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Sure looked pretty at my place the morning after the dusting.

We drove e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.... really EVERYTHING before choosing the F-150. The silverado was by far the most comfortable. Even over the large SUV's like the Tahoe and Suburban. In the end the choice came down to the F-150 and the Silverado. We went Ford because of the pro backup assist. Things I like about the F-150: Power (ecoboost engine), pretty comfortable, looks, Pro back up assist and the gas mileage (avg 12 mpg with premium) Things I am not so thrilled about: trans is not as smooth as others - have had issues with the sync screen - and the dreaded trailer disconnect message (but the Towready fixed that so no more bells ringing) I too am not thrilled about the square look of the Chevy, but when you drive the damn thing you have to admit it is a solid tow vehicle. Reed, Best of Luck with it. Travel safe and thanks for all your posts and knowledge. Scotty

I chose this area (Western North Carolina) of the country to live in for many reasons. One of those reasons was that it had all four of the seasons - Spring - Summer - Fall - Winter. However, during the summer the high temperature rarely hits 90 and if it does, when the sun goes over the mountain it cools right back down to something more tolerable. And, in the Winter, the little town I live in has an average annual snowfall of between 6 and 7 inches total. The day before yesterday the weather forecast was for temperatures to be in the low to mid 30's (average for this time of year is low 50's) and for 1 to 2 inches of snow that would not stick to the roads. Well, now it is about 30 hours later, it is STILL snowing and there is 7 to 9 inches on the ground! Sure is pretty though. Bill

MY Tacoma has produced flawlessly for 235,ooo miles and still runs like a Swiss watch after towing The Wonder Egg for 112,000 miles. Since I tend to travel to far away places, I did not want to roll the dice much longer and potentially be stranded in the wilderness, so I though I'd retire my good steed and purchase a newer one. I chose the 5.0L V8 F150 for its potential longevity. I was not too sure about the F150 turbo boosted engines for extended mileage or the 3.5L engines found int the newer Tacos.

There seemed to be a fair amount of discussion on another thread (tailgate clearance) about truck bed covers, truck bed lighting and truck bed liners. So, I thought that I'd start a new thread to cover this type of thing. I too thought a long time about a topper (shell) or a tonneau cover for my new F-150. I decided on the tonneau because: I liked the look better, I didn't need a shell for storage (however, as Reed mentions, it would have been nice for those rainy times both setting up and fishing to be able to stand under the rear "door/hatch"), a shell would need to be removed when I hauled my motorcycle or anything taller than the shell, a shell is harder to see through both when towing and when not, and, generally a shell is more expensive. I wanted a "hard" tonneau cover because I felt that it would be more durable than the fabric ones and would look better too. Also, I could put or lay things on it without worrying they would make it sag or poke a hole in it. However, I didn't want one of the solid (one piece) tonneaus because it would have to be removed in order to haul my motorcycle or get a load of mulch or ... Most (if not all) of the tonneaus that I looked at required you to open the tailgate of the truck in order to close the cover, but, I found Bak-flip that had a model not requiring this - the Bak-Flip MX4 - Besides the tailgate feature, this model allows me to be able to haul the motorcycle or a load of mulch without having to remove the cover - just fold it up to whatever is necessary. And this folding can be done from either inside or outside the truck bed. Unfortunately, these things are not inexpensive - $750 - $900 depending on size and where you buy it. I also bought some rubber gasket material to help seal around the sides and bottom of the tailgate of the truck. This helps keep both moisture and dust out of the rear of the bed. Like Try2Relax, I bought a knock-off brand of Bedrug just to put on the floor. This allows me the ability to easily remove it if I want to haul that load of mulch. Also, it is much easier on the knees, helps pad the things I put in the bed and slightly reduces the amount that these things slide around. Finally, just yesterday, I added some additional LED lighting. The Ford comes with two LED lights near the tailgate of the truck. But with things loaded in the bed, dark nights, and/or the cover in the down position, it was difficult to easily see where things were up near the cab. So, I got "truck bed lighting" at WalMart (about $20) and installed it along each rail. This is a big improvement. If anyone is interested in doing this - just drop me a PM and I'll describe how I did it. Bill

