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Thread: Ford F-150 ????

  1. #1
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    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]
    "I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"

  2. #2
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    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.

  3. #3
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    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]
    "I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"

  4. #4
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    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]

  5. #5
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????


    Are we going to be looking at;

    " Pat's Truck Lot "

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

  6. #6
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    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]
    "I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"

  7. #7
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    </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.

  8. #8
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    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]
    "I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"

  9. #9
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    "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]

  10. #10
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    Re: Ford F-150 ????

    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.

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