- We get asked a lot about our truck, what upgrades we've done, what
kind of problems we've had. Well, today we're going
to cover all of that including one item that
I'm super angry about but I'll save my beef
with Ford till the end. So here we go. (upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) First off, this is a Ford F350 Dually. We have the 6.7 liter turbo diesel with the six speed transmission and a 3.55 to one gear ratio. Now, if you want to know a little more about the truck itself, we did do a video on that, on
towing, I'll link that below. I'm not going to go into all the details about that or why we chose
Ford over Chevy over Ram. We're not like super brand
loyalist or anything. We love our Ford, we really do, except for the one problem
that I'm gonna get into. We also test drove Ram,
Ram makes great trucks. Chevy, I've seen some great Duramax's. With the capability of today's trucks all being fairly close, you know, it really comes down to what you like. Also, you might have
heard us talk recently or seen us chat online about
how I've got a 450 envy, and that envy is still very strong, it's still very real in me. I test drove a brand new F450 just a couple of weeks
ago, and I really liked it. The turn radius is amazing. The one we looked at was platinum, it had all kinds of features in it but it's just not right for us right now. This truck has been great. Even with the 3.55 axle, you know, which doesn't have quite as much torque as the 430 that's in the 450 either, it's done great in the mountains. We've had it out West,
out East in the mountains, we've never had a problem with it. So we're going to just
stick with this for now and do a couple more upgrades to it. And one particular, which
you'll see at the end. But let's get into it. One of the first things
we added to the truck, and I consider this a truck upgrade because it stays in here permanently, and that's our dash cam. Our dash cam is a Vantrue N2 Pro, it films 1080p both front and inside. It's got a little camera right here. So it films the inside and the outside. We also got the hard wire
kit and the GPS mount. Now, when you Mount it in the GPS mount, it puts your location and
speed and all that stuff on the screen encoded in the video, which is cool if we ever need
it for evidence or anything. And that's the primary reason
for it, you can go online and search for all kinds
of dash cam footage, you'll see some crazy stuff. But towing this big of an RV, if somebody drives past us at a beater and sees dollar signs
and an insurance claim and wants to get in front of us and slam on the brakes, then
claim we rear-ended them, I want to have that on camera. - He stopped short. You think I don't know what that's about? That's my old move, I use
it on Estelle 40 years ago. Everybody knows, (grunts) I stop short.
(audience laughs) - It's also just good to
have to prove anything. We drive very conservatively, we want to be able to show that. Now, I did wire that to
these upfitter switches. These upfitter switches are great but they're also a huge pain to wire. The wire bundle where
the whole process starts is on the driver's side under the hood. And there's a wire bundle under there with a set of wires that matches
each one of these switches. Each one of these switches has
a different amperage rating. And some of them will be
on when the truck is off, some of them will not. So you can look that up,
this is a Ford accessory. The wire bundle that
goes through the firewall that divides the cab to the front is down there on the passenger
side, down on the floor. So you first have to wire
from that side of the hood over to that side of the
hood, to that wire bundle then you have to wire from
the wire bundle down here up through the framing
up through this stuff. That part's easy, but they give you like, two and a half, three inches
of wire bundle down there. So come on Ford, I don't
know if you've fixed that in later models, but that's a huge pain. It's really tough to get in there. Now, that's the only
thing that I have wired to these upfitter switches right now, but I do want to wire all
the other DC components that we have up here. I'm not going to go over those. We've covered those in other videos but it's really just our GPS, our rear view camera here. And that's really it. I just want to wire those two
things so we don't have wires coming up here into the
console and things like that. Also in here permanently
mounted in the truck, I say permanently but the
whole idea behind them is they're not permanent. And that's these ProClip mounts. A lot of people have asked about these. You can see my phone here, is it a nice swivel mount? We've got our camera here, a magnetic mount. The cool thing about
ProClip is they make these for pretty much any vehicle. And you match the front half
