(ED: Rich’s last COAL had to be postponed to this week due to a death in the family. SajivW’s COAL series will pick up again next Sunday)
I started off this COAL series with my relatively very rare 1965 Opel Kadett L, wondering whether our choices in cars was somehow preordained by how and where we were raised or was it rather the result of circumstance. As I look back on the 22 vehicles I have owned since 1973, I guess it’s been a little of both.
Before we get to this last COAL for me, I thought I would review the numbers and see just how consistent I was over all these years and 22 different vehicles:
Colors – 36% were red followed by whatever was available. Apparently if I couldn’t get red, I didn’t really care what I got.
Engines – 73% were 4 cylinder with displacement ranging from 1.0 to 2.5 L. I’ve never owned an 8 cylinder and 3 of the last 5 were turbocharged (plus 1 hybrid) which speaks to the odds against me ever owning an 8 cylinder in the future as automakers continue to pursue efficiency.
Transmissions – 77% were manuals but the last 3 have been automatics and again, unlikely I will ever own another manual as automatics have surpassed manuals in terms of efficiency.
Body styles – 55% had some sort of hatch vs. a trunk or tailgate, although I had to stretch a bit to get to this number by including minivans, wagons, and the lone SUV I’ve owned.
Makes – 27% were Mazda despite my love/hate for the brand vis a vis their rust issues. Toyota came in second with 19% followed by Ford and VW each tied with 14%. I’ve never owned a GM product (unless you count the Opel), they’ve just never spoken to me.
Condition – 55% were new but I’ve noticed a recent trend toward buying gently used these days and avoiding the depreciation hit. I guess we all get smarter as we age regardless of what our children might think.
To sum it up, apparently I like practical cars that are cheap to own, fun to drive and easy to spot in a parking lot.
Our 2011 Highlander was supposed to last us awhile. We’re both retired and our daily ride is a 2017 C-Max. The Highlander was acquired primarily for towing our little camper. Initially this was a teardrop trailer, we upgraded slightly in 2019 to a Scamp 16 fiberglass trailer for the indoor plumbing. After a single season with the Scamp, we came to the conclusion that the sleeping arrangements were inadequate. Partly because the bed was only 45″ wide, but also because the bed was oriented perpendicular to rest of the trailer, requiring one of us to climb over the other in the middle of the night if we needed to get to the bathroom. Which we did almost every night.
So anyway, in the midst of COVID, we started thinking about a slightly larger camper that would allow us to camp for longer stretches, mostly to spend time with a distant granddaughter. We were committed to fiberglass trailers. Both of us having been sailors in an earlier life, we understood the inherent water-tightness of fiberglass hulls. We ended up looking at Chilliwack, BC based Escape, a builder of semi-custom fiberglass campers. You start with their basic floor plans, but you can choose your own finishes inside along with appliances and such. Most of their offerings are your standard bumper pull rigs, but their top of the line trailer is a 5th wheel whose bed is oriented north-south, not east-west. All of this is to say that once we had chosen our future camper, it became clear that the Highlander was not going to cut it and we would need to replace it with a pickup. This news was accepted with surprising aplomb by Maggie, a born and bred city girl.
My previous experience with pickups were two little Mazda B series dating to before Mazda started rebadging Ford Rangers. Very practical but not known for their towing prowess. I found I had a lot to learn. Being a kind of Ford guy, I eliminated all other brands from the get go. Toyota could have been a possibility but having committed to buying used, I decided Toyota prices were going to be too much for my pocketbook. So Ford it was. My search started on Carvana based on a 2019 article written by Edward Snitkoff, found right here on Curbside Classic. For the uninitiated, what Carvana does well is present their content consistently, which makes comparison shopping a breeze. It was very easy to compare several contenders in one session, but it soon became clear that there was a price to be paid for that convenience. Along about the time I realized this, I stumbled on CarGurus. Similar concept but really just a giant on line showroom for local dealers. CarGurus lacks the consistency of Carvana content, but still much easier than navigating each dealer’s stand alone web page.
