A diesel pickup earns its keep in a place like Floral City. Inverness is 6 miles up US-41, Brooksville is 15 miles down it, and the farm country on CR-48 stretches east toward the Withlacoochee River. RDI Power repairs those trucks at our shop at 1665 Donto Way, about 25 minutes from the middle of Floral City, and sends mobile technicians when a truck is better left where it stopped.
Pickups that tow to the Floral City Lake fish camps
The county tourism bureau lists 2 old fish-camp style resorts on Floral City Lake. If your 3/4-ton or 1-ton diesel pulls a boat trailer to one of them, towing changes what wears out first.
- Cooling. Slow, loaded driving in July heat is where a radiator clogged with grass and bugs, a weak fan clutch or a tired water pump gives itself away. A gauge that climbs on the way out and settles on the way home is an early warning, not a quirk.
- Brakes. The truck stops the trailer too, unless the trailer brakes are doing their share. Glazed pads, warped rotors and a brake controller set too light all show up as longer stops.
- Transmission. Heat breaks down fluid, and fluid that has cooked stops protecting clutches. A tow vehicle deserves the severe service schedule.
- Hitch and wiring. A corroded trailer plug causes more roadside headaches than its price suggests.
Power Stroke, Cummins and Duramax faults on the US-41 run
Each make has its habits, and knowing them shortens a diagnosis.
Ford Power Stroke. The 6.0 and 6.4 are known for cooling and EGR trouble, and an oil cooler that clogs on a 6.0 can take the EGR cooler with it. The 6.7 is a stronger engine, but we still see leaks, sensor faults and emissions complaints. Every one of these engines, the newer ones included, uses glow plugs, and a failed plug or module shows up as long cranking on a cool winter morning. Our Ford specialist spent more than 30 years at a Ford dealership, and Ford IDS lets us test the truck the way the factory intends.
Ram Cummins. The 5.9 and 6.7 are durable, but the 6.7 can suffer from a sticking variable geometry turbo and the usual aftertreatment faults. It warms its intake with a grid heater instead of glow plugs. WiTECH gives us factory-level access to Ram systems.
GM Duramax. Injector wear on older engines, DEF and particulate filter faults on newer ones, and the occasional electrical gremlin. Our service advisor spent 35 years as a technician at a Chevrolet dealership, which helps on these.
Nissan Titan XD. Its 5.0 Cummins V8 is less common, so it pays to bring it to a shop that knows the engine.
Engine complaints and shifting complaints often arrive together on a truck that tows; our Floral City transmission repair page covers how we separate them.
Driving a sick pickup out of Floral City
The route could hardly be simpler: US-41 south across the Hernando County line, Broad Street through downtown Brooksville, then Jefferson Street to the shop. That is a good drive for a truck with a steady check engine light and normal manners. It is a poor drive for a truck that is overheating, smoking hard, losing oil pressure or stuck in a derate. In those cases call us before you leave, and we will help you choose between a tow and a mobile visit.
When the truck arrives, the work follows a fixed order: codes and live data first, then hands-on tests of the suspect system, then a written explanation with photos before any parts are ordered. Our labor warranty on that repair runs 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. Our light duty diesel repair page describes the pickup work in more depth, and owners a few miles north can see how the drive looks from the county seat on our Inverness truck repair page.
Ring (352) 433-3800 and describe the symptom, the model year and the engine; we will take it from there.