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Glen,
That is a very interesting story about your trucks, especially the '01 International 4800. As far as hi-jacking, much of this is still related to any towing truck. Thanks for sharing it.
A commercial duty truck certainly makes sense for you by far. So does adding a less-clumsy run-about Ranger as a general errand driver.
For occasional do-it-all truck use, with the relatively narrow rpm power band of early diesels, I would still suggest the OP consider an auxiliary two-speed transmission. Even on 4X4, it seems this may greatly improve the 2-wheel drive 3.73 gearing problems of towing a somewhat larger RV, plus add a bit of fuel economy when empty. I don't believe the auxiliary transmission would be a problem... provided one could return to 1:1 when using slow speed 4X4.
If you ever go CDL, and increase loading/towing with the 4800, you might have already considered the advantage of upping your 5-speed to a 10-speed using the same principle. One would want to be certain in all cases, that the auxiliary two-speed transmission were up to snuff for whatever load, probably a Brownie type in your case.
Other than the initial cost of the auxiliary two-speed transmission, it seems win-win all around.
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I also have a comment about the fire in the F-350. I owned a '94 Mazda B4000 (same as Ford Ranger) for a number of years. One winter day, as I left my house, I smelled (wood?) smoke coming in through my fan-vent system. It turned out to be the fine seeds from our Weeping Birch tree. I assume they accumulated naturally by falling through the coarse mesh on the air vent intake right in front of the windshield. Rain casually leaks in too, but it normally runs out the bottom. We once had a 2000 Chevy Impala where this drain plugged, same seeds.
As far as I know, all modern Fords (and probably many others) have the same speed control for the fan. On high, the fan runs at full rpm. On lesser speeds, the power is switched to various series resistors, strategically located in the heater core/evaporator plenum. They may glow red-hot, but intake air normally cools them.
In my case the seeds built up until the hot resistors were hopelessly buried and then started to burn. Fortunately the fire quit when I frantically shut the fan off to stop the thick cab smoke. I cleaned the plenum and determined I would thereafter have to do one of three things: 1) clean yearly, 2) install a fine-mesh foam vent intake filter (wife had one on her Corvette), 3) or remove the tree; which I did since it was dying anyway.
Wes
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