Clifford the Big Red Truck, an F150 Story

[navin]

fwiw - American Truck and Trailer does "Vortex" spray in bed liners, not sure about the cost. It's what I have on my truck and it's held up great. If you want to support NASA racers, Mike (american flag wrapped Integra) shop in Fredricksburg does Vortex lining as well (did mine).

[Jake]

fwiw - American Truck and Trailer does "Vortex" spray in bed liners, not sure about the cost. It's what I have on my truck and it's held up great. If you want to support NASA racers, Mike (american flag wrapped Integra) shop in Fredricksburg does Vortex lining as well (did mine).

I messaged Mike this morning actually! Will see what he says, I'd be fine heading down to Fredericksburg for part of a Saturday and supporting his business vs. having someone else do it.

[Jake]

Alright, Mike will be doing my bedliner after VIR thanks to NASA pricing. Always love to help a fellow racer's business.

Still enjoy everything about this truck. Some observations so far (now with a whopping... 330 miles?):

The 10-speed is busy but you don't notice it, it skips gears and generally does its own thing. I can select gears manually but there are so many to choose from, my general thought is "well, why bother." There are several drive modes - normal, eco, sport, tow/haul, and I think some "off road" mode. I have no idea why you would want Eco (there's nothing eco about this truck) or Sport (it's... a truck) but Tow/Haul is good to have.

Ford pipes in engine noise on the EcoBoost trucks but the V8 is just pure grumbly freedom sounds. I like it.

With an un-broken-in engine, the dash reports my mixed driving - including Beltway traffic every day - is achieving almost 16 mpg. That's wild.

The Adaptive Cruise and Lane Keep features are really killer. I can seriously drive to work on the Beltway and touch the pedals about four times. You have to actually steer the truck but it requires very little effort and does help out a bit. I have managed to active the "emergency braking assist" twice now, once because it thought DC traffic was an actual threat to my well-being, and once because someone cut me off and I guess my reaction time was a hair slower than it preferred. So far it has just beeped loudly and blinked a red light at me, but I think if I ignore those, it will stand on the brakes. I can turn the system off for driving in cities where being inches off someone's bumper is "normal" so I'll probably do that in DC.

Remote Start is super cool and works from pretty far away. Definitely worth using as it will set the climate control and heated/cooled seat, heated wheel to the right settings based on outside temperature.

The B&O sound system is pretty good and worlds better than the older "premium" Sony system. I had Sony on my FoST and the "base" setup on my 2011 FX4. This is much, much better. The Range Rover was better, I think due to the acoustics and cabin shape, but B&O is worth the upgrade in this truck. CarPlay is neat, but I don't like it in general. It also tried taking me down a closed road in DC on Monday afternoon - a road that both the Ford nav and Google both knew was closed. So, I'm going to just use Sync 3 - which is a totally fine interface with great voice command support.

Auto Stop/Start is less bad compared to others I've driven (that LR Discovery Sport was really bad) but can still get annoying. if you learn to anticipate the delay in "off brake, engine running, go" then it's fine. It's something I'll disable in cities but for more suburban driving, it's fine.

I used the parallel parking feature last night in Arlington and holy jeez it's good. You push the button to activate it and it looks for a spot. I was on Wilson Boulevard but at a point where it gently curves to the left where you can park. It found a spot and I stopped, put it in Reverse, and modulated the brake pedal. And this is how well it parked:



So yeah, technology is really amazing. I'm excited to take it to VIR in two weeks and see how it tows all loaded up.

There is a tool called Forscan, which uses a Bluetooth OBD-II reader and some Windows-based software to change parameters on the truck, much like VAGCom in the VW/Audi world. I'm going to read up and see what I can change to match my preferences. The software is free with a very well-written guide on how to use it.

