Just can't get a good basic truck, like the old days!

[RB5]

Power steering with a broken belt and manual steering are two very different animals. The power steering hydraulics add a ton of drag, and the ratio is usually much higher, such that lock to lock might be half as many turns.

I wouldn't manual steering on a 4wd pickup truck, but on a Mustang set up for drag racing with 4-1/2" skinnies up front, it was an easy way to fit a larger motor with a higher capacity oil pan under the hood.

I know it is different. I had a 74 vega that was given to me. It didn't have power steering. Maybe because of that I despise non power steering. I had to parallel park that car to get my drivers license. It wasn't fun.

 

[paulsharvey]

I think we have pretty well mastered hydralic assisted power steering, and it is Rarely ever an issue, and adds virtually no maintenance or expense to a production vehicle. E-power steering, im less sure of.

 

[bcp]

View attachment 3945290


Bruce

You can still get a good basic truck, like the old days, if you use the right name for it.

Bruce

 

[deserteagle71]

amazing to me how inefficient gasoline ice are compared to diesel. Even towing a small aluminum two place snowmobile trailer. Weather it's a gas v8 in a pick up or a modern crossover or SUV with a v6 and tow package that when not pulling a trailer gets 24+ mpg. Tow a smaller trailer with it barely exceeding freeway speeds gas mileage drops to under 10 mpg. Meanwhile a diesel pulling same smaller trailer going 10 over on freeway only drops 5 or less mpg in my experience With my 6 speed automatic. I don't think I've ever gotten less than 10 mpg even towing a fully loaded (at speed limit) 20' tandem deck over.. will some buying a diesel truck ever see a payback in price they paid? Problaby not but for me anyway there's something about spending a lot of money for even a minimally option packaged diesel truck. Knowing if for some reason you ever needed to you could tow a house.

My experience has been the same!

Loved my F150 for road trips. All the power in the world and never needed to shift down going over 8000 ft mountain passes. And with a 36 gallon gas tank I didn't have to stop to refuel constantly. 400 miles since filling up - and over 400 miles left till empty!

But hook a 16' trailer loaded with my side by side on it, and the mileage dropped drastically. If fighting a headwind I've seen it drop below 12 mpg.

On the other hand, if I hook that same trailer to my old Dodge/Cummins the fuel mileage drops from 19 mpg to no less than 16 mpg!

 

[Renze]

I know it is different. I had a 74 vega that was given to me. It didn't have power steering. Maybe because of that I despise non power steering. I had to parallel park that car to get my drivers license. It wasn't fun.

My first car was a 1991 Volvo 440 with a 1.7 liter engine converted to LP gas. No ABS and no powersteering, but it weighed 1049kg including the LP tank... it would take some time to get used to when it steers like my 3011 whilst sitting in a car.

The same is merging on the on-ramp with a 90hp at 5000rpm with the gasser, versus pushing the pedal down to unleash that diesel torque with 163hp at 3700rpm but likely 3/4 of that available at 1800rpm...

Times were different... not always better.

 

[deserteagle71]

I would like to agree with you, but the electric ones are very reliable. Buddy of mine owns a truck shop and repairs floor shifters that tend to get jammed or stuck, especially if the owner don’t use 4x4 enough.
I love push button 4WD. Opens up space on the floor for more leg room in my truck, too.

Push button 4wd is convenient, yes. But I have to disagree with you as far as reliability. My experience has been the direct opposite. We have a couple county-owned GM rigs in our SAR fleet and we never know if they will shift into 4wd when needed. All too many times all we get is a blinking error light. One of my good friends just had to change out the whole electronic shifting module in his Superduty because it quit working. Only time I've heard of a manual transfer case shifter assembly not working is when the linkage came apart.

How'd you like to see this message come up on your dash just when you really needed 4wd??

 

[Eagle1]

That and you can often rig the linkage with something to make it work enough to get you home...

