First Truck for a Tractorman

[cowboydoc]

Wheeldog,
First just let me say that I am pretty humbled by the respect you give me in what I say. I appreciate that.
I am just going off of what was written about the Toyota truck. I get a ton of magazines at the office and read them from time to time. The last one, I believe was car and driver and they were talking about Toyota's attempt to break into the hot 1/2 ton market. It was pretty much admitted by the Toyota rep. that they hadn't done that with the Tacoma and so they came out with the Tundra to match specs by the big three. Like ALL trucks that come out with new designs there are design flaws to work out. All I meant by the comment was that Toyota was still trying to get it right as far as having a winner in the 150 market. Not in any way did I mean that Toyota didn't make a good pickup. But pickup and pickup truck are two different things in my opinion. In my youth I had two of those Toyota toys. I tricked them all out with big tires, roll bars, nerf bars, etc. They were a 4 wheeling dream! I loved them. Never had one lick of trouble with them and drove them hard. But I don't believe that they are anything to be used as a tow machine, especially not even in the league if Glenn may be towing 8k, even once in awhile, just not a good idea safety and pickup wise. So please don't take my comments about the Toyota as meant that Toyota is junk. They are a great pickup just not a good pickup truck in my eyes.

According to Fords literature they are the longest lasting trucks on the road. There are more Fords per capita on the road at specific time intervals than other trucks. Also when they did analysis of trouble with vehicles they were all within 10% of each other. The article that I read on this was commenting about how American mfg. had caught up in reliablility to the imports. The only exception was Honda which Saturn was giving a run for its money. I can tell you what magazines we get at the office on monday if you want. You could probably do a search on their websites and find the articles that I'm referring to.

 

[woodstock]

Glenn,
There is one thing certain, you need about 14 different vehicles to satisfy all the transportation needs.
My purdie truck is a 2001 Dakota Quad Cab with a sucked out 3.9 V6 and crappy 3.56 hwy gears but it gets 22 mpg.
My dirty truck, when new was my purdie truck, is a ford Ranger extended cab 4X4 peppy 4.0 L V6 with excellent 4.10 pulling gears. I can load the JD 316 in the box with ramps.

My working horse is the chevy 2 ton dump.

Your right about one thing, make sure the wife can drive it.

Winnipeg, Manitoba

2001 BX2200 (20 hrs) All Kubota FEL,Tiller, box blade, blower w/elec shute, 60 mid mt deck, Ag tires.
Grey market B7000 w/Tiller (120 hrs)
1984 JD 316 after 687 hrs.

 

[Wheeldog]

cowboydoc,

Okay, fair enough. I agree that if the towing load is in the 8000 lb range then that is no place for the Tacoma or any of the compact 1/2-tons. As far as the Tundra, most of the write-ups I've read praise the V8 engine but knock the lack of additional engine choices, body configurations, etc., in comparison to the domestic models. They usually conclude that the Tundra is a good "first attempt" at a true full-size 1/2-ton pickup (v. the earlier T100).

I get a little fired-up about reliability comparisons, since my own experience showed a night-and-day difference between one domestic compact pickup (bought new in 1990) and my current Toyota (a 95'). However, I do understand there are many people who have had much better luck with their domestic trucks than I had with mine.

Thanks for replying.

Rob

 

[cowboydoc]

Wheeldog,
You're right it's hard to compare with others. One of the ladies that I teach with at the University had a Tacoma and it was in the shop all the time. All she towed was a two horse trailer and horses. She went through two transmission, a rear end, etc. My family has always had Ford diesels since 1983. You can pretty much bet the farm and what and when will go wrong on them. Around 100-150k you will have to rebuild the water pump and the injector pump. Another 150k the same thing. About the same mileage and you will have to fix the front end. But that's it for about 350-500k of mileage. The kid that works for me has a Chevy pickup that he just traded off. It was an 89 4wd with 225,000 miles and never a lick of trouble. My medical rep for braces and supports also has the Ford F-150 and he gets a new one every three years. His last one he said had 240,000 and he had almost no problems with it. He was going Ford again. The farmer here that helps me alot has an Toyota with that diesel engine that they came out with for awhile, 85 I think. The body and everything else is completely falling off of it but it still runs like a champ and he has over 300k on it. So who knows really. I've heard horror stories from every brand and great things from every brand. I do believe though that the curve isn't very great between any of them anymore as far as reliablility goes.

