It has been raining all day. So I'm imagining more things to do. Otherwise I'll have to start dusting. The European Hornets reminded me of a mysterious leak in the porch roof. It's been there for over 20 years. Many people have tried to fix the leak with no luck. The porch has a ceiling of plywood panels and it would never dry out up there. My parents finally surrendered, took out a small panel and replaced it with a screen to let air circulate. Eventually the big panel warped. The arrow shows the crack where the hornets are now entering. With the new roof on the mobile home, the leak has probably been resolved. I asked the roofers to take a look, but they found nothing. I think it's time to at least take down the warped panel and the screen, and see what's up there. I enjoy tearing things down and I'm pretty good at it. I believe the small missing panel is still in the garage somewhere. Hope I didn't use it for something else, not knowing what it was for.
(8/5/21) Thursday Ford Tracker was wrong. Arrived Tuesday. Picked it up this afternoon after they sprayed in a bed liner.
Need to read the manual. I won't mention all the simple things I couldn't figure out on the trip home. It has a lot of interesting things. The camera makes it so easy to back into the driveway. You can answer your smartphone by pushing a button on the steering wheel. The salesman set it all up. How does that work? Is the audio good enough to just talk back and forth to each other into space? The ONLY thing I don't like so far is the steering wheel. It's smaller, more responsive. Turning it an inch makes a big difference now. I'll get used to it. If that's only thing I don't like I'd say that's pretty good. It's also "peppy." They told me the turbo engine would be peppy. I do not need peppy. But it's fun to play around with when you're driving. The old truck was more like a locomotive.
It doesn't have a single scratch on it. I don't want to take it out for fear of getting that first parking lot ding.
Very nice, clean look. And yeah, that first ding is the hardest. After that it's Katy bar the door. How does the size compare with your old F150?
Outside? It's about 10 inches shorter than my old F-150. Otherwise about the same. That old truck was very small compared to the new F-150s. Inside feels a little tight, but that's mostly because of the console. I really wanted a bench (40/60) seat, but they don't offer them on a Ranger, and only on the cheapest model F150. The back seats don't fold down, so not so much storage space back there either. Are you thinking of buying a new car?
My husband will be trading his Jeep Wrangler for a pickup truck one of these days. Since we tow it with the motorhome he hasn't been in any hurry, though.
Scratch that. I didn't read that right the first time. I thought you said you towed a motor home with the truck. Sorry.
Congrats, Nancy!! Nice color choice. I won't tell you the story of my first BIG ding on my very first new vehicle (1989 S-10 pickup) within a week of getting it. I was being stupid...but it was sorta worth it. Regarding those phone systems...I have one in my 2019 Mazda. Yes, they are great! The fidelity is fine. People on the other end cannot tell you are on a mobile speaker phone. I like it because I will not talk on my phone when I'm driving, but these set-ups make it safe & easy. I control mine with the steering wheel buttons or with voice commands. So how thick is that owner's manual? Mine is 700 or 800 pages, PLUS there are individual manuals for some of the automated stuff (like the interface between the entertainment and mapping features of the smartphones.) I've read the manuals for my other vehicles cover-to-cover a few times over...once when the vehicle is new to me, and then again once after I've had some time driving it. I doubt I'll ever slug through this manual even once. You might want to download a copy of the manual to your computer. It makes it so much easier to search for a specific subject or to just scan stuff.
Aww, come on. If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine (with a 1986 Ranger). That is great news. I usually try to pull over when it's an important call, but sometimes there's no place. Mine is only 470 pages, but it's not well written, like it was a rush job. Ford Co (and amateur) Youtube videos are much better. I've already had two embarrassing "incidents." At the grocery store on the way home, the first time I tried to lock it. It would seem like it was locked but when I pulled the handle it wasn't. I finally gave up. Turns out if the key fob is within 3 feet of the car, you can unlock it by just pulling the handle, or it will unlock itself after 20 seconds unless you get out of range. And today at a very busy stoplight, the engine stopped and I couldn't get it started because I panicked and couldn't think. That turned out to be the Auto/Start/Stop feature. I forgot about it. There is a button to disable it but you have to push it every time you start. Need a post-it note on the visor.