I spent the better part of December 2020 shopping for used Ford F150s on CarGurus and got to the point where I had memorized just about every option available, especially with regards to towing. Right after Christmas I found my truck at a used car dealer in a western suburb of Minneapolis. It was a Race Red 2018 F150 SuperCab XLT with 4WD, showing about 39,000 miles. Key options were a 36 gallon fuel tank, towing mirrors, trailer brake controller, and the 53A tow package with both 4 and 7 pin wiring harness and radiator upgrade. Equipped with the 2.7 L Ecoboost with the 10 speed auto, it was rated for 6,500 lbs towing. The camper’s dry weight was about 4,000 lbs and we don’t carry that much gear, so I thought we would be okay.
It took me awhile to figure out the specs because my truck was originally sold in Quebec and all the documentation was in French, but with help from Google I was able to figure most of it out. My timing was perfect, used truck prices jumped considerably this spring as Ford announced production delays owing to chip shortages. My $30,000 truck would have been more like $33,000 had I waited. The test drive was on New Year’s Eve, just after a substantial snow fall. I had already driven a couple of F150s so I knew what to expect. This one showed a bit of vibration in the front end for the first 5 miles or so but it soon went away. It turned out to be wet snow packed into the wheels. It felt like the dealer was asking a fair price so I just needed a good trade number for the Highlander and he gave me what I wanted there, so we had a deal by noon. First time I’ve ever gone shopping car shopping on New Year’s Eve. Turns out to be a good time, no crowds and everybody wants to get the deal done and go home.
I know some of you are thinking that I forgot something in all my research – payload. And you would be right, rookie mistake. I didn’t think this truck was particularly loaded from an option standpoint and assumed I would have a reasonable payload rating in the neighborhood of 1,400-1,500 lbs. Wrong, the yellow door sticker read 1,178 lbs. Which I didn’t notice until I got home. I was so thrilled to have checked all the other boxes that I never even looked. The good news is our trailer has a tongue weight of around 700 lbs and it’s just the two of us traveling when we tow. And with the bed taken up with the 5th wheel hitch, there isn’t a lot of room for stuff. I’m guessing that we’re at around 1,100 to 1,150 lbs when we head out with the camper. One of these days I need to weigh the whole thing just to be sure.
It would be another 8 months before we would take delivery of the Escape trailer in Sumas, WA, just south of Chilliwack. Meanwhile we acquainted ourselves with the truck while doing some camping in the Scamp. We managed to put about 8,000 miles on it between trips to both coasts with no issues at all. Just before leaving for Sumas, I took it in for an oil change and brake inspection. The rear brakes felt like they were pulsing a little when towing the Scamp. This is when I learned about Ford’s swollen lug nut issue. Lug nuts on some Ford cars and trucks apparently fail with some regularity but Ford keeps installing them. $80 got me a new set which may last 3 years if I’m lucky. Plus a set of pads and rotors on the rear brakes for $400 and I was all set.
About that 5th wheel hitch. We went with an Andersen rail mount Ultimate hitch coming in at just 50 lbs or so including chains and rails. Technically with the Andersen setup, it’s not a 5th wheel so chains are required in most states. Hitching up the new trailer continues to be a bit nerve-racking for me. First I need to remember to lower the tailgate so the pin box on the trailer clears when I back up to connect. Then remember to stop before the lowered tailgate hits the trailer. But back up far enough so the tailgate doesn’t strike the pin box when it’s slammed shut. It helps to have a partner and my wife Maggie is great with her signals.
The Andersen hitch used a funnel like attachment on the end of the pin box which allows you to get within 2″ or so, you don’t have to be perfectly aligned. You just have to remember all of these steps with the tailgate. I know that one of these days I will forget one. The truck pulls the trailer just fine, although we have not tackled the Rockies yet. I have watched all those Fast Lane Truck videos pulling trailers up the Eisenhower pass and down again, so I know it can be done. As I noted in the beginning, most of my experience is with manual transmissions and I’m still getting to know the 10 speed. I leave it in Tow/Haul mode when we have the trailer attached. I’m still getting used to the truck downshifting to 2nd gear on steep grades. What I haven’t quite figured out yet is how to get it to start upshifting at the bottom, it wants to hold the lower gear longer than I like. Yes, I could manually shift it, but I paid all of this money for it to do it by itself. We get about 13-14 mpg towing, 20-22 mpg without. That seems to be the going rate. I do like that 36 gallon tank. Sure it’s hurts to fill it, but I managed to drive from Lancaster, PA to Atlanta, GA (albeit without the trailer) on a single tank; almost 750 miles.
