New tow vehicle is here..... F-150 2015

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New tow vehicle is here..... F-150 2015

Postby deceiver » Sat Nov 07, 2015 7:38 pm

Yesterday I traded out me 2003 chevy silverado and for the first time in my life I've got a Ford. It will be ready for pickup tomorrow or Monday. The Chevy rusted out in the frame in 84,000 miles. Strange because my old Tahoe, three years older with double the mileage still had a good frame when I sold it. Same garage, same roads. I figure the Silverado was a bad one somehow. It also cost me a lot to own over the years I had it. Things went on it that shouldn't have or went with very little mileage on it. Purchased it new in 2003.

Anyway, the Ford 150 is a 2015 XLT 302A package. I'm older so I added the chrome too. Seems the youngsters like the painted bumpers and black grills. Oldies remember when more chrome meant a richer looking vehicle. I opted for the 5.0L V8 over the ecoboost engines. I figure 10% better gas mileage wasn't worth the potential risk of possible issues with a different type of mechanism. We did try one though and I was impressed with the power of the ecoboost and they have been out a few years so the kinks must be worked out by now. This is the truck with the aluminum body. I waited till nearly the end of the year to both lower the cost and also to see if any new issues from the reworked truck manifested themselves. Anyway, with nearly a month later and visiting a dozen dealers within a 200 mile radius we finally got the price we wanted. We managed a $15k reduction in price that includes $4k for my old truck. Keep working at it and they keep looking to find what you want and working the price and trade-in. They always keep calling.

We put 18,000 miles on our Little guy before we sold it and already 3400 miles on our cargo conversion just in one trip this fall! So a vehicle like this (as was my dearly departed Tahoe) will be a real pleasure.

Anyone have an F-150 comments out there? It's a new experience for me. I've been a chevy owner since 1973. Fingers crossed on this one. Lots of bells and whistles to give me headaches should they act up.

truck.jpg
This is the internet picture of it as we take delivery soon. We liked the Ruby Red but this color also caught our eye. Shopping this late in the game we took it as the reds where in short supply.
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The interior.... A pleasure to drive.... well, in the road test anyway.
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Last edited by deceiver on Sat Dec 05, 2015 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby pchast » Sat Nov 07, 2015 9:31 pm

Looks great. Enjoy it. :thumbsup:
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby lrrowe » Sat Nov 07, 2015 9:36 pm

Nice truck and nice choice in my opinion. I have a 2012 F150' Lariet with tots of options. I bought it used with 18,000 miles on it. I have the turbo and love it. It is now hooked to my loaded CT for my departure tomorrow for a hunt camping in the GW National forest. I made a 7 hour run to Hatteras Island last week and got 20 mph on the way down. Over all, including many miles on the beach with 18psi in the tires, I averaged 18.5 mpg. At 52,000 my gas mileage is actually improving. I was told by the Ford dealer that I would see that improvement.
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby deceiver » Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:51 am

lrrowe wrote:Nice truck and nice choice in my opinion. I have a 2012 F150' Lariet with tots of options. I bought it used with 18,000 miles on it. I have the turbo and love it. It is now hooked to my loaded CT for my departure tomorrow for a hunt camping in the GW National forest. I made a 7 hour run to Hatteras Island last week and got 20 mph on the way down. Over all, including many miles on the beach with 18psi in the tires, I averaged 18.5 mpg. At 52,000 my gas mileage is actually improving. I was told by the Ford dealer that I would see that improvement.



Well, that mileage would be about a 3-4 mpg improvement over my old truck. We tried the Lariet and found the drum tight seats to be really hard. The dealer said that they had to do that because of the heating elements in the seat. Some models were about the same price as the xlt as without a lot of added options, the Lariet already had most of the xlt stuff built in. I'll be headed to Vemont (about 2 hrs away) for Krown undercoating. They're all over Canada but only in Vermont around here. It's like fluid film. Penetrating oil that seeps into crevasses for 48 hrs then dries and leave behind a layer of wax. You have to do it every day. They drill holes and do the doors and other panels and such. Here in the north we used to have to fight the salt on the roads. Now they also mix the sand/salt with calcium chloride liquid. Saves on the salt and melts ice better but it's causing tons more damage to vehicles. Anyway, I've got to stop the rot that overtook my other truck.
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby gudmund » Thu Nov 12, 2015 3:57 pm

keep a watch on the frame as with the Chevy, it made of steel, not aluminum. The 5.0 is probably the right choice, have heard the 3.5 V6 puts out some great towing torque/power but with some terrible gas mileage. One I spoke to, wish's he had kept his 5.0 - he says the 3.5 tows fine also except the mpg drops down to about 12/13 mpg when towing the teardrop where he got 15/16 with the 5.0.
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby deceiver » Thu Nov 12, 2015 4:23 pm

gudmund wrote:keep a watch on the frame as with the Chevy, it made of steel, not aluminum. The 5.0 is probably the right choice, have heard the 3.5 V6 puts out some great towing torque/power but with some terrible gas mileage. One I spoke to, wish's he had kept his 5.0 - he says the 3.5 tows fine also except the mpg drops down to about 12/13 mpg when towing the teardrop where he got 15/16 with the 5.0.



