In anticipation of my new F150 arriving I decided to pre-purchase some truck accessories, some worked out well the others well not so well.

First I installed a set of Air Lift air bags in the rear so that I can try and keep the truck level no matter what I'm hauling and also to try and help prevent the rear springs from sagging.

First the brackets sitting on my garage floor



Close up of the frame showing the holes the J Bolts go into



Airbag prior to adding any air



Airbag with 5psi



Airbag with 30psi



I ran the airlines above the spare tire and on the left side followed the wiring harnesses and on the right side in order to avoid running near the exhaust pipe ran behind the bumper and then tie wrapped to the outside of the frame.

The next item on my agenda was to install the Rhino Liners but unfortunately they do not fit with the airbag brackets, they are going to require some careful trimming, I didn't have time so I skipped them for now.

3rd item on the list was to install the Ford OEM splash guards. I could not believe how horrible the instructions were (all pictures no text) and what poor quality the fasteners were, the screws stripped instantly when trying to drive them into the sheet metal clips. The instructions were also completely wrong as to where holes needed to be drilled and what needed to be removed to drill said holes. I had high expectations of an OEM accessory fitting perfectly and being somewhat easy to install. Ford failed big time on these. I gave up after the first one and left them off for my first road trip.

4th item was the bug deflector, Ford forgot to put the clear tape that's supposed to protect the paint in the parts bag so instead I have a bit of electrical tape to protect the paint. Another Ford accessory failure although not as bad as the splash guards.

5th item was side window deflectors, these went on nice and easy although again the instructions were pretty pathetic. Fortunately it is pretty self explanatory.

I removed the rear wheels to install the airbags and was shocked at the number of wheel weights in one of them. Here are some pics of each.





Next on the agenda was to travel from Kelowna, BC to Spokane, WA to have an ARE V series canopy with the Tool Master box's installed. I was also having a ladder rack that I previously had on my E-250 remounted.

I had the same accessory shop install the mudguards with better fastening hardware and also put in a bed rug.







I'm going to have to find some Yakima mounting stuff to take advantage of the Yakima Rails that ARE installed to hold the tool box's in place.



And last a little dig at Ford for fuel mileage on the EB, this was reset as I was leaving my home town on the highway and picture taken at the hotel in Spokane, no stops. Highway was a windy and hilly for about 1/3 of the trip. I drove it very easy and kept it under 65 mph with the avg being about 55 mph. There was some 4x4 use for about 30 miles although the lie-o-meter (not sure if I can call it that yet, haven't done any hand calcs) didn't indicate any difference in economy.



Must say I liked the 4x4 Auto for this:

 

Don't worry so much about the gas mileage for the first 5k miles - I've seen steady increases in mine (2011 Lariat Scab EB 6.5' bed) since new, at roughly 750, 2,500 and 5,000 miles.

I like your truck - nice color, great looking cap!

How do you like the ride with the airbags on the back?

-John

 

I hope you declared the cap...... Telling stories of major U.S. purchases and posting pics that include your license plate is a risky proposition...... Did you buy the truck in the U.S. too? it shows MPH, and MPG. If so, how was the importation process?

 

[QUOTE=canadianelbow;4802406]I hope you declared the cap...... Telling stories of major U.S. purchases and posting pics that include your license plate is a risky proposition...... Did you buy the truck in the U.S. too? it shows MPH, and MPG. If so, how was the importation process?[/QUOTE


You think the IRS is trolling this site???

 

DraKhen99, glad to hear that your mileage is improving, that's what I am hoping for, not upset about it just surprised it wasn't a bit better. Thanks for the comment on the color, I am really enjoying it so far.

I only have 5psi in the airbags at the moment and can't notice any difference in the ride, once I load up my tools etc I'm going to go to a scale and see what she weighs and also pump the airbags up to bring it back to factory height. I have a 40lb bottle of nitrogen to pump them up when mobile.

canadianelbow, yes I declared the cap and have the paperwork to prove it if the issue arises, I had one issue with Canadian customs on a major import several years ago and learned my lesson the hard way. I declare everything at the border, it simply isn't worth the chance of getting caught. Trust me on that one. PM me if you really want to know the consequences.

I have imported several vehicles from the US, this is my first bought in Canada one in a long time, the import process is very easy, if you are thinking about it and want some advice drop me a PM. The only reason I bought this one in Canada was I needed to finance and it is extremely difficult to finance a vehicle bought in the US. Most banks don't like to loan money on something that isn't in the country......

 

Canadian trucks can still be set to "English" units on the productivity screen. The speedo in the picture is km/h prime, the MPH are small in the middle. Biggest giveaway is that the big outside numbers on US MPH speedos go up in increments of 10 compared to 20km/h steps on the Canadian speedos.

On a side note, the strangest km/h-MPH switching I've ever seen was on my late grandmother's 2007 Buick Lucerne. There was only one set of numbers on the speedo, although they were in Metric scale (0-200 in increments of 20). By changing units in the computer, the speedo would jump to the corresponding value and either "km/h" or "MPH" would light up in the middle. So the car had a 200MPH speedo when set to US units

 

Didn't look at the pics that close. Just saw the MPG digital read-out. I had no idea you could change that function. I wonder if I have that option on my '10. Now I got something else to look for.

 

[QUOTE=2007 Loaded FX4;4802412]It's not the IRS Canadians need to fear, but The Canadian Border Services, or Customs Canada can be absolutely ruthless if they think you're playing them. All it takes is one phone call, and a link to this page and our Canadian brother could be in a whole world of hurt. The license plate in the picture was an easy tracking method. Just trying to help.

 

Sharp truck Acanaman! I'm not normally a fan of two-tone paint but that looks really nice! I'll be watching for your review of how the airbags affect your ride quality when loaded. Oh, I also want to see your photos of what you did to get your wheel well liners to work with the bags. You have your assignment, now get crackin'!

 

Thanks Tooner, I will post more info regarding the air bags once I get it loaded and figure out what pressures work best. Have a very busy couple of days to get all of my gear sorted in the bins etc.

Wheel well liners will likely end up waiting a couple of weeks now that they need modification. Just don't have the time!