if you were buying a truck...

[Rixster]

The 7.3 is the best motor ford has built yet. I have one with a bullydog progammer, the power is unbelivable and i get 24-25 mpg on the freeway. It drops to about 14-16 when pulling a 27 foot enclosed with four sleds in it. But if i want to go 80, I can. i also did a 4 ich exhaust just to keep temps down. My buddy has a 05 duramax with the egde box. The best milage he gets is 15-16. and 12-14 towing the same trailer. He is going to sell his and buy a older ford 7.3 now that he has seen mine for a season. I think they all are great, its just a personal preferance. I wish I had the allison tranny my buddy has backing my 7.3 ford.

 

[slyrydr]

i've had a lot of trucks....new one every year for nearly 30 years (i drive a lot)...favorites were the 7.3 ps (any year), '06 ps, 06 & 07 megacabs/5.9, any of the last 3 years duramax.....the cummins will get the best mileage across the board, by 5-10%, the duramax and ps will out pull the cummins on a hill with a decent load, the cummins will pull wind better, the cummins shifts a LOT less and just has the feel of a happy engine, no matter what, it just keeps truckin'....had a 6.4 ps, hated it (fuel mileage poor, blew the engine at 11k (empty, at 40 mph)....if i were getting a new one, it would be the 6.7 cummins with the new auto tran.....one other thing that's not mentioned is that the dodge chassis handles heavy stuff better than the chev/gmc....i haul a 15,000 lbs load with my mega cab, and it handles it pretty well, tried it once with a 2500 duramax, and felt it was too mushy it the rear end, and the trans shifted 10 times as much as the dodge....i've also had all the gas engines except the dodge hemi, would never buy one if a diesel was an option.....nice to live in a country where you can exercise your choice

 

[Snowmark]

truck

I have a 350 mile round trip to ride so I thought a cheap option would be to park the truck in storage at a town up near the riding area, with the camper on and sleds and trailer on the back, then use my honda car for most of the traveling, then I would only have to drive the big rig 25 miles up to the trailhead.....I saw a real nice 2000 F350 with a 5.4, 80,000 miles, asking price $6000....or I can go with a similar F350 with the 7.3, (only diesel I would buy from ford) for more than twice that, I only use the truck for sledding/camping so I don't mind if it sits out of town, I will be driving to other areas so a diesel would be nice. Thanks for all the response.

 

[SLEDtv.org]

There is absolutely no substitute for diesel power at elevation or pulling hills with any kind of a load. Night and day difference, don't skimp go diesel

 

[OWI Racing]

buying new diesel is over an 8k option, no reason to buy a smoker unless you tow more than 50% of the time, the gasser 3/4 will get you there just fine. Who cares if the diesel can crest the pass at 80mph and the gasser at 55??????? Mileage is obvious, but it takes a longggggg time to break even. Plus diesel resale right now is lowwwww.

 

[sledskiing]

I have a 350 mile round trip to ride so I thought a cheap option would be to park the truck in storage at a town up near the riding area, with the camper on and sleds and trailer on the back, then use my honda car for most of the traveling, then I would only have to drive the big rig 25 miles up to the trailhead.....I saw a real nice 2000 F350 with a 5.4, 80,000 miles, asking price $6000....or I can go with a similar F350 with the 7.3, (only diesel I would buy from ford) for more than twice that, I only use the truck for sledding/camping so I don't mind if it sits out of town, I will be driving to other areas so a diesel would be nice. Thanks for all the response.

you'll need a little generator. driving that short of distance will not charge up the batteries to provide you with enough heat.

I've tossed around a similiar idea a few times also. My idea is to use a sled deck and tow a camper. Leave the camper up in the mtns but bring the sleds back to Lakewood just in case i need to wrench or wax my sled . For my situation a diesel makes much more sense.

I think in the long run you will wish you had a diesel but a gasser will def do fine. I wish i had a longbed truck and not a short bed.

 

[dragon12]

you'll need a little generator. driving that short of distance will not charge up the batteries to provide you with enough heat.

I've tossed around a similiar idea a few times also. My idea is to use a sled deck and tow a camper. Leave the camper up in the mtns but bring the sleds back to Lakewood just in case i need to wrench or wax my sled . For my situation a diesel makes much more sense.

I think in the long run you will wish you had a diesel but a gasser will def do fine. I wish i had a longbed truck and not a short bed.

Just to build on your thought a little, you will need to find storage where you can plug the block heater in so it will start when you pick it up in the morninigs.

