What kind of preventative maint repairs for a long trip?

[86Scotty]

Good thoughts. Scanner, serpentine belt and tools are always with me. I also carry an extra ignition coil (cheap for my old 460).

[BrianW]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

Moved the thread. Open to ideas of better folders to move it to.


Herb

Oops, my bad. Sorry, wasn't paying attention!

[DVD]

Just finished a 6000+ mile trip (CA to FL and back) over the past couple of months in my 2005 5.4l. I bought it 3 months ago with 103K miles on it, replaced the front brakes, shocks & plugs before we took off. It ran like a champ the whole way, 15+ mpg loaded down, cruising at 70-75mph. Only had routine oil change/maintenance along the way with no issues.

[daveb]

I carry a AAA card, a Sat phone and a 9mm. It's some extra piece of mind. I do keep some fluids on hand like brake and steering plus the 2 oil filters and a couple of quarts of oil but contacting a tow is more important to me (mainly cause it's a 6.0 PSD... it took me a long time just to get the S-belt on). There is just too much to go wrong to carry a bunch of stuff. Those with gassers might have a different view.
As far as the quote of being broke down adds to the adventure, that might be true but also very costly if you have to be pulled out of the backcountry.

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by daveb

I carry a AAA card, a Sat phone and a 9mm.

If the need arises to put a Diesel out of it's misery you may need something larger than a 9mm.....

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by boywonder

If the need arises to put a Diesel out of it's misery you may need something larger than a 9mm.....

[dhally]

Originally Posted by boywonder

If the need arises to put a Diesel out of it's misery you may need something larger than a 9mm.....

[daveb]

Argh! Especially since I had the engine bullet proofed? Maybe I need to carry a LAW rocket???

[Viva]

For some reason I hadn't read this thread before today. I'm no mechanic, but my previous van was a '97 with 5.4 (sold to friend at 140k and still cranking along), and now I have a '98 with the V-10.

Most of what came to mind as I read the first post has already been mentioned by others or done by you. But, FWIW, my first thoughts were as follows:

Scan Gauge II (although I just saw that Ultra Gauge will now read TFT on our gas rigs - going to check one out) Great thing about the Scan Gauge is you can read and dismiss any engine codes, so no ongoing light to cause frayed nerves (of course I don't mean to neglect something important, but some codes you can dismiss and then see when/how often they happen and/or get them fixed after the trip, and you don't have to stare at the light continuously). The SG is my favorite accessory!

Serpentine belt/spare

New/good tires

Spark plugs if you feel like it (I had the ones on my 5.4 done right at 100k [bought rig at 94k]; and the ones on my current V-10 done at 50k [because it was 15 years old when I bought it at 49k and the boots were cracked and .... I just decided to get it over with]

I also carry various bulbs and fuses, and gear to change the tires -- but I'm sure you already do that.

An infrared thermometer is handy to have.

Oh, and I run Mobil 1 extended mileage 5W20. That can be a bit hard to find (although Wal-Mart tends to carry it) so I carry a couple of quarts of that. By extended mileage, I mean the variety you can run 15k between changes, not the one for high-mileage vehicles. I find the added range super handy for longer trips. I don't like to bring my rig to "quickie change" type places, and doing it myself on the road can be a pain (I once had to drive for days before I found a place that would take the old oil! Ugh).

I forget now if you did "baseline" type fluid changes - I didn't do those on my 5.4 as I had records to show that the original owners (from whom I bought it) had done those things regularly. The rig had also been driven on a ~3,000 mile trip by them just before I bought it, so it was basically sorted out. My current rig was lower mileage, but had been sitting for a couple of years, and I didn't have full records, so I did fluid changes just to start fresh/known (coolant/transmission/etc.)

Maybe toss a thermostat into the spares kit?

As an aside: I just had a 2014 "front end" take-off put on my '98 E-350 in October. Was mostly after the bigger brakes, as although my (previous) E-250 felt fine, this heavier E-350 rig always felt "under-braked" to me, even though everything was well maintained. Wow, what a difference! I no longer live in fear of the "stale" green light. I had mine done at Quadvan and it was a great experience and well worth it.

[BrianW]

Originally Posted by Viva

As an aside: I just had a 2014 "front end" take-off put on my '98 E-350 in October. Was mostly after the bigger brakes, as although my (previous) E-250 felt fine, this heavier E-350 rig always felt "under-braked" to me, even though everything was well maintained. Wow, what a difference! I no longer live in fear of the "stale" green light. I had mine done at Quadvan and it was a great experience and well worth it.

I agree, this has been a great upgrade for our van, too. About a week after I had the upgrade done, we left on our month-long cross-country trip. Within the first hour, while driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at 65 mph in the dawn-dark, a dear jumped in front of us. I'm 100% convinced I would have hit it if I still had my older-style brakes. The stronger brakes allowed my panic-stop to work and we just missed the deer by what seemed like inches. It would have been a pretty sucky start to our trip if we totaled our van on a deer in the first hour!

I got my parts from Quigley and had my local shop do it. Had to source some additional new parts, since Quigley retains some of the original front end parts in their conversions.