It was a rough trip. I had a buddy traveling with us as well wth his Powerstroke and trailer also. He blew a tire on his trailer just after Verdi. Then we get to Winnemucca and my truck died. Then we get to Jerome, ID to sleep for the night and when we pull in to the Flying J, he hears a ting ting ting while his truck is idling.
So I'm in my trailer making some food, and he comes over and says he's done, his turbo is taking a crap. So luckily my brother-in-law is with us also(they are tent camping), so the next morning we hook up my buddies trailer to there Dodge to tow the rest of the way to Yellowstone, so that he can just baby the F-350 the rest of the way.
I commented on a bouncy ride I am getting and my truck just feels like it's riding funny, and they both say there's are doing the same thing. Well, about 90 miles from West Yellowstone, it was getting worse, but I figured I would get there and on Monday take it to a tire shop and check all my tires.
30 miles away, my left rear tire blew. So in less than 10 minutes, my buddy and I had my tire changed and we were on our way again. We get to the campground, and the PS is leaking trans. fluid pretty bad(it's a manual). We get all set up at the campground. I find a Big O in Rexburg who ordered me a tire. My buddy found a Ford dealership in Rexburg and ordered a turbo. We went to Rexburg on Wednesday and picked up both.
My kit came from Heath on Wednesday. So it was looking good. Got up Friday morning and my buddy heard a noise on his truck again. Then it went away pretty quick. He was hoping it was a belt squeek. We get to Truckee, CA with no problems other than his trans leaking. Around Cisco Grove he passes me and it wasn't sounding good.
He said is trans. was getting hard to shift and making a weird rattle noise. One block from his house, he beeps me on the Nextel and says he just had another tire blow out on his trailer. It was a fun, but rough trip. Luckily all my stuff was warrentied. It was pretty expensive for my buddy. He had $1000 for the turbo and $135 for the tire at Les Schwab in Winnemucca for the trailer. My parents were in PA for 3 months, and then went to MT. Rushmore for a week, and then met us in Yellowstone the same day we got there.
So my Dad decided to stay another week since he didn't get to fish the week we were there. And my Mom called tonight and said this morning my Dad's Powerstroke didn't want to start and once it did it puffed out a ton of black smoke. So when I am done here I am going to call him back and see what's up. This is the first time mine or my Dad's truck have ever given us any problems. He's made 2 trips in the last year across the country to PA without issue.
I am wondering if the fuel in Wes Yellowstone is good quality. My buddies PS didn't start first try a few mornings, and mine would fire right up, but smoke more than normal. And when it was warm mine puffed out smoke way more than it normally does. So maybe the quality of the fuel isn't good.
had to help dad do a parking lot fuel pump swap in his 2000 in sig a week ago thursday
at 119,997 miles (how "lucky" can a guy get having a fail just before warranty ran out last year).