so i got a little bored today on my day off and decided that i wanted to make a barrier to secure the groceries and whatever misc items i dont want sliding around in my bed.... and i decided that i didnt want to go to Lowes or Home Depot...


but i also wanted something that would fold and be put away in my truck cab when not in use.... so.... here's what i came up with.. it took 2 minutes and 2 pieces of wood and a single nail and hammer...... i know.... pretty complicated.

 

Quite the carpenter there, I'm impressed!

 

cave man style.


i hit nail with hammer.

 

Full synthetic oil (Shell Rotella T6 5W-40) along with Archoil AR9100 oil additive does wonders for these motors and the cold start stiction issues they have. Rev X is another oil additive that will achieve the same results as AR9100 but it costs twice as much. If you're going to plug the truck in every time you park it I guess it's not an issue. I never plug mine in. The CAT ELC coolant is fine. As far as congealing, I have no idea about that. I've never lived anywhere cold enough to worry about it. It's regularly in the 20's here during the winter and mine starts right up with no fuel additive.

ETA: If you just got the truck I would change the fuel filters now with Ford Motorcraft filters. It's no telling when (if ever) the last owner changed them. Fuel system going out on these trucks is a cab off repair. Friend of mine hadn't changed the fuel filters in his 03 for about 80k miles and it shit the bed on him. Repair shop said fubar'd fuel filters caused it. His repair bill was $6,300. Up until that point I had kind of been letting mine go, just changing them when I got "roundtoit". After seeing his repair bill I started changing mine religiously.

 

just ordered wheels for my 33's and a steering stabilizer. finally gonna get this thing back on the road, only 4.5inches taller

 

Or you can just use a higher quality oil to start with and also get the advantage of less frequent oil changes. Send me a PM or visit the guide link in my sig. AMSOIL diesel oils are where I feel they shine vs the gas engine oils. They also make better filters for most applications as well.

 

I highly recommend looking into a steering system. Specifically a good one like the Currie Steering system. I got mine used on JeepForum. New they are $500 but it's night an day difference. I got tired of wearing out the stock TRE's because of the bigger tires and I couldn't keep a tie rod straight. I can bend them in a perfect U shape Hell I even bent the Currie System about an two inches out of toe. But was able to straighten it back out. If I bend the Currie tie rod again Savvy makes a heat treated tie rod that won't as an upgrade.

 

500 dollar steering system is super not in the budget lol. maybe later down the line, for now im just doing the lift and ill be dd'ing it. driving my S every day is killing me

 

I ran AMSOIL in my truck for one service interval. I just can't bring myself to go long enough between oil/filter changes to justify the price difference. And I still had to run the Archoil mixture since the AMSOIL didn't stop the stiction in my truck. I have no science to back it up but I do think AMSOIL is probably a better quality oil than anything sold at the big chain parts stores, I just can't justify the price difference when I refuse to go 20k between oil/filter changes.

Edited To Add: If you can make it economical for me I'd be more than happy to run AMSOIL again. I'm currently paying $25 a gallon for 5w-40 full synthetic.

 

edit: double post