Realized I made a mistake and am gonna sell my Tacoma for a.

[medbill]

F250 and looking to get a diesel so I get roughly the same mileage as my Tacoma. Of course I am gonna buy used and should walk away even without any out of pocket costs.

Anyone have experience with Ford diesels? I was thinking of the 7.1 powerstroke as I hear it has long proven track record.

Thanks much for any help and or advice.

For the life of me I have no idea how I had the max weight of the 195sr @ 5500 lbs when in reality is is 7k#'s. Love the trailer, need a truck, taco is gonna go.

Thanks,

Billy

[Sunline Fan]

Billy,

I don't have any personal experience with the PSD's, but I do know a couple people who do. You can not go wrong with this engine, especially the 7.3L (produced up until early in the '03 model year).

A friend of mine has an '02 Excursion with the 7.3 PSD and has had about 115,000 miles trouble free except for the power steering pump at 95000. A friend of his (who I've met) has three Excursions in his family: Two '00's and one '05. One '00 he has owned since new and has over 400,000 miles on it, of both solo and towing miles. He is a regional Amsoil dealer, so he delivers all over MI. Not many engines can actually last 400,000 miles, but the PSD can.

The 6.0L PSD's are OK and have gotten better over the past couple years. I heard the '03 and some early '04 PSD's were terrible ONLY IF YOU UPGRADED IT. If you don't do any engine upgrades, you should be fine. But, you can't guarantee that a previous owner didn't, unless you know the history of a vehicle, which is pretty hard to get these days.

I don't have any experience with the Tow/Haul mode of the Torqshift tranny, but I hear that it's a good tranny. This was only available with the 6.0L anyway. The 4R100 that came with the gassers and 7.3L PSD's is a pretty good tranny, but when you compare it to the Allison in the GM's, it just doesn't compare. In a perfect world, there'd be a Ford Super Duty with a PSD and Allison.

I heard that it's a good idea to avoid '01 Excursions because the trannys were junk. Ford had a lot of problems with the trannys on those that year. I'm not sure if that would also apply to the Super Duty F250/F350's.

If you want good mileage, I'd recommend you get the 3.73 gears. The 4.10's are great if you are planning on doing a lot of heavy towing, but in your case the 195SR isn't that heavy. With the 7.3L PSD and 3.73 gears, you should expect about 15-17 MPG on the highway. Mileage gets down to about 10 city during the winter, which might be better if properly warmed up long enough before travel.

Jon

[medbill]

Awesome reply Jon thank you! I am also thinking of throwing my motorcycle in the back of the pickup as well as the TT.

I will keep my eyes open for the big diesel and get as close as I can afford to an 03.

B

[tinybluetj]

We prefer the dodge deisels, but just Wait until this evening, and when my hubby (aka: "What3608") will be able to offer you ALL kinds of advice on deisels. I told him we could get ne next year, and he has been researching everything! the fact that he is a "Truck nut" doesn't help either!

PS- if you wanna go dodge, we found a dealer in NC that sells new for less that then what we see used for around here!

[MACK C-85]

Something to remember, Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel is required for 2007 engines. I don't know how diesel fuel supplies are around "your neck of the woods" but, in my neck of the woods (south of Baltimore,MD) it's hard to find, to the point that I know of two stations that were selling ultra low and have gone back to low sulfur which against federal law to use in '07 engines. So before you think new, check out the areas you frequent and make sure the fuel is available. I'm sure this will become less of a problem as more "new" engines get out there.

[medbill]

Great can't wait to hear and learn more about diesels. The new fuel is interesting but since I am not buying a new one I should be in good shape right? My budget for a "new" TV is 15-20k max.

Thanks folks!

Billy

[emam]

Hey Billy, that's the exact same situation we were in when we bought our 2499.

We actually pulled up to the dealer to pick it up with a 4 door Tacoma so they could set up the hitch and sway bars. They laughed saying that we wouldnt be able to pull it home.

We had talked about going to a larger size truck and had already looked at a used 2003 F-250 PSD but wanted to see how the Tacoma would pull it first. We drove straight to the Ford dealer and said if you give me this price for the Tacoma, what I had paid for it one year earlier, and this price for that F-250, we'll pay cash right now.

Needless to say, we drove back to General RV a few hours later with the F-250 and havent looked back since. In hindsight, we would have been way overloaded with the Tacoma and wouldnt have made it more then our first shake down run. The F-250 is fantastic, and I couldnt say enough about the trans. Like Hutch said in another post, "When going down hill, you tap the brake once and it keeps that speed the enitre way down the hill"

We've logged 12,000 miles on our truck since January and except for changing the oil at 9,000 miles and putting fuel in it, we havent had a bit of a problem.