Okay, you beat it out of me. I had just helped my mother sell the old family place to a developer, so it was unoccupied and overgrown as the new owners were working on their plans to replace the two houses and put in a cul de sac and 6-7 homes (this was in the middle of the suburbia that had sprung up around us...two adjacent homes on 2 acres combined.) I was giving a friend a ride in my new truck when "suddenly" I just turned off the street and into the driveway and started 4-wheeling around the yards as though I were a mad man. He had no idea that I had grown up there or the fact that it was vacant...it was somebody's home as far as he knew. He was FREAKING OUT!!! "What are you doing?!?! What's wrong with you?!?!?!" I kept saying "I don't care!!! Nobody's home!!! They should keep their grass cut!!" So I'm just tearing up the places and he's in fear of his life, when I encountered a 2" cast iron pipe that had been set in the ground decades earlier as one of the two supports for a bench seat. BOOM!!! I put a huge dent in the front left quarter panel. I was upset and laughing, all at the same time. I guess it served me right. It was worth it. Yeh, I've had my experiences. Mine locks when you walk away, and then you can unlock it by pushing a button on the door if you have the fob in your pocket. There are timing oddities of this feature properly engaging because the hatchback is slowly closed by an electric motor, so you can walk out of range before the "last door" is shut...the thing does not arm properly. My early issue was not being used to the keyless push-button start. I would get befuddled when I would pull into a parking space and not have to turn the key and shove it in my pocket. A couple of times I walked away from the car and it kept beeping like crazy. Being a stubborn old man, I just kept walking only to return after shopping and realize that I left the darned thing running!!! Guess I forgot to push the button. That's interesting. Mazda used to have that...they called it i-Stop. It's still in their cars elsewhere, but it was discontinued in the North American market at some point. I don't think you could disable Mazda's system even for a driving session. I know that some BMWs have this, but you can permanently shut it off. I think there were problems in some areas' stop & go traffic where i-Stop got confused with all the Stop/Start. People would come up on a light that was just changing so start to slow down, and the engine would turn off as they were trying to go from stopping to immediately speeding up again. Just the right set of circumstances... I almost bought my CX-5 in 2018 without realizing that Mazda had introduced Cylinder Deactivation that year (at certain times, it only runs on 2 of the 4 cylinders.) Other life stuff came up and I deferred my purchase into 2019, when Mazda put the turbo in this model, so I went with that. Mazda must not have been too proud of C.D., because I researched the heck out of the car and never saw any mention of this new "feature" anywhere. As it turns out, there ended up being problems with it. The rocker arms are held on by oil pressure and no retainer clips, so given the right set of circumstances during deactivation transition, a rocker arm might fall off. If you're lucky, you limp home. If you're unlucky, you need your engine replaced. They fixed it with a software upgrade (increased the oil pressure at that spot.) I'm on a Mazda owner's forum and have read a few tales of woe...but Mazda has covered the costs. They do all this stuff to squeeze literally one extra mile per gallon out of their cars. The CX-5 is their most popular model, so that 1 MPG times all those cars apparently helps them hit their CAFE Standard targets. That Auto/Start/Stop feature is probably in the F-150 for the same reason, since it's their most popular truck (and maybe their largest selling vehicle of all types.) You might want to join a Ford truck owner's forum. You'll find a group for your specific model, and folks will share their experiences and tips & tricks. I've learned a lot, and you can see when there are issues that are universally experienced.
That's a good story. I can picture it. Mine is boring. I only promised to get you to tell yours. Brand new '86 Ranger. I hired a repairman who used equipment that ran on compressed air and he ran out. I volunteered to go get his tank filled, not realizing how heavy it was. Tried to lift it into the bed of the truck and missed. Never put another scratch on it that bad in 25 years, including goats chewing off the paint. Ford just started that cylinder deactivation this year in their V8 engines. I read the 4 cylinder turbo engine does something similar if it overheats. Half the cylinders take turns working at a time until it cools down. What could go wrong. Something I read about but haven't tried yet, and probably never will. Sport mode. You can select which gears to run in on the 10 speed transmission (within reason), or block out higher gears, by pressing a +/- button. LINK TO VIDEO (in case you're interested) Good idea about joining a forum. Those guys talk in a different language, and they don't have much patience for someone who doesn't know anything. But I can lurk.
I trashed the bed of my S-10 by putting a liner in it. When I went to sell it, I removed the liner and discovered that the vibration and shifting had rubbed all of the paint off of the bed...all of it. The truck was a forest green, and the bed was a shiny unpainted aluminum. My next truck got the spray-in liner. I had it for some years before it chipped when I threw a cinder block on it, but the chip has not grown. So that truck has a 10 speed tranny, huh? Just amazing. My Mazda has a 6 speed automatic, and people are clamoring for an 8 speed. My Mazda transmission has a Sport Mode feature. I don't like it, and neither does anyone who's on that forum. I played with it on my first test drive and turned it off in a panic because the RPMs wound so high and the thing took too long to shift (it was working as designed, but I would never beat a car like that.) There are a few twisting roads here where I'll use the Manual Mode...it's a poor substitute for a stick shift, but still puts a smile on my face. I think you'll find that 90% of the people on those forums are just like us...they are vehicle owners who want to learn more about functions & features (as I've discovered, even the dealer's sales guys can't know all of it.) I bet you'll find a post on how to disable/re-enable the Auto Stop by doing some goofy sequence of actions. There are also great discussions on the various available accessories. I wish I had read some of the stuff before knee-jerk buying Weather Beater floor liners...I am not happy with them and there are better options out there. There are also a few gear heads posting, but the majority of members are like us, explaining how to do stuff that even the salesguys don't know. And even observing the gear heads' conversations is informative. You and I are in the center of the spectrum of mechanical knowledge. Your challenge is going to be deciding which forum(s) to frequent. There is only one Mazda forum I've found that has a volume of activity because Mazda is not a high-volume manufacturer, while I bet there are lots of dedicated F-150 forums...Ford's total unit sales (roughly 14% of global market share) are nearly 10x that of Mazda (less than 2% of global market share.) I'm happy for you. It sounds like neither one of us buys a new vehicle very often, so the excitement is always high when we do it. I've had my Mazda for 2 years and the "newness novelty" has not yet worn off.