Onward. It does fit in very tight parking decks with (some) ease:

[WRXtranceformed]

Did anyone else read "Foreskin" right there? Hurhur

Loving it man, owning a truck is really awesome. Glad to see you making it work in an urban environment. One of my brother's buddies bought a massive King Ranch F150 and ended up trading it in because it stuck out from the parking spot in their apt. complex's garage like half a normal car length

[Jake]

Loving it man, owning a truck is really awesome.  Glad to see you making it work in an urban environment.  One of my brother's buddies bought a massive King Ranch F150 and ended up trading it in because it stuck out from the parking spot in their apt. complex's garage like half a normal car length

My lease runs up in September and I will be determining where in Arlington/DC I live based on the height of their parking garages and length of their parking spaces. Ideally the apartment would be not-a-shithole too. We'll see.

[GTBrandon]

Question, this being a lease, how concerned are you for the break in period?

Also maybe it’s just me but your pics aren’t showing

[Jake]

Question, this being a lease, how concerned are you for the break in period?

Also maybe it’s just me but your pics aren’t showing

It's an easy break-in, Ford says to vary engine speed and road speed for like 500 miles or so and that's it. I still take care of my shit, so I will follow the process that the many engineers decided was best for the vehicle they designed.

Pics are all on Imgur, sorry your internet sucks.

[Senor_Taylor]

Get a house already. Jeez.

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[GTBrandon]

Yeah it was my internet, but damn if that isn’t close to the curb, how long does it take versus you parking yourself?

[Jake]

Yeah it was my internet, but damn if that isn’t close to the curb, how long does it take versus you parking yourself?

That's about how close I can parallel park a car myself - it is actually pretty quick although I'm still learning how fast it can identify a spot. You have to be driving fairly slow for it to get a read on the spacing. Should work okay for DC though, unless I'm trying to park on a main road in rush hour.

[JPolen01]

That parking job is impressive. At this point in technology, there is no way a manufacturer is going to sell a vehicle that needs any kind of break in other than normal driving. You think non-car people give a shit about a break in period?

[Jake]

That parking job is impressive. At this point in technology, there is no way a manufacturer is going to sell a vehicle that needs any kind of break in other than normal driving. You think non-car people give a shit about a break in period?

They do say to avoid towing for the first 1,000 miles and apparently that's so the ring gear in the diff can break in/seat or something? Kinda blew it there given I towed my trailer off their lot with 95 miles on the odometer. Should have 600 miles or so before VIR at least.

Hell, Taylor is a car people and openly admitted that he doesn't care about break-in. I think OEMs have to expect that, and the materials used nowadays are certainly more advanced than those in the 70s/80s.

[Senor_Taylor]

I've been full send with the GTI since 30 miles. I've attempted to modulate RPMs and not go above 5 grand more than once or twice when I drive it, but it'll be at Dominion with less than 800 miles so we'll see. She's definitely seen full boost and hard shifts.

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[Apoc]

Like break in periods matter with anyone on the message board. We never keep cars long enough.

[Deceus]

Ring/Diff break-in is mostly about heat cycles I believe. They produce a lot more heat until things are worn together properly. It's probably fine as long as you don't/didn't run it too hard for too long.

[Jake]

Mileage: 500

I got the trailer brake controller all set up at the dealership on Saturday. The truck has every option on it but didn't have the $100 integrated brake controller. Why that is a separate option from the "Max Tow" package, I don't know. Anyway, it's installed and working now, at a cost of $0 to me.

After the install, I went to the trailer lot to set up the truck and trailer together. My original goal was to get the M3 in the trailer for an easy exit down 95 on Thursday, but with water in the cooling system and a few 20-something-degree nights anticipated this week, I figured the garage was a warmer, safer option. Regardless, got the trailer set up.

This is the view backing up:



The camera is aimed perfectly at the hitch, and the 360° view also shows the trailer as you approach it. Once I got the trailer hooked up, I went through the setup of Ford's two killer features - Trailer Blind Spot Monitoring and Pro Trailer Backup Assist.

