seacoats
Registered User
Me and my partner are the proud new owners of a diesel F-250 4x4. After months of talking about it, the circumstances finally lined up for us to buy a truck and a camper as well as quit our jobs. We've remodeled the inside of the camper along with fabricating new tie downs at a friends shop. The previous owner had used bedrail tie downs which did not seem secure enough for our liking. After some maintenance to the truck and all of the camper remodeling, we've set off on the road. We'll be driving down the west coast visiting several of the national parks and doing a lot of rock climbing and hiking. Once we hit the border we're parking the truck and continuing on foot south of the border.
Since buying the truck i've done an oil change(the old oil was the color and consistency of black paint), fuel filter change, replaced all of the belts(tensioning the belts on these beasts is kind of a pain in the ass, i can see the benefits of switching to a serpentine belt), topped off the power steering(it seems to have a small leak), and last but not least tested the coolant for SCAs(it didn't have any, so i added two pints of the DCAs from the Cummins dealer, i'll be testing the levels again in the morning). I plan on flushing the radiator and putting new coolant in it when we return, but there wasn't time to do it before leaving. Is there any other preventative maintenance that should be done to the truck? We're not in a hurry and i brought basic tools with me. I'm carrying a gallon of oil, some PS fluid, and the old belts for spares. What other parts/fluids would be good to pick up and carry along with us? Any particular things to keep an eye on? Truck has ~180k miles and after the fuel filter and oil change, it seems to be running nicely. What should we take into account when parking the truck while we're in Mexico? Is it enough to ask a friend to drive it around the block once a week, or would it be better to prep it for storage? (what does that even mean) We'll likely be gone for 2+ months south of the border.
When i start it in the mornings, the battery light comes on before starting and the voltage gauge clicks and moves between 9 and 11 volts while waiting for the glow plugs to heat. Yesterday and today, the voltage gauge stayed around 9 volts before starting and it struggled a bit to start. We were running an inverter for most of the day while we were driving, but i can't imagine that this would have prevented the batteries from charging. I imagine that it's the batteries that are dying, since their stickers indicate that they're ~10 years old. Will the just suddenly fail or will it get progressively harder and harder to start?
Also, the temp gauge hasn't ever moved as far as i can tell. Is there a way to test this? Is it possible that it just hasn't gotten hot enough to register? We've put close to 1000 miles on it in the past week or so...
Thanks!
Sea
PS What's the fuel tank size on these? I did some searching and found something saying 19g front and 17g rear, but it seems like i've got a 20g front and maybe 15 in the rear? Does that sound right?
Since buying the truck i've done an oil change(the old oil was the color and consistency of black paint), fuel filter change, replaced all of the belts(tensioning the belts on these beasts is kind of a pain in the ass, i can see the benefits of switching to a serpentine belt), topped off the power steering(it seems to have a small leak), and last but not least tested the coolant for SCAs(it didn't have any, so i added two pints of the DCAs from the Cummins dealer, i'll be testing the levels again in the morning). I plan on flushing the radiator and putting new coolant in it when we return, but there wasn't time to do it before leaving. Is there any other preventative maintenance that should be done to the truck? We're not in a hurry and i brought basic tools with me. I'm carrying a gallon of oil, some PS fluid, and the old belts for spares. What other parts/fluids would be good to pick up and carry along with us? Any particular things to keep an eye on? Truck has ~180k miles and after the fuel filter and oil change, it seems to be running nicely. What should we take into account when parking the truck while we're in Mexico? Is it enough to ask a friend to drive it around the block once a week, or would it be better to prep it for storage? (what does that even mean) We'll likely be gone for 2+ months south of the border.
When i start it in the mornings, the battery light comes on before starting and the voltage gauge clicks and moves between 9 and 11 volts while waiting for the glow plugs to heat. Yesterday and today, the voltage gauge stayed around 9 volts before starting and it struggled a bit to start. We were running an inverter for most of the day while we were driving, but i can't imagine that this would have prevented the batteries from charging. I imagine that it's the batteries that are dying, since their stickers indicate that they're ~10 years old. Will the just suddenly fail or will it get progressively harder and harder to start?
Also, the temp gauge hasn't ever moved as far as i can tell. Is there a way to test this? Is it possible that it just hasn't gotten hot enough to register? We've put close to 1000 miles on it in the past week or so...
Thanks!
Sea
PS What's the fuel tank size on these? I did some searching and found something saying 19g front and 17g rear, but it seems like i've got a 20g front and maybe 15 in the rear? Does that sound right?