Clifford the Big Red Truck, an F150 Story

[Jake]

Mileage: 7,000 (Eep)

So I've managed to drive entirely too much, thanks to road trips to VIR, Ohio, Summit Point, and Harrisonburg. But, I'm inching closer to moving and I can't wait to drive less. Still love the truck. It's about due for its first oil change according to the dashboard monitor, so I'm dropping it off tomorrow at Jerry's Ford. While it's there, I'm going to have them look at the transmission - there are some oddities that I'd like to at least have on record. The transmission is a 10-speed developed jointly between Ford and GM (this explains a lot) - it gets pretty jerky around town as it tries to be in too tall of a gear for the speed. There's a whine in 1st when you're going through parking lots (forum sleuthing says it may be the torque converter). I think all of these 8/9/10 speed transmissions have a ways to go, but the good news is most of the weirdness can be fixed with updated programming.

If it's in Tow or Sport mode, it does really well and is far smarter about gear selection. "Normal" is the annoying one.

I've also had it say "Hood Ajar" a few times while driving, so I'm going to have the dealer look at whatever sensor monitors that. Otherwise, all is well.

I took it off-roading last weekend with some friends down in the Shenandoah Valley, between Peters Mill Run (super rocky, to the point of being annoying) and Flagpole Knob (muddy and fun). We had a really varied mix of cars and both trails were tame enough for everyone to have fun. The truck is wide though, so I didn't have the ability to "pick a line" like the smaller trucks. I kept the mirrors folded in the entire time. The Hankook all-terrains were great and I didn't worry much about punctures or lack of grip compared to a highway tire. I'll do a better write-up with more photos on my blog soon.