Man I bet that guy had some wild stories. Probably been scraping barnacles off his hull since before most of us were born. Did he tell you silt is basically just ground up mountain dust from 50 miles inland or something random like that? Old salts love dropping weird facts that make you rethink stuff. Next thing you know I'll be saving my coffee grounds to dump in the harbor to help with the sediment or whatever.

Nah man I ran mine at 70% in soft mud and it worked way better.

Laughed out loud when I read this because my dad did the exact same thing to me about my car's cabin air filter. He was like "bet your defroster sucks" and I was like nah it's fine. He reached under my glove box, pulled out this filter that had leaves and debris stuck in it like some kind of horrifying art project. My car smelled like a wet basement every time I turned on the AC and I just lived with it for two years thinking that's how cars worked. After I swapped it out the air actually smelled clean and my windows stopped fogging up instantly. It's crazy how we just ignore the simple stuff our older relatives tell us until they basically have to prove it to our faces.

Cheap scanners are a gamble with these newer trucks for sure. You really need the bidirectional control and live data for the 6.7 to chase down emissions problems. Might be worth seeing if you can flip that cheap one on craigslist and put the cash toward a used Snap-On, it pays for itself the first time you actually fix something instead of guessing.

@seanjohnson is right, that's a rough lesson. It's funny how we trust the tools we've had forever without thinking about what's actually inside them. Reminds me of how people never check their air filters in their homes or cars until something breaks down. We just assume old gear still works like new.