HairlessApe

If you rinse off the undercarriage of every snow / road brining you can avoid all but the surface rust.

My Brother uses that saltaway stuff on his 98 Ram pretty religiously. Every single body panel is rust free. If it can keep that thing intact it can save any truck. Haven't seen another rust free 98 Ram since 2000.

FORDMAN

I used to do just that whenever possible. But living in the upper part of Sussex County you could go weeks with below freezing temps in the Winter.

henfield

So what is the official wading depth for F150s?

Super 3.5

If it is very far below freezing no rust will happen. It is when it starts getting closer to 30 degrees or so that rust can start. Trucks parked outside when the temp stays below 30 or so will not see any rusting. Just rinse it off as soon as it warms up.

Parking in a heated garage (or partially heated) will accelerate the rust if the salt is not rinsed off. Most self service car washes around me don't shut down until it gets closer to 15 degrees.

I do have a heated garage so I will either rinse it off or refrain from driving on the few days we have salted roads during winter. Luckily that in only a handful of days per year.

I am not near as concerned now that I have the aluminum body but there is still a fair amount of steel in the undercarriage. Keeping surface rust at bay and keeping bare steel or cast iron painted helps a lot too.

2017bluetruck

The air intake for the filter box is at the top front edge of the hood.


I went as far as using foam rubber weather sealing tape to seal this to the hood.


The engine probably gulped a bit of water, you lucked out as this is close to a hydro-locked engine. KM