I had it Krown undercoated the other day in Vermont. I think it's the only place outside of Canada. Hundreds of them in Canada. I'll keep it up each year by going back and purchase a couple of touch up spray cans for in between.

I didn't get the ecoboost engines for a couple of reasons. One is that they are 'new' technology even though they've been out for about 4 years. Second is that there are several places on the net that describe carbon build up on the pistons that cause some issues on the 3.5 v6. Don't know what that's all about but I don't want it. Secondly the gas mileage I guess isn't as good as they thought it would be. Probably worse pulling something. And so far with my 5.0 V8 I've gotten 21.4 mpg driving both in town and super highway mixed, for 400+ miles, nothing in tow of course. The neat little graph shows mpg next to the speedometer.

And I do love the voice commands in the cab. They are accurate and very convenient. "play 102.9" starts the radio station. Call my wife dials the phone. pretty nifty. Things changed since my 2003 model.
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby Woodbutcher » Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:59 pm

That is a great truck, you should enjoy it!
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby Gold5one » Fri Nov 13, 2015 10:40 pm

That 2.7L turbo would be a killer in the mountains, but I understand taking the cautious approach when it comes to new technology- There have been many auto technology engineering failures in my lifetime. I am glad the dealer was able to make the deal you wanted--
The new truck bug hit me last week when Ram increased the rebates on leftover 2015's. On Monday I went to my dealer- with the ebay listed truck I wanted for $25,961- it was 100 miles away- What is my Chrysler retired employee price?- He checked-- $24,000 , + or- a few dollars
I really missed my old 2005 Ram quad cad- this new one had the longed for Hemi and with a final quoted price of $24,000 for a new truck, I was ready to buy. I was OK with the older style 65RFE transmission. Unfortunately, as I later discovered, my regular dealer was playing me. He didn't have one of those cheaper Tradesman trucks with the chrome package No problemo he said looking at the ebay listing- they would do a dealer trade with that dealer!- Yesterday, before my Friday appt to do the deal, I called that east coast Fl dealer with the six trucks and found he had sold 4 of them this week and he wouldn't do a dealer trade- so I would have to drive 100 miles to trade with him, except he didn't want to do a low profit deal with retiree pricing! . When I went back to my dealer and revealed to him that the truck I wanted to buy was already sold, he immediately attempted to sell me one of the 10 Hemi quad cabs he had on his lot with $2000 of extra options I didn't need- and they all had no exterior chrome package and the hitch was deleted, too-- Nope-- I have to look at it everyday- no chrome- no deal. , I told the sales manager. His plan all along was to steer me to one of their in stock trucks- he didn't know how stubborn I was.
Anyway, $24,000 for a $31,540 Hemi truck would have been very sweet. I tried to support my local dealer and have bought 2 new cars in 4 years from him. I have no loyalty now.
Somebody else is enjoying my truck! :cry: My 2005 Ram quad cab was red, too.
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby Gold5one » Sat Nov 14, 2015 9:00 am

We had so many wonderful trips out west with this rig- about 8-9mpg towing with a 4.7L. I'll bet a teardrop would hardly make a dent in the MPG's of a new Ford F150! The six speed transmissions sure make a difference. ( the 8ft bed is not longer available on a quad cab)

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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby Gold5one » Sat Nov 14, 2015 9:37 am

I will say the new 2.7L ecoboost F150 is one fast truck-- a Millenial couple backed out of a rest stop ahead of me a couple months ago - I tried to follow that new F150, but they were already leaving the long ramp just as I was entering, so I floored my HHR and was doing 75 when I merged, thinking I can catch up to them-- ha! The turbo F150 was already over a 1/4 mile away zipping over the rise in the road. When I got over the rise, he was long gone. No wonder people can't match the EPA mileage with that engine-- and I agree, it would be too much fun not to use that turbo power. I would really like to own that 2.7L ecoboost F150. No mountain would slow me down again.
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Re: New Tow vehicle on the way F-150 2015

Postby deceiver » Sat Dec 05, 2015 8:25 pm

Added a tonneau cover today. This will keep things dry inside and I can carry firewood without a cover on the tubs I put it in. The cover is a Patriot, fiberglass.
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Re: New tow vehicle is here..... F-150 2015

Postby lrrowe » Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:39 pm

Looking nice!
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Re: New tow vehicle is here..... F-150 2015

Postby rowerwet » Mon Dec 07, 2015 8:33 am

Portsmouth ford did the rust proofing on my new vehicles.
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Re: New tow vehicle is here..... F-150 2015

Postby lrrowe » Mon Dec 07, 2015 8:47 am

Your tonneau cover does look great. I too have one which came with my F150. I am a cap guy but gave the tonneau cover a few years to see what I thought. I do like it, but am going to post it on Crigslist and get an A.R.E cap which suits my truck cattying style much better.
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Re: New tow vehicle is here..... F-150 2015

Postby deceiver » Mon Dec 07, 2015 9:03 am

lrrowe wrote:Your tonneau cover does look great. I too have one which came with my F150. I am a cap guy but gave the tonneau cover a few years to see what I thought. I do like it, but am going to post it on Crigslist and get an A.R.E cap which suits my truck cattying style much better.



I had a full cap on an older truck and they are handy. I found that with my last truck which had nothing I valued the visibility. So the tonneau cover is a sort of compromise.
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