[Monty_Brogan]

I've only driven pickup trucks. I guess it was my time in the Corps that really got me into them. Every Marine either had a truck or a mustang. I've had 2 Chevys and currently drive an early '00s manual Tacoma. Love the truck but want something with a little more power and room. I'm not small, and look like a gorilla driving it -so I've been told.

Now I'm torn. I could pay cash for a new F150 -I had to rent a car and the only one they had available was an F150. The thing changed my view on new trucks. I fell in love. It was a rocket ship and had all the bells and whistles -it was only an xlt, and I was still blown away. The Lariats I'm looking at are $50,xxx. That's a lot of coin. But I had a smile on my face every morning driving to work in that xlt. Could only imagine what a '17 Lariat would be like.

And then part of me wants a manual 7.3. This is obviously a 'real' truck. I could listen to the sound of this engine all day. And it's obviously 1/2 the price. They still go for a pretty penny if they're in decent shape on ebay though ($20-$30k)

Decisions, decisions.

[Stakes Is High]

My brother is an agriculture dude with cattle and aspirations of operating a million acre ranch.. When I was 16 he let me use his old pickup, a 92 F250 (5.8L) 5speed . it was great for a first time driver.. I had a camper and could set a mattress back there and be set..

I got a better car and moved on.

Now, I'm on on an extended stay, back in the US, staying with family.. and he let me use this truck again.. Its 25 years old, straight body, clean look. I put a bluetooth receiver and some nice speakers... Im pretty content driving it. Now it has a cab guard so me and my old man can go and cut lumber.. The truck is stock lift and basic set up but can take a serious beating.

[Vaun]

(05-04-2017 05:35 PM)Stakes Is High Wrote:  

My brother is an agriculture dude with cattle and aspirations of operating a million acre ranch.. When I was 16 he let me use his old pickup, a 92 F250 (5.8L) 5speed . it was great for a first time driver.. I had a camper and could set a mattress back there and be set..

I got a better car and moved on.

Now, I'm on on an extended stay, back in the US, staying with family.. and he let me use this truck again.. Its 25 years old, straight body, clean look. I put a bluetooth receiver and some nice speakers... Im pretty content driving it. Now it has a cab guard so me and my old man can go and cut lumber.. The truck is stock lift and basic set up but can take a serious beating.

I drove one of those for a few years and loved it. Manual shift with tow power, it was light weight but I could take it anywhere, in fields, deep snow, where ever. Totally trashed it with the dogs in the cab, but the most fun truck I ever had.

[roberto]

I'm insanely jealous of you Yanks pump prices. Over here a big pickup engine is 3L- most are 2.5/2.4 and the most modern ones are 2.2 with all the emmisions bullshit to boot.

[roberto]

Just loaded my truck up to head to a bluegrass festival. I got the truckman canopy fitted over the bed, a matress and sheets in the back, my instruments on the back seats, my clothes and supplies for the weekend on the front passenger seats and a short bar plus 30kg of plates in the rear footwell. Plus a packet of johnnys in the centre console

God I love my truck.

[Ski pro]

(05-05-2017 02:19 AM)roberto Wrote:  

I'm insanely jealous of you Yanks pump prices. Over here a big pickup engine is 3L- most are 2.5/2.4 and the most modern ones are 2.2 with all the emmisions bullshit to boot.

Same here in Europe. I'm currently running two cars and it makes me happy that they are both managing 30+mpg.

The cost of gas in the US must be amazingly low if you guys here can talk of trucks doing reasonable mpg of 16-22!

[Cattle Rustler]

(05-06-2017 06:43 AM)Ski pro Wrote:  

(05-05-2017 02:19 AM)roberto Wrote:  

I'm insanely jealous of you Yanks pump prices. Over here a big pickup engine is 3L- most are 2.5/2.4 and the most modern ones are 2.2 with all the emmisions bullshit to boot.

Same here in Europe. I'm currently running two cars and it makes me happy that they are both managing 30+mpg.

The cost of gas in the US must be amazingly low if you guys here can talk of trucks doing reasonable mpg of 16-22!

Gas prices are 55 US cents a liter in Houston....they used to be 42 cents a year ago.

