flagmanruss

Yes, I have. I love the lane guidance & road names. My only complaint is I haven't figured out a good way to cancel the route... you arrive but the GPS doesn't register it yet. So all the local trips, I can't leave the map on. I'd like a one touch button to cancel like Magellan. I've posted on Tomtom's site & maybe they'll update with it. They actually responded & said they'd forward the feedback to their R&D. I've bought a cheap mount & "borrowed" the mounting ring which I've bolted to my old handbuilt mount (from my old GPS) for the Cirus. (Wedges in the top of the air vent, holds the GPS to right of instrument cluster. Only down side is it reflects on the windshield, solved by placing a baseball cap with visor shading the screen. I've decided in front of the airduct on the CTD... I can't stand things blocking my vision... so I stuck the supplied self-adhesive mounting disc on the top of the dash & turned the suction cup over so the GPS is that location. I'm still wondering how one uses a magnetic mount on a mostly plastic dash. I don't kow if it would hold but I have the magnetic base of an old antenna that would be interesting to try. I still have to use the GPS more & better learn the tool.Russ

No sane person will recommend running with oil contamination. Not once but twice bought cars (unknowingly) with a blown head gasket. In the first case, didn't think anything of it when I discovered the radiator cap was on but not fully locked, preventing the coolant from building pressure. (I had the head gasket replaced.) The guy was a farmer... knew it was bad but wasn't concerned since he'd "solved" it.In the second case, I found the cooling fan was jumpered to run all the time... kept the engine very cold (no heat) and prevented overheating which is probably how the head gasket blew. I had a rebuild installed but it was not a good job & we ended up trading it. When I went to the garage the seller used, the mechanic would not talk to me... the guy had known & stuck me.Best wishes,Russ

I'm thinking of a set of the 1X2 digital displays that ISX is working with. I bet 2 could be mounted side by side on the column.

Suggest this valueable information be stickied somewhere.

Hey, stodg, thanks, that's unique & clever. Tell us more on the mount. Russ

The GPS that does not note one way streets is an OLD DATA problem. My old one has never been updated & tells me to go the wrong way to daughter's house on a one way. This is exactly why I decided to opt for a new one specifically WITH updates for life... On another note, the air vent mount I'd ordered arrived today. It's "functional" but I don't like it. I think that I'll scavenge parts from it to modify my custom GPS mounts which I'll be reworking to the new TomTom.

With fuel prices around here high... I don't ordinarily worry about topping up. I plead guilty however to topping right up the spout... fortunately my tank & fill are tight with no seepage... before hooking up to head out on trip. It's far enough home that I'm down close to a gallon, just getting there. I have been paying attention to the previous posts on this topic & have not topped up since... If/when I get a Draw-Straw I'd be concerned about seepage from the gromets. It would hurt to waste fuel at these prices, even if no one caught us. Russ

I got some 55K on the OEM Michelin LTX... at least 10k more in them. Fine highway tires... but I need something more open for snow & the occasional detour off the asphalt. My OEM rims are getting corrosion where the center cap rubs...

I used to get decent mileage towing my all alum gooseneck horse trailer... loaded with 2 horses, hay & camp gear for 2 weeks. Narrow front... body same width as truck. Drove easily.But last summer's run with the new-to-me 28' Tahoe toy hauler... extra high, square front... had me pulling 9-10 numbers. Normally I can feather the gas & even coast a bit down hill... NOPE. If I was off the fuel, I lost speed even down a steep grade. I tried to run 60-65. If I bogged down on the hills, sometimes got sucked down to 55 or even 50. Towing this rig is work... for me & the truck. I have hand calculated & my overhead is right on for my stock truck (soon to change). My tires give me a very close speedometer reading... wife complains that I'm speeding compared to her Subaru (remember the class action for their inaccurate low readings). Guys who count on 10% windage on speedometer could end up conversing with Smokey the bear. Russ

