1/2 ton pickup opinions???

[mikim]

I think Im leaning towards the ford. Aside from some electrical and comfort issues, they seem pretty solid Mine is a Lariat with leather captains chairs ...very comfy .. and the only elect problem I've ever had was that recall on the cruise switch. My son bought a Dakota in 2001 - nothing but trouble from day one. He now has a Chevy avalanche ...sigh.....34 yrs old and the boy still won't learn. My SIL bought a full size Dodge with the hemi .....I give him grief too.... Someday my Ford might breakdown and will I ever have it coming! ..... nah.....never happen.

 

[Egon]

Mike; you have to take it out on the road first!

 

[john_bud]

My Ford was rock solid. Only had trouble with the rear end (1500$$), the transmission ($1200), the suspension ($600 x 2), the brakes ($400 x3), body rust thru, frame rust thru and the paint falling off (priceless). At least it was grossly underpowered and gas guzzling at the same time.

Anyone remember the issues with the window frames on late '90's Ford trucks where the frame cracks and snaps off at the door?

 

[mikim]

Mike; you have to take it out on the road first!

I'd hate to be Found On Road Dead.... guess I better keep it in the yard from now on

 

[jwstewar]

I guess I might as well throw my 2 cents in.

I've got a '99 Silverado 1500 4x4 w/ almost 100k on it. Lets see, tires only lasted until 77k miles. I had a squeak so I replaced the rear brake pads at 60k - $40, turns out it was u-joints that cost a grand total of $12 to replace. Front pads look good yet, might have to replace them at 150k. Darn GM crappy brakes. Had to replace a handle on the seat because of always using it to get my son in and out of car seat. $6. Also replaced the power mirror switch and the 4wd switch. I think about the pws was $30 and the 4wd was $45. Had to put a battery in it because I had put some electric steps on that kept draining the battery and killed it so I killed the steps.

I throw 2500+ lbs in the bed and pull another 3000 in a little trailer behind. I also pull campers and tractors with it. Also had a 13k behind it a couple times.

Yep, that sure is a bad truck. It it were any better, I might just be stuck driving the thing forever, the way it is now, I might at least be able to justify a new one in 3 - 5 years.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

My Ford was rock solid. Only had trouble with the rear end (1500$$), the transmission ($1200), the suspension ($600 x 2), the brakes ($400 x3), body rust thru, frame rust thru and the paint falling off (priceless). At least it was grossly underpowered and gas guzzling at the same time.

Anyone remember the issues with the window frames on late '90's Ford trucks where the frame cracks and snaps off at the door?

What year and what model? Can you explain in more detail some of the problems? I know the late 90's Dodge trucks have rust problems and the early 90's Fords and just about all the Chevy's from the 90's but the only rust problem I have seen on any of the 97 and newer F-150's is on the front steel bumper on a 99 F-150 XL as it rusted below the paint and made the paint flake off. No rust thru though or anywhere near a rust thru.

The frame on my 98 F-150 is solid still and I had a good look at it when I replaced the fuel tank. But you did make me remember that the rear seal went on my 98'. Also, the door has a half inch crack on both doors on the lower corner of the window but the doors don't snap off. All they ever did was formed the 1/2" crack (not that it is good but not as bad as the doors cracking in half ) One other problem the early F-150's had is the rear windows would leak as the seal was seamed on the top of the window and it wouldn't hold up. It wasn't bad, just a little drip, drip, drip

Around here the transmission shops do more work on the late 90's Chevy's and Dodge trucks (they surprised me when they said they worked on more Chevy's then Dodges though). The reason I was talking to them is we took my brothers 99 Dodge 1500 4x4 in to have the transfer case repaired. This was a few years ago though so things could have changed a lot by now.

What was the problem with the brakes and suspension? I know the 92-96 F-150's had paint problems as my 92 had the paint flake off along the hood but it seemed like a lot of the vehicles had paint problems in the early 90's (Dodge had a lot of problems on the Caravans, Rams and Neon's).

I don't have too many friends with Chevy's to really be able to say what type of problems they have but the one that does run Chevy's plows snow for a winter business and trades trucks in every 3 years to avoid problems which makes sense when you have to rely on your truck.

