[Art-n-Marge]

I bought my '06 brand new TV with the Ford Navistar 6.0L engine. Many of you may have read about some problems with that engine that has caused $1000s of repair for some when the weaknesses occur. Unfortunately, I don't have deep pockets to upgrade to the new 6.7L engine which has been getting rave reviews and not just in this forum.

I have over 115,000 miles on my truck even with occasional towing and most recently with the full-timing, more towing than ever. However, I haven't towed far (no more than 100 miles one way every 1 to 3 weeks), with an occasional 400 to 500 miler every 6 months or so. Really not that much compared to many of you and I baby the truck a lot. In fact, I have only towed to Nevada, Arizona and many parts of California and that's it! DW and I just weren't comfortable going much farther knowing the engine was suspect.

I located a shop that seemed like they were familiar and comfortable about what to do with existing 6.0 PSD problems. I just got my truck back from the shop after spending under $2,500 to have work done that is rumored to overcome some of the inherent engine design and operational problems. Hopefully I won't be spending upwards of $6,000 on an unwarranted problem. I've already gone through the factory warranty and a brief extended warranty. Now, I have no warranty and drive like the old man that I am, to avoid problems.

Wish me luck for the future as we continue to full-time. Tomorrow will be my first tow since the work was done. But I'm only going 12 miles. However, DW wants to plan a trip to Oregon and Washington (Hallelujah, more stickers for the RV map) and we hope to do well.

Other things I've done include replacing the weak radiator cap, repaired the fuel module, and rebuilt the Turbo (which were some other known problems). I also use diesel fuel supplements.

Here's hoping for less worry.