MustangAndy's 2018 XLT Sport - "Baloo 2"
 

Aight so long story short. Had a beautiful 2014 STX I bought out in Oklahoma on my birthday back in 2017. Totaled it mid April this year (Full story here: https://www.f150forum.com/f38/what-d...3/). Bought a Canadian import 2014 XLT as replacement two days later and it was downhill from there - couldn't wait to get rid of it. Began searching for a true replacement truck and found this 2018 XLT Sport at a local dealer.

TLDR: Crashed old truck, first replacement sucked, bought newer and better truck.

Quick Specs:
2018 XLT SuperCab Sport (302A) 4x4
5.0L Coyote
Lighting Blue
38,xxx miles

7/9/22 - Head to dealer to discuss trade-in options on the Canadian truck. They aren't good. Check a few other trucks in the area, however the blue one keeps calling to me.
7/14/22 - Head back to dealer to take a better look at the truck. Test drive goes fine. Decide to move on the truck. Sit down with one of the sales guys and do some preliminary paperwork. Work out a pick-up time for Saturday
7/16/22 - Pick truck up from dealer. Take the Canadian to a We Buy lot. Need bill of sale, can't find it. Dealer can't fax till Monday

7/16/22 late afternoon - First mod :laughing: - pull off front plate mount, remove dealer sticker and plate frame from rear before heading to a friend's BBQ

7/18/22 - Offload the Canadian truck at the We Buy lot. Install JLT catch can salvaged from original truck and top-off oil. Begin to change headlight bulbs - it begins to POUR.
7/19/22 - Rain moved out overnight. Decide easiest way of bulb change is to pull the housings as the fender liner trick isn't working - tear front end apart. Finish install and put truck back together. White for low and high beams. Yellow for fogs I salvaged from Canada truck. Transfer my Roadkill plate frame, fuzzy dice, and Sonic buddy from original truck over. Take truck to a quiet spot for photo shoot. Decide to take good Nikon camera - realize the memory card is missing after arrival. Begrudgingly use cell phone camera.
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Cell phone BS:
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Later 7/19/22 - Sewed blue accent stitch onto leather shifter boot. May do the shift knob as well. Swap black steering wheel surround for a Raptor gunmetal one from the spare wheel out of brother's ex's 2015 truck:
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7/20/22 - Pull the drop-in bed liner and vacuum out the 20 pounds of mulch from under it then reinstall the liner. Install the Gator soft roll-up tonneau cover I received as an early birthday present from my father. Installed the same Coyote door badges that I've used on all three trucks so far. Paint bed fender wells with spray-on Raptor liner.


That's all for now. Stay tuned for more!



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Great looking new truck! You gonna lower this one as well or go a different route?

Nice truck!

Yep, going to start with the same(ish) Belltech 2" kit. I found a thread where another member with a similar truck took pictures and measurements of everything they did to lower it. May go past the 2" kit but that's where I'll start



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Nice, looking forward to the build!

Weird, the pictures are not showing up for me.

Nice looking truck. Andy what town is J Town in NJ? Grew up & lived most of my life in NJ & I can not figure out where J town is?

Interesting your canuk option was that bad :(

Nice looking replacement though, i love that colour.

Based on what happened I've come to the conclusion that every other truck is a good truck. The Canadian just happened to be on the bad side of the list

"Green Machine" - 1998 Explorer Sport, 4.0L V6 OHV - rust bucket. Taught me how to change a thermostat that went on the drive home one day. Resorted to stuffing snow into the coolant tank and top of the engine to make it home.
no nickname that I can recall - 1999 Explorer Sport, 4.0L SOHC 4x4 - Clean and ran great. More powerful engine than the '98. I made a mess of it though turning it into a wheeler.
"The Longbed" - 1997 F-150 Regular cab long bed, 4.6L V8 4x4 - Rust bucket. Truck taught me driveway bodywork.
"The Elephant" - 2003 F-150 SuperCab FlareSide, 5.4L V8 4x4 - Good truck. Downfall was several years later due to horrific MPG, had spit a plug, and began chewing up CV's after a level kit.
"The Mastodon" - 2004 F-250 Super Duty SuperCab short bed, 6.0L PSD 4x4 - It was a 6.0L PowerStroke, do the math - end of story. Highlight of the truck was the sheer power of the thing. Stoplight drags were HILARIOUS. Official track best of 13.86 @ 96MPH with a 1.6 sixty foot in the full 1/4 mile.
"Baloo" - 2014 F-150 Supercab short bed, 5.0L V8 4x4 - truck is well documented here. Outside of the fuse 27 gremlin and a pair of IWE's the truck was perfect and never left me stranded on the side of the road.
"Maple" - 2014 F-150 Supercab short bed, 5.0L V8 4x4 - Repatriated Canadian export. Owned less than 3 months it was so bad.
"Baloo 2" - 2018 F-150 Supercab short bed, 5.0L V8 4x4 - So far so good. Night and day difference over Maple.


And yes color wise it's a couple shades darker than Baloo 1 but still a nice bright blue.


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Picture Dump
 

Been working on the truck a little every day over the past week and a half.

Gauges salvaged from Baloo 1. Had to buy a new pod but the gauges still function:
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Tonneau cover from Gator. Soft rollup style:

The dirt that was trapped under the drop-in liner
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Liner
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Finished
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Console safe. Read the reviews and ended up having to buy a different lock as mine was assembled wrong like one of the other reviewers mentioned and the tumblers were super stiff. Zip tie is to help in opening the thing - currently working on a more permanent and better looking solution. And before anyone asks it's an M&P Shield EZ 9mm in an AlienGear "Cloak and Loop" (Velcro) holster.
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Close up of the stitching I mentioned in an earlier post:
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Kicker Hideaway sub. Working great. Ended up having to tap directly into the rear speaker leads as the signal coming through the sub plug was way too low. Kicker barely functioned with the gain and boost cranked to the max.

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I purchased just the plug and terminals and assembled it myself so I wouldn't have to splice a dozen wires and have a 12 foot "jumper" cable:
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Pin-out and color code notes:
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Need to build a mounting bracket and tidy up the wiring:
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