Ford Rant

[Egon]

I have a 96 dodge that has half the paint peeled off.

 

[MossRoad]

I have an '85 Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4, 350 w/California emissions sitting next to my garage with four flat tires. In the bed under a cracked cap I store pressure treated lumber scraps. About once a week I pick up another piece of the truck that has rotted off. It has been sitting there for four years. Why won't it repair itself?

 

[Volfandt]

Hey N80, that black sure looks good after a long day of working it but I doubt I'll own another black vehicle.
I've left mine about as stock as one can and it's been a good truck in return. I have nothing agin tweaking and adding more go-fast parts but I got tired of constantly having to wrench my "performance" add-ons
I've even stayed with the stock wheels & tires. Got 75k on the originals and the present Wranglers looks like they'll have the same longevity. I dunno, sometimes I yearn for the sweet low rumbling sound of twin turbo thrush's but then again when I'm really enjoying the ride everything gets drowned out by the 6 CD changer anyways

Hey nobull1, I aint no ford oppologist by any means. Matter of fact I don;t necessarily disagree with you. I've just had better luck w/Ford pkups than any other vehicle except, ahem, Toyota.........

There was another thread up in trailers where I expressed my opinion on how our American automakers let their virtual monopoly dissenigrate in less than 10 yrs because they couldn't or wouldnt match the quality & price of the imports.
Course I didn't even buy my 1st honst to goodness import (non-big two made)until 2001 and I liked it so much I traded it for another.
I'm glad the big two or three are improving, I just hope it's not too late for 'em as I will still look towards Ford 1st whenever I'm ready to trade my 98 F150.

 

[N80]

As much as I like little trucks (maybe just for playing around), I was seriously considering getting an F-250 SuperCrew Diesel. The mileage is about the same but you get a lot more room for kids, dogs and stuff plus more towing capacity with the 250. But then I heard the ongoing saga with those diesels and that scared me away. Thought about the Dodges with the Cummins which my B-I-L thinks I should get, and they're probably great, but his, his daughters and his friends all and injector pump problems. Probably a coincidence, but, well, what would you think?

I've just never been a Chevy man. My Dad had serious problems with his second S-10 Blazer and he got treated real bad. You know how experiences like that affect you.

So, I'm staying with this F-150 until it tanks!

 

[Volfandt]

I was seriously considering getting an F-250 SuperCrew Diesel.

Same here, I really don;t have a need for a Power Stroke F250 but man-oh-man would a 300hp + diesel crank my tractor

The skinny on the Ford PS is that the older 7.3's were bullet proof, the 1st couple yrs of the more powerful 6.0 gave the entire engine series a bad name but supposedly the later yrs of the 6.0 lived up to all it's hype and worked as advertised.
The new 6.4 has had a few teething problems, i.e. the exhaust would get so hot as to shoot flames out a couple feet from the pipe but that has supposedly been rectified now.
The new Chevy Duramax coupled to an Allison in the 2500 series and up is supposed to be THE setup now. Don't know much about it yet but I've been hearing great things about it.
What I'd like to see is a 250 to 300 hp diesel in the F150 / 1500 series trucks. The massive amount of torque coupled with better MPG than the gassers would make them more popular as well as more economical. Perhaps this new ULSD will start us down the road to smaller diesels.

 

[Dargo]

Thought about the Dodges with the Cummins which my B-I-L thinks I should get, and they're probably great, but his, his daughters and his friends all and injector pump problems. Probably a coincidence, but, well, what would you think?

One of my neighbors is the service manager for the 4th largest Dodge dealership in the country. He told me that he could probably count on one hand the number of injector pumps they have worked on in the last 10 years. Something doesn't sound quite right there. Not only have they sold thousands of them, but all the smaller dealerships send their "problem children" (hard to fix problems) to this dealership.

P.S. They also own one of the largest Chevy dealerships and Ford dealerships in this area as well. I wasn't aware that the Duramax has had more issues than most people think. Other than the first year or two of the 6.0 Fords, he thinks the Ford 6.0 is as good as the GM Duramax. Take if for what it's worth (if anything), but he uses a Dodge to tow his 5th wheel camper and the dealer who owns all the dealerships uses one of the new Dodge pickups to travel to his get away cabin.

 

[jcmseven]

The Ford 6.4L has been a very solid and trouble free motor so far. So for N80, I would have no reservations about test driving one. A good truck, for sure. I bought one two months ago and have been quite satisfied with my purchase. Ford has gained leaps and bounds on this truck.

