Clifford the Big Red Truck, an F150 Story

[Jake]

So Ford sent me a mailer about a recall, something to do with... seatbelt pretensioners? I took it to Ted Britt Ford for that work and a TSB that they (finally!) issued about the early 10-speed transmission software requiring an update. I was given a Fusion Hybrid loaner car for a few days, which was devoid of any personality but fun to try and drive solely on the batteries, and picked the truck back up Thursday night.

The transmission shifts a million times better now. It's amazing the first tune even made it out of the factory, it was truly that bad at times. There is still a pronounced gear whine in 1st at slow speeds, but I have talked to a friend at Ford corporate who said it's a characteristic of the trans and Ford/GM worked together to try and eliminate it, but couldn't. Guessing it was a bit of a time crunch sort of thing. Maybe we'll get another TSB for that down the road.

Anyway, Ted Britt is fantastic and easy to deal with but someone hit the back bumper while it was in for service:



I spoke to the service manager and he asked me to bring it back in so they can fix it. He's planning to give me a loaner while they handle it.

Additionally, I ended up using the truck to tow Natalie's dad's old Ford that Dave bought for some inexplicable reason. Tyler and I picked it up Friday night and after I almost abandoned it on 66 East three times, I limped it to my place and messaged Dave, saying we needed to trailer it down. Fun fact! A UHaul auto trailer's deck is the length of a 1985 F150 short wheelbase truck, minus about half an inch. The rear tires fit, but baaaaarely. I put it in Park, strapped the front wheels down and threaded the hilariously small safety chains around the '85's axles. The huge bed cap really killed the aerodynamics of everything, so we stuck to about 60-65 mph and made it down in one piece.





So that's that, I'm all settled in Arlington now and not driving unless I leave town, which is just the best. I think I'll squeak the truck in right at the 15k mile cap for the year when we roll around to March, and the following two years will see maybe 8k a year, leaving me with plenty of excess mileage for some road trips.