Hi & Welcome. My 01.5 truck is in my signature. I also have 4:10s & the best I have ever gotten is high 18's in summer... empty & babying it for mpgs. 4:10s just won't get into the 20s IMHO. I'm pure stock for now, except exhaust & I run the TCW3 2 cycle oil as an additive. Chips pretty much screw up the overhead MPG guage but mine seems to be right on because I'm stock. It's a great truck... but IMHO the 24 valves of this era were detuned for smog... the IAT fooler that the guys are working up has great promise for keeping your best mpgs year round. Best wishes, Russ

I'm 01.5, SO, automatic... I guess I got screwed on compression. Or does that mean I just NEED to buy a bigger turbo to compensate?? LOL!! I've NEVER seen 20 mpg with my 4:10 gears. Not even running empty, babying it... I'd sure like to keep summer MPGs all year long.

That is a nice fix. Not sure I'd have thought of it.I've never cut the factory seal on my rear slider... the plastic base must be cut to allow the catch to work. With the AC, I've never wanted it. With the quad cab, too far to dump empties (root beer) cans in the back. As an asside, I hauled my gooseneck horse trailer to Harristown, Pa 300 miles & back with my Chevy C30. I just dropped my empty root beer cans over my shoulder, out the slider. When I arrived, there were no cans in the bed. Not one! On the way back, I noticed the rubber bed mat was floating nearly as high as the side rails. Holy vacume, Batman!!

I had a roll of 12" aluminum flashing out in the barn. I cut 55" of it, folded it 28"/ 27", made a narrow 90 degree fold at that bend to stiffen the edge. The idea is the push pull will open a air space for insulation. Despite being rolled for years... the material wants to straighten out. (When I unrolled it on the floor... it took off unrolling the full length... Come Back Here!! I think I'm going to have to make up a strap to hold it curled as I want it. I'm thinking of adding a circle of foam gasketing at each end of the filter so the air will have to enter from the side away from the engine... also give room for the air to flow around the filter, not just the exposed side.

I am reminded of a charter boat captain... was observed coming up the winding channel (5 miles from the ocean) with his head in the radar scope on a beautiful sunny day. Periodically he's stick his head up & look around... we kidded him and he replied "The time to learn was when it was not foggy out!" Quite correct. He was learning the tool & what the echos were while he could verify them.BTW, my boss got on my case for tuning a radar with a boat on the trailer... every time the antenna would sweep the nearby highway, everyone with a radar detector would jack up the brakes! LOL. He didn't want to have a pile up in front of the shop... bad for business. I've wondered if there might be a market for junk boat radars for school zones & playground areas.

I've had a GPS for several years... it works fine, most important I'd learned how to run it & I liked it. (We Nicknamed her Blondie... Never shuts up, even when she's wrong!) It is a Magellan 3250. I've been frustrated however that the maps were out of date... errors from the day I bought it. Currently I95 & I195 are being relocated with complete revamp of interchanges & exits. Magellan (currently) wants $49 for a map update... but there is no guarentee the update will have YOUR AREA updated. I researched this & infrequent updates was a common complaint for this brand. I don't care how good the units are, the cost of Map updates... and uncertainty of applying to you... is a deal breaker. So I further researched GPS. I decided to spend my Christmas money on a new GPS rather than spend 50% on an uncertain update. I selected a TomTom540TM (550TM is the same except for slight software changes). After I selected the models I wanted, I made the buy on a pre-BlackFriday Sale... very close to the best advertized price but I didn't have to get up at 4AM. The T stands for a lifetime Traffic update subscription, M stands for a lifetime Map update. You can see where this is going. Folks, I really like this GPS. It gives better prompts with time enough to get into the correct lane (I think it is speed sensitive), speaks the name of the new road for verification... really nice. It takes a couple of hours to down load the data to your computer... but the GPS can plug into your computer to do trip planning on the big screen. TomTom us user updateable & you can also share your corrections with others & get their corrections within parameters you set. Over the last couple of days, I've copied all my addresses from the Old GPS to the New. I have found one road in Maine where my SIL lives... that the TomTom does not recognize. I was joking that I'd have to name the New GPS Blondie 2... but then I drove to town. If I had not known where I was... I'd have really loved the prompts... exactly where they needed to be. I really don't want things stuck to my windshield. I learned very early on that GPS generally works just fine without being on top of the dash. (The only exception, my Whitney Houston CD interfered with Blondie... out on the NY Thruway... Another story) I had made my own airvent mounts for the original GPS Blondie... Bent aluminum & a bit of velcro (wedged over or under the airvent) the has served me very well... Different ones for my CTD & Cirus The New GPS comes with a clever ring mount on the back of the reciever & a suction cup windshield mount... not conducive to velcro. I had seen that airvent mounts were now commercially available. I shopped around & have ordered a airvent mount through Amazon for under $10 delivered. I am still learning the tool but am blown away by how every shortcoming of the old has been addressed... even things I was not aware of.

