Yes. Actually there are three. Two spade fuses at the battery end (on both hot and ground), and a barrel fuse at the radio end (on the hot only). I know it seems like a little overkill, however that is how Kenwood supplies the wiring harness for the radio.

 

two things to remember when you are installing a two way radio in a vehicle, 1) ALWAYS,ALWAYS run the power from the radio directly to the battery, it prevents a couple of problems such as not having enough power and more importantly it helps prevent RFI (interference) issues with the vehicle. and MOST, MOST importantly install fuses on both sides of the radio's power leads (red and black) AT THE BATTERY!!!!!!!! I don't care if you have fuses at the radio, if for some reason you ever get a short in the power wires as it goes thru the firewall the fuses at the radio will protect the radio but you just lost at least your battery.

 

Every time I hear the store "Harbor Freight" I get hungry for Chinese food.

 

Don't worry about making your own firewall hole.Just make sure what's on the other side .A stepdrill is the easiest way.You must have a grommet and after installing the wires seal with RTV. Fuse both sides at the battery !! That's the proper way we do it ..AC2RC

 

I lean towards looking at the plugs too. The coil packs on these trucks are typically pretty good and rarely go out. I've only seen people mention it a couple of times in the 14 or so years I've been here. For your truck to have two bad ones seems odd, not impossible but odd. Put new plugs and boots on it and see what happens.

Secondly, you said you baby the truck. That's actually bad for the engine. Ford put all those numbers on the tach, use them! The 5.0 is a rev happy motor, wind it out on a long freeway on ramp. The PCM also learns how you drive and tries to adjust accordingly. However, I notice that if I drive really easily for too long the truck starts shifting funny and doesn't run as well as it can. While you're changing the plugs disconnect the battery and turn the headlights on. This will clear the memory from the PCM and get you back to the baseline tuning. See what happens, I suspect this might help out.