Work trucks

[Sberry]

I was thinking, saw some great deals on some pretty fair looking work trucks from southern states. They seen so much hard road here its such a tedious process to rebuild, good trucks in more later model years would be preferable to fixing up my old junk which is due for some replacement.
I see some heavier trucks in CA priced right, probably taxes and emissions make used less practical option there but in my world I don't need to be sitting on 90K truck payments, I fix one up at a time and when they not working they don't eat much.
A couple Windstars, Freestars, even broken transmissions not a problem. I got one now, gonna tear the tranny apart this week but if I had something better body wise I wouldn't bother, if it wasn't so rusty I would fix it in a heartbeat. Been a great little car/truck, really got a lot of work out of it but just isn't worth the body work or a major repair.
I am a numbers guy, new car truck, 500$ a month, 300 in parts and a day to r&r, even a couple if I dodder off, don't even got to run all that long to hit return on effort. If it runs a year, couple grand or more in my pocket vs new payments,,, per unit x 10 or so. I like something basically fully depreciated, not so old its obsolete, 5-6 even 7 yrs on a van depending on condition, up to 10 on pickups maybe??.

[Sberry]

I can understand some of the pipeline guys with top dollar rigs but if I was competing against them it would be with a serviceable truck I darn sure owned outright and stuff on it I owned. A little paint and rigging up a bit to look like what its sposed to be no one notices its not the absolute latest greatest.
A long time ago I buy a 74 service truck for 4500, paid too much then but 15 yrs later put sparkplug wires on, same clutch, 1 trans seal in the back, same ujoints, I paint it, just burned over it, did some work to the boxes and the layout, cabinets reels, etc, same rear end, I rarely use it now but same tires on rear, passes inspection every year. It has a little paint failing, very localized, deer hit a door, but even despite its defects no one gives it a second thought that it isnt a 70K truck.
Now,,, if I had to work 50 hrs a week out of this thing and put 1000's of miles on it its way too obsolete, could buy a 20 yr newer truck in todays market that was twice as good as that primitive pig. Right now I got it, passes insp, I rarely use the thing, its as reliable as a fire truck but still just old, brakes and steering obsolete as well as tires and wheels. I put 200 local miles on it last yr, the inspector even knows this, I aint sending a Mexican across 3 states with it.
Anyway, back to my current quest,,, my wet dream project truck, something 10 yrs old, maybe less, in a perfect world it would be crew or quad cab long box F250 class, or 350 3500 Chevy single rear wheel, 4x4 ideally. Its just under the line where a guy gets messed with, topper, thousands of them on the roaqd, almost invisable, the DOT leaves them to the regular cops.

[Brand X]

Cary,
I have a F-350 is a 2002 7.3 diesel. I needed a truck that would be versatile. Sold the Camper/really nice factory bed to add this. This truck does everything I need, and I can add a $5 tag-10 days to be legal to carry /upto 26,000.00 (will handle about 20,000.00 total with a trailer). Runs car plates for $86 two years. Paid off, and it's in great shape. was a fun project too.

[mikecwik]

its sort of tough to justify buying a new work truck. unless of course you got loads of cash to get rid of. if youre living out of it in ten years its going to be a pile. hard to justify buying new anything vehicle.

[ToolBoxTavern]

I bought this one before summer. Got a great deal from the biggest or if not the biggest 2nd largest Ford dealer in town.

Story goes like this so the salesman says.
Old couple owns some oil field and came and traded it in and wrote a check for 2 brand new King Ranch Fords.

Well I got to see it before they cleaned it all up. Seen fluids before changed, test drove it like it was (super filthy), etc. It had animal hair all inside. I thought ok maybe an old person and then lord behold I looked in the bed of the truck with all they hay in there and seen a Lone Star Beer can, no one drinks that anymore. Now I am buying salesman pitch.

Ford, F250, Crew Cab, 4X4, Long Bed, V10 (I prefer diesel), less than 137,000 miles, Year 2000. I paid just under $9,000 TT&L. These kind of trucks down here are gold. Everyone else, Owners, Dealers all wanted over $12,000 for same thing at the time with twice as many miles.

I wanted a late 70's Ford F250 or F350, but they are hard to find. I also figured I can work on it or it would be cheap fixes. Then I thought parts are hard to find now and in a few years if it dont take a computer no one can fix it.

I say no one needs a new vehicle it is just planted in our head that we do.

O yea, and I could of bought a 2wd single cab for less than 1/2 of this one, but it didn't fill all my needs. Yes, needs people. I need 4wd and 4 door. Family of 5 and when in the pasture you can get stuck when its dry. We live in the sand hills.

[ToolBoxTavern]

Here is a great place to find out Ford info.

Ford Link here.