of it like this part here, which is designed for the phone, and then you buy the piece
for your truck or your vehicle and you put those two together and it makes for a really nice mount. These also don't have to be screwed in or anything like that. All of their mounts are no drilling holes, no nothing like that,
but they're very good, they're very secure. I've been using these for a long time in various vehicles. The only other thing inside the cab is this guy right here. But we're going to get to that when we get to the suspension stuff. So let's go outside, we'll
talk about some other things. You may be wondering where we are. We're moose stacking at our friend's house which is hence why we're
in a nice big garage here to do some of this work. Another thing that we get
asked frequently about is if we have any kind
of upgraded fuel tank, either in the bed or
permanently installed. And the answer is no. Our truck came with a 48 gallon fuel tank from the factory and
that's been plenty for us. That gives us about a 400 mile range which is just fine for our travel style. We max out our travel days
at around 300 miles anyway. Also while we're right here, this toolbox and tonneau cover, we do have a separate video on
that which I will link below, so I'm not going to go
into the details on that. But the key with that is very low profile and shotgun latches on the front here so that I can open the toolbox without having to open the tonneau cover. So the next set of upgrades we
made are all right down here. When we first got our truck, we knew it was going to ride rough. We wanted to try to do what we could to try to improve that
ride without, you know, breaking the bank and
going with a four corner air suspension type of thing. And after a little bit of research, I came up with a couple of ideas and we had both of these
installed by a truck shop in the Northeast. I don't do a lot of work on the truck. I do little upgrades and things like that, like we're going to show you. Things that involve unhooking suspension and doing that kind of
thing, I don't mess with. I like DIY on the RV, not on the truck. The first thing was a set of what are called
Sulastic shackles. And what these are are
basically a little rubber torsion-like spring that
replaces the rear shackle on the leaf spring. And what that does is, you know, as the leaf spring takes those hits, rather than transferring
them directly to the frame, it has a little bit of buffer there in that Sulastic shackle. Now, it's only on the rear
side of the leaf spring not on the front side, I don't know why they make them for both. Looking up in there, it seems like it'd be cool
to have them on both ends but it's only on the rear. The other thing that we
had done by a truck shop are the LoadLifter 7500 XL airbags along with pump and remote
and all of that stuff. The other thing that I did
along with these airbags is I took the bump stops
for the helper spring out completely. So that way, when we
are riding under load, the helper springs aren't making contact and all that extra weight
is taken up by the airbags and thereby giving a little
bit more of that flex from the road, hitting
bumps, things like that is taken by the airbags and the helper springs
don't interact at all. So I think these two things together have helped the ride a little bit. It's completely subjective. I have no idea, I had really no way to measure it. I tried to film it, I tried
to film before and after and ride over speed bumps and stuff. And in my brain because I
paid some money for this, I think it works, but
I don't know for sure. So I can't say for sure
whether these work well or not. I think if we ever did get that F450 I would probably put
the Sulastic shackles on and not worry about the airbags. I'm not sure that they add enough or how much they cost. And if money were no object, I would probably do a Kelderman
system on all four corners. Kelderman is a nice air ride,
but that runs about 10 grand. So not ready to take that leap quite yet. Maybe if I get a 450,
then it might be time but I don't want to put too
much more money in here. Now, as far as the efficacy
of the ride improvement for all this stuff back here, I don't know, let's ask Tara and see what she thinks. - I don't think it helps. - (chuckles) It's difficult to say because if we could take
them out and put them back on and test them side by side,
the same sort of circumstances. - I don't know. I mean, I don't really
notice a difference, so. I do occasionally notice
a very slight improvement. I think if we're driving
around and I'm like, "Oh, this is rough," and you say, "Oh, to me, it's like the airbags". - Yeah, that's why I think, to me, in my head, that's why I
think they make a difference. - But not enough to where I'm
like, okay, this feels better. - So like a $1,500 difference.