 

[DrDan]

Cowboydoc,
I trying to wear out a Ford E150 Van right now. Got 145,000 on it and the damn thing even refuses to use a little oil! Got the 302 V-8 and auto transmission. It's grossly underpowered but it just keeps on going. Only thing I've ever done is replace the front wheelbearings, brakes and exhaust pipes. It is absolutely amazing the miles you can get out of vehicles thses days. Gosh in all those miles I only changed sparkplugs once. Of course I religiously change oil and grease every 3000 with premium oil. Ya the diesels act a lot happier with new injectors at 70,000 and I rebuilt the injector pump also. Gotta be careful with glow plugs. There are all kinds of horror stories about tips breaking off and ending up in the end of a piston or sticking a valve open and frying it. Of course these are in the idiots trucks that try to run them 300k! What ya expect. I used to be a Chevy man, but the extreme reliability and low maintenence on Fords has converted me.

Dr Dan

 

[DVerbarg]

Glenn,

Regarding: <font color=blue>I cant relate anything to this 1/2 ton 3/4 ton terminology everyone is slinging around.</font color=blue> This is an "old" terminology from the early 80s and before. The old naming conventions for trucks were that anything that started with a "10" (10, 100, 1000) was a "half-ton". Then they beefed up some suspension used the "15" prefix (15, 150, 1500) sold it for more money and called it a "heavy duty half-ton". The original "10" series were dropped due to marketing and everyone stuck with the "15" prefixes. 3/4 ton units had the same basic story but used the "20" prefix and "25" prefix for "heavy duty". 1 ton units used the "30" and "35" prefix. The American manufacturers still use the basic naming convention but I believe Japanese mfgs dropped it a few years ago. Hope this helps.

DaveV

 

[glennmac]

Dave, thanks. I realized it was a historical term, which I assumed related to payload. But it doesnt (except relatively). The young sales reps coulnt explain it to me, although they clearly knew which of their models were which.

 

[Anderson]

I too am looking at getting a new truck, and being confused by the trailering specs. I don't see differences in the specs for single and double rear wheels.

Can someone explain when you should buy a dual rear wheel pickup?

 

[dmccarty]

Glennmac,

You are getting some good advice. I'll throw out some stuff that is out of the box somewhat....

My Chevy has been a disaster. Its a 2500 with a turbo diesel, extended cab, long bed and 5 speed tranny. I've put something like $5,000 into this thing over the last two years or so. All powertrain. The fuel problem on the engine which is apparently a given on the 6.5 turbo diesels. A rebuilt tranny. This is a heavy duty tranny with a PTO option. And I just had to replace the clutch. Heavy duty as well that cost $1,200. So much for heavy duty. The truck has hauled gravel, mulch, and dirt. Never towed a thing. Just went over 70,000 miles. Enough whining by me! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

As far as towing. I think you are seeing that short of a 250/2500 truck you are going to be pushing the limits of the vehicle. While I did not two with my truck I hauled in something like 20+ tons of dirt, gravel and mulch. I'm sure that is what killed the tranny. My dad had a Dodge full size and used it to two is bass boat. He was well under the ratings for the truck but he went through a tranny as well.

Because of all of the above I want a truck that has a decent payload so I can keep the load well under the ratings on the vehicle. Maybe I just had bad luck but I'm paranoid at this part about payload.

Money. From what I have been seeing, the price on a new diesel 250/2500 to 350/3500 truck with 4x4, extended cab, etc is getting close to 40K. I'm seeing new Ford 450/550 trucks in the same price range. The 450/550's have much higher load and towing ratings over the pickups. So If the same dollar buys a 350 or a 450 I would get a 450. The 450/550s are "commercial" vehicles so some dealers won't even stock them.

However, I'm seeing lots of adverts on TV and in the newspaper that show the 150/1500 trucks at some sane prices for a change. A 1500 for 22-25,000 dollars with extended cab and 4x4. Not a diesel and it does not have the towing capacity but its also not 35-40,000 dollars. On the other hand I know of two dealers selling F450 diesel trucks, regular cab, manual tranny and a dump flat bed with 4,000 miles for 24-25,000 dollars. I know of another dealer that has a NEW 1999, yes 1999, F450 truck like I just described with 35 miles on the vehicle. Not sure of the price, it must be high since no one is buying AND I think I would scared of buying a truck that has been sitting for two to three years....

SOOOO, this is much more truck than you asked for but if you really need to tow and the price is right you might get a REAL truck to match the tractor! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Until the prices started to fall recently I was thinking of trading in the Chevy and getting a new truck. The problem is/was, what kind of truck. A small vehicle that would be cheap to buy/run. Or go get a 450/550 that would cost the same as a replacement of the Chevy but do a heck of a lot more work. The answer? I don't know! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I don't want to spend any money and the Chevy is paid for so I keep driving it. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Hope this helps The Decision....
Dan McCarty

 

[RobS]

The dual rear wheels on a pickup have more to do with stability and "insurance" for a blowout than anything else. For all out load carrying capacity a one ton, single rear wheel, two wheel drive usually has the highest rating. Duallies look cool though /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif