My new tow rig...

Lucky Jeff · May 14, 2014

But when someones BB fails, he can still tow his trailer, your truck and your trailer at the same speed

skinny_pedal · May 14, 2014

Lucky Jeff said:
But when someones BB fails, he can still tow his trailer, your truck and your trailer at the same speed

Dream on. My names not Jeff:flipoff:

Lucky Jeff · May 15, 2014

skinny_pedal said:
Dream on. My names not Jeff:flipoff:

That's why I said "fails" instead of "owner got bored and tore it apart" :kiss:

hlb3 · Jun 1, 2014

Towed with her for the first time today, went out to Elbe. So much nicer than towing with the old F250. You could barely tell the trailer was back there. The exhaust brake was really nice coming down off the steeper hills.

Had to go get a 6" drop hitch for it yesterday. The hitch is only like 2" higher than the old truck, so I thought I could probably get away with the old 2" drop hitch, but when I loaded the Land Cruiser on the trailer, the truck only dropped like 3/8", the old one would drop 2"+. I'm probably going to end up having to drop some money on a nice adjustable drop hitch eventually, but this should work for now.

CarnationSensation · Jun 4, 2014

If you ever replace your clutch, replace the weak factory clutch fork. Coming home on Monday mine decided to fail so i could not get it into gear. Ford has made an upgraded one and no longer sell the one that came with the rig. There is more bracing on the newer version. Luckily i was stopping by my parents house and was able to limp it there and had a buddy bring me a trailer.

Best part of the whole ordeal was being able to borrow my dad's truck. My god it is comfy and tows so nice!

hlb3 · Jun 4, 2014

That sucks! That is a pretty flimsy looking piece they had in there.

Mine is an automatic, so I've got a whole other set of problems I'll have to deal with. :redneck:

hlb3 · Jul 3, 2014

Well the she was just begging for something heavy to tow, so we went and found her a new friend. So if everything goes right, we will be finalizing everything and picking it up on Monday.

It's a 32' Fleetwood Pride. We were not looking for something quite this large. Originally we were thinking of something in the 28' range, but this one pretty much everything I was looking for: a slide out in the bedroom, a full size shower, and a rear lounge area.

It is laid out to where you can easily walk through and use all of the kitchen with the main slide in, the only thing that isn't accessible with the side it is the TV, but that is no big deal.

It has TONS of storage, which will be very nice. The main frame rails are steel, the rest of it is all aluminum frame. It has a 1-piece rubber roof which is also something I was looking for.

nick c · Jul 3, 2014

That's quite the trailer. No place for Rusty though. Get your CDL and pull doubles.

hlb3 · Jul 7, 2014

Brought her home today, she tows great! Can't wait to take her out.

nick c · Jul 8, 2014

That picture looks like a retiree's set up. You need to de-granpa that truck. Ditch those running boards to start.

hlb3 · Jul 8, 2014

Ehh, I have no problem with it. The running boards are functional, that's all that matters to me.

hlb3 · Jul 8, 2014

Also the running boards on the bed are actually molded into the bed, so they can't be removed.

WA-Wheeler · Jul 8, 2014

nick c said:
That picture looks like a retiree's set up. You need to de-granpa that truck. Ditch those running boards to start.

What?!? No way!! Running boards are so nice. No leg lifting to get in....

Fordzuki · Jul 9, 2014

That's the first thing I was going to do when I bought my truck, was ditch the runningboards, but they are handy to have. I hate the look of them, but they'll do till I can build some better looking ones.

hlb3 · Jul 18, 2014

Taking it out for the first time this weekend!

hlb3 · Jul 20, 2014

Since diesel is down to $3.71 at the Chevron by Great Wolf and I was down around half in truck I decided to fop it off (which ended up being about 40 gallons). So the first time I checked mileage on the truck doing nothing but driving it to town and back I got 11.3mpg. This time I had 431 miles on the tank, 120 of those were taking the Cruiser out to Elbe and about 100 miles of towing the 5th wheel, the rest was driving to town and back. I got 11.0 on this tank. I had read before I got the truck that most people with the F550s setup like mine didn't notice much change in mileage if they were towing 10k or less, so I'm glad to see that is holding pretty true for me as well.

hlb3 · Aug 24, 2014

Finally got around to putting the new muffler on (BTM). It was a lot more of a PITA than I figured it would be, but I'm glad I put it on. The throttle response is a lot very than it was, it doesn't feel choked down like it was, plus it didn't really change the noise inside the cab at all.

I've decided against going the DIY intake route. After driving a nice quiet truck again for a while, I do not miss the loud intake from the old tow rig. So I'm going to pick up an AIS instead, looks like I can get one from Rock Auto for around $180.

hlb3 · Sep 11, 2014

Picked up an AIS. Did the DPP foam sleeve mod also.

Next on the list is a set of gauges.

hlb3 · Dec 6, 2014

Finally got some gauges in the truck. I went with a dash pod this time, the a-pillar pod got annoying in the old truck. I bought the paint based on the door code, I never noticed that there is like 3 different colors in the interior before, the paint I bought matches everything except the place where I mounted the pod, oh well it is close enough.

hlb3 · Dec 28, 2014

Finally have working power locks on the 550! Replaced Ford's crappy little resistor inside the actuator motor with a piece of cut up penny and it's good as new. Total cost was $0.02 compared to $200.00 for 4 new actuators.

I also installed a set of Jimmy Jammers in all the doors while I was at it.

The only mishap was putting the front passenger's side door back together then realizing I left my flashlight laying inside the bottom of the door...