Trailer Blind Spot Monitoring
This is pretty simple, sensors in the truck's taillights work for not only truck BLIS but trailer BLIS as well. When you configure a new trailer in the dash computer, you input the trailer's overall length and select if you want BLIS enabled or not. It supports trailers up to 33' overall, and mine is about 26'. It worked eerily well on my brief test drive up I-95.

Pro Trailer Backup Assist
I'm a real man, I can park a trailer on my own. I also like technology so I couldn't resist setting this up since, after all, I paid for it.

You basically stick a sticker on one of the trailer frame "arms" and take some measurements. Ford includes a little card to help you walk through the steps, then the dashboard walks you through the rest. You measure:



After that, you enter the details in the dash computer and confirm the sticker's placement on the main navigation screen - it shows where it thinks it is with a red circle. Once those are set up, you can just push the "Backup Assist" knob and it will have you confirm which trailer is hooked up. From there, you turn the knob the direction that you want the trailer to go and modulate the brake/throttle. If you let go of the knob after setting the trajectory, it will wiggle the truck around to straighten the rig out.

In my trials in the trailer lot, it worked pretty well, although I need to more practice after three or so years of backing up a trailer traditionally. I may still do that, but it's cool to have this option as well.

My trailer's battery was totally dead - I believe the Range Rover never sent +12V through the trailer plug, which meant every use of the winch and trailer jack drained things more and more. I met up with Tom when he picked up his intercooler and we pulled the trailer battery to recharge via jumper cables. All was well after that, and Ford definitely sends power through the plug, so I shouldn't face issues moving forward.

Off to VIR on Thursday!

Oh, also, I'm on a new project for work and their parking garage has 6'8" clearance. The truck fits but anything shorter and I may be SOL. Good to know.

[Scott]

My trailer's battery was totally dead - I believe the Range Rover never sent +12V through the trailer plug, which meant every use of the winch and trailer jack drained things more and more. I met up with Tom when he picked up his intercooler and we pulled the trailer battery to recharge via jumper cables. All was well after that, and Ford definitely sends power through the plug, so I shouldn't face issues moving forward.

Do some reasearch on your truck as well as your trailer's wiring.  Depending on how everything is connected, it's common that 12v isn't sent through the trailer plug unless the tow vehicles lights are on.

[Jake]

My trailer's battery was totally dead - I believe the Range Rover never sent +12V through the trailer plug, which meant every use of the winch and trailer jack drained things more and more. I met up with Tom when he picked up his intercooler and we pulled the trailer battery to recharge via jumper cables. All was well after that, and Ford definitely sends power through the plug, so I shouldn't face issues moving forward.

Do some reasearch on your truck as well as your trailer's wiring.  Depending on how everything is connected, it's common that 12v isn't sent through the trailer plug unless the tow vehicles lights are on.

I only tow with my lights on, but Ford confirms in the manual that 12V is sent once the truck recognizes the trailer is hooked up (confirmed in the dashboard screen when you plug in).

[Ryan T]

Damn I want a new truck now   Fancy backing up toys, fancy "it tells you when the trailer is plugged up", fancy it parks itself feature. You know what I got? A tow/haul button.

[Jake]

Damn I want a new truck now   Fancy backing up toys, fancy "it tells you when the trailer is plugged up", fancy it parks itself feature. You know what I got? A tow/haul button.

I mean, my 2011 also knew how to say "Trailer Connected" and "Trailer Disconnected" - it basically does it if the circuit to the brake lights is completed. It was super helpful to show me that the wiring on the old trailer was going bad - the dash got stuck in a loop of Connected/Disconnected, so I knew something was wrong.

The 2018 has another feature on the dash screen to show if all of the trailer lights are functional, I guess to let you know if a bulb is out. Need to read up on how it alerts you though. 

I still have the Tow/Haul selection for shift points and engine braking, which seems to operate the same as the 2011 did. It's now part of a "Drive Mode" selection which also includes Eco and Sport, of which this truck is neither.