Ford F-150 ????

I am going to relegate my Dakota to being a ranch truck, literally. I'll drop the insurance, lisc, and registratioin and restrict it to driving on my property. ...and then I get to take my wife's advice and buy a new truck. (Note: I'm keeping the 1 ton dually diesel Dodge but not using it for day to day off road ranch use or casual errands.)

I know I am asking how high is up and how long is a roll of string but... Is there a better 1/2 ton truck than a Ford F-150? My prelim investigation says the cost of ownership of the F-150 should not be particularly higher than a new Dakota or any of the smaller "inports." Even the Dodge dealer I talked to agreed that I could buy a 1/2 ton Dodge for about the same or less $ than a Dakota and that the mileage of a small V-8 would likely be as good as many of the V-6 engines.

What about the 4x4 components? What about the tranny? Is the Ford auto tranny reliable or should I suffer the indignity of a stick to get reliability. I don't think gas mileage difference between the stick and auto is significant. Unless the auto is a known maint problem I favor the auto. The only real LUXURY I need (besides the auto tranny if you count that as a luxury) is air conditioning.

My idea of a super duper pickup is a 4x4 F-150 with the Mercedes diesel used in the Dodge van. Oh well...

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Pat, in years past, I've owned a 3/4 ton Dodge, a half ton Chevy, a 3/4 ton Chevy, two one ton Chevy's, a 3/4 ton Ford, a half ton Ford in the full size pickups. Only the half ton Chevy had a manual transmission, but I've never had any kind of transmission problem with any of the automatics. The half ton Ford ('99 F150 SuperCab) had the little 4.2 L six cylinder. I only used it for a little over 13k miles (just under 50k on it when I bought it) and it averaged 18.114 mpg. My current '01 Ford Ranger SuperCab has the 4.0 L six cylinder and in the past 12k miles (had 36k on it when I bought it) has averaged 18.881 mpg.

Personally, if I were looking for a full size half ton pickkup, I wouldn't hesitate to buy Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, but my preference would probably be the Ford F150, and I'd definitely get the automatic transmission just because I'm too lazy to mess with shifting gears in the heavy traffic around here. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] If I knew I was mostly going to be in light traffic, I probably wouldn't much care whether it was manual or automatic. Several years ago, the City of Dallas learned that maintenance expense was less on the automatics than the manuals, but that may have been because they were used for so much stop and go traffic.

Bird, I have only owned Ford trucks until I bought the 97 Dodge (new) and then the 89 Dakota (used) to have an alternative to the BIG pickup. Although I am slightly prejudiced in favor of the Ford I hope to keep my head and shop $ vs features with no particular consideration to brand name. For the truck I am looking for I don't think there is a dimes worth of difference. I won't tow with it or load it particularly heavily. I want 4x4 because I don't like to get stuck and have to walk a half mile back to the house. I don't need a back seat or towing capacity as I have other vehicles to haul more people or more cargo or tow heavy stuff.

4x4 and air conditioning are the "upgrades" I need. I don't even need ashtrays but a drink holder would be OK.



[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Pat, from what I've seen on most dealers' lots, you'd almost have to special order a truck to get it without all the bells and whistles. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Of course that may not be the case with dealers in farm country. Of course I've gotten spoiled to all those things. The '99 F150 I had was air-conditioned, but did not have power windows, seats, locks or mirrors. It did have cruise control and tilt wheel. And the one thing I missed the most?; power mirrors! Both my current vehicles have power mirrors, and of course when my wife drives one of them, she re-adjusts the mirrors and then I move them back when I drive it again. They never seem to get knocked out of adjustment; just different drivers. But when I had the F150 without power mirrors, it seems the right one was always getting knocked out of adjustment. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Are we going to be looking at;

" Pat's Truck Lot "

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Bird, I saw trucks in inventory at Shawnee that were with rubber mats and had crank-up windows and manual locks and mirrors but did have A/C... about what I want. The F-150 crew cab is not offered in lower trim options as it is aimed at yuppie larva, hair dressers, and telephone sanitizers, etc.

If the mirrors hold adjustment I'd have litle problem as my wife will not drive it much. Of course I'd not pass on a truck because it had power mirrors but I don't want to waste money on carpet that will be destroyed by mud.