[dirty_old]

That 16-22mpg is for a big truck which would be the equivalent of an isuzu cabover, or sprinter cab and chassis in Europe. Those options in Europe will not get better than 20-24mpg(us) anyway. The engine displacement (ex 2.8L vs 7.3L) does not tell the whole story as to available power.

If you are jealous about the usa big pickups, some in the states are extremely jealous about the small/diesel trucks that the rest of the world gets that they don't.

I saw a few imported usa ford/etc pickup trucks in Northern Europe that people were very proud of..

Monty Brogan, I would still say go for the 99-03 ford diesel (same engine as in the video, newer body style). or the 92-02 dodge cummins diesel.

In the past I worked on the newer trucks every day (mechanic) and they are garbage mechanically. Sure there might be a few good/better ones in the mix but you could get a bad one (lemon) and even an average one overall the cost of ownership/maintenance/repairs/depreciation is too high.

If you have to have a new truck, buy it ~1year old WITH EXTENDED WARRANTY, take it to the dealer religiously for service, and do your research on the warranty (most warranties are shit and leave some room for them to weasel out of paying for full repairs). And sell when the warranty is up.

$5k repair bill for regular, relatively minor repairs are the norm not the outlier for most us/canada pickup truck starting around ~2000-2005 and newer

[Monty_Brogan]

(05-06-2017 06:04 PM)dirty_old Wrote:  

That 16-22mpg is for a big truck which would be the equivalent of an isuzu cabover, or sprinter cab and chassis in Europe. Those options in Europe will not get better than 20-24mpg(us) anyway. The engine displacement (ex 2.8L vs 7.3L) does not tell the whole story as to available power.

If you are jealous about the usa big pickups, some in the states are extremely jealous about the small/diesel trucks that the rest of the world gets that they don't.

I saw a few imported usa ford/etc pickup trucks in Northern Europe that people were very proud of..

Monty Brogan, I would still say go for the 99-03 ford diesel (same engine as in the video, newer body style). or the 92-02 dodge cummins diesel.

In the past I worked on the newer trucks every day (mechanic) and they are garbage mechanically. Sure there might be a few good/better ones in the mix but you could get a bad one (lemon) and even an average one overall the cost of ownership/maintenance/repairs/depreciation is too high.

If you have to have a new truck, buy it ~1year old WITH EXTENDED WARRANTY, take it to the dealer religiously for service, and do your research on the warranty (most warranties are shit and leave some room for them to weasel out of paying for full repairs). And sell when the warranty is up.

$5k repair bill for regular, relatively minor repairs are the norm not the outlier for most us/canada pickup truck starting around ~2000-2005 and newer

Thanks for the advice Dirty!

[Monty_Brogan]

One question for you Dirty. So you consider those 7.3s that good? I know I hear it all the time, but it's crazy to think that an almost 2-decade old truck would be more mechanically sound. I know the engines will take it, but everything else? If you have some time would love to hear some more.

[Stakes Is High]

those 7.3L powerstrokes are work horses, lasting into 300k with no major issues. Hard to find an interior that is crisp, but the powertrain will be solid often. Here in northern california even with 200k, a mid 90s 7.3 will be $12k+.. Then theres the excursion 7.3, same thing.. Those are holding around $14k here with a few hundred thousand miles. Insane.

To the Euro saying we are content with 16-22 MPG.. That is hardly the truth... My unleaded gas 5.8L truck gets 12 MPG highway. Another family dodge diesel gets about 30 mpg.. We want diesels here

[Ski pro]

(05-07-2017 12:12 PM)Stakes Is High Wrote:  

those 7.3L powerstrokes are work horses, lasting into 300k with no major issues. Hard to find an interior that is crisp, but the powertrain will be solid often. Here in northern california even with 200k, a mid 90s 7.3 will be $12k+.. Then theres the excursion 7.3, same thing.. Those are holding around $14k here with a few hundred thousand miles. Insane.

To the Euro saying we are content with 16-22 MPG.. That is hardly the truth... My unleaded gas 5.8L truck gets 12 MPG highway. Another family dodge diesel gets about 30 mpg.. We want diesels here

So diesels just aren't that available?