John M

 

[riptides]

As much as I like little trucks (maybe just for playing around), I was seriously considering getting an F-250 SuperCrew Diesel. The mileage is about the same but you get a lot more room for kids, dogs and stuff plus more towing capacity with the 250. But then I heard the ongoing saga with those diesels and that scared me away.

Have you considered an F-250 7.3L Diesel?

Sweet they are.

-Mike Z.

 

[RobertN]

OMG. You have got to be kidding. You can only think of ONE dog from the 70's?!?! Roy, the 70's is the decade of the American junk car. As other have mentioned, anyone can rattle off a long list of not just bad but laughably bad cars from the 70's and early 80's. It's comedian material man. Where have you been?

Wow! Two of the better cars of my memory were a '72 and '74 Mopar. My Mom had a '72 Fury III with a 360. It was spacious, handled well, and towed a smaller 16' travel trailer very well. Also the first car I drove over 110mph The tranny did need a rebuild at about 150k miles.

My '74 Roadrunner was the last real one, although it was a smogged out California car with a smallblock. I got it with 100k miles, and drove it hard to 175k miles, when it got t-boned... That car ran great, and even with my thrashing on it, never broke. I left it stock.

Even the 70's Pinto I had ran well. My Grandma had it from new to about 100k miles. I had it for another 25k miles. The person after me put somes miles on it, but thrashed and the wrecked it.

Even my '79 Trans Am was good. I got it used, put a bunch of miles on it, and sold at 130k miles. Only thing about that car; I could not change the spark plugs myself. I have largish hands; I could not get to the front passenger side spark plugs because of lack of clearance. With the bigblock motor, there was no room under the air conditioning pump.

The worst car I can think of from the 70's is the Gremlin/Pacer... I don't know which was worse, reliability or ugly Although, my Aunt had a Pacer; it was reliable from what I remember, but was sure an ugly car(IMHO )

 

[scott_vt]

However! The 4wd switch is the stupidest thing I've ever seen on a modern vehicle. It is the same size and shape as all the climate control switches and sits in a perfect line with them. The '4x4' indicator light is also just plain dumb, it is tiny and totally obscured by the steering wheel not matter what position its in.

The result? Well, about once or twice a year I think I'm turning the fan up when I'm switching into 4wd!
)

Afternoon George,
Well, no switches in my 00 Dodge for FWD In fact you have to give the shift on the floor a pretty good tug to get it engaged ! My vote goes to the old fashioned mechanical shift on the floor !

 

[ultrarunner]

Hey, my 1931 Ford Model A Roadster is still going strong and it is all stock.

My 1911 Ford Model T Speedster is very reliable but it lacks all the modern creature comforts of the Model A. The "T" good enough for around town, but I don't take it on trips anymore...

I now prefer the newer Model A for road trips! Having a windshield wiper and electric headlights sure are the "Cats Meow"

....Cheers

 

[Egon]

On really steep hills do you drive forward or back up with the model T ??

 

[ultrarunner]

Egon... Actually, I live on a very steep hill and the road is 7/10's of a mile straight up... well like San Francisco steep, and yes... I did have to drive home in reverse and backing up that hill... as a side benefit... I got to know a lot of my neighbors along the way!

Anyway, the family was getting a little embarrassed, so I finally bit the bullet and bought and ELECTRIC fuel pump and now I can drive home without having to back-up that last 7/10's of a mile.

The 20 HP motor has plenty of power, the problem is that the original gravity fuel system is limited to how steep a grade you can ascend... no problem going up backwards because the tank is then higher than the carb....

No problems with the Model A, I can go up in 2nd gear!!

Since this is a Ford Thread, let me say that I am a satisfied customer and have found no issues with quality when used as intended...

 

[alchemysa]

I've just had better luck w/Ford pkups than any other vehicle except, ahem, Toyota..........

I read a thought provoking article in a 4x4 magazine this week. Here in Australia we have more 4x4's per head than just about anywhere in the world but we don't manufacturer any ourselves so we don't have any misguided loyalty to some second rate, locally made product. The result is that Australia has simply supported the best available imported product. We've had plenty to choose from but the biggest selling, most trusted 'big' 4x4 over here, by a country mile, is the Toyota Landcruiser. If you go 'outback' in Australia, Landcruisers outnumber everything else by about 5 to 1. The slightly smaller Toyota Hi-Ace pick-up (I think you call it a Tacoma) also has legendary reliability too. Second favourite is probably the Nissan Patrol. England's Land Rovers are nice but they have a bad record for reliability so you rarely see them in the bush, and, to put it nicely, Ford Explorers were just never taken seriously. Certainly they were never taken off the bitumen. (They're not even available over here anymore). Personally I'm a Mitsubishi Pajero (Montero) driver, its probably the 3rd biggest selling big 4x4 over here, and I've got a Suzuki Sierra too, but the Landcruiser is definitely the 4x4 to travel in if your life depends on it. The Toyota Prado is the biggest selling of the 'mid-sized' 4x4's.