I might even go for an extended cab and short bed as they both figure well in resale, garnering more than the initial cost, an investment with a decent return actually as is the small V-8 instead of a 6.

I stopped at the Kubota dealer to let the parts lady know the battery she sold me, although it was not the one called out in the parts list on computer, was exactly like the one I was replacing. While there I looked at the Kubota 3 cylinder diesel golf carts with dump beds. Tey run about $10K and up. I can't see it. Max speed is 25MPH. Why not just get a small truck with short bed and improvise a dump? P.T. Barnum is right again!


[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
P.T. Barnum is right again!

[/ QUOTE ]

No, no, those carts are lots of fun. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] The little utility carts and the small pickups both have their uses. I think we got my brother's money's worth out of his Kawasaki Mule going places even a little pickup wouldn't have gone, a quick and easy dump bed so we could dump dirt "on the fly", it was quicker and easier to get in and out of, and it used less gas.

Bird, I don't think they are useless but I could buy a lot of gas for 10-15 thousand dollars. A used Samurai towing a small dump bed trailer should go just about anywhere the cart will go and it can be driven at highway speeds to make errands to the store etc. The carts I saw only did up to 25MPH and are not so welcome on the highways.

I can see that is some cases they would be the best tool for the job but I don't think the opportunity to do something that could only be done with a cart will come along very often. If I had a cart I'm sure I'd use it a lot and find many uses for it but I don't see as how I'd be limited much by not having one as there are many alternatives that would be able to do the majority of what a cart will do and a lot that the cart can't do. For me it would mostly be an expensive solution looking for problems to solve.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

"A used Samurai towing a small dump bed trailer should go just about anywhere the cart will go and it can be driven at highway speeds to make errands to the store etc."

Yes, I wound up w/ a used Bronco II 4x4 that has served very well as an ATV AND I drive it to work everyday. If I need more capacity in the backwoods, I pull a trailer. And I found out the other day that if it's not stuck TOO bad, a tied off 4 wheeler will winch it out.
Anecdote: I was helping my BIL hunt some rogue cattle. It was pouring down rain and just cool enough to be miserable. We meet in the pasture, he is rain-soaked on his 4wheeler. I roll down my window on my BII just enough to ask him if he needed a ride. Boy, what a stare I got back [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I don't know what kind of luck you'd have finding a good Samurai anymore. We bought a new one in '86, air-conditioned, and I even had a cruise control and a hard top put on it. My wife used it mostly to drive back and forth to work; put 45k miles on it in 3 years and the only nickle I spent on it other than fuel, oil, &amp; filters was a new battery just before I sold it. It certainly would go places you probably couldn't go in a pickup, but would be no match at all for utility vehicles like the Mule. And yes, they only run up to 25 mph; not a highway machine, although we (and others) did drive on the farm-to-market roads quite a bit.

The neighbor I worked with a lot, working his cattle, cutting and baling hay, etc. as well as just being friends with him and his wife, was a bit of an unusual old fellow. He had 5 tractors, but the newest one was probably 25 years old when he bought it. He had two old pickups until one caught fire and he retired it to the pasture with the other two he had out there. His "new" pickup was a 1988 with over 100k miles on it when I met him in '95. He still had it when he died last year. He said he made sure before they got married (40 years or so earlier) that she understood she would never have a new car. He was pretty tight with his money, bought everything used that he could.

However, he had some cattle getting out and he didn't know how or where they were getting out. So I took him back through the woods, down through gulleys and washouts, over brush piles, etc. with all our fence repair tools in the Kawasaki Mule. And the next week, he went and bought a brand new one just like my brother's. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] And it was probably a good investment; finest ranch machine I know of. Besides hauling his tools and fence material, he could "lead" his cattle anywhere with a bucket of range cubes in the back. He had a 12 volt 25 gallon spray rig he frequently had in the bed of the Mule. And we even used it one day to pull the hay rake when a tractor broke down.

He and his wife would come to visit us driving the Mule because it was so much handier than getting in and out of a car or pickup. And his wife frequently used it to haul her bait and tackle to go fishing.

And he kept that Mule, also, until it was stolen about 6 months before he died.