Here in my part of Switzerland (which is very much not Europe by the way) I'm seeing more and big trucks with the big v8 petrol engines. The Swiss are all pretty loaded so I guess they are happy to pay 1.50chf a litre and get 12mpg.

I think there is an American car importer somewhere down near sion.

[dirty_old]

Monty- I wouldn't say that the 7.3L diesel are all that great, not in terms of being worth the premium that SOME people think they are. The 6.0 that came after them was just so bad... that is really the main reason for the premium price. 7.3L's are reliable, cheap and easy enough to work on. Of the alternatives, they are the best of the bunch. The dodge diesel (Cummins 5.9) has the better engine but the suspension/front/end and some of the accessory mechanical components and electronics, not to mention automatic trans (avoid at all cost) are junk. The Chevy/GMC 6.5 diesel gets a bad rap, but can be a great buy, good mpg's, and dirt cheap to get parts for, or cheap to just swap in a whole replacement engine. They got a bad name because of fuel injection pump problems, but 7 times out of 10 that can be repaired with a $200 "PMD relocation kit" (the electronic controller for fuel injection pump overheats, but dealers etc would charger $2k+ in parts to replace the whole injection pump or even the entire engine instead of replacing & relocating the PMD).

If you're looking for a 7.3, I think if you expand your search area, or watch (craigslist) for awhile, and jump on it when you find a deal.. you can find a good one (maintained/never turned up/ old man driven) for ~5k or less. I bought a 99 f450 as my primary/beater work truck for that much about 7 years ago (got a deal) with 250k miles on it, salvage title but good shape, and put another 100k miles on it with no major breakdowns. Most of that was towing a heavy trailer with construction equipment on it.

Ski pro- they don't have the small diesels, only big ones in north america. VW and to the lesser extent mercedes are the only companies that really attempted to sell small diesels (there were none in small pickups, vw/mercedes in cars only) since 1987. I don't really count the rudimentary attempts to cater to large pickup drivers with the chevy colorado diesel/ram 1500/etc, although it's nice to see as an option at least. It would be great to see a volkswagen caddy (the truck not the van) like vehicle 30-40mpg, or a toyota tacoma diesel 30mpg.. Or any of the the other Japanese manufactures to be honest. People would buy it !!

The technology is already out there, and has been for years! The VW rabbit/caddy diesel got 50mpg in 1980! Nisssan/Toyota/Isuzu/Mitsubishi diesel got 30+mpg in the 80's. Of course people might chime in and argue that these things were extremely gutless, and the cars weighed less without much safety equipment. Citroen makes some diesel vans that get 50mpg. I'm not sure about Asia, but Ford ranger, Toyota Hilux, Nissan/Mazda?Suzuki?Mitsubishi all have small diesel pickups & engines already made somewhere in the world, getting around 30mpg..

It comes down to California over-regulation, specifically NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions. If a company can't sell a car/engine in CA (even worse and more expensive testing than standard EPA, expensive catalytic converter/egr/bluetec/etc system required) then the company might not/won't import it at all. In Europe, although emissions regulations can be strict, especially cities, it is recognized that there needs to be a balance, and good mpg's are valued and taken into consideration. In the states, "acid rain" was used as a scare tactic to set the emissions standards, highly favoring petrol over diesel in anything but full size (large) trucks & commercial vehicles. This emissions crap was pushed into place by the usa automakers and the oil companies in the 80's and 90's. The "chicken tax" (on imported light duty vans and trucks since the 60's) also has an impact. But, still, come on ford, it sure would be nice to see a ford ranger 2.3L diesel! /end rant

[Monty_Brogan]

(05-08-2017 04:46 PM)dirty_old Wrote:  

Monty- I wouldn't say that the 7.3L diesel are all that great, not in terms of being worth the premium that SOME people think they are. The 6.0 that came after them was just so bad... that is really the main reason for the premium price. 7.3L's are reliable, cheap and easy enough to work on. Of the alternatives, they are the best of the bunch. The dodge diesel (Cummins 5.9) has the better engine but the suspension/front/end and some of the accessory mechanical components and electronics, not to mention automatic trans (avoid at all cost) are junk. The Chevy/GMC 6.5 diesel gets a bad rap, but can be a great buy, good mpg's, and dirt cheap to get parts for, or cheap to just swap in a whole replacement engine. They got a bad name because of fuel injection pump problems, but 7 times out of 10 that can be repaired with a $200 "PMD relocation kit" (the electronic controller for fuel injection pump overheats, but dealers etc would charger $2k+ in parts to replace the whole injection pump or even the entire engine instead of replacing & relocating the PMD).