 

[jjeff]

So if I'm hearing some people's experiences correctly push button 4wd transfer case isn't desirable for some, problaby me also but it's all that manufacturers use anymore so I guess I'll study the manual and possibly watch some shade tree on YouTube to service it, I'll have my cheaters around my neck to quickly put on if I need to find the 4wd buttons and hope it works when I need it. Push button 4wd sounds like the old manual shift,vacuum solenoid mechanism on the Chevy and GMC trucks from the 1990s I've been told they were extremely unreliable especially in the winter. Please correct me if I'm wrong and not overblowing someone else's bad experience.

 

[jjeff]

That and you can often rig the linkage with something to make it work enough to get you home...

Driving home from a fishing trip with my dad in canada, drove over 500 miles in my dad's F-150 with me holding the transfer case shifter in 2wd cuz everytime I took pressure off it the trucks transfer case would go into neutral. It ended up being fried but at least we weren't stranded in northern Canada.

 

[deserteagle71]

So if I'm hearing some people's experiences correctly push button 4wd transfer case isn't desirable for some, problaby me also but it's all that manufacturers use anymore so I guess I'll study the manual and possibly watch some shade tree on YouTube to service it, I'll have my cheaters around my neck to quickly put on if I need to find the 4wd buttons and hope it works when I need it. Push button 4wd sounds like the old manual shift,vacuum solenoid mechanism on the Chevy and GMC trucks from the 1990s I've been told they were extremely unreliable especially in the winter. Please correct me if I'm wrong and not overblowing someone else's bad experience.

I had a Chevy Blazer from that era and you are correct! If it were cold and snowy the 4wd would not engage. But it wasn't the transfer case that was the problem - it had a manual lever that worked just fine. Back then GM had a front axle disconnect that used a heating element to heat gas which would then move a sliding collar to engage the front axle. And of course, when it was cold the gas would not expand enough to engage the front axle.

My understanding is that you can still buy a basic Ford Superduty with a lever-activated transfer case.

 

[deserteagle71]

Huh? It’s so easy, you just take a pen and push the neutral button. You think that’s difficult?

Oh, yes. Play the "find the Neutral position game":

 

[fidowanttobe]

Push button 4wd sounds like the old manual shift,vacuum solenoid mechanism on the Chevy and GMC trucks from the 1990s I've been told they were extremely unreliable especially in the winter. Please correct me if I'm wrong and not overblowing someone else's bad experience.

Yup! You are correct. Simple to fix, yeah, but that doesn't help when you needed the 4x4. VACUUM operated???? How stupid. 1950's tech.
My winter truck has been altered to a manual front dif lock, skid plate, lift, and taller tires. I'm needed at work no matter what the weather, so I need reliability, not convenience.

 

[jjeff]

Unfortunately I overlooked how the 4wd is engaged on my new truck on order, ignorantly expecting similar results and reliability of the truck it's replacing. Why didn't I get a more base crew cab in the first place 10 yrs ago? Oh yeah I looked for months and drove 300 miles when I finally found a double cab with what I wanted. Which wasn't much in terms of options.

 

[WinterDeere]

I also had a GM that would not go into 4wd when I wanted it to. 1995 vintage, and it caused me endless problems in the late-1990's and early 2000's. But in my case it was the auto locker hub solenoids, not the transfer case shift mechanism.

The solenoid on one side of the truck died one year, and then a year or two later the one on the other side started dropping out. Long story short, most of two winters spent with unreliable 4wd.

 

[Jstpssng]

My experience has been the same!

Loved my F150 for road trips. All the power in the world and never needed to shift down going over 8000 ft mountain passes. And with a 36 gallon gas tank I didn't have to stop to refuel constantly. 400 miles since filling up - and over 400 miles left till empty!
View attachment 4200549

But hook a 16' trailer loaded with my side by side on it, and the mileage dropped drastically. If fighting a headwind I've seen it drop below 12 mpg.
View attachment 4200550

On the other hand, if I hook that same trailer to my old Dodge/Cummins the fuel mileage drops from 19 mpg to no less than 16 mpg!

