Current Location: Fort Toulouse Campground, Wetumpka, Alabama
Malcolm finished a couple more weeks of work as of today, so we’re off the next two weeks. Instead of hauling the trailer somewhere (we had been thinking Kentucky), we decided to buy a pair of plane tickets to Seattle and fly out to see our daughter and family. We’re heading out Monday afternoon to spend the night in a hotel in Atlanta and catch an early morning flight on Tuesday. We’ll be out there 8 days, then flying back home.
The rest of the week has been pretty quiet after we got the new truck home. Malcolm listed the old truck for sale on a Ford truck forum but hasn’t gotten any bites yet. However, we’ve arranged to sell Val’s car to some friends of ours. We were going to sell the car around the time the house was sold, so we’re hanging onto the old truck for a bit longer.
It’s actually been a blessing still having the old truck around. For example, Malcolm was able to transfer the rolling cover off the bed of the old truck onto the new one. New rolling covers run around $1,300 or more, so that saved us some money. And of course, selling the truck ourselves, we can get a lot more money than what the dealer had offered us on trade.
We dropped the new truck off today with a local hitch and trailer company to get bed rails mounted in the bed of the new truck. Once it was home, Malcolm and David transferred the hitch to the new truck. It fit perfectly. The new bed rails are much beefier than the ones in the old truck. Malcolm moved the rolling cover over afterwards. We’ll need some weatherstripping, etc. to tidy up the installation, but otherwise the cover transferred right over.
Hitch mounted on new rails
One feature that our truck has on it is the tailgate step. Malcolm loves it. It does make it easier to climb up into the truck bed.
Tailgate step
We were going to have a drop-in bedliner put in by the folks that installed the hitch rails, but they had gotten the wrong size. Malcolm was leaning towards a spray-in liner, instead, so that worked out and gives us time to decide which way we’ll go. The old truck had a drop-in liner. We may even just go with a mat on the floor.
Traveling Talleys 
I will vote for the spray in liner. I have the drop in liner which continues to serve me well but the spray in liners are much more versatile and are very durable, i.e., ‘stuff’ such as leaves and dirt doesn’t get between bed liner and the bed which retains moisture and tends to cause rust problem in the front of the bed over time. My thoughts.
It’s been an overwhelming vote for spray-in on Facebook, as well. Timing-wise, I’m not going to be able to do it for a bit, but I did finish up transferring my RollNLock bed cover over, so that’ll help cut down on water and debris for the time being. Fortunately, pretty much everything we carry in the bed on a normal basis when towing are plastic and/or rubber.
Don’t know if you saw my post on the HF. Looks like you have a Reese R16 or R20, hitch, in your photos. FYI check the yellow rubber bushings on the side. We have the same hitch. Reese had a problem with the compound used to make the bushings, it wasn’t strong enough to support the weight. We caught ours before they got to bad. Reese sent us new temporary bushings, and put us on the list for the replacements when they become available in the next 60 to 90 days.
Thanks. I did see your post on the HOC forum. As a matter of fact, when I was picking up the truck from the hitch place, I asked the person there about the bushings and he gave me a completely blank look. Must not be a well-publicized thing yet. However, I do check the bushings from time to time. So far, they are holding up fine.