I'd also look for a used but still under the 100,000 mile warranty. Ours was a few years old, but only had 19,000 miles on it. Our local dealer sold us a full bumper-to-bumper warranty for $1500 that goes to the 100,000 on everything. By buying used, we saved $25,000 off the price of a brand new truck that didnt even have all the options ours does. We figured in the 5 years we'll bo on the road, we probably cant do $25,000 in repairs

Good luck and happy vehicle hunting

Pat & Cindy

[MACK C-85]

Yes, pre-2007 you won't have a problem with fuel type. The older engines can run on the new fuel, but most of what I've read says to not give it a steady diet of ultra low. I also have experienced a 1/2 to 1 mpg drop in mileage when using ultra low sulfur.

Anyhow, second to cost, it was a big reason we went used.

[Bobo]

Just a note about the new ultra low sulpher diesel fuel. If you run in cold weather, roughly below 20 degrees F, you will want to add an anti gel additive to your fuel. I drive truck for a living in upstate NY. The new low sulpher fuel has a tendency to gel up in the colder temperature. I personaly use a product called Power Service. Worked well all last winter. Only added it while fueling when I was expecting a stretch of temps of single digits and sub zero at night.

I also recommend a good block heater to plug in at night.

If you have a heat plate or glowplugs to warm the engine before starting. DO NOT use starting fluid (ether spray) to start the motor. It will cause an explosion or fire once the ether hits the glow plug, causing damage to the motor and probably to you too!!!!!

Bobo

[donreitz]

You won't go wrong with a 3/4 ton diesel. For more information you might try one of the diesel forums like the Diesel Stop www.thedieselstop.com. Everything you want to know and more.
Good luck,
Don

[nickster60]

Folks with older diesels. Sulphur is a lubricant when they take if out your trucks fuel system is losing a lubricant it really needs. If you have a older diesel you can add an additive like Power Service that will keep thing all lubed up. The 7.3l powerstroke is your best choice in the powerstroke series. Injectors on a Power stroke are 300 bucks a piece so a little Power Service can help these last.

[nickster60]

Folks with older diesels. Sulphur is a lubricant when they take if out your trucks fuel system is losing a lubricant it really needs. If you have a older diesel you can add an additive like Power Service that will keep thing all lubed up. The 7.3l powerstroke is your best choice in the powerstroke series. Injectors on a Power stroke are 300 bucks a piece so a little Power Service can help these last.

[Dave]

I don't post here often - too many other things going on

We have an '01 Solaris 2753 which is a pretty considerable trailer which until a couple of weeks ago was I pulling with an '01 F150 4x4 with a 5.4 engine. While it did OK on the flats, Upstate New York doesn't have many of them.

Last summer I started looking for either a V10 or 6.0 PSD without a lot of luck. There were several PSD's that started to show up at the local dealerships lately - so I got very interested in a couple of them, both very low mileage F250's. I pulled a CarFax on both - and both were fine. Then I had the OASIS warranty repair reports pulled. Both were disasters - heads and head gaskets, turbos, injectors, downtubes(whatever they are) transmissions, torque converters - and on and on. I also went to the Ford Enthusiasts Website. Ford introduced the 6.0 for 2004 to meet emissions requirements and really hadn't done sufficiant testing on the Navistar engine. These PSDs were problems until '06. They have since introduced the '08 6.4 dual turbo PSD. So far, not too bad. But not something I want to be a test mule and spend my retirement days at my Ford dealership.

I bought an '06 F350 Lariat Crew Cab 4x4 with a V10 and 4.10 differential gears. What a sweetheart power train. We went camping last weekend and a hill on I-87 that used to drag the F150 down to 35-40MPH, this truck went up at over 65 and with lots of speed potential left - reminds me of my '79 F350 with the 460 engine but better. Gas mileage is up to 13.3 empty and 10.5 to 11 with the trailer.

The PSD, like most diesels is not well suited for stop and start low miles - daily driving - it need to be fully warmed up every time it is started or there may be some abnormal wear.

Whatever anyone wants - do your homework and insist on a CarFax AND an OASIS (including the second page!!) report before you plunk your money down - it may save a lot of grief (also Ford may be extending their power train warranty to 200,000 miles on some of the 6.0 and all of the 6.4 engines)

Oh yes, I need to change my personal info below and will soon

[medbill]

Thanks Dave! First time I heard of OASIS! I am looking at the 7.3, either pickup or excursion. I am thinking P/U so I can throw my motorcycle in the back.

Thank you again for the detailed reply, good stuff.

Billy