So, nope, they're not much good for a road machine, but how fast do you want to drive off road anyway? And off road, I'd take one of them over any pickup made.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
The F-150 crew cab is not offered in lower trim options as it is aimed at yuppie larva, hair dressers, and telephone sanitizers, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a new cross-section of society that I have missed? [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Then again, maybe that's exactly why I'm hybernating in the backwoods of Maine. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

<font color="blue"> yuppie larva, hair dressers, and telephone sanitizers, etc. </font color>


Okay, I got the yuppie thing, and the hairdresser thing, but what's a telephone sanitizer?

I can tell by the context that it's vermin of some sort, but what?

[img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Pat, I'll have to back Bird up on the ute. The best thing about a small utility veh is no doors. Just sit down and go. I have a gas powered golfcart that is raised up 3 inches an has off road tires and a trailer hitch, and it is as handy as having a thumb. I jump on to go get the mail, use it to spot trailers, drag brush, and haul tools?ect from the house to shop or vice versa. Vickie uses it gardening, working in her flowers, picking up rocks that sprout in the yard, and it is great to take the grandkids riding. I'll bet that if you had one for a few days, you wouldn't do without one.
Now for the truck, why not buy 1 all around truck. I have a 3500 SRW Dodge with the Cummins/auto/4x4 and it is my work truck, my daily driver, it pulls my RV/tractor/skidsteer,ect.
I thought about getting a cheaper truck to drive around so as not to put many miles on the Dodge, but I won't find many that will be more comfortable to drive, or have nearly as much power, or get much better fuel milage. I get 18-20 around home, have pulled the backhoe up a pretty steep hill when it ran out of fuel in 4x4, and can pick up the grandkids in a pinch. I only have to buy 1 tag and keep 1 insurance policy, pay tax on 1, do maintance on 1 and only have to wash 1. Why not trade the 3500 and the dakota on a do it all truck, and not fool with all the parking hassles? Later, Nat

BIrd, NOTE: I have an air cooled VW powered Myers Manx (Knockoff) and wind it pretty tight in third gear in parts of the pastures where I won't break anything. I have been thinking of searching for an old VW transporter (swing axle) trans-axle that I could have rebuilt for really low speed (high ratio) gearing. My unit is too long legged. Does highway real good and hard pan desert and beach runs if the sand isn't too fine but it doesn't have a slow and cautious speed. If I can get it geared down so I can get some serious R's in low gear without too much road speed I can use it for running around the place. When you want to pick your way over rough spots like erosion ditches etc you can't go slow enough without feathering the clutch and I hate that.

I too have a 25 gal 12 volt operated spray rig that I use for small jobs when I don't want to use the 200 gal pasture sprayer for the 3PH. It will sit well behind the seats of the buggy or in the bed of the Dakota. I drive slow and spray left handed out the window. I allow as to how in another 5-10 years the contortions I use to in/egress the buggy will be a lot less fun. I have a cloth top for the buggy and removable cloth/plastic windowed doors and wrap around clear plastivc behind. AZll buttoned up it is almost dry at highway speeds. In sumer I just use the top cloth for sun protection and no doors.

I saw a Kubota cart being repaired. The owners grand kids rolled it over. Pretty expensive damage.

I am expecting a friend to arrive in about an hour. He is driving in from San Diego (bringing me a small sailboat.) He has several deuce and a half trucks, both gas and diesel. I can get one of those in decent runing conditioin for less than a Kubota cart with rollbar, top, and doors.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

rozett, the group to which I reffered was a mixture of paraphrasing Douglas Adams in the "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and Dan Akroyd in a movie that I can't recall the tiltle of just now. I do think there are all together too many yuppie larvae, don't you?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Pat, I don't know much about the deuce and a half. Our volunteer fire department got one of the military surplus ones, so I helped with installing a couple of tanks, pump, cleaning it up for painting, putting a light bar on it, etc. I only drove it a couple times; once to a big grass fire. It was a diesel, did not have power steering and you had to be ready to apply plenty of muscle power and start turning the wheel a hundred yards before you got to where you wanted it to turn. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Now it was good to go most anywhere and it would haul a big load of water, but I don't recall ever driving anything that was worse to drive, or more work to drive. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Years ago, a cousin of mine bought a pipe rail frame or chassis (dune buggy) and put VW running gear in it and I painted it for him. We had a lot of fun running that thing through creeks, hill climbing, etc. but I didn't consider it to be good for anything other than a lot of fun.

