Looking for a new tow rig...

[BroknCJ]

Take my advice and stay the heck away from the Ford 6.0L...mine was FOREVER in the shop until I traded it in on my Dodge. I love the Dodge CTD. Runs way smoother, has a ton more power and hasen't had a bit of trouble so far. Does get worse gas (or diesel) MPG than the Ford, and I love the F series look and interior...but that PSD is Junk!!!

Talked to a ton of guys that use Ford, chevy, dodge trucks to haul 10000lb (and bigger ) horse trailers, and they pretty much have all dumped their Fords for the Dodge CTD, with the Chevy being a decent second compared to the dodge, tho it may have more power on paper, in real no kidding hauling a horse (or otherwise) trailer up a grade the CTD will beat them all.

[FJ40Fran]

It's really interesting to hear folks talk about the BIG three trucks. I have several farming brothers and a few nephews in west central Minnesota, all who drive either F350 or 2500HD Chevys. On the farm they routinely tow 20K goose neck cattle trailers (most difficult because of the moving load) and hay bale trailers. They'll also tow grain trailers and silage boxes. Suffice it to say these trucks are their life-lines. By the way, none of them use dualies, they claim to be impractical off-highway.

Here some facts they tell me about....
All three have enough power and torque, few of the farmers chip their trucks up there.
All three have their LEMON stories, meaning all three are fairly reliable.
Buyers up there are mostly brand loyalist, and the heckling shows.

One brother and his sons all drive Chevy diesels, and accuse my older brother of his Ford rattle engine (started with the 7.3 diesel).
My oldest brother driving the Ford simply says, if you want a truck you buy a Ford, if you want a cushy driving PICKUP buy a Chevy.

Interestingly, few farmers in west central Minnesota drive Dodge. Like I said, brand loyalty runs in families up there.

Fran

[Deleted]

Man, there's alot of haters in this thread! +1 to what Fran said...I'm not getting in the middle of this war...but I'm from rural IL; no farmer modifies thier truck there. They all are happy with the power the trucks make these days compared with in the 80's. My dad is still in his Ford 7.3 and has 350,000 trouble free miles. Says it has more power than he can use, and it's reliable. Seeing what he pulls, and hearing him say that, it's got enough for anyone else really. But just to add a little fuel to the fire...no self respecting central IL farmer would be seen driving a CTD. 90% of them think Dodge's are POS, irregardless of power output. They don't hold up through hard use. Its a Ford/Chevy banter there.

Please, I'm not calling Dodge's POS, just stating a perception of a small group of people (I'd love to have one right now, it'd be better than the truck I have now). I'm sure they're fine for pulling Jeeps (or other Dodge's). ;D

[toynrnd]

fromme said:

Man, there's alot of haters in this thread!

I only posted what I found to stir things up a little. Things were getting quiet around here. ;D

[FJ40Fran]

Good job Chris! This is always a good poop slinging topic... ;D

We could stir the pot even more by asking how many folks really have their diesels properly registered? How many are registered as passenger vehicles to dodge the car tax???

I read the DMV pages, and ask at DMV and cannot get straight answers. I scratch my head when I see an F350 dually King Ranch running down the road with their passenger vehicle plates. The curb weight on one of them must easily be pushing 7500 lbs. I'm just over 7000 in my F-250 SRW.

A guy at my office has a Chevy 3500 long bed SRW and when I asked him about his passenger car plates, he looked at me like I was from Mars. He didn't know anything and said that is what the dealer put on it. I asked what he hauled or towed, he says nothing much more than garden stuff from Lowes. I told him he probably didn't need to worry about much then. As I walked off I wondered,,, I guess he likes the sound of a Duramax and the challenge of finding parking place. ha

Fran

[sinwagon]

mine has the truck tags, at least till i can register it in TN. When i bought mine i passed up a heck of a deal on an 05 with SLT package spray in liner with all the bells and whistles and an auto, $28k I passed just because of the auto tranny. now if it had an old 727 auto i would buy it in a heartbeat.

[87B2XLT]

I don't think there's much of a difference in the license plates here anymore. All of "last year's" and "this year's" new plates are the same, or so it seems to me. The only different plates I've seen are the dealer plates, commercial and/or permanent truck plates, and a few others... as far as I can remember. Now... older plates, yeah, car and truck plates are different, as cars usually have 3 digits, a dot or whatever, and 3 more and trucks are 4 and 3 or whatever. I know that they're different order as far as which are numbers and which are letters, if I am thinking right?

Anyhow, like I said, I know of some 89s and early-to-mid-90s model Dodge diesels (that are farm trucks!) that are still on the road today. Hell, I know of an '84 GMC Dually farm truck with the 6.2 Detroit that's still on the road. I don't recall any Fords off-hand, though. And these trucks are all used to haul horses and cattle and hay and whatever else you can think of.... on and off some of the largest farms and ranches in the country. *shrug*

[Deleted]

Hey Fran, besides that we could ask how many of our 'wheeling rigs are legal and insured.

[87B2XLT]

No @#$% huh Norm

[swampercj]

It's funny that you mention that Fran...When I first got my tags for my 3500, they came as truck tags...I tried to fight it for a little while until I started doing some research with DMV. My truck still has truck tags after a whole lot of research, since the max gross tags for a passenger vehicle is 7500 gvwt and my truck weights 7260 empty.

Yes, as it stands I'll be paying my butt off in property tax since there isn't any tax break for vehicles with a max GVWT of 7500+. But that tax break isn't worth me losing everything I worked so hard for if I get into an acident by running into a family killing them all and they check my GVWT stamp on the door and see that I'm hauling 500lbs and or towing my Jeep with a truck that weights 7200lbs plus what I have in the bed. So I'd get busted just like a overweight trucker...Not worth it to me!

[FJ40Fran]

norm said:

Hey Fran, besides that we could ask how many of our 'wheeling rigs are legal and insured.

LOL Norm, let's see,,, FJ-40 has antique tags (inspection NA) check; registration in vehicle - check; insurance card - check; rear view mirror - oops left it on the rock at Big Dogs; tail lights - still have that loose wire under the body; turn signals - same issue as brake lights; side marker lights - left on rock at Crozet.

So, mostly legal, but good potential for faulty equipment ticket.

How about you??? Fran

[87B2XLT]

Daily driver registered in WA (not required to register or title it here), insured here. Everything works but the A/C.

Dave G

[Deleted]

Always insured, but the rest is shakey......

[rickyb12]

Thats why I went much bigger 18000lbs I can haul the jeep on the back and still be under the limit. Thats the good side. the bad side is that insurance cost for anything over 10000 lbs cost out the wazoo.

[ex-tbd85hilux]

I'm slowly catching up with you fran... I don't have antique tags yet but they're coming in a few years. Still get alot of funny looks from the po po when I drive it on the road. My worst "legal" violation is over height by 2 inches in the front and 4 in the rear. Other then that the cops just check my "character marks" more then anything.

Paul G.