RADIUM

Greetings I would first like to say, I find these forms most helpful and what a great bunch of people with quite a bit of insight, with that said I originally owned a 2008 f 150 STX 4x4 but over the year of ownership I ran into a few snags one being I could not install a heavy-duty plow for commercial plowing the dealer assured me it would be all right until I talked to the plow companies and they all said my truck was too small with the 4.6 engine and light front end, I also used the truck in a commercial flooring business, which to say the least stressed the truck with quite a few loads of tile and also my transfer diesel tank 100 gallon for the farm anyhow I'm now the proud owner of a 2009 F 350 XLT SNOWPLOW PACKAGE 10,000 GB W. PACKAGE SO I'M ALL SET FOR A PLOW :-). While inspecting my new baby and giving her a good coat of wax, I found a very disturbing site underneath in the front the two hub carriers steering ends and a few odd piece including the power steering box are rusted solid, the rest of the truck is black painted or whatever Ford calls that process E coating it looks as though these five parts didn't get painted. Is this a normal occurrence when I traded in my F. 150 I remove my fuel tank and didn't see any rust after one year of upstate salt just minor rust on rotors and leaf springs that I added to the back to help keep her up with the extra weight of work and fuel tank. I'd appreciate anyone's input I'm going to ask the dealer tomorrow, or do you think I'm just being paranoid I know things will surface rust but not brand-new the 350 only had 14 miles on her when I picked it up on Saturday my STX had almost 34,000 miles and as I stated earlier a winter of salt shouldn't all the parts be painted black on this new truck?

PS I know I should have running boards but for some strange reason this truck didn't have them installed it was the tallest truck on the lot, and my short salesman could barely get in LOL he crawled in like a five-year-old for the test ride, I'm also having some trouble at 5 foot 11 that will be my next purchase probably going with stainless steel ;-) thanks again

jhelrey

My thoughts... Everything rusts... Regardless how well you try to keep it from rusting..

RADIUM

hey everybody guess what the dealer says we have a problem I was right there something wrong with those five parts they shouldn't be that rusted they are going to have to take the truck in and replace the parts I will try to post a picture when I have time of the rusted parts I'm really not too concerned about the hub carriers by the time they rust the truck will no longer be mine but the other parts steering linkage ends I want changed out I'll let you know how it goes oh and the power steering unit take care