Well she is one week old today and I managed to pull into the driveway with 501 miles on the clock. Fortunately I have a job that I love so the break-in period will be slow and deliberate.

First hundred I really took it easy. The Continental tires were very squirrelly but they seem to have firmed up a lot and now I don't have to "keep" her between the lines and can relax and actually light a smoke with both hand off. OK so now my opinion is, the Conti's are just ugly, but OK road tires. Looked into changing them out but $250 and up per tire aren’t going to happen until cords are showing.

I go to and from work via same route and this give me some insight about this truck vs. my 01 F250. My 01 always pulled slightly right. Had two re alignments and still did it. This one tracks straight as an arrow. On heavily crowned roads I can find the sweet spot and keep her from pulling hard left or right.

The TorqueShift takes some getting used to as I really am a hand shaker purest. I got this truck for TT towing long distances and into big towns clutching is a chore I no longer miss. You can just barely tell the shift points and the acceleration loaded or empty is impressive, smooth, and she pulls with strong authority. Under normal to hard starts she is up to 65-70 with out busting over 3000rpm and has the feel of acceleration you would imagine aground 4500-6000 in a V8.

I have the 4.30s and 70 mph is right at 2250rpm up about 200rpm from my 3.73s. I am very confident that a set of 33 or 35s will still pull strong and stay in the power band for towing hills. 37s may be a little tall for very steep mountains. I am sure this motor will still roll down the road just fine with them and perhaps the typical modest load of a beautiful boat, quad hauler, or hunters small travel trailer.

Gone is the anemic AC system, Ford incorporated a vacuum hot water valve. Gone also is the thump from the lower blend door that used to un-nerve us. I have not yet gotten the slip yoke to hang and bang and from underneath can see that it is moving in and out freely.

The Rancho shocks are weak, with a lot of "beat you to death" bad road harshness. I ran my hunting road once empty and once with about a ton of load (four adults and gear and TWO Harleys in the bed). One way, is16 miles of bad gravel county road. Over 20mph she was all over the place even with the load. Not sure if it is sucky shocks or the tires but she bucked and kicked like a deuce N a Half! The ride with a load on hardtop was excellent with a little harshness over Texas's typical "maintenance sections"

Hooked up the TT while bikes were in the back and made some TBC adjustment runs then out on the road (I live in what is called the "hill country" of Texas) Arizona, Utah, Colorado, California, and Oregon folks are allowed to laugh. You flatlanders up in Maine be quiet!

Gone is the 70 MPH cruise control hunting. You put this baby in tow/haul, set cruise for 70-75mph and she never gave me the harsh wheel grabbing downshift the 4R100 did. Very smooth, no fall off and strong all the way to the top of my 1300foot mountains. Now don't fall all over your selves, I know some good steep twisties 'round here and I am serious, she is a towing machine! My 200lbs, some camping gear, full 38 fuel, both bikes weigh 700 a piece and the TT is 24' @7900lbs wet. I was not near max GCVW but still a good load to break in some with. I put on most of the second 100 miles in this configuration.

Daily commute. 16 each way mixed hwy city hwy. Responsive, stops with ease, turns heads, I can hear the news and music at low volume. Power sliding rear window is too cool! I don't like the heated mirrors on all the time; dew and rainwater spot them bad.

OK OK OK!!! everybody doesn't want to read any more about how much I am impressed with this truck so here it is folks

If you NEED good fuel mileage this V10 and 4.30 set up may not be for you! Go get the loud noisy stinking oil burner!

I really have been babying this thing! I cannot get her over 10.1mpg computed. I even got to the top of one long hill and punched the reset to 0 then watched as she went over 17.8 before deciding to recompute when I had to add right foot down on the flats, within 2 miles she was back to 9.7-10.0.

BTW this computer is more accurate than my 01s and I have done the math twice and get about 10.078 calculated and computer says 10.1mpg average.

 

Great write up Sounds like a winner.

 

Sounds like a nice truck
As for the ride harshness, have you checked the air pressure in the tires? Sometimes from the factory they come with the pressures set to max and that's usually way too much.

 

I took my calibrated air gauge to the delivery and found the fronts about 60psi and rears at 75. I like to run near max even when empty so I set the fronts to 55 and rears to 65psi.

I know some of the harshness is tires and sidewall stiffness.

Another factor is I got the F350 with 4x4 and camper certification. They build the Trucks on a computer and select the spring packs based on wheel base, cabin configuration, engine, (PSD is heavier than V10), drive train (auto heavier than manual) and some other factors to get at the appropriate springs and deflection rates. Then the camper option adds one size higher rating to the springs.

I know that this truck is physically stiffer than my short bed, non camper cert, F250. I actually accepted that stiffness for my unloaded highway driving. I am disappointed with the loaded, bad road, suspension behavior. Since I don't know what shock valving might work best I may just end up with a set of adjustable shocks.

Any body know if there are still systems that have remote in the cab setting. I think a few years ago one of the brands had this feature but in the last 6 months I have not seen any mention here and in magizine adds. Seems like "reservoir" shocks are all the rage.

 

Very nice write ups. Has me thinking of doing something dumb and getting rid of my 01 for an 05

 

Rancho still makes their optional in-cab controlled, adjustable shock.