If you're looking for a 7.3, I think if you expand your search area, or watch (craigslist) for awhile, and jump on it when you find a deal.. you can find a good one (maintained/never turned up/ old man driven) for ~5k or less. I bought a 99 f450 as my primary/beater work truck for that much about 7 years ago (got a deal) with 250k miles on it, salvage title but good shape, and put another 100k miles on it with no major breakdowns. Most of that was towing a heavy trailer with construction equipment on it.

Ski pro- they don't have the small diesels, only big ones in north america. VW and to the lesser extent mercedes are the only companies that really attempted to sell small diesels (there were none in small pickups, vw/mercedes in cars only) since 1987. I don't really count the rudimentary attempts to cater to large pickup drivers with the chevy colorado diesel/ram 1500/etc, although it's nice to see as an option at least. It would be great to see a volkswagen caddy (the truck not the van) like vehicle 30-40mpg, or a toyota tacoma diesel 30mpg.. Or any of the the other Japanese manufactures to be honest. People would buy it !!

The technology is already out there, and has been for years! The VW rabbit/caddy diesel got 50mpg in 1980! Nisssan/Toyota/Isuzu/Mitsubishi diesel got 30+mpg in the 80's. Of course people might chime in and argue that these things were extremely gutless, and the cars weighed less without much safety equipment. Citroen makes some diesel vans that get 50mpg. I'm not sure about Asia, but Ford ranger, Toyota Hilux, Nissan/Mazda?Suzuki?Mitsubishi all have small diesel pickups & engines already made somewhere in the world, getting around 30mpg..

It comes down to California over-regulation, specifically NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions. If a company can't sell a car/engine in CA (even worse and more expensive testing than standard EPA, expensive catalytic converter/egr/bluetec/etc system required) then the company might not/won't import it at all. In Europe, although emissions regulations can be strict, especially cities, it is recognized that there needs to be a balance, and good mpg's are valued and taken into consideration. In the states, "acid rain" was used as a scare tactic to set the emissions standards, highly favoring petrol over diesel in anything but full size (large) trucks & commercial vehicles. This emissions crap was pushed into place by the usa automakers and the oil companies in the 80's and 90's. The "chicken tax" (on imported light duty vans and trucks since the 60's) also has an impact. But, still, come on ford, it sure would be nice to see a ford ranger 2.3L diesel! /end rant

Appreciate the response!

[Monty_Brogan]

(05-08-2017 04:46 PM)dirty_old Wrote:  

Monty- I wouldn't say that the 7.3L diesel are all that great, not in terms of being worth the premium that SOME people think they are. The 6.0 that came after them was just so bad... that is really the main reason for the premium price. 7.3L's are reliable, cheap and easy enough to work on. Of the alternatives, they are the best of the bunch. The dodge diesel (Cummins 5.9) has the better engine but the suspension/front/end and some of the accessory mechanical components and electronics, not to mention automatic trans (avoid at all cost) are junk. The Chevy/GMC 6.5 diesel gets a bad rap, but can be a great buy, good mpg's, and dirt cheap to get parts for, or cheap to just swap in a whole replacement engine. They got a bad name because of fuel injection pump problems, but 7 times out of 10 that can be repaired with a $200 "PMD relocation kit" (the electronic controller for fuel injection pump overheats, but dealers etc would charger $2k+ in parts to replace the whole injection pump or even the entire engine instead of replacing & relocating the PMD).