- No. It's $300 difference. - 200$. It's like a $200 difference in my opinion. - The other thing I want
to talk about down here while I'm at the wheels are these Dually valve stems. This is a question we get asked a lot and I've tried a bunch
of different things. That inside Dually is
a huge pain to get to. Now we've gotten, you
know, extenders and stuff that came with our air compressor. And those can get in
there and everything fine, but we also like to run a TPMS on these that integrates with our same system that we use to monitor the RV. Then we have got an all-in-one display. Also, we're going to
talk a little bit about problems with the TPMS on
these wheels to begin with which is another reason I
like to run my own TPMS. And getting in there to get
the caps off is a huge pain. The flow-through sensors
are a little bit too big and then you can't get the chuck on there. It's a real, huge pain in the rear, just this whole system here. And I've tried various extenders the kind that are little
angles and this and that, and nothing worked until
I found this product. And this is actually made by Dicor, the same people who make
the RV sealant for the roof. Why they're making that,
valve extenders, I don't know, but this solution has worked for us. And I installed it on the passenger side and I've had it over there for
probably about four months. I kind of wanted to do
one wheel to test it out. I'm going to do this other one right now then show you a couple of tips on that. But the cool thing about this system is it has stainless steel braided hose and it brings both valves out to the front right on the side of the cap here where I can get to both
of them really easy. I can take the TPMS caps off. I can fill 'em, I can put 'em all back on. I could probably even put
passers on here as well now. But we're gonna get to
that in just a minute. So I saved this wheel, A, to not do both of
them and then find out that it doesn't work, but I've had it on there
for four months now, so I think we're good. I'm going to go ahead and install the other set I have on this side here. So I can give you a few tips on some issues that I
had with the other one and also at the stop cap,
so let's get to that. To get these valve extenders installed, we have to pull this outer wheel. Huge pain in the rear, but at least we only have to do it once. I've taken this wheel off so many times just to grab a valve
stem thing that fell down behind here, or to get on other
extensions that don't work. So once I get this on, we'll be good. Now that brings me to my first tip. This thing. It's a pain to get off, I mean like really difficult. Now, the kit, somewhere in here probably that comes with the truck, supposedly one of those tools
is designed to pull that off. I have not found that I've
looked for the little hooks and things and all kinds of stuff. I did a little research
online and I came across this. You'll notice you can't really tell, obviously this is video,
but it's a little bit heavy and this slides. So it's this motion and
the popping at the end that pulls it off. Now this thing can go
flying across the room which is why I have this blanket. So I just put it up behind
the thing where it's gonna go and... (laughs) comes right off. And it apparently knocks
anything you have sitting on the side of the bed off as well. Glad that wasn't my head. A couple pulls with this thing, brings that sucker right off. I just keep this in
the truck at all times. (upbeat music) So while we're here, let's
talk about another upgrade. And that's these guys right here. These are called Centramatics, and they're basically designed almost like beads inside the tire, but it's in this system
here and it's all enclosed. Now, what this does is
it automatically balances the entire wheel assembly
as you're driving. So it uses centrifugal force and some kind of other voodoo magic and basically the beads
and things inside this ring will automatically level out. And it's supposed to reduce
vibration, automatically balance and also increase the
wear life on your tire. So again, I don't know if
they work, it seemed to, I don't have any
vibration, so I'd use them. (upbeat music) And I do have these on all four corners. So this system is pretty simple. We've got a longer braid here, that's a straight out. And then we have this
one that's designed to go on the inside and come out so that they both will be on here. And you could try getting these on without pulling the wheel,
but good luck to you. It's difficult to get in
there and do any work. That's why, even when
I was putting these on I had to pull the whole thing off. And the thing with these is, for some reason this part
here, and this thread here, aren't a perfect match and I could never get them quite right. And they over torque and
strip really, really. (upbeat music) Another tip. These Duallys come usually
with the valve stems, so sort of facing each other up in there. And that's a huge pain. So at the very least, you
can take this outer off and rotate it so that
they at least stagger. You just need to make sure
that the holes line up so that you can get through. Now, this is probably
the most difficult part of getting this tire back on. (upbeat music) So what I'm doing now, before I put all the nuts back on I wanna make sure that these can both get kind
of where I want them to go and be staggered, I like to
have them 180 degrees out if I can. (upbeat music) Yep, that'll work, the 180 out. (upbeat music) Okay, so here's the tricky part. When tightening these lug nuts, these things wanna spin. Once it's tightened down and I need to have these
all the way to the outside so that I can get this back on inside of those. I can't have them all cockeyed. So usually it's a matter of backing it off and letting the torque gun torque it down. We shall see, this might
be a little easier. (upbeat music) I just know when I get
the torque wrench on there they're going to turn. (upbeat music) 165 foot pounds is what I need. (upbeat music) Here's the problem. These things rotate
