now to the issue, the truck tows all but two of the trailers without any issues, I've had the 32' enclosed trailer loaded to the ceiling with all my tools when I moved here in the spring, I was surprised the truck hauled it so effortlessly. I've towed the 24' enclosed all over the country with this and my old F150. It wasn't ideal but I made do with the F150 for many years.

Now the problem is with the two mid deck equipment trailers. Both trailers buck violently at 30 and 50 mph. If I accelerate hard, I can get up to highway speed without the issue but if I drive normal, it starts to buck violently around 29 mph and gets severe by 34 mph. The bucking stops for a bit and begins again at 50 mph to 61 mph.

It doesn't do any of this with any of my other trailer or any of my friends trailers I've pulled. The odd thing is that my old truck pulled both these trailers fine, as does my buddies 1997 F350, and another buddies 1992 F250 with a six cylinder.

I tried a few things to isolate the problem, first off was to set a fish tank full of water on the front of the trailer where I could watch it, and glass jar with water taped to the top rear of the bed rail.
When the bucking starts, the tank on the trailer is not sloshing around at all, the trailer apparently isn't feeling the bucking, the jars of water on the rear rails are moving around but not that much. Now if I put a jar of water on the drivers floor, its being shaken violently when the bucking starts.
Those riding next to me don't notice anything at all.

I've tried raising and lowering the ball, I've got two adjustable ball mounts, a load eq hitch, and one of those three way ball mounts.
The best results seem to be with the trailer slightly high in the front with a ball mount that puts the ball even with the bottom of the hitch tube about 18.25 " off the ground.

I took the whole rig to a trailer dealer, and to the Ford dealer, the dealer says its the trailer, the trailer people say its the truck or the hitch, so I let them put a brand new Putnum hitch and ball mount on it. The Ford dealer changed all four shocks, the rear springs, rotated the tires, replaced the driveshaft, and serviced the transmission, but nothing has changed.
I can't see how it can be either, the truck doesn't do it with any other trailers and the trailers don't act up on any other of my or my buddies trucks. I pulled the Cam Warrior equipment trailer home with my 1992 302 Bronco when I bought it, almost 400 miles one way and it towed great, I get the F250 to pull it and I can't make it around the block without it pounding the teeth out of my head.
A few times it got to bucking at higher speed, I was cruising about 65 mph with a light load on the trailer and it started up at that speed, it was so violent that it felt like I was being tossed up and down in the seat.
Adding a LOT of tongue weight helps. I had two bundles of 12' 4x4's on the trailer sitting stacked at the front of the trailer this morning and it barely bucked or bounced at all.
The sensation that I feel is like when a novice driver lets the clutch out too fast, (but my truck is an automatic). I feel it in the seat. It does it both accelerating and when coasting or braking. Pulling the light equipment trailer was the main reason for me wanting the heavier truck.
I can pull the extremely heavy camper with no issues, I can pull any other trailers but these tow with no problems.
Using the load equalizing hitch makes the issue ten times worse, the bucking is so bad I have to slow down and pull over and take off again harder to prevent it.
One thing that really has everyone stumped is that if I pull away fast, pedal to the floor, it doesn't buck, and it won't buck on decel that time, if I take off normal, it bucks around 30, and again around 50. If I take it up to 60, then let it coast back down, it'll buck again while slowing down at those speeds. Running with the hitch set too high is better than having the hitch level. I went down to a local trailer dealer, that doesn't sell these trailers and let them drive it, they told me the trailer was off balance? If that's the case, why doesn't any other truck buck with it? Even a few with the same 148 wb.
My neighbor has a 2002 7.3l auto 4x4, same configuration as my 2016, and that truck pulls either of these trailers fine at almost any hitch height.
The truck is like new, never been hit, never been modified other than the new hitch now. Its been in my possession since it left the dealer last December. It sat from April to mid July of this year while the owner of the company took his time coming up with a price and the title. I think it was a matter of him making sure the truck was paid off before he could sell it to me, either way, it means I finally have a diesel truck to tow with.
If it acted this way on all my trailers or if my old truck or any other truck did the same thing, I'd understand but its an issue with this truck and these two trailers. Neither trailer is all that heavy, at least nothing that should strain this truck.

I'm open to suggestions here, what on earth could make this truck and these two trailers such a bad combination?
Any ideas?

Originally Posted by freeisforme

I had a super clean garage kept '95 Bronco for sale with under 50K on it and no rust, It belonged to my uncle who passed away. I put it up for $2500 on CL with 10 good pics and got no serious offers. I finally gave up and it finally sold by word of mouth a year later. I'd have kept it but I wasn't too fond of the 11 mpg it got. (5.8L E4OD).

Originally Posted by 6.0L

I had a Bronco years ago with an E4OD....

Originally Posted by 6.0L

I have no clue who 03diesel is,

Originally Posted by 6.0L

There's no way my address and some guy in NJ can be the same.

Originally Posted by TooManyToys.

Damn .....