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2000 FORD F-350 — Complaint #255196

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about EQUIPMENT:MECHANICAL:WRECKER AND WHEEL LIFT DEVICES filed November 7, 2000

NHTSA complaint #255196 (ODI reference 735711) concerns a 2000 FORD F-350 and was filed on November 7, 2000. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 3, 2000. The report was geocoded to Colorado based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as equipment:mechanical:wrecker and wheel lift devices, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD F-350 cohort independently describe similar equipment:mechanical:wrecker and wheel lift devices failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2000 FORD F-350 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2000 FORD F-350
Component
EQUIPMENT:MECHANICAL:WRECKER AND WHEEL LIFT DEVICES
State
Colorado

Complaint Description

THE FACTORY INSTALLED TOW PACKAGE WIRING IS DEFECTIVE. THE ELECTRIC BRAKE WIRING IS DEFECTIVE, FORD HAS FAILED TO FIX THE POROBLEM, I CAN GET THE WIRING REPAIRED FROM A THIRD PARTY, BUT MY CONCERN IS HOW MANY TRUCKS HAVE DEFECTIVE WIRING AND OTHER CONSUMERS ARE BEING PUT AT RISK BY FORD NOT ADMITTING THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THERE TOW PACKAGE WIRING. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION IN COLORADO WE HAVE A LOT OF VERY STEEP GRADES AND TOWING A TRAILER DOWN THEM WITHOUT OUT THE TRAILER BRAKES OPERATIONAL COULD RESULT IN A SERIOUS ACCIDENT. I HAVE BEEN TO TWO FORD DEALERS AND NEITHER ADDRESSED THE PROBLEM. I HAVE DIGITAL PICTURES OF THE DEFECT, THAT CAN BE TRANSMITTED TO YOU.*AK

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 255196
ODI Number 735711
Date Filed November 7, 2000
Failure Date September 3, 2000
VIN 3FTSW30F4YM

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.