Numbers below are for my V6 Colorado based on the truck computer, which I find is within 3% of actually dividing miles/gallons.
ONE time it showed 30 mpg for a 25 mile period. I was driving along the river so the road was flat, maintaining a steady 45-50mph.
I can get about 24-25 as long as I keep it below 50 or so. It drops to around 20-22 between 50-75 mph. Pushing it to 80... watch the gas gauge drop. 17-18 is normal.

 

[Oaktree]

Numbers below are for my V6 Colorado based on the truck computer, which I find is within 3% of actually dividing miles/gallons.
ONE time it showed 30 mpg for a 25 mile period. I was driving along the river so the road was flat, maintaining a steady 45-50mph.
I can get about 24-25 as long as I keep it below 50 or so. It drops to around 20-22 between 50-75 mph. Pushing it to 80... watch the gas gauge drop. 17-18 is normal.

I'm quite impressed with the mileage I get with mine. The trip odometers give gas mileage averaged over the distance shown...mine shows 24.5 over the last 4000 or so miles. Think I hit the low 30s once or twice on a very flat drive. Mostly local or secondary road driving, not babying it but no foot in it either. I'll take it! Think the best I ever got with any other truck I've had was 19.

 

[RB5]

So if I'm hearing some people's experiences correctly push button 4wd transfer case isn't desirable for some, problaby me also but it's all that manufacturers use anymore so I guess I'll study the manual and possibly watch some shade tree on YouTube to service it, I'll have my cheaters around my neck to quickly put on if I need to find the 4wd buttons and hope it works when I need it. Push button 4wd sounds like the old manual shift,vacuum solenoid mechanism on the Chevy and GMC trucks from the 1990s I've been told they were extremely unreliable especially in the winter. Please correct me if I'm wrong and not overblowing someone else's bad experience.

I have a 2013 F150 4x4. We normally don't have much snow and ice here. A few years ago we had a bad snow storm with a foot of snow. I realize that is nothing up in the snow belt, but it is here. I was worried about my hubs getting wet and freezing potentially keeping me from engaging 4wd. I left my truck in 4H for a week. I was having to go get water after the water plant froze. I've never had any issues with my turn the knob to engage system, and I just passed 280k miles. I had heard about air leaks years ago in some systems that used an inflatable bladder to engage the front hubs. Most everything has improved to the point that problems usually do not occur until much higher mileage. We were lucky to be able to get water out of the pool to flush the toilets, and we never lost power.

 

[4570Man]

Oh, yes. Play the "find the Neutral position game":

View attachment 4200554

View attachment 4200555

My Ram has a neutral button for the transfer case. My older Ford and my Dads newer Ford does not. You can flat tow a vehicle with the transfer case in neutral without pulling the driveshaft or axel shafts but besides that I’m not sure how useful the function is. My 99 Ford with a floor shift always worked. My 04 Ford and my 99 GM with electric shift always worked in 4hi but 4 low was finicky.

 

[Jstpssng]

I remember crawling down underneath one truck with the floor control to shift it back out of 4lo because the linkage had slipped. At least I wasn't stuck in the mud trying to shift it into 4WD. There's been a lot of ideas over the years. Some good, some better, while others left me going WTF???
My first Dakota had the vacuum control to engage the front end. After dropping into a minor hole and spending an hour fruitlessly trying to get 4wd to work, upon getting out I went home and pulled the hose, engaged the front end sleeve and plugged the lines.
When I replaced it with a '93, that truck came from the factory with the same improvement.

 

[Hay Dude]

A lot (not all) of you guys remind me of the Progressive Insurance commercials with the psychiatrist “Dr Rick” trying to change the behavior of older peeps.

Lots of things have greatly changed & improved. Trucks run better longer and more reliably now. They have FAR more power, longer warranties, and resist rust better. They are definitely safer, roomier and more comfortable.

You want a floor shifter, manual trans, crank windows and vinyl seats from ‘93 …..well, I’ll just say “bless your heart”.

Me? I work trucks and equipment for a living and the junky stripped stuff just leaves you tired, aching and frustrated. Not real fond of the fake vinyl seat stitching imprinted on my ass cheeks, neither.

Give me every possible comfort to keep me working longer is a plus for me.