After seeing that many of you have or had a 1500, and after a ton of research, I opted out of buying the 2500 Duramax because I felt that I didn't need it. Then people started coming out on here and saying that they have sold their 1500's and moved up to the Duramax, which I had thought about for a long time. This is my 5th Chevy truck in the last 40years and in that time I also have had 3 Ford's of various sizes, and still I did a ton of research. As far as high altitude overheating, I had no problem going over the sumits into Flagstaff, Az that top out at 7300', but I did test the trucks fuel to see if anything has changed in the last 50 years... or 49 being that my 1st Chevy was a well used 68 that a friend owned before me. I did notice that running regular fuel over the summits is still a questionable choice. Years ago with my 76 Chevy 1500Crew Cab, I found out that running higher octane really made a difference and that I could get up to 14mpg by using Octane boost on long hauls, over the 8 or so mpg that I would usually get. Now a days, the 76, known as Big Red has been our primary snow plow for the past 30 years and still runs great. A few days ago, I filled up with regular again, while knowing that we were going to be driving thru the valley and then I put in one last tank full of 87octane to go over the 4500' Oregon/California Siskiyou Summit and it was simply, OK. It made it over but the temp did creep up just a little from normal and my transmission went up from 178° to 196° and the power was simply OK, not great, but still more then enough. Basically the 5.3 litre feels like a standard 350 and tows just fine. Knowing that we were heading up over 7000', I switched over to premium 92octane, like I've been doing forever and had no problems at all accelerating and keeping it around 65, while going over the Flagstaff summit. The speed limit on that section is 75mph and we had a severe head wind and I have noticed that the gas milage really drops when you get over 65 and you can really feel the force in the cab that's being created at higher speeds with the Ollie in tow, neither of which are that aerodynamically designed to drive at that speed. Most of the time I kept it around 65 going over the summit but I did take it up to 75mph and watched my milage drop from around 7.2mpg, going up at 65 to 4.2 when climbing at 75mph. Still though my 50 mile average stayed around 7.2 mpg over the summit. Then on normal flat ground, I'm getting around 13.2 when towing at 60mph in California, which is a far cry from the 19.4mpg that our Mercedes would average... but that's a different story. So all in all, I'm real happy with my choice of truck and just like my friend Mark, who has the Duramax, we both slowed way down going over the summit with the 25mph headwind holding us back :) Running Premium 92 Octane makes a huge difference in the performance of the 1500 Chevy trucks. And if you know beforehand that you will be crossing over a high altitude summit, switching from regular to premium really makes a difference in both power and mpg. So if you own the 1500 and feel like it's dogging over the summits while towing your Ollie,make sure that you switch over to premium for at least that day. Most of the time, when not towing, I just run regular, but they do make Premium Grade Gasoline's for a reason... and that reason is better performance under certain circumstances. Reed

That is funny since I just upsized to 33 inch Nokian LT Load E snow tires (+2 inches) and bought a single Ridge Grappler in the same diameter which is hanging under the truck as a spare. In spring I will buy three more and use a Nokian for a spare. I bought an extra set of reconditioned factory wheels, so they match. I haven’t driven on Ridge Grapplers but they are very highly rated, quiet, and probably the best “hybrid” AT/ Mud tire on the market. The tire sales guy told me he loves them and runs a set on his own truck. That is always good news. Don’t run those high pressures on your truck when empty, it is not needed and will give a harsh ride when not towing. I am running 42psi in my Nokians with a 5400 pound 200 LC. Ihaven’t felt the need to go higher when towing with a WD hitch, but I certainly would raise the rears with a dead weight tow. [attachment file=81025] John Davies Spokane WA

Malcolm M. here. We are in E-6 for the record. Thanks for your work on this.

Bill, I guess it's just preference cause to me it looks like great clearance for wheel travel offroad and was a practical selling point for the type of driving that I do. I'd never thought about it before and I like the different look of the whole thing, while knowing that I won't be even close to scraping fenders off-road. John, I would do some research, I can't see why you couldn't run high octane and many cars require it for best performance as you know. Because if your at 10,000' high octane is the way to go for power. The first time that I actually added Octane Boost to my tank, I took it up to around 105 octane and I could really feel the difference, it was flat out incredible. I was moving my sister from Los Angeles back to Auburn, Cal. Either way, it was expensive but the additive was well worth it because the milage increase along with the power increase made the summit a breeze. It came with Good Year A/T's that to me, had a tread pattern for streets and they proved themselves to be worthless off of the pavement when they started spinning in my driveway, forcing me to switch to 4wd to keep from tearing it up. So my son works for Wheel Pro's and recommended the Nitto Ridge Grapplers for towing and I love them. The A/T's took 32psi and I have 50 in the front and 60psi in the back with the Ridge Grapplers. They stick to the road a lot better and have an aggressive enough tread pattern to retain decent milage, while still giving me good all around offroad performance... I can back up in my driveway in 2wd again... Lol. Before - Too much Chrome for me... After - This is my first set of Ridge Grapplers and I trust our son, he knows his tires and the places that I need to be able to get into off-road :) Dave, I carry an extra 5gallons for the generator, but its dual purpose. You can get a 34 gallon tank but with all of the gear, 26 works fine for me. I don't let myself get caught short and these days, there's gas stations everywhere and we haven't had a problem even taking it down to almost empty. The nice thing about the new trucks is that they tell you how many miles you have left to go before needing a fill up. I think of back in the day, when you had a standard 15 gallon tank... I'm averaging 13.2mpg towing under normal flat conditions in the valleys on the freeway, so the milage is good enough. We will be off-road today here in Sedona, Az having some fun down here in the sun :) Reed

We opted out of the microwave and am sure glad we did. The resulting cabinet has been an incredibly useful and much needed pantry for storing all kinds of stuff we use on a daily basis. In the Elite, there is just not a lot of storage, and this cabinet has really been useful. The interior dimensions are: 21-1/2"wide x 14" deep x 13" tall. The actual opening is a bit smaller because of the face frame and the door itself. That opening is 19-1/4 wide x 11" tall. Dave

Reed, my Land Cruiser specifies 87 at all times. I haven’t tried a higher grade, but I do really like the way it runs with ethynol free 87. It is smoother and noticebly peppier. Maverik stations typically have it for 20 cents more. After reading your post I may try a higher octane at higher altitudes (87 instead of 85). Did you install LT tires or does it come with those? The ten ply tires are stiffer and your ride will suffer a little, but stability while towing on curvey roads and emergency maneuvers is greatly improved. Plus you won’t worry about sidewall slashes on gravel roads. John Davies Spokane WA

Another refer question. I can not find in the provided literature about when one should operate the refer fan. When does it need to be on or off? Thanks, George