Yes YIKES!! Maybe get those plastic push ins used to secure interior panels with the fins sticking out. Cut to length. If they work, could be painted to match. I'm going to check my keys now. Thanks,Russ

For a while now, I've been wanting to mount a few discreet LED running lights on the pinch welds but I guess I've gotten chicken about tapping wires which are exposed to corrosion. I'd like to tap inside the cap... the fuse panel would be ideal. I used to have a fuse tap which accepted a spade terminal from my days working for the Electronics company. (Pull fuse, stick tap in, reinsert fuse. plug your wire into the tap.) http://www.cooperbussmann.com/6/BladeFusesandAccessories.html

Ex FIL didn't charge enough to cover the clean up. He was one of the Fire Chiefs locally & he did it mainly because the State Police asked. He wasn't being mean by requiring Payment in Cash. He already knew that AAA would not pay for voluntarily driving onto the beach. Checks & plastic can be stop ordered.

NO, it did not come with any book. The 04 is a CR engine, my 01.5 a VP44... not sure of fuel system differences. If there is enough hose length, could I just cut a piece of hose off, buy extra fittings? If not, I could add that extra hose to my order. I'd like to get a draw straw but am unclear if any of the mount to the original sender piece so a nut could be screwed up on the bottom to be sure the cussed thing does not leak (then reinstall the sender).

Just wondering where is the easiest access place to tap these wires?

The local discount chain sales clod argued with me... He'd looked in his book & it said my POS econo box (my previous DD) took 15" tires. I had to show him the OEM wheels were 14". Duhh!! They would only sell you tires listed as available on that vehicle. Come to think of it, they even gave me a hard time about putting Cooper Discoverer M&S Truck tires on my Ranger PU (early 80s, 2.2 natural). Actually they were on sale & I had the closest store call around, I got the 4 tires from 3 different stores! When the Ranger tranny gave up the Ghost, I had them remounted on wifee's Carovan where they wore like iron! (Same exact size, just Truck tire).

I'm waiting until after Christmas to did everything out of the box & see what goodies came with. I don't have a good eye for sizes but it looks like the 1/2" big line kit & definately some radiused fitting to replace banjos. The pump & etc was off an 04 I think so not sure if the harness will mate where my OEN lift pump plugs in on the block. I see a relay in there. I don't know if I'll need some other hoses/fittings after I've laid it all out. I think I want to gut the OEM fliter housing to keep the fuel heater. Plannning to order a draw straw, so will combine other parts with that.

I got 55K mile on the OEM Michilin LTX MS 265/75R16, 01.5 2500 SRW 8800 GVW. Not the greatest traction tire but still got decent tread life left.

UPS truck arrives daily. Wifee asked if I bought out the internet? Well, a few of them were Christmas presents (outgoing). The rest were for my CTD. She knows I bought some stuff for the truck. I'm taking advantage of all those Christmas Specials & free shipping... I should go put a big bow on it. Latest was used AirDog system... looks like big line kit & fittings. I'll explore the box after the holiday (if I can contain myself).