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Old 03-04-2005, 06:59 AM   #1
richfaa
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Half way there

Just took delivery of our New F-350SD, V10, Lariat, Long bed, CC, dually..very nice truck. We will be pulling Our 32 Ft Terry TT with it for awhile as we blew most of our Truck/Rv $ on the truck (end of Year Maybe) Wife has zeroed in on the 3295RK..I like the 3650RK. My guess is we will get the 3295RK...we have been married for a verrrry long time..I know when to keep my mouth shut.
 
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Old 03-04-2005, 07:21 AM   #2
Montana_3032
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If only all men could be so wise
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Old 03-04-2005, 08:07 AM   #3
Joyce H
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Rich & Helen, Good choice on tow vehicle. We purchased our truck about 4 months before taking delivery on our 3295RK. Fortunately both of us agreed on the model and floor plan of our Montana. Keep us posted on your decision. By the way we love our Montana and would definitely buy another one in the future.
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Old 03-04-2005, 02:59 PM   #4
sreigle
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I agree, great choice of trucks! They're all good but I know your new one is good. We have the '05 but it's a diesel. We had a '99 F350 with the V10 towing this same 3295RK and it did a terrific job. Hope you enjoy it. By the way, mileage will never be particularly good but it will peak around 30k miles if it's like ours was.
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Old 03-04-2005, 05:26 PM   #5
jrgwdenner
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So you've discovered the reason for a long and successful marriage. Congrats on the new truck!
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Old 03-05-2005, 01:31 AM   #6
richfaa
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Well good milage and towing a RV to not go together Diesel/gas they both get crappy milage.We only use the truck to tow the Rv we have a set of Honda's for everyday driving.Wife 04 Honda V6 23 to 26 MPg and my 05 Honda Civic 4 banger 38 to 40 MPG..now THAT is good MPG. I got around 10MPG with my chevy tow veh and I will get that on the V10 so we are happy campers. In a couple of years when wife retires and we travel a lot more we may go diesel. I did not care for the present 6.0L diesel.
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Old 03-05-2005, 09:44 AM   #7
Wordsmith
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Rich and Helen, it sounds like we are going down the same road, just in different parts of the country!

I just have purchased a F-250 6.0 PSD and will have a Pullrite 16k Superglide installed this Wednesday. My wife, too, zeroed in on a 3295RK, a 2003 model, and hopefully once I stir the bank up, we will have it in hand. I want to have the unit before spring break--starts March 25 and runs for two weeks--as I have 10 days reserved at Unicoi State Park in north Georgia, and that would give us a solid opportunity to learn our way around it.

Still, if the bank dawdles too much, I can always hook the Prowler up and go...
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Old 03-05-2005, 10:42 AM   #8
sreigle
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Rich, the 6.0 diesel is superb. All the magazine tests say that same thing. Just don't get one of the earliest ones. But diesel is not for everyone. It depends entirely on other needs and personal preferences. Good luck with your new truck. I think you're going to enjoy it a lot.

Wordsmith, good luck getting that new 3295RK.
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Old 03-05-2005, 12:36 PM   #9
richfaa
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You are correct..you need to get the motor that suits your needs..however...This is Ford Country here..Ford Plants everywhere...One of my "Ford Friends" said consider this..The 6.0 has only been around for short time yet Ford will walk away from it for the 07 model year.There are many like yourself that have had very good luck with the 6.0 and thats great..
However I think I am hearing Ford saying...Oopps.....I would rather have a diesel and had I known a GM employee and could have got the GM X plan (I used the Ford x plan) I would have a duramax. Since I had a choice I did not want to take the chance on the 6.0//hope to have one in 2 or 3 years..meanwhile the V10 will do the job for us.
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Old 03-05-2005, 12:43 PM   #10
richfaa
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For your reading pleasure go to www.thedieselstop.com lots of informative information there.....
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Old 03-05-2005, 01:45 PM   #11
sreigle
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Rich, I personally have a friend who is a GM employee who told me he'd have the Ford if he didn't get the great price as an employee. And there's a MOC member who is a retired Ford employee who bought a GM. The problem with these forums is that a rumor gets started and everyone else picks it up. In the other thread where we're discussing this I just posted an article that makes me think that's what's fueling the rumors. Basically it has to do with some govt regulations that will affect all three manufacturers. They will all either have to make some very major modifications or they'll have to start with a whole new engine. I have searched high and low since this first came up and find absolutely nothing giving any credibility to Ford dropping the 6.0 for any other reason. Right now ALL the tow tests online and hardcopy say the 6.0 is king of the hill by a wide margin. That could change next year when somebody else comes up with something new. It's just Ford at the moment. And the early problems are no worse than they were in the other mfrs very early renditions of their diesels. And they're fixed now. When we traded our supercab '03 to get the crewcab '05, we went from one 6.0 to another. And I'd buy another if this one got totaled. What I'm trying to say is I find absolutely no reason to believe there is anything wrong with the 6.0. If you think about those forums, then read here about Montanas you'd certainly think the Montana is having big problems. That's just human nature. There are no forums where people post primarily the good things. They post problems and perceived problems. As i said in the other thread, where my brother works they have several with well over 300k miles without a serious problem and are continuing to buy more. There is no credibility I can find anywhere that says anything other than Ford will continue with the 6.0 unless they can't meet the 2007-2010 regulations. Well, maybe if they develop something even better or maybe if they decide to build their own instead of working with International/Navistar. If anyone has anything credible to the contrary, please post it. I just do not put a lot of faith in forum discussions on things like this, ya know?
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Old 03-05-2005, 03:17 PM   #12
richfaa
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thats good logic and it makes sense about the new Gov regs bringing about change..That would mean that GM(duramax) Cummings International(not the Ford brand) should be thinking about changes also. Been googling around and don't see that thus far..of course Ford may be one step ahead of the pack????
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Old 03-05-2005, 04:15 PM   #13
c5racer
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Since Dodge's contract with Cummins ends in 2007, rumor has it that Dodge will get a Mercedes diesel and Ford would get the Cummins engine. Just a rumor, don't hold me to it.
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Old 03-06-2005, 04:52 AM   #14
sreigle
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C5racer, that's always a possibility since Ford currently offers the Cummins and the Cat as well as the PowerStroke in some of its larger trucks. I could see the Cummins being offered in the smaller (our size) trucks but right now the PSD performance (per the tests) is such I wouldn't see Ford replacing the PSD with the Cummins unless there's problems in the Navistar arrangement with International. I could see both being offered, though. The Cummins has years of credibility as a long lasting workhorse and would undoubtedly do well in sales alongside the powerstroke. I know Ford and International were working on a smaller diesel for the smaller vehicles but something happened and that got dropped. Don't want to start rumors but it does make me wonder if Ford isn't looking for a new partner for that smaller diesel and perhaps in general. Or it may be something totally unrelated to their relationship. Who knows. I guess we'll find out in time.
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Old 03-06-2005, 06:00 AM   #15
Bill DeMeulle
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Rich,I have a 3280RL that I pull with a 2002 Ford F-250 crew-cab V-10
and I added the Gear-Vender over/under transmission. That addition was the best thing I did, it will go up anything that I have seen so far. I will be trying it in August to Montana to Denver, should be a good test.
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Old 03-06-2005, 01:06 PM   #16
sreigle
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Bill, what route are you taking through Colorado? We towed our 13,980lb 3295RK the length of Colorado on I-70 from west to east, including well over 11,000 feet through Vail Pass. We first towed that with our '99 F350 V10 and it did a very nice job. You shouldn't have any problem.

