I have been reading around in the different boards here and one thing I am seeing is a slipping in the level of PM (preventative maintenance). I know I enjoy puttin' it to my truck in any offroad venue I can attempt, but when I am done its time to go back over the truck. IE change fluids if driving through water; repacking my wheel bearings, cleaning u-joints. Removing dirt from axle seals etc etc etc. I even take apart my leaf springs every 4 months and use marine grease. I know I can be the extreme end of the spectrum, but you know everyone who sees my truck in person is suprised to hear its a 95. I have video of jumping her, slamming her up rocks, pounding through mud and so on. And she still looks great. I even got my wife into it now and her '02 looks like we just bought yesterday. GOD I LOVE PM.

CJ

PS Please excuse my avtar, my truck has been lifted/modded more since then, however being in Afghanistan is limiting my updating abilities.

 

I'm a firm believer in P.M. too. Every Ford has Maintenance manual included with it. Mine are checked off and up to date. Anything extra is noted. Hear a lot of people tell me what a piece of junk their Vehicle is, I ask to see their Maintenance Manual, usually get the reply "what manual?" and then "Oh, I do that stuff anyway or that 'Stuff' is just a pain." Another thing I shake my head at is missing spare tires. Doesn't anyone crank them down 3 or 4 times a year and check the inflation along with the cable?

 

Sometimes the spare is long gone due to the cable rusting, and the first time they notice is when they need it.

I love it when I'm looking at a used car, and the seller has PM records. Shows that they cared enough to take care of their rig.

The factory PM schedule book is too restrictive - I can't list all the repairs in it to my liking. I print out a grid page on my computer to fill in the blanks (date, mileage, repair, cost, shop name).

 

Unfortunately, I'm one of the ones that lets pm's slip. Wife, two kids, house, yard, starting up a business etc. Time runs out, and I'm too cheap to hire some things out. I am going to get my wifes car caught up some next week though.

BTW speaking as a guy who had to write many PM manuals, there's no 'tat' in preventive.

 

I'm a in-between PMer. I don't go nuts but I take care of the essentials. I have 3 vehicles to maintain and definitely don't have the time to do everything...


Careful jumping that thing, you'll be fixing a cracked front crossmember if you're not careful. These trucks need some reinforcement for jumping.

 

I should do more PM on my truck but I'm just too dam lazy.

I do some maintenance, like oil changes and that stuff, but that's it.

It's not too bad looking for it's age.

It looks much better in the night when it's raining.

 

Lazy here I'm good for doing regular tune up stuff, but wheel bearings, brake linings, seals. . . I fix them when they need fixing. That usually lends me to start looking for something when it starts to make noise. And worse yet, i have really let my '87 slide down hill. . .too absorbed in my mini resto of the '78 I HAVE to get it out of the drive way, which should be any week now, then back to semi regular PM schedule

 

I used to be a detailer at the Local Ford dealer and one thing I noticed about cars traded in is that if they were clean when they were traded and then brought back to us they appeared to be in good mechanical shape.


I honestly believe that if a person takes the time to keep a vehicle clean inside and out they also notice things wrong and also take the time to do PM work.

My fiance is in training on this very matter right now. I always keep my truck clean (try to) and even though it is new I notice if somethign small is worng, ie: one time I noticed a 16 penny nail looking at me from my front tire while I was washing the truck.
Of course you always fill your washer fluid everytine you wash the truck, you notice if somethign is loose.

She can't figure out why I always insist on washing whatever vehicle we are taking whenever we go on a long trip (100 miles plus) or we are going somewhere for a few days. I do that so I notice things like a low tire, a nail in a tire, somethgin that may be loose or something.

On my huntig trips I always clean the truck the night before I leave, and clean it whenever I leave wherever I have gone (ie went to KY for a weekend trip, washed truck before I left IL, then before I left KY for IL then when I got back to IL truck got cleaned again.

I may be nuts but my truck is almost always clean and I rarely ever have had something go haywire while I am on a trip. Of course that coudl also be because I have alwasy had good trucks.

ALL FORDS!!!!

 

The problem with PM is that when you do it on a regular basis, the vehicle comes to expect it and therefore cannot go a decent interval without it. You wind up with a wimpy vehicle, totally dependant on you for every little thing.

My feeling is that if you ignore the regular PM, it learns to do without which toughens the vehicle up and eventually it can go longer stretches without it.

You don't want a wimpy truck, do you? So ignore the PM, your truck will thank you for it later! And after all, it IS a Ford...everybody knows they need no maintenance whatsoever! -TD

 

thats right tiger you go ahead and train your truck while mine is spoiled to geath, we'll see which ranger lasts longer

 

I'm an avid fan of PM, as well as a clean truck. I booked holidays for mid-August, and plan to start my winterization at that time(yes, winterization, already!)

I had just purchased the ol' girl (1981 F150 4x4) late last fall, and barely got time to give her a breif going over before snow and super cold weather hit. Since I do not have a garage to work inside of, everything has to be done outside, or farmed out. I'm not an avid fan of farming things out...always seem to get some hack who wants to jobber things together, and end up having to redo them.

I grease all steering parts and driveshafts once a month. Check oil/coolant/ps fluid, brake fluid/trans fluid once a day. While greasing, check diff's and t-case levels, as well as color of fluid. Change all at recommended intervals. Wheel bearings get re-packed once a year. I don't do a lot of off-road driving with this particular rig, but did with my previous truck, and it saw a thorough going over after every run, including wheel bearings if it saw any water at all. There is no substitution for a good PM schedule. You won't be left sitting on the side of the road waiting for a tow-truck if you develope this habit early on in the vehical's life.

My current rig is slowly catching up, as I purchased it from a guy who wasn't overly inclined to put much time into it.

 

The way I look at pm is you can either spend the money and time to do it now, or you can spend it with interest replacing parts or the vehicle later.

 

That would be known as breakdown maintenance. I know I had a hard time convincing my wife too, of the basics, keeping oil changed, air filters, tire pressure, brakes, transmission fluid service. But she really got an eye opener when we bought our first Harley. The list of cost for services that I did all myself at the house, she has been a firm believer ever since. I will change my own oil, transfer case fluid, and front and rear differential fluid, but will leave the Torqshift for the dealer. Brakes are not much of a problem either. With most of the autoparts stores loaning tools for free, or for a minimal cost, you can save yourself a bunch of money. As Birdhunter said, the more you are physically around your truck , the more things you tend to notice, usually way before they become a problem. One of the key reasons that all HD dealers wash customers bikes after service, is for the very reason he mentioned. A different set of eyes actually goes over the bike after service, and may pick up something missed by the tech that worked on it.

Ryan

 

FWIW - preventive and preventative are both acceptable terms, though preventive is easier to type. (Drill sergeants prefer preventative, because it allows an extra syllable for spit to fly while they yell in your face)

 

Ok, I'll accept that. Only in the English language could you take a word, chage it by adding two letters, and get the original word in the dictionary definition.