About a month after buying the truck I noticed a substantial section of the grille missing. I went back and looked at a photo of the truck taken the day I brought it home and there it was, I missed it on the walk around. The XLT comes with the two horizontal bars, painted a grey metallic color called Magnetic. The grille is actually three pieces – those horizontal bars, a supporting grid under that and then a supporting structure including motorized louvers under that. My middle grid section was all smashed to hell, like maybe a tree branch or something hit it. No damage to the outer or inner sections. But I just couldn’t leave it like that, I’m not that kind of guy. A new OEM grille would have run me $700, so I opted to get a Raptor like FORD replacement from Amazon for $170. I know I’m not fooling anybody, but I like the look.
The interior is just fine with black cloth seats and a center console with a deep storage box. It’s got the same Sync3 system as the C-Max, so there is no learning curve for us or our phones when we switch back and forth. Ford started outfitting their trucks with a 300W DC converter some years ago and ours has that system. Like other folks who have this, I have taken to carrying an assortment of Ryobi tools and batteries with me in the truck and use the onboard converter to keep everything charged.
The SuperCab gives us more than enough room for either the occasional passenger or some (lightweight) odds and ends when camping. Between the limits of the cab and the bed being full of hitch and trailer, it actually works to our payload advantage in that we just don’t have the room to load up beyond our limits. Another advantage with this configuration is the 6-1/2′ bed vs the shorter 5-1/2′ bed commonly available on the SuperCrew cab. That extra bed length lets us turn almost 90 degrees with the trailer attached. Backing into campsites has never been easier.
I do I feel a bit of guilt driving something this big, both because of its thirst and just the overall size, especially living in the city. Probably the biggest challenge to city driving is those big-ass tow mirrors. I moved my daughter from Atlanta to Brooklyn and this is the first time I’ve ever been driving something that was maybe too big for local streets. The problem is those mirrors. They aren’t electric, if you want to gain clearance, you need to get out of the truck and manually fold them in. I haven’t clipped a mirror or fender yet, but it’s bound to happen someday. Maggie will not drive the truck if it means exiting or entering our garage.
I could see another F150 in my future though. I am leading an effort to bring EV charging stations into our condo parking garage and when I get that accomplished, it will be time to test drive an F150 Lightning. I can’t wait for that.
Those capped lug nuts are awful. My neighbor had a Ford Focus with those lug nuts that he couldn’t remove due to the corrosion causing the caps to swell. He stripped them badly, so we ended up welding some old lug nuts to them to get them off. You should be able to get aftermarket lug nuts that are a solid one piece design. I have had good luck with McGard lug nuts and they are pretty rust resistant.
The payload game is one that truck makers love to play today. Ford will advertise their 3000+ lb payloads for their F-150s, but the reality is to get that payload requires a very uncommon and specific configuration. It seems most typical 1/2 tons today are closer to a 1500 lb payload in the real world, once the actual curb weight is subtracted from the GVWR. Like your truck, there are many that are less than that. I recall some Ram 1500s having less than a 1000 lb actual payload. However, I am sure few pickup owners actually follow the load ratings closely, and overloading occurs with ease when (or if) the owner actually loads the truck.
My bad experiences with that type of lug nut started in the 1980s with Chrysler products, continued by issues with Buick and Ford lug nuts. At least the Chrysler and GM ones are relatively cheap to replace. Ford ones aren’t. My 98 Bonneville had the best solution, standard lug nuts with screw on plastic caps.
Funny, as my 2004 Focus has that chrome cap on top of the lug nut. However, in the 17 years I have had the car only two caps have ever separated while all the others are original. There is one on the car right now but the cap is just dress and affects nothing else other than cosmetics and the fact that you need one size smaller socket to remove.
Funny, as my 2004 Focus has that chrome cap on top of the lug nut. However, in the 17 years I have had the car only two caps have ever separated while all the others are original.
That’s because you live in California. I am sure your Focus wasn’t full of rust and holes in the lower doors/rockers like this 2012 was at 8 years old when this occurred. In my part of the world, harsh environmental conditions mean that the steel lug nuts rust out under the caps causing the issue.
