Signed the house away today - Montana Owners Club

adelmoll · 06-24-2005, 04:28 PM

Well today we signed the final closing on the house and will not be returning to mow the lawn, shovel snow, weed the garden or do repairs to 3000 square feet house plus yard. Instead we will live in 400 square feet of Monty. We will leave tomorrow for Montana. Idaho, Washington and Oregon first but will start out later then we planned. Yesterday we stopped at T/A to weigh everything fully loaded and found ourselves over the safe zone so today we bought a new Ford 350 Power Stroke Deisel 6.something

Lariet and Camping World can't install the new hitch until tomorrow so we will not be able to start out until the afternoon. The new truck will give us a few thousand pounds to spare in case we run into some new toys we can't live without and my new washer/dryer combo. Finally I feel like a real full timer.

YAHOO!!!!
Helen

DHenry · 06-24-2005, 04:49 PM

Congradulations, have a great adventure.

t1mrtork · 06-24-2005, 05:18 PM

Wow, How cool! New truck, camper, new adventures! Sounds like lots of fun. Have a great time. Enjoy every minute.

Montana_2785 · 06-24-2005, 10:02 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by adelmoll

[...] today we bought a new Ford 350 Power Stroke Deisel 6.something

Lariet and Camping World can't install the new hitch until tomorrow so we will not be able to start out until the afternoon.[...]

Helen,

Read your owners manual for that new truck. I'll bet that somewhere in there it will tell you NOT TO TOW A HEAVY LOAD UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE PUT 500 to 1000 MILES ON THAT TRUCK.

You need to give the gears in the drive line and the engine a little time to wear into each other. I'd make double darn sure that you follow any breakin instructions Ford gives you. Thats a lot of $$$ to not take a little care up front....

The breakin routine I've always heard was good was to drive the first 50-70 miles on stop & go traffic (no cruise control. No steady interstate speeds. You want to vary your speed up & down through the gears in the transmission) then stop to eat somewhere & give things an hour or so to cool off. The first few miles will cause microscopic shavings to wear off all the moving parts. This causes the worst of the heat. If you do that, then crawl under the truck and (carefuly) touch the differential. It will likely be REALLY hot like you had been pulling a heavy load. The rest of the breaking mileage should then be a mixture of stop & go and high speed highway/interstate mileage.

The absolute worst thing you could do is to hitch up to the Monty right away and scream down the superslab at 70mph.....

My suggestion is to take an extra day or two and drive around the old stomping grounds.

My Not-So-Humble-Opinion.

Eric

Montana_70 · 06-25-2005, 03:59 AM

If it is indeed a brand new truck, then ditto to what Eric said!!

stiles watson · 06-25-2005, 05:39 AM

All that planning and work and frustrating waiting after the decision to fulltime has ended. That's great!! The time is here!! Have a great new adventure.....

sreigle · 06-25-2005, 06:11 AM

Awww, liberation! I remember it well! And I'm still enjoying it!

Congrats on the closing on the house and the new truck! As Eric said, please be sure to get 500 miles on it before you tow the first time. It does say that in the manual. If I recall, it doesn't prescribe a method but does say to do normal driving, varying speeds, etc. City, highway, a mix of both. Eric's method would work although I always just drove it as I always would but not towing. On our '03 we had just 500 miles when we started towing and did fine for the 51k we put on the truck but this '05 had 6800 before the first tow. You don't want to jeopardize longevity of the truck by being in too big a hurry to get on the road. Good luck. Hope to see you somewhere on the road.

richfaa · 06-25-2005, 01:59 PM

The 500 mile thing is a true statement..I drove mine up and down the interstate till I got 500 miles on it. The thing is you can no doubt hook up the camper and take off and have no trouble..however..should anything..anything at all go wrong within that 500 miles and you are towing a camper when it clearly says...don't do that..you are s----ed.

Bill Hill · 06-25-2005, 04:22 PM

The hardest part of getting that new truck is the break-in period, and not being able to tow during it. We spent 2 weekends driving up to Santa Barbara and down to San Diego to get our 500 miles on. Just do it.

adelmoll · 06-26-2005, 04:55 PM

Thanks to all of you for your good advice. When the dealer found the right truck for us it was close to 200 miles away so it already had that many miles on it by the time we got it and then they took it to Camping World to have the hitch put on which added another 60 miles round trip. We put the rest of the break in on by driving around Minneapolis saying good-by to our kids. We are now in Medora, ND. We bought tickets for their famous fork fondue and nightly musical. We had a wonderful steak dinner that was put on pitch forks and fondued in hot 50 gallon drums of oil along with all kinds of other good food but then the rains came and they had to cancel the musical. Now we are sitting in front of our fireplace in the Monty with the rain beating down and reading our manuals on all the features of our new truck. We have a little over 1000 miles on it and it's just great. We feel so much better now that we know we are not overweight.

sreigle · 06-27-2005, 05:23 AM

You picked a terrific truck for a tow vehicle. By now you've already figured that out. Good luck, sounds like you're enjoying the rig immensely and that's what it's all about.

melnjoy · 06-27-2005, 11:37 AM

Heck 500 miles break in is nothing,when ever I get a new rig I can't keep out of it. My wife thinks that I have gone back out to Sea.
Speaking as a Diesel Engineer it is important not to overload the engine for to long of a time until the rings and bearings are broke in. As for towing I would not worry about it if you are not going over a steep pass before you reach your 500 mile point, all of the engines are load tested and dynoed at the plant. These diesels are far more stronger then most of us think. We will most likly get tired of our truck long before our diesel engines get tired of us.
Just another thought.
All most forgot congradulations, We are about a year from what you have done.
Mel

campbud · 06-27-2005, 04:20 PM

Congratulations ...sounds like it is smooth camping now!

Lstierw · 07-08-2005, 04:32 AM

The house just sold and we will be living in our Montana full time. Got rid of all the stuff. Don't even have a storage unit. Washer and dryer goes in on monday. We will hang around the Spokane area until we we head south in the fall.........Les

melnjoy · 07-08-2005, 04:43 AM

Sounds great Les.
We are looking at selling after the first of the year.
We will be heading south this year, to the rally and Yuma

But we have to be back in Nov. to go back to work.

Mel

Montana Sky · 07-08-2005, 07:58 AM

Les,
Congrats. Glad to hear everything went smooth on the sale of your house. Will be on the lookout for you around the area. Enjoy the summer.

sreigle · 07-12-2005, 12:17 PM

Congratulations, Les! Where is "south" for you in the Fall? Maybe you folks can make the rally in Minden, NV, 10/5-11?

jrgwdenner · 07-28-2005, 04:53 AM

Congratulations on the sale of your house and your new adventure. Nice looking rig, too.

jrgwdenner · 07-28-2005, 05:11 AM

Mel and Joy, I just read and enjoyed your trip journal. I can tell by your pictures that you're going to love Alaska. We're here at Denali as I write. If you have any questions, anybody, our email is bamatravelers@earthlink.net. (The one on our profile is closed but I cannot figure out how to get it changed.) Well, now the email address listed is the correct one.

stiles watson · 07-28-2005, 08:37 PM

Les,

I sure like your rig. Paint your Ford blue over silver and the whole thing would look like a mirror iimage of my rig. Congratulations and Happy RVing....

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