Truck time

scruffy · Apr 6, 2002

Hmmmmmmm, along THOSE lines, I am dead set against FORD! Biggest piece of new junk I ever owned. Day the warrenty ran out, it was gone, and a new chevy p/u was in the driveway! Darn truck was a dog in the speed department. That 350ci consistantly got out run by VW's from a red light. @150,000 miles on it, I discovered the problem, from day 1, it had a bad torque converter! Replaced it a 165,000 with a Dodge RAM 1500, which now has 99,000 trouble free miles on it. They ALL have their lemons, and they all have their good trucks!

Robert_in_NY · Apr 6, 2002

Your right, they all have their lemons and problems. My 92' F-150 and a lot of 92' models with the straight six had a problem with the oilpans rusting out. Must have been a bad batch of metal but Ford didn't fix it and we had a friend of ours replace it. So far with the 98' the only problem is the rear window had to be removed and resealed as it started to leak, someone at the factory liked to put the joint of the sealer tape at the top of the window. I had that fixed for free. But so far I have never had anything major go wrong with any of our Fords and my friends Chevy's are holding up great as well except for a few minor bugs when Chevy introduced the new line. The 92' has 151k miles and the 98' has 90k miles on it, the 02' has 750 miles on it with no problems yet but I will let you know if anything major goes wrong with it when we get more miles put on it. Later.

RobertN · Apr 6, 2002

I liked my last Ford, an '89 f250, 351wstick, 4x4. Sold it with 225,000 miles on it. The tranny did go sour... replaced the cheesy 5spd with a good old granny box. It was a great truck. The engine was still tight, and used no extra oil.

My Dad's mid 70's Chevy 1/2 ton was an ok truck but the 350 got terrible mileage, and it didn't hold weight asd weel as the other Ford and Dodge I used at the time.

My '89 Ford was great, but had a friend with a similar truck that was terrible. All have thier lemons. I fortunately, cross my fingers, have not had one in any brand...

I'll let you know when my Dodge crosses 500,000 miles /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

bgott · Apr 7, 2002

I got so good at short- blocking Ford trucks I could pull three down at a time, throw all the parts in a pile and re-assemble them without thinking about it. We had to replace less than half as many Chevy engines, which are way easier to work on. There are about the same amount of each on the roads around here. The only time we had to stick a motor in a Dodge is when someone blew a hose and melted the engine down or knocked a hole in the oil pan. I'm not into Fords much.

Rowski · Apr 7, 2002

Andy

We got a Chevy 2500HD regualr cab as a plow truck with 6.0L. I like the truck a lot, very comfortable. It handles the 8.5ft plow very well. I did not go for the diesel because I didn't need it. The allison transmission is very nice, I believe it has grade braking mode. One thing I did notice is the Duramax is very quite for a diesel. I did drive the Duramax and the 8.1L gas. The 8.1l was very powerful but this was an empty truck for the diesel may show better with a load. So far I'm happy with my truck but we will see on 5 years (100k miles) if it can hold up?

AndyR · Apr 7, 2002

Well it looks like I am going for the Chevy 2500 HD. I drove both Ford and Chevy and the creature comforts (the wife has her requirements) as well as the proximity of the dealer, pointed to the Chevy. Both are really nice trucks.

This is going to be a big change, going from a '95 supercab Ranger to the 2500 HD (and yes I am going for the Duramax/Allison/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif) with extended cab and long bed - almost 4 feet longer then what I have now.

As to the towing and hitch capacities - this is really making my head hurt. I will be dropping by the dealer tomorrow or the next day to try to get accurate weights as the manufacturer info is [censored] near useless. So far, it looks like I will have no problems at all with a straight hitch and should be ok with a 5th wheel - but. I need to figre out the wet truck loading ratio between fron and rear axles. It would seem intuitive that the rear axles is goind to be pretty lightly loaded - maybe 30% of vehicle weight. I need to get this right as this truck will likely have to last a while.

Nice thing about the LT package - I end up with some comforts /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif that the wife doesn't have in her cross-country.

Robert_in_NY · Apr 7, 2002

You will get use to the longer truck. Biggest thing I noticed when we jumped to a supercab is the tailgate looks a lot farther away even though it is only 20 some inches longer. Still a great truck, did you order it or are you getting it off the lot. If you ordered it how long did they tell you it will take to build? Have fun.

AndyR · Apr 8, 2002

I am ordering it either today or tomorrow. They are quoting 6-8 weeks /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif Everything on the lots is either a short bed or gas. Can't wait.

AndyR · Apr 8, 2002

ARGHH! /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif I hate dealing with car salesmen. Latest quote is 16 weeks /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif I wonder what is going to change in the 2003 line? But if I wait I may not get the 3 years 0% financing /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif This is really annoying.

Robert_in_NY · Apr 8, 2002

You hit the same problem we did, it took our truck 8 weeks to be built and we were worried about missing the 0% and luckily they extended it so we got it a 0% anyways. I hope things work out for you. One other thing you might try is we filled out the paper work and actually started paying for the truck before it was ever finished. Our salesman kept calling the plant till they had the VIN number, once they had that we could fill out the paper work before the financing rates ran out. Had to pay one payment before it before showed up but it saves a lot of money by going the 0%. Hopefully your dealer will be able to work with you on it. Take care.