 

[RayH]

My Ford was rock solid. Only had trouble with the rear end (1500$$), the transmission ($1200), the suspension ($600 x 2), the brakes ($400 x3), body rust thru, frame rust thru and the paint falling off (priceless). At least it was grossly underpowered and gas guzzling at the same time.

YIKES !!!!! Thats all that can be said about that.!

 

[john_bud]

Robert, the Ford was a bought new 1989 F150 standard cab long bed 4x4 custom ordered with HD front suspension with quad shocks, HD rear suspension, over ride rear springs, camper and towing packages, roof lights, HD front and rear anti-roll bars and dual tanks. Engine was a 302 (5.0 L to you metric people), 5 speed manual transmission and 3.55:1 open differentials. Should have been good on gas, but it was a gutless pig.


Paint flaked off in huge hunks after the warranty expired. Almost to the day. Local ford dealer shined me on so that I couldn't get it repainted by ford. None of the frame or suspension was painted or even coated. Any place that salt could collect, it did and rust followed happily in it's wake. Around the fuel tank doors, wheel well arches, under the doors, etc. I forgot to mention that the main leaf spring on both sides cracked completely in half. Took some doing to change them out at -15F laying in the snow at night. Ford's front end had some sort of polymer mounted ball joints and no grease fittings. The poly pounded out so the front end would take a "set" when you made a turn. So you would have to over correct to pop it back. Very annoying and hard to drive straight. It also ate u-joints about every 15,000 miles, rear seals about every 20,000, brakes went about 50,000 but they needed new drums, at 60,000 the parking brake cables rusted shut when the truck sat at the airport in January. Wasn't happy sawing the cables in half laying in the snow wearing my suit, but I did want to get home.


On the window cracks, I have seen several where the window frame snaps off of the door. Each of the people that owned the trucks '97 and 2 '98's closed the doors by pushing the top of the window frame. One guy was closing the door and stopped it from closing and the frame snapped in his hand. Cracks don't just start then stop - they are like weeds - they grow and grow.


And just to set the record straight - That truck was either the 15th or 16th ford that I bought. I still have 2 old cougars and an old mustang and there aren't many nuts or bolts in a ford engine that I can't ID, so I am not a ford hater. But for trucks, Chevy has been much better than ford both for reliability as well as performance. According to my records, about 25% of the total miles on the Chevy's has been towing 9000-9500#. Not a huge load, but enough to tell. I don't have any personal exp with new ford's and the hub-bub around the 6.0L diesel has pushed me farther from them - so the new ones could be perfect and I wouldn't know.

As they say, YMMV.

jb

Oh on topic, A buddy sold one dakota at 85k and it went 240k before it was sold again. No engine or trans issues with it. That was a 6 cyl. He went to a 4.7L v8 after that and had good luck there too. He has been hemi in a full size ever since. I know that he towed 10k several times with the dakota. Probably shouldn't have, but he did.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

JB, there is a huge difference between the 89 F-150 and 2000-2004 F-150. For one, there is nothing in common between them besides the blue oval. The new trucks don't have the rust issues the pre 97's had (most of the old Fords had the wheel wells on the box rust out).

The cracks are only on the lip and they stop where the door is reinforced. As I said, my cracks are a half inch and have been that way for 4 years. I don't expect my door to break in half anytime soon but who knows, maybe today is the day

Either way, the newer Fords are a lot nicer then the pre-97's (not in every aspect but in a lot of them). I do miss my 92. It had the 300 with manual tranny and was a fun truck to drive. 2wd, long bed, custom. Just a great no frills truck that put on a lot of trouble free miles. The main reason we finally sold it was when we bought the 02 F-250 and the 98 F-150 took over the 92's job.

 

[john_bud]

Robert,

Glad to hear that many of the problems my truck suffered have been corrected. I did have that truck for 12 years, so I got to know it pretty well... warts and all. There was one other issue, the exhaust manifolds would glow red after towing. Both cracked top to bottom, but I didn't replace or even touch them!

Actually, the box on mine was terrible on the outside, but the bed of it inside the rails was very good when I sold it. Had a liner and asside from a few rubs, it was un marked, un scratched and had no rust. I sold it to a local 17 year old kid that loved it, especially the HD suspension and HD anti-roll bars. He loved playing speed racer around the corners. Loved it so much he rolled the truck.... twice.

jb