Fredsvt

I looked up the tires on tirerack.com, the Pirelli tires are up there, but there's a range of others in that size from $162. Not bad considering my '99 Lightning's tires are getting really rare and damn expensive. Trying to find non-Goodyear is the trick too. It's gonna be driven by someone who's fairly easy on things, but this person's going to have to learn to avoid potholes. Have they shipped yet? Itching to go comparison shopping on the choices.

The sport is the one that's being looked at. Damn, wanted to go out and see them this weekend, but I guess they're not at dealers yet. It looks like it comes with a lot more equipment that the other that its being compared to. And more power doesn't hurt either.

Wish you good luck at LR. At least a lot of their issues are out of warranty! And their customers usually spend money. They are a REAL odd bunch though. Get ready to do lots of head gaskets and blocks on the old motors and lots of coolant leaks and oil leaks on the BMW engines. Oh yeah, I forgot about the Jag V8s with their sludge and timing chain issues. Don't even go anywhere with their little V6 nightmare. You may think the diesels were easier to work on.

Hey now! Those at work enjoyed it. We need some commercials like that down here to shake things up a bit!

Here's one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVkWfNr_dDU

Sounds good. Thanks.

Hey everyone, Sorry if this is in the wrong place. Is the '11 Edge available yet, or when is it supposed to be? I've got a friend who's very interested in one. Thanks

Hi Keith I too think about similar things. I'm not "lucky" enough to have been able to stay with one employer for that long. But if anything happens I think I will 'run' and find something else to do. About the only thing I can see of as advancing in this field, would maybe to teach, if you could get into a local program that teaches up and coming students in a Ford program. I have no idea what they pay though, but the benefits would be excellent plus all the time off. After much other consideration, I missed the boat. The best thing I could have done was get into local or state gov't here in NJ right out of HS. Look at how you can advance into "management" but not really have to work, get paid 6 figures or more, and get to keep all your sick days, personal, comp time and vacation and cash them all in at your maximum pay. Along with the best benefits around. Then you could have retired at 20 years, taken a part time state/local job and double dip while adding onto your pension and accumulated time, all at your combined maximum pay.

We have several customers with older ones, a few V6s have puked cats after having failing coils. That gets really expensive, fast. We've got one customer with a 2004 limited V6, she's got 160k on it. Nothing except rear shocks early on. Otherwise just fluids and filters done every 30k or so and the plugs and boots at 100k. Brakes 130k all around. The Contis lasted 94k with only the tread wearing to the bars evenly across. I guess she was lucky.

Addams Family, the REAL original black and white tv show. I've got the whole series on dvd. Unedited Ren & Stimpy.

BTDT, those AFE twits seem to be nothing more than kids making junk. A customer with a duramax truck, programmed, un-filtered, and penile-extended w/26" low pros on a 4wd give us a spin on trans filter to put on his Allison. These filters have a magnet that's supposed to rest on the top of the filter, with the oil holes to the outside of the filter near the seal. The AFE filter has its holes where the magnet sits. Thus, blocking oil flow. They came back at us, with both their sales rep and their junkineers, "don't you know, we're advanced FLOW engineering" with a super condescending voice. We put the filter on as demanded, made the customer sign the RO where we stated the filter's oil flow was blocked. Wouldn't you know it, the trans blew about 3 days later.

I do anything to keep me away from working on vehicles unless they're family. I'm pretty lame though. Cycling, I try for at least 150 to 200 miles a week. Got 2 road bikes, just started using my carbon bike recently. Going out working in the yard. Somehow gardening has become quite calming. Never thought I'd be interested in it, but I have.

The actual managers of each division that handle the trucks are told when each vehicle is picked up what's been done and what the fmco wouldn't do. We do have open permission to use one of their company credit cards when big jobs are needed. Just a phone call to that particular division manager is only needed. Anything safety related we call the company, not the fmc. It just gets done. The fmc likes to micromanage things like doing oil pan jobs on 7.3s. We usually end up with an open ended PO until we're done with it. It's never just a rotted pan, up pipes, manifolds, broken bolts, clutches, ps lines, rotten fuel supply lines all add up way too fast. The last one was over $11k, with parts and labor due to all the rot. I've been working on this fleet since 1993, they used to have an in house guy do it all. He moved up in the company and the newish guy is a person who's completely ignorant about vehicles and is lazy. Now they pay $500/mo on each truck exclusive of the truck's monthly payment for the privilege of having someone else manage the maintenance or lack thereof.

