quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
My experience has been that diesel holds up much better in storage than gasoline does, though.

THIS. Diesel can grow algae in it, but you can stop that with a good additive. You can easily burn 5 year old diesel, may have to change a fuel filter, but the fuel won't have degraded performance, try that with gasoline.

I agree, I have a buddy with a 1997 F-250 Powerstroke, it has 600K miles on it and runs flawlessly. He runs drain oil in the fuel tank at 50/50 mix and it runs clean, more power, and has been doing it for 10 years and gets the drain oil for free (he's a diesel mechanic) without any changes to the truck.

The F250's are known for wearing out ball joints and front suspension parts every 50k miles, but the trucks and drive train are solid as is the 7.3L.

I am a fan of the Cummins diesel. Current daily driver is a ‘95 Ram 2500. It is a manual transmission, 12 valve engine and it runs like a top. According to the factory manual I can carry 3,000 pounds in a 6,600 pound truck. I have 183k miles on it and expect to easily get to 283 with little trouble.

I did have to hunt for this one, as it is 2WD and they are much harder to find than 4WD. While I can’t get everywhere a 4WD might go, I do get 25 mpg on the highway and the 4x4 gets about 14.

In the case of the OP, I would suggest the rental idea and going with an older Tacoma (had one, also great trucks. Mine was an’01).

THE holy grail of this would be a cummins and a stick. Bar none the best on the drive trains. But its surrounded by the worst possible truck. and it was made in small numbers. The second choice on drivetrain would be 7.3L powerstroke. The transmissions are the weak point but they are ubiquitous and cheap, cheap to fix and bulletproof. The Ford will be surrounded by a decent truck. And they made a zillion of them. Everything after that is not worth mentioning overall. Personally I put a half a million miles on a 1997 and a 2001 powerstoke and when I sold them they went on to hundreds of thousands more. The 2001 was sadly destroyed in a hurricane before it wore out but the 1997 is still running fine on its original motor.

I would look for a 3/4 Ton Ford or Dodge truck. The brand matters less than the condition. Rust free and smooth running would be my first priorities.

If Ford, obviously the 7.3 diesel is the king, after that the V10 is known to blow out spark plugs and the 5.4 3 Valve is a horrible motor, avoid it. The older 5.4 2 Valve (2003 or older) is what I have in my F-250 and it's been fine. I pull a 10k pound trailer twice a year and have no issues.

If you get a 7.3 Powerstroke try and find a 350. The Diesel engines are heavy and the 250 front ends would suffer.

Guys, he's basically looking for a trash truck that can tow 100 miles a year. Why are there so many posts directing him to diesel?

Diesel costs more to buy, more to maintain, more to fuel, and much more to repair. The advantages for towing aren't really there if you are only using it 100 miles a year. How about batteries? Two of them to sit around and atrophy instead of one. Oil changes? $60-$90 instead of $24.95. As for fuel savings, bullshit. Right now diesel is $1.00 more per gallon than gasoline, so unless it gets 25mpg, diesel fuel vehicles are higher than gas to operate per mile.

My brother has a beater diesel pickup. It is always a pain to start after sitting around for six months. I think it has a leak in the pump so it looses its prime. He won't fix it because it would be a thousand bucks, so he continues fighting it. OTOH, I parked my 1974 F250 with a 460CID/C6 automatic in my shop in the summer of 2000. Last fall, after 18 years of storage, I decided to see if it would run. Installed a battery, dumped two gallons of clear gas in it, a dribble in the carb, and WHAM! off she went. I went for a little spin around the block. It seems to have a little fuel leak at the accelerator pump, but a carb rebuild kit will be <$20 at Napa. Or a new carb would be $250.00 for an Edlebrock.

Get any late 90's 3/4 ton pickup. My preference would be a GM with a 5.7 and a 4L80E transmission that cost you less than $2000. You maybe won't tow 10,000 pounds as quickly, but the extra time on your trip will be less than the time spent to earn the money to go diesel.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:


Diesel fuel can be prone to growing algae if left sitting for an extended time. It is also hydrophilic to some extent.

And, with minimal treatment it will last for a couple of years.

Oz, we had a 2001 F-250 with the 4r100 auto. It was decent but the transmission was smushy...

Bro-in-law is a Ford Transmission tech. We ordered a Banks transcommand and a Banks Billet torque convertor (now discontinued) and had him go through the transmission and add the parts.

This transformed the truck 1000%. I'm guessing the higher pressures and stronger lockup resulted in more power getting to the rear wheels.

That truck actually became sporty. It got so much better that I put a banks kit on it and used to poke around town making 17 year old boys in their toys cry...

Eventually we didn't need 2 diesel trucks anymore and my wife wanted something smaller to drive so we sold it. I miss that truck. It was fun.

