Our bundle of joy arrives: The new Dually

It's here!

We drove over to pick it up today.  Yesterday morning we left our F-250 at the dealership so the overload springs, Happijack tiedown system, and torsion bar could be switched from it to the new F350.

When we got there yesterday, we saw a black Dually sitting in the lot.  We wondered where ours was.  Then we figured out that this WAS ours.  Only we had ordered it in "Green Gem."

It was explained to us that it wasn't REALLY black.  It was REALLY Green Gem, but only looked black because of the weather--it was raining.  When you live in the Pacific Northwest, the official color should be the one when you can see when it is gray and raining.  Someone explained:  "you can see the green if you look at the door jambs."  So we did--and they looked black too.

So, what do you think? ?  Green Gem or Black?

Poor Vicky.  To please me she had purchased a new "matching" coffee cup for me in green.  Isn't she so sweet?  When you live in the PNW, though, if your coffee cup doesn't match your brand new F-350 4X4 Dually, you clearly have to get a new pickup.

(By the way, and I hope this doesn't make me look too bad, but we have a rule:  Vicky can't say the word "Dually."  When she tries to say it, she sounds like such a girl.  The word "Dually" can only be said by real he-men, guys who used to be former effete college professors but who now are tough and mean.  She can say "new truck," "Ford," "our baby," or almost anything else, but "Dually" has to be said in a menacing, growling, male voice.  I'm sorry, but those are the rules, and I didn't make them.)

The guy who did the work on the new pickup (Trevor, at Brien Ford in Everett) impressed the heck out of us.  Although we didn't ask him to, he transferred the torsion bar from the "old" F250 to our "Dually" because it was sturdier.  He thought we would appreciate that because it would improve handling.   But then he cleared it with us.  He came up with the idea of switching bumpers instead of moving the tie-downs from the F-250's bumper.  Clever thought.  He knew I was trying to beat the rush hour traffic back to Whidbey Island, so he worked through his lunch hour (and took a late lunch) to finish it up for me.

Here is the torsion bar he installed.  It is the silver bar toward the bottom:

 

Here I am pointing to the overload spring that Trevor switched from the "old" (ha ha) pickup to the new one:

Brien Ford gave us a terrific price on this work, and in having several discussions with Trevor, it was clear he was doing everything with pride and correctly.

We got the heavy duty stuff for it--limited slip differential, skid plates, 4 wheel on-demand drive, bed mat, and only the bottom line interior package.  But this bottom line interior package provides everything a normal person could want.  And a lot of that, actually. 

 A person can pay almost $15,000 more for a similar pickup with enough goodies to make a Cadillac blush.  But as it was explained to us, when people do this, they often then buy a beater pickup to actually haul stuff.  We saw some models that were almost comical--pickups in name only.  

We also didn't get the diesel engine--a $8000 addition.  What I read suggested that the diesel engine was basically a macho upgrade--one hardly ever really needed it.  The engine in the F-350 is the same one as in the F-250, and it is powerful, with a lot of torque.  It may not pull an extremely heavy trailer up over mountain passes with the same speed as the diesel, but it will do it all the same, and the rest of the time it is no different.  Repairs and maintenance on the diesel are a lot more expensive. 

Driving it home (you can sortta, kinda see the green color in some of the photos):

The thing is a monster.  When we set the camper on it, the bed hardly moved (only 2 inches--we measured).  Its gross weight rating is 14000 pounds, as opposed to the F250s 10000 pounds.  The vehicle itself probably 1000 pounds heavier than the F-250, but that is the outside estimate.

We will be able to carry more, be safer, go more places.  We are so excited.

The only remaining issue is Vicky learning to say "Dually" without sounding like a girl.