 

[bushy]

That sounds like a good plan to park it below the hill and commute. You could probably get by pretty cheap if that's your primary purpose for it. Gasser will start better after sitting for a week up there or get someone to plug it in the night before or long term timer switch. Seems the diesels start better now though? I've pondered getting rid of my old junker and going into debt, but it works fine for hauling firewood, and the weekly jaunts over to RE. It's just an ancient 2WD half ton with airsprings and good tires, but with all that weight on it, it sticks to the road and goes where I need it to fine. Wouldn't want to haul much of a trailer behind it, but a two place open would be fine. I personally don't care that it's a POS. it works great and I have other things to put money into rather than a bling rig I really don't need much. Hey I'd love to have a bling rig and that's great if you can swing it, more power to you, but my old rig makes me money every time it hauls me up there. Might say, I'm sledding for free...well not quite at 8 MPG from the 427 BB See ya in the lot

 

[Remmy]

My last 4 trucks have been diesels and if there was a hardcore advocate for the oil-burner I was it. With that said, I recently decided to trade in my 2006 Duramax LBZ on a 2008 Ford SuperDuty. After weeks of research on the forums and running the numbers (Cost of Diesel vs Gas, with mileage differences considered) I purchased a 2008 Crew Cab with the 362 HP 3 valve V10.

The truth is (in the U.S. at least) the EPA has ruined many of the advantages the diesel pickup once had. Ultra Low Sulfur diesel by itself lost approx. 10-15%+ of the fuel's efficiency no matter what truck you drive. The fuel sucks plain and simple. In addition, just refining the new ULS fuel bumped the price approx. $0.15-0.20 per gallon. This had nothing to do with the price of oil. Furthermore, as us sledders all know, the mileage of a diesel... and the power drops off even more with winter blend fuel, which is when many of us tow the most.

Starting halfway through 2007, the next tier in emissions requirements was implemented. Once again the fuel mileage decreased further and what was once a relatively simple motor is now a mechanics nightmare. You can hardly bomb out the motors anymore without losing your warranty and who wants to take that risk on one of these new emissions cluttered "Super Clean Motors".

To each their own but I get 11-12 MPG empty with my V10 (opposed to a reported 13-14 mpg "all around" with the new 6.4 Powerstroke) and towing my 27' Haulmark Enclosed trailer loaded to the max I get approx 8 mpg. That figure gets better if I tow on flat land but since I live in Alaska our terrain is far from flat. Factor in the $0.70 per gallon premium for diesel and the mileage advantage is all but gone.

As for towing performance, I can pull the same grades with the same loads as my previous Duramax and am typically within 5 mph of the exceptional Izuzu motor in the GMs. We're talking the difference between 70 mph and 75 mph pulling Thompson Pass out of Valdez. The big gasser does like to shift and rev more but I have never experienced a lack of power.

Lastly, I just got back from a 12 hour round trip hunting near Chicken, AK. and I drove up with an Uncle with a 6.0 Powerstroke. We were towing very comparable loads, in fact his enclosed trailer is also a 27' Haulmark. At our fill-ups we were within 1 to 2 dollars when we compared receipts. I burned more gallons of fuel but the higher cost of diesel offset his fuel mileage savings.

I know this is a long post but since I have extensive experience with both setups I thought I would share some real world data.

P.S. If you do consider getting a gasser, and you plan on towing heavy do not buy a 5.4 in the Superduty chassis.

 

[sledskiing]

RE's would not be the same without Bushy's rig

 

[slyrydr]

good info remmy...i have an acquaintance who runs a people transport business and uses the ford v-10's and has nothing but good to say about them...because they spend most of their time on the road at 65 mph or so, he gets over 500k, yep 500k and has yet to lose an engine or transmission

 

[bushy]

RE's would not be the same without Bushy's rig

ha ha, yaeh, in a "there goes the neighborhood" kind of way, I guess.

 

[redlineguy]

Gasser for me...I couldn't justify the extra $6000 grand up front for the Duramax and the $1 per gallon more at the jump...not to mention the additional maintenance costs. Don't get me wrong, diesels are awesome for mileage and towing but for my personal choice it was gas.

"additional maintenance costs"

WHAT??












.

 

[Blk88GT]

Additional maintenance like fuel filters every 15k and 5 gallon oil changes.

With that said, I love my 02 F250 7.3 and the only thing I'd like to have that I don't, is a crew cab. I'll never have a gasser truck again.