Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
Just last month I passed the milestone of 2 years with the new-to-me 2018 F-150 I brought home in August of 2019. Purchased with 18,000 miles on the clock, it has a little over 45,000 now, so I'm averaging 13,500 miles/year. Actually quite a lot of miles considering that I've been working from home since March of 2020 so most of those miles have been road trips and on quite a few of them I was pulling a trailer (R-Pod 179, ~3500lb or so fully loaded.)
So far the truck has gone on 25 camping trips: 3 in 2019, 9 in 2020 and 13 so far in 2021 with two more to go before the end of our "camping season. Longest trip, both distance and time-wise was an 11 day trip to Arizona (Willow Beach) and Nevada (Pahrump) in October of 2020. 2000 miles round trip NOT including all the driving around we did.
Living in Colorado it's normal for us to go over a 10,000' plus pass almost every time we go out. Highest pass we crossed pulling the trailer was Cottonwood, officially the highest paved pass in North America at 12,125' (it used to be Independence Pass at 12,095' but then in 2019 they paved Cottonwood.)
Overall I'm very pleased with the way the truck drives and pulls our camper. It does bog down a little bit when climbing the high passes with the trailer behind it, but not nearly as bad as the '04 Suburban with its tired 5.3 and old-tech 4 speed 4L60 auto.
I've kept up on maintenance, but as my truck gets older I'm wondering if there's anything special I need to do to keep the turbos running well? I always use 87 or higher octane, as per the manual. I've changed the air cleaner twice now but it hasn't needed any other maintenance beyond oil changes (although at the last oil change they told me my rear brakes were getting close to needing to be serviced - this is what I've come to expect pulling a trailer, the rear brakes always go first,)
I looked in the manual and didn't see any turbo-specific maintenance items. I assume the turbochargers themselves are well lubricated - does the oil in the turbocharger ever need to be changed or do they use engine oil somehow?
Also talking to a stranger at a gas pump he mentioned "watching my EGR temps." The only temperature I monitor closely is the transmission, should I be watching EGR temps?
And finally, is there a device I can put on the OBD port to monitor things like boost levels (preferably through my phone?) Sometimes I'm just curious about that. Particularly when climbing a steep hill - I had thought that the 3.5 EB produced the most torque at low RPMs but for whatever reason, my engine seems to want to stay above 4500 RPM when climbing a high pass with the trailer in tow.
All in all, I'm just wondering what preventive stuff I can/should be doing now to ensure that I don't have trouble down the road as I plan on keeping this truck for at least another 3 - 5 years, or possibly longer.
So far the truck has gone on 25 camping trips: 3 in 2019, 9 in 2020 and 13 so far in 2021 with two more to go before the end of our "camping season. Longest trip, both distance and time-wise was an 11 day trip to Arizona (Willow Beach) and Nevada (Pahrump) in October of 2020. 2000 miles round trip NOT including all the driving around we did.
Living in Colorado it's normal for us to go over a 10,000' plus pass almost every time we go out. Highest pass we crossed pulling the trailer was Cottonwood, officially the highest paved pass in North America at 12,125' (it used to be Independence Pass at 12,095' but then in 2019 they paved Cottonwood.)
Overall I'm very pleased with the way the truck drives and pulls our camper. It does bog down a little bit when climbing the high passes with the trailer behind it, but not nearly as bad as the '04 Suburban with its tired 5.3 and old-tech 4 speed 4L60 auto.
I've kept up on maintenance, but as my truck gets older I'm wondering if there's anything special I need to do to keep the turbos running well? I always use 87 or higher octane, as per the manual. I've changed the air cleaner twice now but it hasn't needed any other maintenance beyond oil changes (although at the last oil change they told me my rear brakes were getting close to needing to be serviced - this is what I've come to expect pulling a trailer, the rear brakes always go first,)
I looked in the manual and didn't see any turbo-specific maintenance items. I assume the turbochargers themselves are well lubricated - does the oil in the turbocharger ever need to be changed or do they use engine oil somehow?
Also talking to a stranger at a gas pump he mentioned "watching my EGR temps." The only temperature I monitor closely is the transmission, should I be watching EGR temps?
And finally, is there a device I can put on the OBD port to monitor things like boost levels (preferably through my phone?) Sometimes I'm just curious about that. Particularly when climbing a steep hill - I had thought that the 3.5 EB produced the most torque at low RPMs but for whatever reason, my engine seems to want to stay above 4500 RPM when climbing a high pass with the trailer in tow.
All in all, I'm just wondering what preventive stuff I can/should be doing now to ensure that I don't have trouble down the road as I plan on keeping this truck for at least another 3 - 5 years, or possibly longer.
