Road trip

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Dextron

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So back in February I found an SB 802A SCrew that had the options I wanted at a dealer in Minnesota. Actually, it had more options than I wanted, but it had the all important heated steering wheel so I figured I'd get used to the rest of them. My wife and I went down, put about 400 miles on it and dropped it back at the dealer to add a bed liner and tonneau. Once our son and daughter were out of school we all went down to road trip it back to Alaska. Had a warning display that just showed a wrench and said "SEE MANUAL". Couldn't detect any operational issues. Called the dealer and they scheduled me in immediately, pulled the codes and said it was a wastegate actuator out of adjustment. Fixed it within two hours and we haven't had any issues since.

This thing is not going to be a Starbucks truck.
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Stopped at a friends on the way who was in the process of leveling out the airstrip on his farm. 2000 feet of plowed up dirt with berms from the scraper. We could get it up to around 70 before having to back off as we came to the end of the strip. It didn't even seem to notice the furrows or berms. My friend and his son both pretty much instantly decided they needed Raptors too.

After a week in Canada this might be a Tim Horton's truck.
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Loading on the ferry to cross the Yukon at Dawson City.
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We swung up through Fairbanks as our son has been attending college there. Since we were up there we ran up the haul road to the Arctic Circle.
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And then up another 60 miles to Coldfoot (the states northern most truck stop). 20170615_142038.jpg

Thought about going all the way to Prudhoe but that's another 250 miles past Coldfoot and I was actually getting a little tired of driving by then. Went on down to Anchorage and dropped it off to get barged to Nome. At the hotel in Anchorage we saw a group of four couples on Harleys. From Honduras! Made me feel like kind of a wimp to do the trip in a fully enclosed, heated and air conditioned vehicle.

4781 miles from St Cloud MN to Anchorage AK. Averaged 18.7 MPG. Truck has probably seen more pavement than it will for the rest of it's life. Hope to see it out here by the middle to end of July. Will be replacing a 1988 Chevy K1500 that I have had since new.
 

mr_beaverhousen

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Nice write up. Will probably win for the longest distance traveled for picking up a Raptor. Just curious what the closest dealership would be to Nome if you needed to visit one.
 

Wizo

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Nice time - I have the same truck and yesterday did a quick 800 mile trip. Comfy and pleasant to drive with great road manors. Enjoy it and keep it muddy
 

wheelman55

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Looks like you had a lot of fun. Which dealer in MN? I'm buying my '18 from Elk River Ford MN.

Also...which tonneau cover did you have put in and how effective is it at keeping dust and water out of the bed?

Thanks.
 
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SZDZMTR

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Great write up. You bought the truck, and you are thirsty to use it. It never gets old driving this beast. I personally look for every excuse in the book to drive it.
 
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Dextron

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Nice write up. Will probably win for the longest distance traveled for picking up a Raptor. Just curious what the closest dealership would be to Nome if you needed to visit one.

There is a Ford dealer in Fairbanks and in Anchorage but Nome is not connected to the outside world by road so taking the truck in is not really an option.

---------- Post added at 11:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 AM ----------

Nice time - I have the same truck and yesterday did a quick 800 mile trip. Comfy and pleasant to drive with great road manors. Enjoy it and keep it muddy

Definitely a nice ride on the road. I'm starting to rethink about mud flaps. I broke them off or tore them loose from my previous trucks off road so didn't bother getting any this time. We had rain for a while on the way back down from Coldfoot and by the time we got to Fairbanks it was pretty much solid mud up to the door handles. Nothing on the windows which was nice but the rest was covered.
 
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Dextron

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Looks like you had a lot of fun. Which dealer in MN? I'm buying my '18 from Elk River Ford MN.

Also...which tonneau cover did you have put in and how effective is it at keeping dust and water out of the bed?

Thanks.

I got the truck from Tenvoorde Ford in St Cloud.

The cover is just the Ford hard tonneau cover option. There would be a little dust in the back if we had any gravel/dirt roads that day. The tonneau itself looks like it seals very well. I think any leakage is the sides and bottom of the tailgate. After pressure washing there was a little water on each side at the very back that I am sure came in around the side of the tailgate.
 
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