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Message: [QUOTE="me2, post: 409455, member: 3825"] [b]Trip Blatherings[/b] I'm back. We've been on holidays with our truck and trailer since August 2nd. We had an awesome, awesome time. So much to see and do ! We love the water and we swam or were on our kayaks every day except 2 travel days. Everyone has a great tan and a big smile. We were all exhausted when we got home. Swap wise, it was very motivating to see how much fun we had and how much everyone enjoyed themselves. This is why we have a truck and a trailer and improving the truck with a swap will only make our trips better. We are hoping to do another long trip in March. I can't wait. We traveled about 2700 miles in all on this trip, with lots of mountain driving. I lost track of how many mountain passes we went over. This was the first time I towed with my truck in the mountains. Overall, it worked well. I'm glad that I got to use it stock before I did the swap, but it sure would have been nice to have had the swap done for this trip. My truck is still a terrible fuel pig. I didn't calculate any numbers, but 8 MPG is the norm in good conditions, less than that in the mountains. I am not driving it hard at all. I almost never cruise with the trailer at much over 60 MPH. And I was feathering the throttle when climbing. Its incredible how much fuel this thing uses. I wouldn't believe it myself if I wasn't seeing it first hand. Power is OK, but there were a lot of mountain climbs where I was down to 40 MPH and there were several times that I was down to 25-30 MPH when climbing. I didn't let the engine wind out at 3,000 RPM when climbing. When it downshifted to full engine RPM, I took it off of cruise control and feathered the throttle to run the engine about 2600 RPM. More engine speed than that just created more fan noise and probably used more fuel. I was surprised how often the fan was running. Even when we were travelling at night with temps in the 70s the fan was almost always on when climbing. With my '99 (5.9 CR and no fan shroud) the fan almost never comes one. I think I've only heard it come on half a dozen times ever. It will be interesting to see how much the fan runs with the 6.7. Handling wise, my truck tows our trailer like a dream. Twisty mountain passes are no problem and the truck always feels in control. The ride is much improved with the Bilstein 5160s, to the point that its almost plush with the trailer behind. Its still rough when empty, but the 5160s helped a lot. The limit slip in the rear diff still makes some noise and chatters once in a while, but its much better than it used to be. Its like my '99 now. Axle wrap is a problem with these trucks. They have longer rear leaf springs than the pre 08s. In one campground I had to start out on a steep gravel hill with the trailer behind. It took three attemps to get going without tearing the drivetrain out due to axle hop. The 5R110 is a mixed blessing. I think the transmission itself is great. I can see why people like it. It always seems to shift well, no matter what the conditions. I think the torque converter is way too mushy and isn't locked nearly enough, especially in lower gears in Tow-Haul mode. I love the engine braking in Tow-Haul mode, but its big pain in the butt and a serious misuse of brakes that the only way to "manually" engage engine braking is to stab the brakes hard. The 5R110 would be a totally different transmission if it was manually controlled like the 6R140 can be. I still think that 3rd gear should have been faster. It sucks to have to keep the speed down to 60 MPH or so when engine braking in 3rd gear to keep the engine RPMs below 3,000. Overall, I used the truck/trailer brakes way more with the 5R110 than I would have with a ZF6. I am really looking forward to having manual control of the 6R140. The kids LOVED the DVD player. The Ford 08 Nav system totally sucks. In the course of our travels, navigation issues probably cost us 8 hours of travel time in total. It will be replaced before out next long trip. I've upgraded the nav system in my truck with pretty much the latest maps. The maps are fine, content wise. They are pretty much always right for an area. However, on an 08 there is no practical way to zoom in and out significantly and there is no way to scroll to see more of the area around where you currently are, other than what is on the screen. The big problem with the 08 nav system is routing. The routing is TERRIBLE. The routes it selects are not wrong. They will get you there. Its just that it always seems to select a very slow, congested way to get to the destination. I've tried changing several of the routing options in setup, but the behavior is always the same. I suspect its going for the shortest route at all costs rather than the fastest route. Instead of taking a freeway to get within a mile of the destination, the GPS will instruct you to turn off 10 miles before the destination and take side streets the rest of the way. Sometimes its obvious that the route is wrong, but sometimes it isn't. Its the later that causes the problem. We came to rely on using a map in conjunction with the GPS to get where we were going. Generally we used the map to make the big route decisions on how to get 90% of the way there and then used the GPS to guide us the rest of the way. Getting on the right freeway and taking the right freeway exit solved 90% of the issues. Long story short, we had a great time and my 08 F350 with some modifications is the right truck for the type of trips we do. [/QUOTE]