"With new truck and trailer we had the truck go into "limp" mode due to DEF saturated. This was half-way between Roswell and Albuquerque (hint, there is nothing half-way between Roswell and Albuquerque, not even cell phone service) Limped along for 60 miles at 20mph until we came across a convenience store. Pulled in, called roadside assistance, unhooked the trailer. Tow truck came up from Roswell and took the truck and me (wife stayed in the trailer) back to Roswell. I stayed in a hotel and they "fixed" the truck in the morning. All they could really do was force a manual DEF cleaning, nothing else found wrong. Went to pick up the trailer, when I got there I found that we had picked up a nail in a trailer tire and it was flat. Changed tire with spare, got new tire in Albuquerque. Later on in same trip, picked up a nail in one of the truck tires, near Moab. Put on spare and got it fixed in Moab.
A year later on HW50 half-way between Austin and Ely, NV (there is nothing halfway between Austin and Ely, NV) Truck threw the dreaded DEF saturated error. This time I quickly downshifted to 4th gear and kept driving to make sure I did not go into "limp" mode again."
What is it with these Ford 250 trucks and the DEF problem? We have a 2015 Ford 250, and last week we had the same problem in the middle of nowhere between Missoula and Coeur d'Alene--no cell service, had to abandon the 5th wheel on a service road, get the truck towed 40 miles north into a Ford dealership in the middle of wildfires, stay in a hotel, sit in the dealership for a day until the techs could figure out how to reset the computer system and cancel the DEF idle mode. I'm sending the bills to Ford Customer Assistance for reimbursement.
