How'd it go today?

MB, Holmen,

Ford offers 0% financing twice per year. This truck is a brand new 2016 model. It will soon be a carry over into 2017. The new model 2017 prices will be increasing by about 5%.

This truck is pretty much just what I've been wanting.

2016 Ford F-550 4x4 with the 6.7 diesel PowerStroke V-8, 4-valve, producing 400 horses and 860 lb. ft. of torque.
Beefed up rear axle option, offering 14,500 pounds of payload on the rear axle alone.
Front axle upgrade allows for future installation of plow or winch.
Transmission upgrade provides for future PTO and wet kit installation.
Rear suspension upgrade provides for low deflection. Pack the dump box to the gills without dragging ass.
Towing upgrade option allows for a combined truck and trailer weight of 36,000 pounds. Up from the 28,000 pound standard.
The rear axle offers limited slip and was ordered with 4:88 axle ratio. Poor fuel mileage on the highway, but great performance when fully loaded and operating on soft ground.
The Monroe 11' contractor box has fold-down sides that allows for loading and unloading with a forklift from either side. The rear gate is two way for either dump or spreading.

Other options include heated exterior towing mirrors for those cold frosty mornings. Supplemental cab heater provides electric instant heat when starting. No more waiting for the engine to warm up before the heat and defrosters begin working. Tilt wheel, cruise, Sync, armrest, turbo boost gauges, engine block heater, Receiver hitch, electric trailer brake controller, and a few more things that I forget.

Joel
 
Went to get fuel, noticed the F350 is hard shifting now into 2nd, overdrive light is flashing...... hope it's just a simple reset, not an internal repair... :(

Peter I'm not sure on the pre power stroke models(which is why I haven't commented on your truck to much)but on the newer models a flashing OD light means the transmission has set codes and they need to be pulled to diagnose properly. Good luck with it.
 
Fantastic new truck Joel. I'm a ford truck nutbar and by all accounts the new 6.7's are a great engine and the six speed tranny has proven bulletproof too.
 
Peter I'm not sure on the pre power stroke models(which is why I haven't commented on your truck to much)but on the newer models a flashing OD light means the transmission has set codes and they need to be pulled to diagnose properly. Good luck with it.

I disconnected the batterys for a while, seemed to clear it. No flashing OD and smooth shift into second. Perhaps when the belt took out the tranny cooler line the tranny went into error with no oil.
 
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Lightning hit one of my Red Maples today. At least it didn't hit the house.
 
No one was home when it hit. Wife was at the store. I was on campus watching football practice after taking the team from their locker room to the rugby field. (they tear it up instead of their own field).

Leaving Friday morning for Houston, TX. First game kicks off at 11:00 on Saturday.
 
Jim, so how was it? Did Dr.Brinton do an in-field Solvita test? If so, what did you think about it?

No he did not, but he spent quite a lot of time explaining the process. We are planning to use the Solvita in the future.

He sent us all with a home test kit for CO2 respiration.

It was good though, a lot of the science was not new to me, but my wife learned quite a lot.

We learned about dung beetles too. Stuff like how a healthy population of dung beetles can help control flies, and some cattle wormers are less harmful to dung beetles than others.

Jay Furher talked quite a bit about all the Nitrates that are being released into the rivers and how covers can really help.
 
....He sent us all with a home test kit for CO2 respiration....

Cool! We have labs run the Solvita/Haney test but have not done any in-field testing ourselves. I would be interested in the process.

Speaking of nitrate pollution, among others, agriculture has been under scrutiny for polluting waterways but estimates are showing residential lawns encompass more acres than any other single crop in the US. Well worth understanding the consequences of what we are doing.
 
Squisher,

I'm a Ford fan too, but not because of loyalty to the name or brand. Ford just offers so many more options than the other guys. GM.....you get what they've got. Dodge....great Cummins engine.....few other options available. Forget Chevy.

Commercial Truck Trader is a great website for searching for a good work truck. I believe they have 798 medium duty (F-450 / F-550) Ford dump trucks listed. Dodge has 2. Really? Just two? Yep.

If a guy is looking for a truck with certain requirements or specs for the work to be performed, Ford just kills the competition. There were so many options available on my new truck that it was hard to make a decision. This is where Ford really shines. Pick the truck for the Job at hand, rather than just make do with a truck the other guys are trying to sell. Price isn't very important when it comes to duty specs.

I'm confident that I've found THE ONE truck that meets all of my needs. I'm very happy with everything Ford has to offer when it comes to work trucks. Can't wait to see it in person. It will be here Thursday, September 6th.


Joel
 
The fellow from NDSU, Jay Furher, was talking quite a bit about it.

He said he was asked how we were going to feed 9 billion people in the coming years. He said not to worry about it, there is no way we are going to have enough clean water for them if we dont make some big changes.

That kinda hit home. It was very interesting to listen to him and the Dr. For instance, when we grow a crop, we use a lot of nitrogen fertilizer. Not all of that is taken into the plant, some of it remains in the soil, and some is leached out.

A lot of that Nitrate is left behind in the crop residue, little of it is taken off the field in the grain.

When we fallow a piece of land, that nitrate stored in the residue is broken down and released to the environment, by either microbes or weather, where it volatilizes to the atmosphere or goes into the soil and is washed away.

By planting a cover crop, we scavenge that nitrate and store it in the living plant. It is either housed in that plant for the year or is contained in the manure of the animals that ate the plant. What that does is keep that nitrate in the field for a long enough time that it can be utilized by the coming year's cash crop rather than be lost to the air or water ways.

Pretty cool. I did not know that.


I have to read the directions again, and try to understand the idea behind it, but from what I gathered you take a certain amount of soil and place it in the supplied jar. It needs to remain in that jar for a set amount of time and then you stick this little stake in it. I think it measures the amount of CO2 that is being released by the soil. There is a piece of paper on the top of the stake that resembles litmus paper that changes color and you match to a supplied chart.

I did not really understand all the CO2 discussion, I wandered away for a bit and took a leak and then got into a conversation with a produced about his dry land corn, so I think I missed that part.

Something along the lines of CO2 in the soil being released and used by the plants to then be put back. I think! Not sure if more CO2 or less is better, which signifies a healthier soil. Will look that up.
 
still had a little green on the bottom, I'll say it was terminal.even where it was green though the wood was all eaten away. Thanks for embedding the link, I'll do that next time.
 
....I did not really understand all the CO2 discussion, ....

The CO2 test is a measurement of the soil's microbial respiration. You can have too little if biology is inactive and too much if the soil is overactive such as from tillage and fertilization. There will be an optimum level where nutrients are being cycled and being made plant available but not so fast that soil carbon is being burned up to the point of depletion.
 
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