 

[scott_vt]

Since this is a Ford Thread, let me say that I am a satisfied customer and have found no issues with quality when used as intended...

Mornin Ultrarunner,
Thanks !

 

[RoyJackson]

EDITED We've had plenty to choose from but the biggest selling, most trusted 'big' 4x4 over here, by a country mile, is the Toyota Landcruiser. If you go 'outback' in Australia, Landcruisers outnumber everything else by about 5 to 1.

I know what you mean about the Toyota Land Cruiser! Buddy of mine had one...had to be late 60's or early 70's...when they still looked like a military vehicle. We just couldn't break the sunofagun!

 

[Toiyabe]

In the US, what is sold as a Toyota Landcruiser is a Toyota Prado everywhere else. Nowadays, it is a luxury vehicle. Can't get a "real" landcruiser in the US anymore. The Toyota Tacoma in the US is now its own platform, not based on the Hilux. The FJ Cruiser was recently introduced to try and recapture some of the real off-road market that the classic Landcuiser had, but it is also based on the Prado. Confused yet?

The Nissan Patrol is not available in the US. The Mitsubishi Montero is the same as the Pajero (except no short wheelbase option), but is discontinued in the US market as of 2006. It was also focused on the luxury urban assault vehicle market.

In the parts of the US most like the Australian outback Japanese trucks are pretty rare. The 60's to 70's Landcruisers are still sought-after by recreational offroaders - a large reason for the continued popularity is that they used a GM derived motor, which makes it easy to swap in small block Chevys.

 

[RobertN]

I am a died in the wool Jeep guy when it comes to off roading. I was born in a '42 Ford MB(war time contract production; Willy's was the main builder, but could not supply enough units). I do not have a Jeep now, but forever have been a red/white/blue Jeep guy.

I knew the Land Crushers were a decent vehicle, but they were not a Jeep, and were made overseas.

I was very surprised a few years back, when I googled some history, and found that the original Land Cruisers were built as an all weather replacement for the Jeep in the US military. It was also part of trying to rebuild Japan's industry after WWII. Although the design and execution as excellent, it never flew to put a non-US vehicle in to the US military.

I would still take a Jeep first, but there is no doubting the Land Cruiser as a capable dependable vehicle. In fact, they were probably tougher than pre-'76 Jeeps; the old Jeeps were tough but had a c-channel frame that was prone to cracking by the spring hangers when wheeled hard.

The shame is, wen the Jeep frame was made tougher, it was still an AMC. AMC was not known for quality... An early CJ7, or the '77 and newer CJ% with the box frame, inline-6, t18 granny box, and t20 xfer case, dana-44 rear axle, were a pretty solid unit...

The Land Crusher is popular for V8 conversions in the States; they are down right heavy. They need a V8 to be able to get out of thier own way The lower powered 6-cylinder was one reason it was tough; there was not so much power that it easily broke stuff. The same goes for the older Jeeps with the flathead 4-cylinder. My Dad was kinda rough sometimes on that old MB. It was stock, except 10.50-15 tires(back in the 60's and 70's when that was a pretty big tire and there was noone making "lift" kits). That Willy's didn't really have the power to hurt itself; it just kept going and going...

I know what you mean about the Toyota Land Cruiser! Buddy of mine had one...had to be late 60's or early 70's...when they still looked like a military vehicle. We just couldn't break the sunofagun!

 

[ultrarunner]

I am a died in the wool Jeep guy when it comes to off roading. I was born in a '42 Ford MB(war time contract production; Willy's was the main builder, but could not supply enough units). I do not have a Jeep now, but forever have been a red/white/blue Jeep guy.

Hello Robert... I would recommend the jeep story to anyone interested in American Ingenuity. Amazing how the little American Bantam Company in Butler PA designed and built the first BRC jeeps in a matter to months... not years... and the rest they say... is history.

 

[tlbuser]

The Ford 6.4L has been a very solid and trouble free motor so far. Ford has gained leaps and bounds on this truck.

John M

Yea, what, all 6 months that it's been available from INTERNATIONAL??? Now, hope Ford and navistar work out all of the legal issues before you have any real issues with the engine. The problems started here;
International : News Detail