Need to get a truck.... advice?

We talked about this and came to the same conclusion.

They are cheap to replace however.

I 'think' in the late 90's.

Hopefully we can keep whatever we end up with above 10mpg mark...

I agree,that is my thing with diesel trucks,it became necessary to have it keep up with traffic and go 90mph...why not just slow down for the hills?

Could be the gearing of the rearend not helping this..

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I don't see a need in "beefing up" a 350 especially for occasional towing. I have a K2500 with a 350 that I tow my car trailer and other trailers with and have no problems. Of course fuel mileage drops but I'm not going far, under 100 mi. I know plenty that tow with 1/2 ton trucks, you obviously are limited on weight but they tow fine. Problem is usually with the trailer as in trailer having no brakes or not set up level. Equalizer bars like Reese makes will increase your load ability.

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I tow anything with my 1/2 ton gmc. My car trailer is 2,000 empty, the race car is 3,500. I have even towed my wife's Yukon 4,800 plus 2,000 = 6,800 with a 1/2 ton 4.3 5 speed and still get 15 mpg.

I can only speak to my experience, but I have two trucks that i've been very pleased with.

First is a 1990 Ford F-250 ext cab long bed 4x4 with a 5spd heavy duty manual transmission and a 5.8L 351 gas motor. It's a powerful truck, gets about 13 mpg mixed highway/around town fuel mileage, and tows my cattle trailer, car trailer, and deckover flatbed trailer. It presently has 278 thousand miles on it, and is on it's 2nd clutch and 2nd transmission. Motor is all original except for routine maintenance parts.

Second is a 1995 GMC 1500 4x4 ext cab short bed. It has a 5.0L 305 gas motor and an overdrive automatic transmission. It's quite rusty, so no longer used for towing, at least until I get the rear frame rails repaired. This is also a good truck, but lots of issues due to rust. It only has 100 thousand miles on it, and no rebuilds. I think the drive train will outlast the body and frame.

I've found these two trucks plus a few trailers to be all that I need. Both have been very reliable, requiring little work beyond maintenance. Rust is an issue on both, but then i live along the coast of Maine, so have salt air, salt on the roads, harsh winters, etc to deal with. The GMC has rusted more than the Ford, and is also newer, so I have to say the ford was made from better steel.

I intend to keep welding on them both and keep them for another 5 years or so before looking at replacements.

with 3k your not gonna get gold it seems that around here people with there junk 87 f150s think there worth $2500 which there not worth close to that mostly $300-700 for that type of truck now if its rust free its worth a little more but not much more

but any ways id go with a cummins there great motors but ya make sure there good running order cause the injector pump is $2500 alone (ya there was one at a dealer ship that needed that and i walked away cause they wanted $13,000 and it needed that and about $5000 worth of other work nice truck but ya no way would i buy it for that and then have to fix it my self and pay more out of pocket for it

but i did have a 6.9 diesel that was in a f-250 i had it was rusted pretty bad but now i wish i would of just fixed it up a bit and keep it cause it ran great but was a plow truck and had rust all over it needed all new lines for every thing and the body was pretty bad i only got the truck for $500 and sold the radiator for $150 seats for $50 plow bracket for $100 rear end for $400 and sold the rest of the truck to a guy that wanted motor tranny and trasfer case and i told him id give him a heck of a deal if he just took the rest and did what ever he wanted with it (mostly cause it was really bad with rust and i didnt wanna mess with pulling all that) but i got $800 for the rest of the truck and didnt have to mess with getting rust in my eyes and all that not very fun stuff but it was a pretty good truck had some power for the age and all the work it has done but was an ok truck

Neither question has a simple answer. Well, I guess we could start with the simple question of what are your towing needs.

The 350 is a very capable engine. It drinks gas like a thirsty camel, and never goes fast. But it will pull virtually anything, given enough time.

Heavier trucks are nifty, for heavier loads. Don't bother spending the money on a truck that is more than you really need. If you go pulling bulldozers through quarries, you need a lot of truck. But if you just pull horse trailers through a field, you don't need nearly as much truck.

A whole lot of towing is the driver. A foolish driver can kill a lightly loaded 3/4 ton truck fast. A good driver can handle a heavily overloaded 1/4 ton truck without incident or damage.

Well the plans are on the back burner...and we received a sign as well.

Yesterday my truck started acting a little strange,sputtering a little when accelerating,pushed the clutch in and it died...coasted to a gas station parking lot and after mush sweating and swearing had it towed to the dealership(there is no independents in our town capable of working on diesels...how sad is that?)

We are praying it is not the injection pump.

This will of course put and end to the search right now and the 'receiving a sign' part is when we do start looking it will be most likely a gas engined truck and much older...I am sick of having problems that cannot be diagnosed without a computer.

Funny thing is,with my particular year truck,the dealership with all it's equipment can have a hard time diagnosing the problem...

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Indeed, but a heavier truck pulling a smaller load at slower speeds allows a lot more room for stupidity without killing anybody. Maybe overkill on side of caution for a true professional, but few of us are "expert full time truck drivers" and need every advantage possible. I learned long ago that I am not immortal and that stupid is as stupid does. Amazing how many full time professional truck drivers seem to have accidents.

By way invite me over to observe (from a safe distance) when you pull that loaded horse trailer with your quarter ton truck out on the interstate at 90mph, that ought to be quite an interesting event. Especially the big traffic pile up and the life flight helicopters circling around.... Watching the cops put down the injured horses probably not so fun...

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When I was used truck shopping I decided on a 95 or earlier chevy 3/4 or 1 ton 4x4 with the 350 engine. It's one of the most common engines out there, I'm already familiar with small block chevys, parts will be available forever, it's a very simple engine both mechanically and electrically. Power is not as good as newer trucks but it's adequate.