with the torque wrench. So I really got to get
them partially torqued with an offset and then crank 'em. Huge pain in the butt. (upbeat music) The trick to getting
these brackets to go on in a way where they're lined
up properly out to the edge, so over here, the brackets
on an angle like this and it will turn as you try to torque it. Of course you torque it,
it's gonna turn it this way. And if it turns off like this and isn't out to the edge then you can't get this back on. So these have to stay out to the edge. And I found the best way to do that is to kind of pre-torque
them, the gun or a wrench or whatever you're using and try to hold this back so that when you get on it with a torque wrench, it's going to turn it a little more and you want that a little
more to line up on the outside. Sometimes I've had to do, like
when I did the other side, I have to tighten it, loosen
it, tighten it, loosen it, tighten it, loosen it,
until I get it right, until I figure it out. I'm gonna get the torque wrench or the impact gun on it here. And I'm going to hold
it with a pair of gloves 'cause otherwise I'd
probably cut my finger. I'm gonna hold it with this and try to keep it offset (torque gun rattles) like that. And now with the torque wrench, you can see I'm a little
bit off-kilter that way, hopefully the torque wrench
will bring that around. (upbeat music) I think that's far enough
away out of the line of the hub cap. Get that cork. (upbeat music) You see here, this one loops around to here and straight across, this one goes to the back. I'm gonna put the hub cap back
on and we'll be good to go. Out of the line, knees up. (upbeat music) And then the special
tool I use for this... (hub cap clicks shut) (upbeat music) Like that. (upbeat music) Now putting air on the
inside wheel of the Dually, right here. (air pump humming) (upbeat music) The next thing I want to
talk about, the last upgrade is something I installed last night. And I ran out of light to film it but I wanted to get it installed to see if there were any gotcha's, and there weren't, it
installed very easily. The instructions are very good. And it's this thing right here. Amp Research, Bed Step 2, Got it on Amazon. You might be able to
see it down here or not because it's tucked
away and that's the key. But it's just what it
says, it's a bed step. So it gives you a little
step to get up into the bed on the side, or in my case into the toolbox. I'm always having to
drag our stepstool around and use that to get in the toolbox. But now this is tucked away right here, pop it down and I can step right up here
and get inside the toolbox, no problem. When I'm done, let's kick it away. And that's it, pretty simple. Now that I know it installs very easily and it's solid and I like it, I'm gonna order one for the other side and get that installed. So now we get to my big beef with Ford. - Where's the beef? Hey, where's the beef? I don't think there's anybody back there. - The issue is these wheels. These wheels are aluminum, the valve stems are steel. And if you know a little
bit about dissimilar metals, they can have what's
called galvanic corrosion. And what that's causing is
corrosion on both of the wheel and the valve stem, the valve stem is connected to the TPMS and it's a huge pain in the rear. The corrosion causes a slow leak that just kind of grows over time. And I have had these
things fixed 10 times. Since the valve stem is tied to the TPMS, it's like 125, 150 bucks plus labor to fix this. We have over $1,500 in
fixing these wheels. Additionally, Ford won't
say anything about it. I've tried contacting Ford various ways, all they will do is get me
in touch with the dealership and the dealership just
says, "Yeah, we can fix it. You're out of warranty,
you got to pay for it or you could buy new wheels." The reason I think for Ford's
tight lipped response on this is because there's a class action lawsuit related to just exactly this. It's kind of a safety issue. I mean, generally it presents
itself as a slow leak. But any tire leak to me is a safety issue. Honestly, I'm just really,
really done with these wheels. I'd really like some recommendations, I'd like to replace these. I don't want to increase the size or do any lifting or do anything weird. I wanna keep my same tires and I just wanna replace all
four of the outer wheels. Then I'd like just plain chrome. I'd like to have these
wheels, I'd like these wheels, but they just really stink. And I did a little research
too on this particular wheel because I thought they were Alcoa and apparently Ford stopped using Alcoa a few years ago, obviously prior to 2017, which is the year of this truck. And I don't know what the brand is, maybe it's some off-brand. Obviously it's of lesser quality. And I think the coating on its back. 'Cause there are plenty of
aluminum wheels out there that don't have this problem. So I think it has something to do with the way they've coated or something. Honestly, I have no idea. And honestly, I'm just sick of it. Ford, I wish you would fix this problem. I wish you would step up and own it. This is clearly an issue
and you should fix it. Like I mentioned before, we're not like, you know Ford enthusiasts, but I really like
everything about this truck except for these wheels. Unfortunately, I'm just going
to have to bite the bullet and buy new wheels. And that's it. Those are all the upgrades and issues and things we've had with this truck. No issues with the engine or transmission or anything else but these tires. So overall it's been a really good truck. You know as we... (exhales heavily) Don't go off the tangents. Don't go off on tangents. - Occasionally, when you say... Hold on, there's, Goonies
are playing at the drive-in. - Hmm, (laughs) Didn't notice a drive-in up here. We could have done that. - And he's never seen The Goonies. - Never seen The Goonies,
that would be perfect. (upbeat music)