We're thinking of going east to west through Colorado on US 40 in July but I'll be posting in another thread to get opinions on that route.
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Old 03-06-2005, 01:59 PM   #17
Bill DeMeulle
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We are planning to go from Flathead Lake to Missoula-helena-bozeman-Billings-cheyenne-Denver. I don't think we will have any problems. Have you taken that trip?
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Old 03-06-2005, 02:17 PM   #18
richfaa
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Zhazam ..Sreigle..your 3295 weighs in at 13,980..Thats the unit we will be buying and the specs say dry weight 10360 I figured we might get it up to 12.5k or so based on what we carry in our present unit. Is the dry weight number not even close or do you carry bricks along with you???? What kind of pin weight do you have with that load???? The book says 2300.. The book says carrying capacity is 3940..you would be at 3620 just 320 pounds under max.. Is Montana giving us bad numbers????
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Old 03-07-2005, 03:25 AM   #19
sreigle
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No, Bill, we haven't but we will be headed up to Glacier / Flathead Lake in July, coming from the Kansas City area. We have been through Billings on I-90 (I think that's the right highway) but not your exact route.

Rich, we're carrying bricks and just about anything else we'd want or think we might want for fulltiming. The specs, as you noted, say 10,360. The sticker in the kitchen cabinet says 10,760. I found out from a Keystone rep at the Tampa RV Show that those stickers are the same for all of that model and includes the "normal" or "standard" options, whatever that means. Ours has the hi-gloss which adds another 600 lbs. When we were weekending/fulltiming I weighed ours while on a typical trip and it weighed right at 12,500, give or take 50 lbs (can't remember the exact number). That was with a full fresh water tank. For fulltiming we're loaded quite a bit heavier. Last time I weighed it was June, 2003,and it weighed 13,980 with a full fresh water tank. That was just a few days after crossing Colorado with the V10. We've since offloaded some things and now run with freshwater at 1/3 to 2/3 full, so we're probably closer to 13,500 now. One of these days I'll get it weighed again.

One of the nice things about the 3295 is the payload capacity allows us to bring along pretty much whatever we want to bring and we're still under GVWR.

By the way, your '05 has higher hp and torque than did our '99. And ours had the 3.73 axle. You'll have no problems towing the 3295RK.

At 13,980 our pinweight was 3,120. At 12,500 it was abougt 2700. I think the UVW on the brochures is pretty close, at least it was on our 2001 2880RL and our 3295RK. But that number is with no fluids, no propane bottles and no battery. It includes the "standard" options but not the hi-gloss, which adds 600 lbs.

I don't know where they get the brochure pinweight but from what I've seen those numbers are low on every model except maybe the 3400RL. Since propane bottles and battery are up front and total roughly 200 lbs, that's some of the pinweight difference but not all of it. Gear stowed forward of the axles will add to the pinweight, too. So maybe their number is accurate as the unit comes off the assembly line.

Yes, we're 320 lbs below GVWR so I keep that in mind when we add anything to the coach. And it's one reason I want to get it reweighed since we offloaded some things.
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Old 03-07-2005, 06:12 AM   #20
richfaa
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The weights are really good information for us..did a print out and will save them. I did not take into consideration that you are "full timers" so you have all your "stuff" with you. I always figured that if you could not load 1500 lbs of "stuff" into your camper you weren't really trying. Fulltiming stuff is a different story.. So we think our 12.5k figure is still good for us right now.. Thanks for the good information...
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