I waited until I’d been through the river crossing about a dozen times as I’d hoped to be able to put this pic in the “muddy” thread, but darnit...the platinum white just really never looks dirty unless you’re closer than a couple of feet.
1000 mile road trip in the books. Took two adults, a 4yo, an 18mo, and all our various outdoor gear including a couple of little bikes and scooters. The truck was exemplary. This was our first ever road trip where I could still see out the rear window when fully loaded. The ride is INCREDIBLE...smooth and quiet. Kept us cool and comfortable despite the 100+ temps (including some extended idling to accommodate sleeping toddlers). Got my butt cooled and massaged the whole trip.
As previously posted in the 4wd thread, the “regular” AWD system (no HD-tow, no FX4) was great! Got me through the river repeatedly in several areas where trucks failed to make it...I even pulled my brother-in-law’s F150 out of a crossing once. Selecting the “grass/gravel/snow” mode and relying on the computer to do its thing was completely drama-free. Even my wife was amazed at how “boring” it was to cross the river in ours after she saw all the reving and splashing and thrashing some of the other rigs were experiencing going through the rocks and mud. And this was all on 22s with stock street tires! Driving up to the crossing the first time drew some looks from a group nearby sitting next their lifted trucks...several of them pointed and chuckled at my shiny minivan with the automatic running boards...my successful journey left several open mouths and thumbs up. And before you say “I’m sure this ‘river’ was a small puddle”, no, our main crossing was a good 15 inches of quickly moving whitewater over slick, loose rocks/gravel with a pretty daunting approach and exit.
Gas mileage was pretty abysmal (15.5 as calculated (so not using the on-board computer)) but I did about 85 the whole way...plus that extended idling a couple times. The speed limit was 75 most of the way and if someone wasn’t doing north of that I usually passed, and we’ll just say that involved a foot to the floor and speeds in excess of 85. So the poor gas mileage was not a surprise.
And I will say I’m glad I replaced the subpar puddle lights with the leds. It was nice to actually be able to use the puddle lights in the middle of nowhere and I can’t say I’d have been able to do so with the stock bulbs.
My “janky” homebrew rear seat entertainment system worked great! And all-in it cost me $160. I got to listen to Cars and Finding Nemo on a pretty constant loop the whole way and the kids loved it. Pretty sure I could perform a one-man production of both of those movies from memory.
After 5000 miles, I could not be happier with my truck.