I had the same problem with my 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan. I ended up springing for aftermarket one-piece lug nuts so that I can consistently do my own seasonal wheel and tire changeovers.
Here’s a MotorWeek segment on the issue:
https://youtu.be/9Wr-_tu6XU8
Is your parking structure attached to the condominiums? Look into all of the Chevrolet Bolt recall details before you do this to your neighbors.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/recall-all-chevy-bolt-vehicles-fire-risk
Ford and FIAT-Stellantis have been inflicting swollen nuts on their customers for at least 15 years. They really don’t care. A case was brought against Ford in 2017 and a Michigan-based US District Judge through it out in 2019 while claiming that Ford didn’t know there was a problem. There are special +.5 mm lug wrenches available for dealing with swollen nuts.
https://www.amazon.com/CTA-Tools-4221-Socket-18-5mm/dp/B01D4QBH7Q
“Is your parking structure attached to the condominiums? Look into all of the Chevrolet Bolt recall details before you do this to your neighbors.”
Detached, across the street.
That’s a relief! Sorry for even thinking that you might be that wrong.
Ford has been using aluminum-capped lug nuts on their cars with alloy wheels for a long time. My first encounter was on my 1987 Mercury Sable. The decorative aluminum “caps” would fall off when the glue holding them failed due to braking heat. I had no problem getting them off, by finding a socket, may have been metric, that fit the bare steel nut. Then I went to the auto parts store and got aftermarket chromed steel lug nuts. Two of my Taurus/Sable had plastic wheel covers and plain steel lug nuts, so no problem.
Not surprised you decided to get a trailer with a north-south bed, as yes, the transverse beds are not very older-bladder friendly.
I assume an integrated (van conversion, etc.) was not in the consideration because you drive the Ford as a daily driver?
Your mileage is quite good; it’s remarkable how well these modern big pickups do n that regard. There was a time when you’d be lucky to see double digits.
Thanks for an excellent COAL series.
“I assume an integrated (van conversion, etc.) was not in the consideration because you drive the Ford as a daily driver?”
Correct, sort of. Only 7′ clearance in our parking garage.
Towing with an electric pickup will be interesting. As you may know, due to the extremely high efficiency of electric motors, the drop off in range (same as higher fuel consumption) will be disproportionately greater than in a gas powered truck.
I know that’s a bit counter-intuitive, but it’s the reality. The intrinsic high inefficiency of an IC engine masks some of the change in total consumption; meaning the extra power required for towing is still significantly less than the total energy wasted as heat, since IC engines operate at some 25-40% efficiency. So the 35-40% increase in your fuel consumption will quite likely be less than the corresponding drop in range when towing with an EV. It could well be 60% or more. Possibly 70% or more when towing a large, boxy, trailer. That would cut effective range pretty significantly.
It will be interesting to see how that pans out when folks actually start to buy electric trucks and use them to tow. I suspect we’ll see more very aerodynamic trailers on the market to help compensate for that, as aerodynamic drag is of course the overwhelming issue with towing trailers at highway speeds.
GM also used the capped lug nuts, remember those things being a pain to remove and explaining to the customer why there was 20 new lug nuts charged on his bill. Some were happy we took care of the problem others were pissed that they were on there to begin with.
How do you mess up LUG NUTS???? This is the first I’ve heard of this, but Google searching found a bunch of results. https://fordauthority.com/2019/08/ford-lug-nuts-from-dismissed-lawsuit-still-pose-problems/
“Lug nuts on some Ford cars and trucks apparently fail with some regularity but Ford keeps installing them.”
Cross Ford off any future vehicle purchases for me!
You use a 12 point socket and/or a shallow socket and combine that with an impact wrench to ensure they are destroyed quickly. Seriously of the 3 in the picture the top one shows the signs of a 12 point socket that wasn’t fully engaged and the lower left one shows the use of a 12 point socket in both cases I’m betting an impact was used. The other trick is to use the “universal” flip socket with 13/16″/21mm on one side and 3/4″/19mm on the other.
You are no doubt right about the impact wrench. The only time an impact was used on my Focus was for the first tire replacement. After that I insisted on manual torquing of the nuts. Then more after that I now remove my wheels, with a 6 point socket, and take them and new tires to a small shop a mile away to install the tires. Never a wait, the guy charges $20/tire, and I give him $100. He has done five cars now for me.
