We are lookin at gettin one within the next 2 weeks.....I'll be driving it west to pickup a mounted 600amp generator....Questions? How muck should it cost? Any problems with these? Can any old idiot drive one of these? ect... suggestions?

The F-450 Super Duty Chassis Cabs have a GVWR of 16,000 lbs .......This is key

 

Other than towing/load capacity, basically same truck as F250/350. I have a '05 F350 6.0L and it drives like a passenger car.

 

The Ford Super Dutys are great trucks. But Ford has had a lot of problems with the 6.0. I say this from personal experience and by reading the top auto magazines. I have known 2 guys that have had serious problems with their '03 and '04 6.0 Super Duties. The guy with the '03 had to have the engine pulled out and serviced by Ford. It was covered under the warranty, but the truck only had 35,000 on it for crying out loud. They may have worked out the problems for '06-'07, but if you can wait another year they will be replacing the 6.0 with a new 6.4 Power Stroke in 2008.

 

We can't wait cause we have a brand new $40,000 generator to mount on the back and it's just sitting till it's mounted.

 

Get a chevy, with a d-max we have 103,000 miles on our 2002 model and no serious problems, And alot of power

 

yeah, ive heard the same negative reports on reliability about the 6.0L as well. if i recall correctly, the prior engine, the 7.3 wasnt designed solely by Ford; it was a joint deal with international. they totally bragged about the 6.0 as being their OWN design and 20% more fuel efficient etc etc...

my cousin has a 6.0L and has had no probs. he has the edge power chip and that sucker hauls! one of my firends has a 7.3 and has like 200K on it and still going strong.

on second thought i was recalling correctly this says the international/ford thing and also about the reliability of the engine and Fords troubles with it:

http://www.autosafety.org/article.php?scid=37&did=1195

got some good info in there.

All in all, they are decent trucks from what i have seen and pull like crazy, but id rather have the 7.3. If not, if its diesel - either Duramax (thank God GM dosnt make the engine or tranny) or the Dodge Cummins. The Cummins has issued the FEWEST service bulletins according to the article above...

 

Twentycharacters, the 7.3s are tough as nails. I have never heard of anyone having trouble with their 7.3 Power Stroke. My Pops searched for a low-mileage 7.3 for 6 months before he bought the truck in my pics page (it only had 50,000 miles on it and was always serviced by a Ford dealer). He wanted a new Super Duty, but he was not excited about buying a truck with a 6.0. His 7.3 has a full K&N intake, a Diablo chip, and a 4 inch exhaust sytem....it sounds like a Kenworth coming down the road!

 

1bad- i really wanst ragging on the international designed 7.3, i know some parts of the article hinted to that- but its really not internationals fault with the 6.0L problems when they didnt design it.

i actually said i "would rather have the 7.3" over the 6.0 if i were looking for one. There have been some undeniable probs with the 6.0l as mentioned already, but i know 2 people that havent had the problms with them.. That 7.3 is great. my friend has over 200K on it as mentioned above with no problems so i do know they are tough. really wasnt trying to say they were not. I remember that engine before the "superduty" in yet another friends dad's truck and they never had anything bad to say about it either.

but if i were buying NEW, id go Duramax or Dodge w/ the Cummins. Since the 7.3L is history. I hope FORD's 6.4 is better in 2008. or see what toyota/nissan comes out with. you know its on their agenda to equip their trucks with diesel engines in the near future as they are more serious about competing now with the BIG 3 and are starting to take marketshare away in this segment so they are not going to back down anytime soon.

 

FYI: The 6.0L and 6.4L are both IH (International-Harverstor) motors. Ford does not make their diesels, and don't think they ever have. Not that Ford doesn't play with the 6.0L (some say that's the problem). The 6.4 is a derivative of the 6.0.

If one wants to get technical GM does build their trannies, they own Allison. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

To the OP, you should be able to drive an F-450 on your state's standard license (equal to a CA Class C). Commercial licensing doesn't kick in until 26,001 lb GVWR (some say 26K even, YMMV). Should be in the Class IV to Class V rating. (Class 7 is where Comm. licensing starts, which is set by the Feds.)

As far as ride, they won't be that great and turning radius is best listed in miles. Example, it takes AT LEAST 3 12' lanes to make a U-turn in our F-450, granted its a '94. I don't think they made them turn any better. Even the current generation is still front leaf springs. The ride empty will be very harsh. But once you get that generator on there it will probably ride like glass. Ok, maybe not that smooth, but in comparison it will be glass.

Starting with MY 2007 all the diesels will be new, well, I think GM will be using a newer 6.6 Duramax (IIRC LLZ or something like that), Dodge will move to about a 6.7L Cummins. Ford's 6.4L should be here in January or so as an '08. Unfortunately, IMHO, the new SDs from Ford are ugly. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] Looks like a butt ugly Escalade on steroids.

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Well, they did have problems with the 6.0, especially the early ones. Obviously not everyone had problems, in fact most probably were fine.

I do like the Ford truck the best, as far as styling and interior, but I liked the way the Cummins runs better. If you are looking for an auto, the Chevy would be my choice for the Allison.

Here's a couple of articles:

Detroit News

Auto Week

I'd personally be a bit leery about getting one of the early engines with 07 emissions from any of the big three. They might turn out to be more efficient, more powerful, cleaner and reliable, but I would prefer to let someone else make sure all the bugs are worked out.