What's the Best Farm Truck to Haul my Tractor and Cattle with?

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

It’s amazing how much people don’t take care of stuff lol

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I got this truck with brake issues, a clutch issue, going down the road it was making crazy noises, had a few lighting issues and it broke down coming home.

I put a new serpentine belt, upper and lower radiator hoses, new oil cap, new radiator cap, two new knobs in the cab (lights and windshield wipers), new LED reverse and break/ turn lights, cleaned up wiring and redid a bunch of connectors, made my own bushing out of copper for the clutch peddle which solved all that prob, found a inner hub seal leaking on the axle, changed that out, got all the bleeders loose without breaking one off and bled the breaks and a master cylinder will be next weekend which will solve the break issue.

All this cost me like $250 and the truck will be mechanically sound. And I’ll be $1200 in a 2wd F350 flatbed with 148k miles, has the 10.25 sterling full floating 4.11 rear, 5 speed that runs like a top. Heck I’ll get more than that for the truck it’s replacing, my 81 F150. If the guy kept up on the small stuff he could have gotten a lot more money for the truck.

Truck has been super easy to work on so far, all the shoes and pads look new, rotors are in great shape, truck is mechanically in good shape just a bunch of small stuff that made it look worse than it was so the guy sold the truck.

 

[bspeedy]

Incredible, isn't it? All that stuff is BASIC MAINTENANCE and ROUTINE REPAIRS.

Anyone could do it. Just fix it when it goes wrong. Put it right and have a good truck.

I don't understand it, either. I do know that keeping up with these things makes your life much happier and your equipment much more valuable.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Went from way overloaded at 4 bales to hauling 11 bales and staying legal lol.

But turns out another truck drove itself to my house to replace the orange one

1995 F350 dully, 460 v8 with the 10.25 sterling with working limited slip rear, truck gets around SO much nicer than the orange truck, it won’t spin rear wheels for nothing.

 

[Farmer495]

View attachment 530498

Went from way overloaded at 4 bales to hauling 11 bales and staying legal lol.

But turns out another truck drove itself to my house to replace the orange one View attachment 530499View attachment 530500

1995 F350 dully, 460 v8 with the 10.25 sterling with working limited slip rear, truck gets around SO much nicer than the orange truck, it won’t spin rear wheels for nothing. View attachment 530501

Nice, 5-speed or auto?

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Nice, 5-speed or auto?

Orange truck is a 5 speed with no parking brake lol.

Blue truck is automatic with working AC and the hottest heater I have ever felt in a truck lol. It was a city truck, has a hour meter on the truck also.

I have a hill in my back yard, my orange truck spins a wheel all the way up it no matter how hard you try not to, the blue truck didn’t even spin a wheel, it does a good job.

I’m into the orange truck $1400 as it sits, it’s now mechanically sound. I bought the blue truck for $1800, it’s got a few minor things but nothing to the extent of what I fixed on the orange truck. Hopefully I can sell the orange truck for around 2k or a little more.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I sold the orange 1990 awhile back, I think I had $1400 in that truck, sold it for $2200. I contacted the owner about 6 months ago, asking him how that truck was doing, he said. it’s been a reliable truck, still haul with it, haven’t had to put any money in it.

I still have the blue F350. Now I’m in need of another truck or beef up my truck.

My grandpa passed away this past year and I bought both his tractors. MF 98 and a 29 JD GP. The Massey is a 8500-9000lb tractor. So tractor and trailer will be around 14k. My blue truck isn’t supposed to haul more than 12k.

I would have to add a goose neck hitch, trailer brake controller, liven up the engine and install a much bigger trans cooler with a gauge for my 95 F350 dually to realistically haul close to 14k lbs. right now it does 8k lbs no problems. But jumping past 10k is another world of towing.

So my options are to upgrade my $1800 truck or sell it and buy another.

I want cheap and reliable, nothing to brake the bank because it sits around most of the time anyway.

6.2 GM diesel (super cheap, can easily bolt on 6.5 turbo). 6.9 or 7.3 IDI or IDIT (much cheaper to repair compared to PSD and can put out same power), 8.1 vortec with Allison trans (cheaper than diesel, lots of power, more modern truck). Something with a 5.9 12v Cummings in it (easy to modify for lots of power, reliable engine). 6.6 LBZ (reliable but expensive to fix). Kinda sorta consider a v10 Ford Super Duty.

I would like to be around 5k if I bought a truck. Would be willing to bump it up to 10k if I found a really “good deal”.

Trucks seem to be hyper inflated right now.

What would you all suggest?

 

[farm boy00]

I would recommend keeping the blue truck with the 460.

Add a trans cooler to keep tranny temps down and a temp gauge. Some 7.3l people recommend a 6.0 tranny cool and seems to be about 40° cooler.

Ad aftermarket exhaust headers, and there's a mod to the air breather hose to get better air flow, but dont remember it fully, so google.

Another option for weight is getting rid of the huge flatbed and going back to a standard truck box. Would gain a few hundred pounds of weight capacity I bet.

 

[atsah]

K&N air filters put oil to the MAF sensor, check engine lights come on and you have to clean it, PITA IMO.. There are better dry air intakes out there..

 

[Grumpycat]

K&N air filters put oil to the MAF sensor, check engine lights come on and you have to clean it, PITA IMO.. There are better dry air intakes out there..

Look at the surface area on a K&N vs a pleated paper filter. Paper filter will have about 10x more area (just count the pleats). For a K&N to deliver its much touted "lower restriction" it has to have more hole area in its smaller surface area than the much larger paper filter.

Years ago I worried about the oily layer on the "clean" side of my airbox using a K&N air filter. Not only oily but felt gritty. Wiped it clean and then added a smear of grease. Wasn't too happy with the grit I felt in that grease smear a week later. Cleaned it up, installed paper filter and new grease smear, no grit a week or even month later. No more K&N for me.

Another thing to consider with gasoline ignition engines with throttles: You control how much air to deliver, the ECU adds appropriate fuel. The amount of air you deliver is the sum of intake and air filter restriction plus the restriction added by the throttle plate. Intake and air filter restriction doesn't limit you until the throttle is 100% open. Any reduction in air filter restriction is compensated by the operator closing the throttle so as to deliver exactly the same quantity of air as before.