There is this niggly thing in the back of my mind that say's

"Pat likes vehicles but they must be justified/usefull and well researched"

As Pat has a prefectly good truck that he probably can never wear out I'd suggest he go out and look at some sporty two seaters much like he had in his youth to alleviate the new vehicle itch! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

He does need a reward for efforts put into building a far from ordinary house!

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

<font color="blue"> Now it was good to go most anywhere and it would haul a big load of water, but I don't recall ever driving anything that was worse to drive, or more work to drive. </font color>


I'll second that! Miserable beasts!


I want one! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Bird, My buggy uses the the original Bug floor pan which is what passes for a frame on the VW Beatle. I say original but about 14 inches has been cut out behind the front seats (deletes the back seat) and the two ends welded back together which, of course, shortens the already short wheelbase by another 14 inches. A one piece FRP body with no doorways is bolted on plus a full bedstead roll cage that wraps around the engine too.

My wife at 5'7" and 125 lbs drove one of the deuces off road and up a steep mining road, supposedly gravel but the "GRAVEL" was the size of my fist. Large steering wheel on the non-power steering model and a narrow band of RPM that is permissible and a manual floor shift made it interesting to her. As a lover of trucks she had a ball. Many of the newer deuces have PS and auto tranny as well as air brakes so are a lot easier to handle.

Lead the turns, eh? My buddy has one deuce with the extended bed (17 ft of bed.) I'd need to wire ahead for permission to turn!

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

<font color="blue"> Large steering wheel on the non-power steering model and a narrow band of RPM that is permissible and a manual floor shift made it interesting to her. </font color>

Not to mention that the shift pattern is, shall we say, non-standard? Crazy, mixed-up whacko would also describe it! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]


Lots of fun over rough terrain with a load of soldiers complaining behind you. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I grew up driving WWII Army trucks that we used to feed cows in winter, spread fertilizer with a vee box and haul hay. We had two GMC 6 X 6's and one Shivel-A 4 X 4. We used to shift them as an: "Oklahoma Seven-Speed" by going all the way up through the five gears in the main box with the transfer case in "under"; then pull the transfer into "Direct" and go back to fourth in the main box and then on up to fifth. Horsehair-filled canvas seat cushions, an enormous wooden-rim steering wheel, and crank out front windows......the lap of luxury.......... perfect for bringing supplies over the Burma Road. GI stuff is, well,.....not made for everybody. Kudos to your sweetie Pat, for being able to chauffer a genuine steel Cadillac! [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CJDave

[img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I grew up driving WWII Army trucks that we used to feed cows in winter, spread fertilizer with a vee box and haul hay. We had two GMC 6 X 6's and one Shivel-A 4 X 4. We used to shift them as an: "Oklahoma Seven-Speed" by going all the way up through the five gears in the main box with the transfer case in "under"; then pull the transfer into "Direct" and go back to fourth in the main box and then on up to fifth. Horsehair-filled canvas seat cushions, an enormous wooden-rim steering wheel, and crank out front windows......the lap of luxury.......... perfect for bringing supplies over the Burma Road. GI stuff is, well,.....not made for everybody. Kudos to your sweetie Pat, for being able to chauffer a genuine steel Cadillac! [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

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just wonder about this car part. how was this i mean what is the main function of this part? thanks!

I actually never thought of converting an old truck into a ranch vehicle. I didn't even know you could do that! I think that was a great idea! You literally put it out to pasture!

Being as how that was four years ago it is probably in the junk yard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jimbrown

Being as how that was four years ago it is probably in the junk yard.

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I wouldn't bet on it F150's are bullet proof, 4 years is a drop in the bucket. I've been abusing an 84 for 15 years in the florida swamps and it runs as strong as it ever did.
The inline 300 6 banger is a model of reliability imho.

There is a reason that the Ford F-150 has been the best selling vehicle in America for the past 20+ years, it is the best 1/2 ton truck on the market. This year the new Ecoboost V-6 has as much HP/TQ as most diesels with great mileage. If I was looking for a new 1/2 ton truck, the new Ford F-150 Ecoboost would be right up there.

Pap