I ended up getting a 95 chevy 2500 ext cab short bed with 100k miles in very good condition for about $5000 (this was about 4 years ago) and it's served me well. Be aware on the Chevy's there is a "light duty" 2500 and a heavy duty 2500. I ended up with the light duty because I didn't know any better. It has a weaker transmission and front axle. But, I don't really tow much so I'm not too concerned.

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Thanks for this post,it helps.

I found locally a 2500 4x4 extended cab,looks good in the pics but it is a 454,I would like to at least get double digit numbers in mpg..LOL

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I understand what you're saying, but I don't particularly agree with it. A little 4xx8 trailer with a lawnmower on it is no more dangerous or hard to handle behind an F150 as it is behind an F350. And in fact with all the bells and whistles that come on many of the lighter trucks, they may well be able to stop faster and better with that light load than their heavier cousins.

Completely different story pulling a heavily loaded horse trailer.

That's why without knowing what the trailer load is, blanket statements like "avoiding 1/2 ton trucks" is rather silly and baseless.

its the same way with all truck makers they make a weak 2500 and a hd 2500

the weak ones are nothing more than a 1500 with the 2500 suspention and axles on it tranny transfer case and motor are all the same as in the 1500

I've towed with quite a few vehicles and bigger is better. Nothing beats the stability of a 1 ton dually. Towing lightweight campers and utility trailers with a half ton in my experience worked okay. As far as the diesel versus gas debate it is all in how much you use the truck. If it is occasional use I'd say go with the gas, if your pulling 5th wheel cattle trailers all the time go with the diesel. Also I've found there isn't that big of a difference in mileage with gas engines with small ones versus larger displacements. My one old boss had two cube vans, one had a 302 v-8 and the other had a 460 v-8. They got identical mileage and the 460 powered beast was so much nicer to drive with a load.

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my dodge 5.2L got like 10mpg my dodge 5.9L got like 15mpg both gas motors

the 5.9 had almost 200k the 5.2 had 124k

now my 4.7L newer junk dodge is a pos it gets like 10mpg on the high way like 8 in the city with no load on it with a load it goes down to like 8-9 on the high way and like 6-7 in the city talk about junk if i wanted to suck the gas down i would of went with an old ford 460 that was carb and had all the power i needed and still get around the same gas milage

i blew that trucks motor on friday with a whopping 82k on it wow dodge 4.7L motors needs to be recalled i found that almost every shop i called knew what was wrong before i even told them every thing 2 nicely cracked head gaskets and 2 nice cracked heads at $1000 a head and $150 for the set of head gaskets dodge is making some good money there was 6 in the dealer ship i called ALL with the same thing wrong and checked online and found 100s more with the same thing ya i think a recall is in order dakotas, durangos, and dodge 1500 trucks with the junk 4.7l motors from 2000-2004 need to get rid of them fast some last over 150-200k but not many with the orginal motor in them

so to end my rant dont buy a dodge with the 4.7l in it up to the 5.7 or go back to the older 5.2 or 5.9l or just get the 5.9L diesel

Generally the lighter duty 3/4 tons have a GVW of under 8600 lbs. The lighter duty usually have smaller brakes and a non full floating rear end, basically a lighter duty rear.

Here's another heads up for pick up truck buyers. Check the weight rating of the tires. Tires for a truck should have an LT designation not a P, in other word it should be LT 235/75/15 instead of P235/75/15. This is important if you're carrying any weight. People tend to go cheap when replacing tires and the P series will fit and look like new tires but won't perform properly under load.

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Well after three trips to the dealership(towed in every time) and being told they cannot get any codes...it has come down to the injection pump.

They are 99.9% sure that is the problem and it better be.

The IP is over $1000 and labor is almost $600.

I would attempt it myself(after watching several videos it isn't TOO difficult) except I no longer have the tools and we really need it to be repaired quickly.

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Well, $600 could buy a lot of tools, but yeah, it does depend on your time available, & whether you have a 2nd vehicle to get around with.

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I found a great deal- plenty of truck for my farm needs. I've got a '90 Ford F-150 Lariat, 4x4, dual tank, 5.0 manual with 158,000 miles on it. It has a brush guard and a cage/railings on the full size bed up behind the cab. The brakes and brake lines had been replaced as had the battery. The tires were in good shape. I got it from a friend for $800.00, but he'd had it for sale out by the road for $1500.00 It's not a rust bucket either...ugly but not a rusty beater. My friend had done some work on the body rust above the back wheels. It had been painted black rustoleum with a brush LOL...but you know- I dubbed it "The Scourge" and it is what it is...it's pretty liberating to not have to worry about scratches from my truck ride loving goat or the occasional low tree branch. I just roll with it knowing I have a sturdy enough vehicle that is worth way more than I paid for it...and does the light duty work I need hauling junk, hay, goats, groceries, firewood, etc... Because the price was right I was able to buy a sturdy but old two horse trailer for $800.00 too. Hauls my packgoats or more hay!
I'm proud of my truck...because it's totally paid for and it's all MINE. Who cares if someone else doesn't like it....I do!

Best wishes in your own search! *look at my profile pic= The Scourge!*
-scrt crk

Awesome and good choice All of my Fords have been great trucks.

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Update on my original message:
Thank you all for your advice! I bought an F250 4X4 '97 for $5000 with 140,000 miles, very clean, Turbo Diesel... sweet! Much easier to work with than my VW Beetle though
I know, it was way beyond my budget but you guys opened my eyes and I thank you for guiding me through this experience. Can you believe that this is the first time I own a truck?