Hi guys,

Name's Patrick Booker. I just aquired an '06 F-250 6.0 FX4 CC, SB, courtesy of Hurricane Katrina. My old 1/2 ton Dodge has been under 8 feet of water for a couple of weeks now, so it was necessary to get a new truck.

The Dodge was a good truck, but couldn't handle the bigger loads like tractors and large boats, so the 3/4 ton was in order. Gasoline was near impossible to get in LA after the storm, so diesel was a no brainer, the Dodges are butt-ugly and goofy feeling, Chevys,.. LOL ... Plus, after surviving that mess, I never want to be without 4wd again. It was because of my buddys 4x4 Tacoma that we were able to evacuate after the storm hit.

So I went and bought this truck. It's an XLT with 2 tone (white/tan) and tan cloth interior, auto. I am very impressed with the quality and feel of the truck. The back seat is enormous! On the road, it laps up the miles with ease. I've had it for neary 2 weeks, and have about 1200 miles on it. Fuel economy seems to be about 17 on the highway and 13 (or lower) in the city. Not that I'm one to complain about fuel economy. My Dodge got a steady 13 mpg, so I'm already beating it!

The only thing I am not sure of is the ESOF transfer case. I like to be able to control the T case with a stick, instead of relying on various relays and servos to do it for me. Hopefully they did their homework.

Other than that, I love it. It has great power, stops well, and rides better than any 3/4 ton I have been in, 2 or 4wd. The sound system is very good, for stock components.

I've been poring over magazines and websites getting ideas about what I want to do to it. First is tint front windows, ventvisors, Rhino liner, and some nice, OE-style fender flares. (Can I just go to Ford and buy these?) Later (much later) down the road I would like a leveling kit, followed by a nice (I like the Warn) front bumper. Then winch. Then tires... Then...

Well, glad to be here. I have been reading the FAQs and Tech stuff. Nice work! Already answered a few of my questions.

 

Congrats on your new rig and welcome to the ford family. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine. Glad to here you made it out of Katrina's harm.

 

Great to have you aboard, Patrick! You've come to the right place.

If you have any questions or just want to learn as much as you can about your truck, use the Search function - it's quite powerful, and there is such a wealth of info in past discussions to go back and browse through. Click it, and click advanced search. You can use CTRL + clicking the various forums on the left to narrow down the search, and use things like +, -, " etc. to help with it. For example, earlier I wanted to read about the carpet delete option in Superduties... I limited the search to the Super Duty and 6.0 forums, typed in "carpet delete," and presto!

PS - glad you made it through the hurricane okay. Where in LA are you from... and where are you now?

 

Thanks, guys.

I am active on a vintage BMW board as well, so I know good and well about the search function! Thanks for the tips, ryaneverk2, every board seems to have different search characteristics. I appreciate the heads-up.

I live(d) in New Orleans, in one part of the 80% that flooded. I haven't been to my house (rental) yet, but by my best analyzation of info, and eyewitness accounts, my house was at one point under at least 7 ft. of water. Kinda sucks.

Luckily, I wasn't in New Orleans for the storm. I have evacuated to my parents house about 30 miles north. It was still hell, because it was a heavily wooded area, and the trees (huge 100 year old pines) fell like matchsticks. Amazingly, only one small pine hit the house, and did minor damage. We had a huge detroit generator and plenty of diesel to last for a while, but a tree fell on it and poked a hole in the radiator.

We sawed on trees for a couple of days before a buddy of mine found us and took us away from there. I stayed in Louisiana for a couple more days, before me and my GF came up to Atlanta to live with her sister for a while. Should be at least another 2 weeks before I can go back and try to salvage anything.

Anyway, looking forward to learning, and helping when I can. Glad to be here.

 

Congrats and enjoy!

 

Glad you like your truck so far. I am sure over time you will just come to love it even more.

I had a Rhino liner in my old truck. It went for 8 years with 2 small dings and never had an ounce of problem. So I got Rhino in my mew truck. In the short time I have had my truck the Rhino has already chipped 3-4 places and leaves black marks on your pants when you sit on the tailgate. I would not get it again. If I could I'd have the Rhino scrubbed out and Linex put in. Who knows, maybe I just got a bad install... shrug.