Writing or printing anything is also a waste of time for this particular fleet. They use a fleet management company that is "paperless", everything is done over the phone or internet with NO details or comments allowed. The fleet management company won't allow us to service them as WE see they need. There's a "deal" between a purchasing manager at the fleets office, and the fleet management company. He gets bonuses based on how LITTLE he spends on vehicle maintenance. On F550s that are loaded to 18,900 lbs MINIMUM weight with autos, we are not allowed to ever change trans fluids/filters, rear fluids or transfer case fluids on 4x4s. We usually have to go over their heads and call the managers of the various departments that use the trucks and get their divisions credit card number to do any work needed that the management company won't pay for. What's even worse, is that they also dictate how much oil we put in the trucks, no more than 6 qts on ANY gas engine, and no more than 12 on diesels. We are constantly back charging the company for the correct fill levels.

Is there any way to give stern advice to a fleet that sometimes does or doesn't listen? This fleet has 6 6.4s right now, two trucks, driven by one division of the company don't idle them. Trucks are at ~27k miles and they show about 700 to 900 hours total. I warned them about the making oil when they got them and they listened. The other division has 2 utility trucks with inverters, they refuse to shut them down. One has 21k, 2200 hours, the other 18k with 2400 hours on it already. The oil comes out extremely thin, usually a gallon overfull on one, the other seems to use oil, it's full or low, but the oil is like water, even when cool/cold. I guess I could just let them blow, but I wouldn't wish these thing on anyone as the bodies on both can't come off.

Sorry, but, I'm gonna say it... Maybe those wheels should go with that "DP" tuner....

Ouch. I replaced a lower intake on a 5.4 (plastic) for the aluminum updated piece a while ago as part of having to replace a rotted out bypass tube. There was an 6mm tap sitting in the bottom of the plastic intake, it had been there for quite a while it seemed. The truck had nearly 200k on it. The second owner said his buddy, the former owner had to have a head pulled due to a blown plug several years prior. I guess it was in there that long.

Hi Brad I work in an indy shop, and we got a call from the Ford store we buy our parts from. They had 2 6.0s that supposedly needed head gaskets, and they wanted to farm them out. I asked details from the parts guy who was fishing for the service department. One was customer pay, and the other is warranty. They would pay us to do it. How exactly does that work? It sure seems odd that a dealer that's dead also, is farming out 6.0 work. They won't even touch 6.4s except for oil changes. They say they are diesel "certified". My boss in his idiocy turned them away.

Kind of goes to the actual price of the truck. For giggles I priced out a Lariat 250 4x4, 6.7, 3.31 locker, "ultimate" package and some options. just a tad over 60,000 msrp, monthly payment with no down or trade of 1100 per month. I think I'll buy another house first. NOT! OUCH!

It's easy enough to know if its chipped. Do a KOEO test, it should throw a P0605. Every truck that's run through the shop where I work, whether it had a physical chip or a "program" put into it has thrown that code. When I see it, I immediately ask to remove the chip or ask for the programmer to "deprogram" the PCM. I don't trust any data or codes from a modded PCM on a 7.3.

Has anyone been following GM's soon to be introduced Dexos oil specification? This will be factory fill on all 2011 models, Dexos 1 for gas, and Dexos 2 for diesel. They are licensing the approvals to oil makers at record fees. By 2012 GM wants the AVERAGE oil change to be at 20,000 miles, with 30k or more not unheard of. They are reprogramming their oil life monitor systems for this oil. Do you think anyone with one of these cars/trucks will ever bother with opening the hood with what the salesman will tell them when they buy it? I can see BYB changing his '11 or '12 GM with off the shelf, non approved oil, but still following the interval. Oops.. Btw, they do have sealed hoods, just ask my sister. Her last 3 cars, she had NEVER opened the hood herself for any reason. Her husband is just as bad.

Hi Keith, You should give these guys a call. http://www.repairguitar.com/meet_staff.htm Kyle is the co-owner and my brother-in-law. I think they can do just about anything you want on the guitar, or at least recommend someone to you who's able to refinish the guitar as you want.

You need to watch BBC World News and BBC WN America, then DW (Deutche Welle) TV news and several other non-US sourced English newscasts. It will prove to be very enlightening.

I'd rather be closer to a FAR than a Jasper. I can't imagine how much they could possibly fuck up a 3v 5.4. You should see how badly that they can screw up a 4R70W. Ugh!

Is the 6.2 going to have conventional spark plugs, NOT like the 3 valve engine plugs? I sure hope so.