F-550 Ford 6.4 Diesel

[EddieWalker]

Be sure to find out what your state classifies the F-550 as. In some states, one tons and above are commercial trucks and your registration gets more and more expensive the bigger the truck. Other states start the commercial rating at trucks over one ton, which is still going to be the 550.

Price out what your insurance will be. Again, commercial vehicles cost allot more money to insure.

Why do you need an F-550? What will it do that an F-350 wont do? Do you really need that extra towing capacity? Does the F-550 exceed 26,000 pounds GVW with a trailer? I don't know where Ford draws the line on 26,000 pounds, but if you are over that, then you will need a commercial license just to drive it. Some might be over, other models might be under. My F600 is under at 24,500 GVW, so no commercial license, but I've been told that some F600's with the right engine, transmission, axle and brake combinations will go up to 30,000 pounds.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[SuperDuty335]

Buy the FL70 and you will have problems.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Late to arrive here but the F-550 is a heck of a truck but the F-350 would do all you need, even a SRW. Either way, I would love to have a 550 so if you can justify it go for it.

Like others said check into the licensing thing and insurance.

Chris

 

[Bird]

I was surfing the Peterbilt and Kenworth sites tonight and they had a tab for "Paccar Engines." This piqued my curiosity and I noticed they are offering two inline 6's in the USA. One is a 6.7l and the other is a 8.3l. What I found interesting when I read the owner's manual for the 6.7l engine it had Cummins listed in a few illustrations. Is this the same 6.7l Cummins Dodge now offers; but rebadged with the Paccar label? They offer numerous horsepower and torque options. http://www.peterbilt.com/pdf/PX6FullSpecs.pdf

I also noticed on Paccar's web site that they offer larger Paccar engines in Europe.

If this is the same engine as the Dodge, wouldn't it be something if Ford were able to work out a deal to install Paccar/Cummmins motors in their pickups.


Peterbilt - Engines

I live within 10 miles of the Peterbilt factory and I guess you know that Peterbilt is now owned by Paccar.

 

[Bird]

One of my brothers has a 2008 F550 crewcab, long wheelbase, 4.88 differential and loves it. Plenty of power for pulling a load. He and his wife spend the winters in Texas and summers in Washington state. He was a little concerned about the diesel fuel getting into the crankcase, but even my Ford dealer's service manager says all the 6.4L diesels do it; just some more than others. And yes, fuel mileage is not very good, especially if you're pulling a load as you can see my brother pulls. However, they recently had some program (they didn't call it a "recall", but something else) where they re-programmed the computer and it's supposed to help with the mileage and fuel in the oil problems without hurting the power.

Of course my brother (and some others I've spoken to) say you want to be sure and keep an extended warranty in effect because if they ever have to work on that engine, they have to lift the entire cab off the frame to start with, and while that's relatively simple on most of them, it's also expensive.

 

[garydc]

mjncad & jcmseven the small Paccar motors are Cummins and the larger bores are DAF motors which Paccar also owns. Ford owns or did own Cummins but bought it after the deals were in place for IH motors in Fords and Cummins in the Dodges. Gary

 

[JB4310]

Here's another forum that's pretty impartial as it represents all brands, I did a lot of reading there when I was specing my new work truck.

Powered by Determination

I went with the Dodge 6.7 with Aisin auto 6 speed, I was already biased towards Cummins since my previous 5.9 was almost flawless for 12 years.

Hate to say it but even though these domestic work trucks will pull the OP's load, all 3 will put you in the poor house trying to make money over the road with that load, IMO you need something designed to be fuel efficient but still capable to move a load.

JB.

 

[john_bud]

Late to arrive here but the F-550 is a heck of a truck but the F-350 would do all you need, even a SRW. Either way, I would love to have a 550 so if you can justify it go for it.

Like others said check into the licensing thing and insurance.

Chris

Actually, Chris is right. You really can pull 15k day in and day out with a SRW 2500 or 3500. The 3500 (350 in Ford speak) with dual wheels will be better and more stable. My 2500 duramax is rated at 14,400 towing capacity. I pull 12k tag and it is no problem accelerating or decelerating.

Unless you are talking about the load being 15k + the trailer weight. Then you are probably talking about pulling 23-25k total tow weight + 8-10k for the truck and you are soooo into CDL land. Not that it's hard to get a non-air brake cdl.

jb

 

[mjncad]

I live within 10 miles of the Peterbilt factory and I guess you know that Peterbilt is now owned by Paccar.

I used to be big into making models of heavy trucks as a teenager in the 1970's, and Peterbilt and Kenworth were owned by Paccar back then. It just looks like they've expanded with the DAF brand of trucks used in Europe and Australia, along with three winch companies (e.g. Braden).

When I first got into the model truck hobby, Peterbilt was still headquartered in Fremont, California (south of San Francisco), and the Denton, Texas facility was a new facility to them.

I think Paccar stands for PACific CAR since their two main truck brands got their start on the west coast.

 

[SouthernX]

One of my brothers has a 2008 F550 crewcab [ snip... ] He was a little concerned about the diesel fuel getting into the crankcase, but even my Ford dealer's service manager says all the 6.4L diesels do it; just some more than others. [ snip... ]

Concerning the fuel in the crankcase... I found this on one of the Ford diesel forums. Looks like maybe the injectors are causing problems for some people?

From the forum...

CSP 09B08 affects certain '08 and '09 model year trucks with 6.4L built between 05/14/08 and 11/07/08 and is for injector replacement due to the possibility of premature injector o-ring wear/failure. As a result, fuel could leak into the crankcase. Approximately 8,000 vehicles are affected by this program and the program will be in effect through 03/31/10...

Affected trucks will show up in OASIS and there is a list that tells which injectors need to be replaced on affected trucks based on individual VIN number. In some cases it may only be one, in others it could be all 8 or it could be some where in between...

Owner notification by Ford will be a phased process since there is not a sufficient supply of injectors available to service all owners at this time. The phase mailing will be prioritized by axle ratio with numerically higher ratios being first since they are the most susceptible to the issue...