How do you (i.e., they) mess up lug nuts? Same way they mess up everything else: squeeze too much money out of the spec, then buy them from the lowest bidder, then twist that supplier’s nipple for constant further reductions in price.
You do it by being cheap. A decorative aluminum cap glued onto an undersized steel nut costs less than a properly sized chrome plated steel nut. Save a penny here and there over millions of vehicles and it all amounts to real cash, to pay more executive bonuses for saving money.
They are not aluminum caps they are stainless steel and they are more expensive than a chrome plated steel nut that will rust and look like crap in a few years.
Scout, you live in pretty temperate climate. Those of us that face harsh winters and excessive road salt see these lugs fail all the time, not because of impact wrenches, but the steel lug nuts rusting under the caps. FWIW, McGard chrome nuts hold up fine, cheapos rust in a winter or two. I have a set of McGards on my wife’s car going on 7 winters that I use an impact on them regularly, with zero rust (always torqued by hand).
+1 my winter driver is a 09 Focus with the capped lug nuts, the rust inside expanded so much in a few of them they bulged out and cracked the stainless cap where the correct socket couldn’t even fit over them anymore, and while they’re stainless you need to polish them periodically to keep any semblance of a chrome like appearance to them, they’re pretty dull.
I too have a 15 year old set of McGards on my Cougar and I drove it with those lugnuts through winters for 5 years and they still look like new
Yes rust jacking can be a problem with the capped nuts. My experience with McGards is yes they are better than the cheapos but the last set I had were starting to rust in ~3 years. Now the black painted McGards I had way back when black wheels were cool looked great for a decade.
Thanks and it from a past tire shop guy, If you cross off vehicle brands for lug nuts you will cross all brands off. Every company has crappy lug nuts of one form or other. The chrome lug nuts plated rather than foiled just rust /oxidize which swells them up and again your wrench hardly fits. Old steel lug nuts are really still the best.
Sure looks like Ford doesn’t really want to sell the F150 in the Max Tow configuration. The highest towing capacity is with Max Tow package and the Heavy Duty Payload package. I was shopping for a SuperCrew 4×4 with a 6.5ft box and the Max Tow with the HDPP is only available on the XL and XLT and with few options. Want the power pass seat? Nope can’t have it. Want chrome bumpers? Nope. Want color keyed bumpers? Nope. Various packages that would add minimal to no weight difference and you can’t get the best tow and payload package.
You might be glad that the mirrors are manual. Several years ago I overheard a conversation where a man was talking about his recently purchased pickup. It sounded as if he had recently retired and had bought one with all the bells and whistles. Soon after getting it he had gone to visit his daughter and her family. As she lived east of Toronto and he lived west, it included a stretch on Highway 401 across Toronto. This is a very heavily travelled and complicated road. I think it maxes out at 18 lanes wide, so it can require a lot of lane changes. It seems that this guy, in his new and somewhat unfamiliar truck went to adjust something (radio, heater?) and pushed the wrong button and his mirrors folded. He said that at that point, in heavy traffic, he was not going to try to find the button to put the mirrors back, so he finished the trip flying blind without his outside mirrors.
I live in snow country. I run snow tires in the winter. Snow tires on. Snow tires off. At least twice a year I change tires. A brake job or a flat could bump that up to four times per year or more. Those capped lug nuts are fucking junk. They don’t last and the caps get stuck in the lug wrench. If you have a cap stuck in the lug wrench while changing a roadside flat tire with no means of extracting it, you ain’t going nowhere even though you have all of the tire changing tools that you should need. Capped lug nuts are fucking junk!
I’m glad my 2002 F150 is old enough that it has plain steel lug nuts with hubcaps on its alloy wheels. I also have an 8′ bed to go with my SuperCab which is great for hauling lumber and kayaks, not quite so great parking. On the plus side it’s a great tow rig since the extra wheelbase adds stability and the 5.4 V8 gives me an 8000 lb tow rating, which slightly offsets the disappointing 1250 lb payload, I’m thinking of adding helper springs or airbags. Coincidentally mine is also bright red, purely by accident. Mileage could be better, but paying only $3000 cash for it leaves some headroom in the budget for gas.
I share your feelings about transverse beds, we don’t like stepping on each other either.