Got it.  Sounds fairly typical in today's manufacturing environment.  Any chance of retro-fitting an older style latch mechanism less prone to the freezing problem?        Trying to work through this one is a bit out my experience - considering we don't deal with much ice and snow and sub freezing weather here in Arizona.   

https://www.fordf150.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=123522

if you can see this topic..............about halfway down page 3, a guy posted his solution to prevent/redirect the water away from the latch

I knew the problem was ongoing and had existed for several years.  Thanks for the link, I will read through it later.  I have to call the dealership to find out when they think they can get to mine.  I might send the link to  my service manager.  

My wife's '16 does not have the issue, as we bought it used we don't know if the fix was applied or if it came fine from the factory.  The service manager said said that Ford had updated the service bulletin three or four times on what the "fix" is.

Got it.  Sounds fairly typical in today's manufacturing environment.  Any chance of retro-fitting an older style latch mechanism less prone to the freezing problem?        Trying to work through this one is a bit out my experience - considering we don't deal with much ice and snow and sub freezing weather here in Arizona.   

My dad offered to take my truck to Tuscon when he and my mom head back there in a couple of weeks.  We both figured the problem would go away down there.  It was 38 and raining when I got up this morning, by noon temp had fallen 15 degrees and it was blowing 25mph and snowing about an inch a hour.

..................... I neither know nor care what the internal communication situation is at Ford or how they handle a screw up of this magnitude but I have to think if I were running the show those responsible for letting this problem get out of hand and remain that way for two or three years would be looking for a new job. .............

especially their flagship product

but, it's a calculated risk to the bean counters------
out of all the trucks sold; only a small subset will be outside, in freezing conditions, where this problem will show up. Ford sold over 800K   F-series in 2016
if 100K vehicles are affected, and the repair cost is $500=5M     If the cost for an improved design over all 800K trucks is more than $62.50 each; they lose money

Unfortunately - for all concerned - the "bean counters" have an effect on the whole industry.  The problem(s) we are discussing are not confined to one manufacturer or the manufacturers of any one country.  They span the entire spectrum of the automotive industry.  I won't list anecdotes here but they are a few mouse clicks away for any and all manufacturers if you'd care to look for them.

The cost(s) of fixing an existing problem are considerable but they must be weighed against the cost(s) of people swearing off the brand entirely because of bad experience.  A lot of the problem(s) can be traced to the staggering sums of money necessary for governmental regulatory compliance.  It all comes out of the bottom line and corporate shareholders are not known for their forgiving nature over the long term. This makes the corporation choose between the devil you face today and the one you'll probably face tomorrow.  Without getting too deep into the differences between strategic and tactical thinking as they apply to the auto industry, the companies must juggle a lot of competing priorities. 

The problem is the customer who buys a faulty product is invariably the one left holding the bag - whether its a dealer who is losing customers every day because the manufacturer is playing that game they play or the customer who bought the product from that dealer and is simply done with the whole business and looking to limit the losses and move on. 

I have never had a car or truck or any other piece of machinery that was entirely trouble free over a five year period of ownership.  Some didn't make it to the five month mark.   I have owned American, European and Asian makes - both cars and light trucks.  Heavier equipment has been primarily American and Japanese.  To date, the most reliable makes over the long haul have been Ford, Toyota, Kubota and Subaru.   The best dealers are those that have tried to intervene on behalf of the customer with a problem that was clearly a manufacturer's issue.  Those dealers, in my experience, have been Subaru and Chevrolet dealers with Ford and Toyota a notch or two behind them.   

I finally gave up on Chevrolet as a brand in spite of having a good dealer experience.  They may have gotten better since then but I'm not yet willing to take another chance on them.  Subaru has been a pleasant surprise so far.  Ford is still pretty solid despite a few black eyes over time and Toyota has a pretty solid product but their dealer network can be hit or miss and dealership parts and repairs may well fall into the realm of an abusive relationship.     

If you went to the medium duty F series ( starting with the F 450 ) would it be easier for you to find the mix of features you need?  I know the commercial market typically requests different equipment than the light duty consumer market that the Raptors and stuff like that are marketed to.  I know they offer PTO and special wiring harnesses and different engines in that line so maybe if you went with a little heavier chassis you might be able to find the manual transmission you're looking for.   

   Got it.  And you're right - TANSTAAFL - re: big engines and big gears and fuel mileage. 

Glad things are working out so far.