Also, if you can find one at a decent price my 2003 Dodge 2500 is still cranking along at about 175k miles. It looks like I've developed a rear brake line issue and of course it is above the fuel tank... So, it is sidelined for the moment until I can clean out the shop enough to get it in there and drop the tank.

Since all the EPA stuff the earlier Gen 3 trucks have become harder to find...

Mark

I wrote my recommendations above. But to address sigcrazy7, the issue is that many of the more vintage 3/4t pickups won't legally tow 10K. Maybe you care maybe you don't for 100 miles a year. But in any case if you want to do it legally you need some form of an upgraded motor. On ford the v-10 or powerstoke gets you there any year. I have no idea on other brands, but its the same issue.

quote:

. It looks like I've developed a rear brake line issue and of course it is above the fuel tank... So, it is sidelined for the moment until I can clean out the shop enough to get it in there and drop the tank.

Consider removing the bed. Sometimes that’s easier and faster.

On a true vintage truck I wouldn't do either. just route around the tank. There is no reason to follow the OEM path at this point in the life of the truck. And normally along the frame is perfectly fine.

I love my Dodge 2500, noted above.

The Ram with the Cummins will pull 10k without trouble. By the way, with mine the body is solid, ride is great and it is a smooth and strong runner. I wouldn’t go without a manual, and the auto trans on the Dodge I don’t know anything about. My manual has a granny gear for starting up a hill at a light. It would work pulling boats too. If it were a serious consideration what I wouldn’t get is a dually (3500). Those tires might slip on the ramp when trying to pull the boat. What mine WON’T do is up a 10% grade on wet grass with the bed empty. Put a ton in the back and that problem goes away.

For 100, heck, under 1,000 miles a year, rent a truck to pull the trailer.

If renting an adequate size truck is acceptable for the trailer, and the OP still wants a full size truck, why not an OLD beater - 1960’s gas? Here in PA it could be titled as an antique - that means permanent registration (no renewals) and no inspections. Insurance would also be cheap, just let the agent know how many miles go on it in a year.
It is also easy to fix, who cares what it looks like, no emissions, simple under the hood and NAPA has all the parts on the shelf. If you get one older than that you might not even have factory seat belts.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
If it’s just a truck you drive only occasionally I would not get a diesel. Get one of the big V-8’s like GM or Ford. The older Dodge’s and Rams were garbage.

This is coming from a guy who has had diesel pick-ups for almost 30 years.

I have a 1990 F250 with a fuel injected 460. It don't get 2000 miles a year.
Not only will it pull or carry anything i am interested in moving It makes a great back up vehicle . The box gets a lot of use as a dumpster.
I feel exactly like you do

The Dodge with the bad brake line - yes, been there. There is good argument for pulling the bed to get to it. I have done both, pulled the bed for some work, pulled the tank for other. Definitely easier to pull the bed (6 bolts? IIRC) and a few electrical plugs. That also allows some driving around with the new brake line and you can check for leaks. I dropped my fuel tank several times to get to the leak. Had to fill and drain it as well.

Best if you can hoist the bed somehow and drive out from under it.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:


I’m currently looking at a well maintained f250 with a 7.3 diesel - never had a diesel but it’s barely over a 100k.

No idea what they’re asking for this but it would be at the top of my list. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Duramax trucks from 01-02 as well, owned one in fact and it was sweet. Love the 5.9 CTD from this era as well though I do prefer the earlier 12v engines bit 7.3 Powerstroke is hard to beat.


My wife and I bought a 2001 PSD for our now 16 year old daughter for her first vehicle not quite 11 months ago. There is some oxidation and a few dammits on the body that existed when we bought it but I’d happily drive that thing myself.

I love my 2002 3/4 ton 8.1 L. Its a towing monster.

https://imgur.com/a/DqJP3XP

Based on your location and rusted trucks, buy a clean southern Texas, GA, FL F250.

My 2006 GMC 1500 is completely rust free and would probably be a hot commodity if I trucked it north and sold it up north.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

The F250's are known for wearing out ball joints and front suspension parts every 50k miles, but the trucks and drive train are solid as is the 7.3L.

These ball joints would be fix that aspect of front-end issues:

https://www.dynatrac.com/rebui...ints/balljoints.html

Looked at that 2003 with low miles. The body had no rust in the usual spots but the undercarriage was serverly pitted and eaten. Someone had painted over it with the bedliner type stuff but you could see where salt had done a number on it before they did that. I'm shocked the exterior of the truck wasn't eaten up.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
I love my 2002 3/4 ton 8.1 L. Its a towing monster.

https://imgur.com/a/DqJP3XP

Now that is super nice! The 8.1 trucks are hard to find. Can that haul a full sheet of plywood easily ?