My new tow rig, and family explorer.

[SilverBullet]

Well, the Navigator that was beginning to drive me crazy is gone, traded in, and replaced.

We were getting an oil change and I jokingly told Kristi I was going to buy a truck. Well, wandering the lot my jokes.turned to salesman trying to do his job. So I let him. I even texted Kristi that he was wasting his time but entertaining me.

Long story and day shortened, he made numbers I could not refuse. They had a 2006 Ford F250 Larriat with the Amarillo package. If you know about that package, it comes in one color.

As soon as the kids saw it, they called it Bumble Bee and the name stuck.

This truck had a slide in camper in it and was rarely driven. Only 38,000 miles are on the truck, and the hours meter has just over 1,000 hours of engine running time.

Because of the slide in, I want to do a bed liner soon, but the rest of future upgrades is for the future.

I am excited to have a tow rig again.

Not sure how much exploring we will do, but I have dreams for our family of 5 for sure.............

 

[chasespeed]

Nice ride. Wish I could afford to buy a truck right now.... buyers market in big trucks...

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[76hauler]

nice truck, my 09 Crew cab is being used the same way. I got some pic's if you are interested in suspension mods. What are the future plans?

 

[SilverBullet]

nice truck, my 09 Crew cab is being used the same way. I got some pic's if you are interested in suspension mods. What are the future plans?

Well, it replaced our family hauler, a 2004 Lincoln navigator. We were borrowing my Father-in-law's truck pretty frequently for both towing and hauling. Then he sold his truck.

I tow my 1995 4runner crawler to trails a few times per year and want to do more. My folks live in snow country and a couple years ago we droves to their house in snow and the 2wd Navigator scared even me, who loves driving in snow.

So we lost the 3rd row, but gained 4wd, towing capacity, and a bed for hauling.

I would live to see a flip par with bed rug so we can sleep all 5 of us easily, but that is a dream a long way off. PO had a slide in camper, so the bed needs Line-X first probably. A bumper and winch as well would make my dream happy... Block heater will be sooner rather than later... You get the idea.

The Navigator had 120,000 miles, so it was on its last left. The 5.4 Triton did well, but we were down to 11 mpg city and only 14 highway before we hooked the car trailer. So this beats that even.

Tons if dreams, not enough cash probably this year for any of them, so for now, we take the ugly Amarillo stickers off and drive Bumble Bee as our family vehicle, everywhere.

Inspirational pictures are always welcome, just include what has been done and from where or by whom.

 

[76hauler]

We sold our 2006 Tacoma TRD CC 4x4 because we out grew it, my wife and I have three kids. We also wanted towing capacity, and we thought a 1/2 ton would fit the bill. We spied this on a Ford lot in SoCal last year, and the price was right, and I always wanted one, so forget the 1/2 ton! Straight axle, yeah! Plus we got lucky, XLT Lariat, 6 pass. seating with flip up console, NAV and Ford-sync, heated leather seats, (for the wife, of course), and it only had 12,500 miles on it. We use this truck for road trips, desert/ mountain exlporing, maybe soon a travle trailer. Plus trips around town when we'er all together (my wife drives a Corolla, tight fit for 5...). Here's a link to my photobucket.. http://s916.photobucket.com/albums/ad10/76-hayhauler/super duty/

 

[Buliwyf]

Nice! Those look alot like Ford's Tonka concept truck. I pass by one every so often in my area. Darn good looking truck.

The 6.0 was the best diesel work truck engine I ever had until it nuked. Are you planning any reliability mods, or did the previous owner allready go through all that. The nice thing about used 6.0's is they are often traded in after a Ford tech fixes all the problems.

I'm going to roll some Monstaliner on my bed this summer myself. I'm going to try thier version of "Metal ready" and thier version of "POR15" on the rusty spots before I roll the liner in. I got quotes from all the spray in shops, they charge allmost half as much as a complete paint job on my truck.

 

[Greggk]

looks great... sometimes i get 6.0 envy, but i love my old workhorse 7.3, you cant kill them! Welcome to the Powerstroke family!

 

[colodak]

I can see why your kids called it that, that is a seriously bright yellow

 

[Mark Harley]

I like it!
Even has the camper tie downs between the cab and bed.

 

[SilverBullet]

I like it!
Even has the camper tie downs between the cab and bed.

Yeah, all the camper stuff is still in the truck. Front and rear tie down points both inside and outside the bed. Rubber bed mat from under it, and the air bags. The front bracer bar is in too.

I want to try to see how to decrease the air bag pressure since the camper is out. The truck is really stiff in the back.

 

[Buliwyf]

Yeah, all the camper stuff is still in the truck. Front and rear tie down points both inside and outside the bed. Rubber bed mat from under it, and the air bags. The front bracer bar is in too.

I want to try to see how to decrease the air bag pressure since the camper is out. The truck is really stiff in the back.

Won't work. Bags are stiff even at a couple pounds of pressure and limit your down travel and flex a ton. (Unless they are Carli long travel bags) Limiting down travel is a great idea when loaded up with a camper, but for lighter Expo loads, just lose the bags.

I considered just ponying up and ordering the Carli bags, but even they limit max flex and travel a bit. So I save some money and use Firestones inside frame kit and get a little exercise removing it from time to time.

Just remove them. It's only about 8 bolts and 30 minutes. It takes less effort than a tire rotation. You can zip tie the air lines in place and leave some of the mounts in place if you want. Since the lower mount is just 2 u bolts I just remove the u bolts and pop the bag out. Don't forget to put your bumpstops back on.

I reinstall them when I plan longer loaded trips, but for 90% of my travel I'm lightly loaded.

Sounds like alot of work but it really isn't. Once you've done it a few times is extremly quick and gives you a chance to PM everything under there anyways.

 

[SilverBullet]

That is an idea, I may try it, but I have to get bump stops first, I don't have any. I was looking under there and noticed this particular line of options had no skid plates. So that is a search I am looking at if we off road much at all.