If you're looking for a 7.3, I think if you expand your search area, or watch (craigslist) for awhile, and jump on it when you find a deal.. you can find a good one (maintained/never turned up/ old man driven) for ~5k or less. I bought a 99 f450 as my primary/beater work truck for that much about 7 years ago (got a deal) with 250k miles on it, salvage title but good shape, and put another 100k miles on it with no major breakdowns. Most of that was towing a heavy trailer with construction equipment on it.

Ski pro- they don't have the small diesels, only big ones in north america. VW and to the lesser extent mercedes are the only companies that really attempted to sell small diesels (there were none in small pickups, vw/mercedes in cars only) since 1987. I don't really count the rudimentary attempts to cater to large pickup drivers with the chevy colorado diesel/ram 1500/etc, although it's nice to see as an option at least. It would be great to see a volkswagen caddy (the truck not the van) like vehicle 30-40mpg, or a toyota tacoma diesel 30mpg.. Or any of the the other Japanese manufactures to be honest. People would buy it !!

The technology is already out there, and has been for years! The VW rabbit/caddy diesel got 50mpg in 1980! Nisssan/Toyota/Isuzu/Mitsubishi diesel got 30+mpg in the 80's. Of course people might chime in and argue that these things were extremely gutless, and the cars weighed less without much safety equipment. Citroen makes some diesel vans that get 50mpg. I'm not sure about Asia, but Ford ranger, Toyota Hilux, Nissan/Mazda?Suzuki?Mitsubishi all have small diesel pickups & engines already made somewhere in the world, getting around 30mpg..

It comes down to California over-regulation, specifically NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions. If a company can't sell a car/engine in CA (even worse and more expensive testing than standard EPA, expensive catalytic converter/egr/bluetec/etc system required) then the company might not/won't import it at all. In Europe, although emissions regulations can be strict, especially cities, it is recognized that there needs to be a balance, and good mpg's are valued and taken into consideration. In the states, "acid rain" was used as a scare tactic to set the emissions standards, highly favoring petrol over diesel in anything but full size (large) trucks & commercial vehicles. This emissions crap was pushed into place by the usa automakers and the oil companies in the 80's and 90's. The "chicken tax" (on imported light duty vans and trucks since the 60's) also has an impact. But, still, come on ford, it sure would be nice to see a ford ranger 2.3L diesel! /end rant

Appreciate the response!

[Laner]

I just fabricated this half rack for my Suburban but I have issues getting the gear up and down. I am thinking of making a ladder for the side to make life easier than standing on the tire.

I am curious to know the best mount spots for the bottom of the ladder, and whether to go over the rear wheel well or angle the ladder to go from the bottom of the rear panel and angle up to the middle of the rack.

No mount spots are obvious.

Other option is to make a lift off ladder and just attach it to the side of the rack while I am rolling, and pull it down and set it up when we stop to set up camp.

[Kona]

Make it so it folds up on the top. Then put a padded divider between the rear door and panel where its sturdy.

I don't think you want to drive with the truck any wider than it is.

That make sense?

Aloha!

[Laner]

(06-25-2017 07:16 PM)Kona Wrote:  

Make it so it folds up on the top. Then put a padded divider between the rear door and panel where its sturdy.

I don't think you want to drive with the truck any wider than it is.

That make sense?

Aloha!

Yeah I am hesitant to make it any wider than it already is.

These BC mountain forest service roads are tight already.

[Kona]

Z shaped with three hinges, one directly on the rack. It doesn't need to be that long, either. Then just put two eyelets andna cotter pin on the otherwise so it doesn't fly open when you are driving where its bumpy, or just normal.

Aloha!

[Laner]

(06-25-2017 07:41 PM)Kona Wrote:  

Z shaped with three hinges, one directly on the rack. It doesn't need to be that long, either. Then just put two eyelets andna cotter pin on the otherwise so it doesn't fly open when you are driving where its bumpy, or just normal.

Aloha!

Yeah and I can still use the running board/rear tire to get up to the ladder bottom.

Just a shorty will do really.

I am taking off for a month of camping next week, so time is short.

[ShotgunUppercuts]

I want to build a custom street truck one day

Gas V8 maybe a punched out 6.0 ls matter to a manual transmission in a lowered dually .