truck upgrade

powerstroke444e · Jul 21, 2008

I am looking at a 2004 F450 with keldman air ride on it & wonder has anyone had any good or bad luck with the air ride? Reason for a 04 is the new one seem to get less mileage than the older ones, & the price is a lot cheaper than a new one. The truck is 2wd CC 6.0l with pickup bed on it. I will be hauling a GN trailer most of the time with it. Any other issues you would suggest looking at? Truck has new turbo & compture flash with no problems on the report that came from ford on warrenty issues.

Diamondpilot · Jul 21, 2008

Don't know about the air ride but I own a 2004 F-250 6.0L 4x4 Extended Cab and a 2006 F-350 6.0L 4x4 Extended Cab and both have been great trucks. Both have 3.73's and before mods they got 13 in town and 19 on the highway. I have since put Quadzillas on both for about 120HP, 4" exhaust, and intakes. I now average over 17 and get 23-24 on the highway. I tow a 25,000# trailer twice a year with the F-350 about 100 miles with no complaints from the truck and it still gets 13 mpg doing this job at 50-55 mph. I tow 10,000# - 16,000# each weekend from May through October with the trucks and they never let me down.

The 6.0L has a sweet spot of 1900 rpm. I am guessing your truck will have a 4.30 or lower rear end. I would test drive the truck and see what speed it runs at that rpm. My trucks run 79 at that rpm with the 3.73's and I get my best mileage at that speed. I try to tow at that rpm also and it seems to do the best.

The only problem I have had with either truck is the F-350 had the entire dash cluster fail and I ran out of fuel. It was actually giving erroneous readings and it said I had 1/4 tank when it was empty. Anyway they replaced it and all is good. They are both the finest trucks I have ever owned. I have had a 1999 7.3L 4x4 and a Dodge Hemi and a GM D-max but love the 6.0L's the best.

Good Luck

Chris

powerstroke444e · Jul 22, 2008

Thanks for the info. This truck has 4.30 I believe as its turning about 1900 @ 65 ish in overdrive. I currently have a f350 w/4.10 & it gets about 13 empty & 11 to 12 with empty trailer & about 7 with 20k on the trailer which is reason I am upgrading because most of the time I am over 30k gross all way up to 45k which the 350 don't like to stop very well

Diamondpilot · Jul 22, 2008

I take it your current truck is a pre 2003.5, ie 7.3L or 444 since your screen name is such. As you know the 6.0L is actually a VT365 International.

My 7.3L had 3.73 gears also and I got slightly better mileage than you are posting with your 4.10 gears. The 6.0L gets about 20% better mileage or so.

Chris

Builder · Jul 22, 2008

powerstroke444e said:
Thanks for the info. This truck has 4.30 I believe as its turning about 1900 @ 65 ish in overdrive. I currently have a f350 w/4.10 & it gets about 13 empty & 11 to 12 with empty trailer & about 7 with 20k on the trailer which is reason I am upgrading because most of the time I am over 30k gross all way up to 45k which the 350 don't like to stop very well

I really dislike the 6L in the 450/550. The reason is because the 6L has to rev pretty high to make peak torque causing poor fuel economy. The 450/550 with the higher 4.30 rears will be revving high at highway speeds. Even though your old 7.3L pickup was overmatched by towing too much weight, be prepared to spend a small fortune on fuel for the 450. I would say under 7-8 MPG, but it will handle the load with more stability.

powerstroke444e · Jul 23, 2008

Yes its killing me to buy something with out the 444 international as every truck I have had since my 87 has had the 444 in it, but I guess its time to upgrade, I am hoping that the bigger axle & brakes will help handle the loads better. I figure my next step is a semi & I don't want to have 2 trucks because I only put about 10K on my trucks every year as it is.
I notice that the F450 seemed to run very similar RPMs because it has 4.30 with 19.5 & my f350 has 16" tires on it with 4.10 My hope is that the truck will not get much worse MPG than my current one. My worst MPG in the F350 was 5.5mpg coming back form indy with a headwind I was 13'8" tall & 10' wide I could keep it at 55mph but it drank the fuel.

Builder · Jul 23, 2008

powerstroke444e said:
Yes its killing me to buy something with out the 444 international as every truck I have had since my 87 has had the 444 in it, but I guess its time to upgrade, I am hoping that the bigger axle & brakes will help handle the loads better. I figure my next step is a semi & I don't want to have 2 trucks because I only put about 10K on my trucks every year as it is.
I notice that the F450 seemed to run very similar RPMs because it has 4.30 with 19.5 & my f350 has 16" tires on it with 4.10 My hope is that the truck will not get much worse MPG than my current one. My worst MPG in the F350 was 5.5mpg coming back form indy with a headwind I was 13'8" tall & 10' wide I could keep it at 55mph but it drank the fuel.

I owned both an F-450 w/ 4.30's and an F-350 with 3.73's and the 450 consistently got 3 MPH less than the 350. The 225/19.5's are not much different in height than the 265's on the 350.

You might not want to hear this, but you'd be FAR better off with a true medium/heavy duty truck. It would probably be cheaper to purchase, would last 4X longer than the little Fords and tow/handle your big trailer much better. I suppose you know you're way over max GCWR of a 450 with your bigger trailer loads, right? Know what the fine for that is?

I screwed around with the 450's, etc. and finally woke up and bought a real truck and couldn't be happier. My 4800 carries 3X as much weight, gets similar fuel economy and after a whopping 2 weeks, felt just like a small truck.

wushaw · Jul 23, 2008

Builder said:
I owned both an F-450 w/ 4.30's and an F-350 with 3.73's and the 450 consistently got 3 MPH less than the 350. The 225/19.5's are not much different in height than the 265's on the 350.

You might not want to hear this, but you'd be FAR better off with a true medium/heavy duty truck. It would probably be cheaper to purchase, would last 4X longer than the little Fords and tow/handle your big trailer much better. I suppose you know you're way over max GCWR of a 450 with your bigger trailer loads, right? Know what the fine for that is?

I screwed around with the 450's, etc. and finally woke up and bought a real truck and couldn't be happier. My 4800 carries 3X as much weight, gets similar fuel economy and after a whopping 2 weeks, felt just like a small truck.

Ya know I was just fixin to recommend the same dern thing, ya know a class 6 day cab IH, Freightliner....etc pick one and it will out do any class 3/4/5 pu chassis any day of the week.

A friend of did the same thing , he didn't want to wear out his 50k one ton and went and bought him a 14k (or was it 11k??) Freightliner day cab to haul his heavy stuff around.

Builder · Jul 23, 2008

wushaw said:
Ya know I was just fixin to recommend the same dern thing, ya know a class 6 day cab IH, Freightliner....etc pick one and it will out do any class 3/4/5 pu chassis any day of the week.

A friend of did the same thing , he didn't want to wear out his 50k one ton and went and bought him a 14k (or was it 11k??) Freightliner day cab to haul his heavy stuff around.

I bet your friend thinks that was a great idea.

That's the problem with the 450/550 series. Great little trucks if used within their capability range. Strap 25-30 K on the tail and it'll just wear out too quick. Strap 25-30 K on a IH, freightliner, etc and it'll pull it around for 15 years. A 450 will be shot in under 5 years.

wushaw · Jul 23, 2008

Well I tried to tell him for years to do it especially since he had his CDL and did a few years driving class 7/8 trucks, I figured since he has always been a true blue Ford man that the light takes a little while before it comes on