New 2019 F150 U-Haul Rental Review

[G. David Felt]

Mother’s Day weekend was a busy one. The kids had planned out the whole Sunday for the wife and I had planned the day before to build an area with a raised garden bed for the wife. The raised bed material was bought, the area mapped out and the plan to get up early and rent a truck to pick up cedar chips and black gold compost soil was scheduled.

Saturday morning went as I expected, up early, quick breakfast and off to be the first in line at the U-Haul rental place. Figured rather than $75 per delivery, two types of material meant $150, why not spend $19.95 for a single day rental of the truck, pick up the material myself and pocket $130 or so.

U-Haul actually has it to mileage and other fees that made the single days truck rental $55 and change, so not as big as I expected but still roughly a $95 savings.

Surprise was that the truck I got was a new 2019 F150 with V8 that only had 300 miles on the odometer. Having not been in a new Ford pickup in the last couple years, I was excited to see how it drove, what the fit n finish was like and over all materials.

U-Haul trucks are your base trucks with rubberized floors, dash is all hard plastics yet they still had backup camera and the V8 engine. As such the truck had no problem even loaded down with dirt or the cedar chips moving. Over all ride was decent and I actually really loved the seats as they were very supportive to my large size and yet comfy driving from freeway to local roads, never tiring to the body. Radio was a basic am/fm with a base pair of stereo speakers. Decent and functional.

Dash being a base truck was hard plastic, as we have seen in many videos about even top of the line Luxury auto’s, the dash did make a big amount of squeak noise. Screen size of the radio system was also very small. Yet as many folks have used the term, the truck was functional.

Fit n Finish was very tight, did not find any large panel gapes or errors in the paint job or exterior body.  I did find the very simple tie down points with already rusting bolts to be a bit surprising but it still worked and the truck had a bed so I did not have to worry about messing the truck bed up. Interesting observation is that when the truck is locked, so is the tailgate, so with a load, I had to always keep the truck unlocked so the tailgate would open and let me unload my chips and soil.

The V8 engine was very smooth and quiet and the only drawback was the weird auto stop / start. If you’re in normal traffic it works just as GMs systems have worked with turning off and on the engine. Yet sit in one place too long and then release the brake pedal and you get a message on the center dash screen saying you have been stationary too long and must put the transmission in park and then back to drive before engine will start back up. Even with following their directions, it seemed the engine did not want to start back up forcing me to put it into park and then manually starting the truck again.

Other than that single issue, the truck worked and the backup camera was nice to have to get as close as possible to the wife’s new raised veggie garden.

Hit me up with any questions you have about the truck or my project. Yes I did take out the grass the weekend before so my cedar chips are 3-4 inches deep.

[daves87rs]

Look nice for a simple truck........

[ccap41]

8 hours ago, dfelt said:

Yet sit in one place too long and then release the brake pedal and you get a message on the center dash screen saying you have been stationary too long and must put the transmission in park and then back to drive before engine will start back up.

That sounds infuriating. I would not like that at all. 

[G. David Felt]

42 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

That sounds infuriating. I would not like that at all. 

Having not had that experience with GM SUV / trucks, I was very surprised to see the message on the center dash and then have to do that.  Not sure why Ford does it but would like to know why they think that is a better way then just releasing the brake pedal.

[ccap41]

1 hour ago, dfelt said:

Having not had that experience with GM SUV / trucks, I was very surprised to see the message on the center dash and then have to do that.  Not sure why Ford does it but would like to know why they think that is a better way then just releasing the brake pedal.

When I had a rental Ecosport recently, I wish I would have tested that out. I would have liked to experience it, even though it would infuriate me. 

Did it warn you or just automatically say you must put the vehicle in park and restart it? If it gave you a little 5 second count down, it wouldn't be too bad. You just take your foot off the brake(or not even because they fire up before your foot is even off the pedal) for a second to fire it back up for a second then.

[G. David Felt]

23 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

When I had a rental Ecosport recently, I wish I would have tested that out. I would have liked to experience it, even though it would infuriate me. 

Did it warn you or just automatically say you must put the vehicle in park and restart it? If it gave you a little 5 second count down, it wouldn't be too bad. You just take your foot off the brake(or not even because they fire up before your foot is even off the pedal) for a second to fire it back up for a second then.

Nope, no warning. The truck ahead of me was loaded and finally left. I took my foot of the brake expecting to move forward and pressing the accelerator nothing happened. Checked the dash and the message was there. Very weird.

[ccap41]

15 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Nope, no warning. The truck ahead of me was loaded and finally left. I took my foot of the brake expecting to move forward and pressing the accelerator nothing happened. Checked the dash and the message was there. Very weird.

Yeah, I don't like that at all. This must be a safety thing and if somebody falls asleep/passes out the vehicle won't move forward upon waking up and/or moving their foot.

About how long did it take before the message comes up and you need to do this? 

[G. David Felt]

46 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Yeah, I don't like that at all. This must be a safety thing and if somebody falls asleep/passes out the vehicle won't move forward upon waking up and/or moving their foot.

About how long did it take before the message comes up and you need to do this? 

I think 3-5 min I was sitting there with my foot on the break is all. It did not seem long, but was longer than being at a stop light. Watching the truck in front of me which was a medium duty dump truck get loaded and then it was my turn. Over all truck ran great except for the weird start stop.