Same here, I can parallel park my F150 on a dime! When I was in college doing my level 1 and 2 in auto mechanics, I was to cheap to pay to park in the college parking so I parked on the side of the road, so I was parallel parking almost everyday for 4 months.


Can do it blind folded now



Ya but new cars you can shut your eyes and they park for you. (Wonder what the liabilities are if they hit another car........ 0.... I expect)

 

882 tank, when you kick the bucket can I have your truck? Then I will have a 460 and a 300. It's not like you'll be needing it. Thanx Scooter

 

Haha. No problem Scooter. I'll add you to the long list of people who want it.

 

OK but I got a Big Block. lol

 

I was just complaining about this the other day after test driving a new F150. I think I know the difference (at least for me). The new trucks have very stiff seats and soft suspensions. Our trucks are reversed. Stiff suspensions and soft seats. When I hit a bump in my 250, I just bounce around on the springs in the seat...the way I think it should be. The ride is rough, but you don't get beat up by the truck.

To that point, last summer, I was picking up a skid of retaining wall block at lowes (to the tune of like 3,500 lbs). The skid dropped the bumper of my 250 about 2 inches. The forklift operator couldn't believe it. I just smiled.

I know our '11 350 at work drops more than that with far less weight.

 

I went from a 1994 F250 with a 460, 5 speed, and 4:10 gears to my current 2007 F150, 5.4, automatic, and 3:73 LS. It took me a long time to get used to the feel of the new truck but I would never go back to the lumber wagon ride and gas mileage of my old truck. The newer half tons are rated at almost the same GVW as the old 3/4 tons and get twice the gas mileage. Don't get me wrong I loved my old f250 but the only thing I miss about it is having no payment and the manual transmission.

 

Anyone can buy a new truck, it takes a real man to drive an old truck and keep her goin strong!

A buddy has a 2010 f250 PSD, it seems like your driving a car

 

"Real man" coming from someone who doesn't know me. All you need is a wrench to work on the old trucks, which is great. But you need knowledge to work on the new stuff.

Sorry for the thread hijack. I love the old trucks, keep on on the road!

 

As to old trucks better or worse than new trucks, each has there advantages. I like something new enough to have a OD automatic and EFI, new enough to do the job without undue failures, but not new enough to worry about high payments nor a scratch.

People nowdays use there trucks it seems as cars, and I guess to a point that is ok, but carifing a truck only makes some sense in certain aspects, other aspects take away from the basic usefullness of the truck, especially when using the truck as a truck, near or at the GVWR and GCWR's

No bedliners for me, truck beds are made to be used! Besides bedliners weight something (not much), but its weight is directly centered over the rear axle, which is the limiting factor in most trucks as far to weight carring, and staying within the rear GAWR, with cabovers being the exception (my C600 - it is easy to fully load the front axle).... which means that much less I can haul / tow since I cannot move even a pound of that weight to over the front axle on these pickups.

I prefer only regular cab trucks, and NO 4wd. Why?, well trucks are designed and built to haul cargo and tow trailers. Anything that adds extra weight takes away from what I can haul or tow, for a given size truck (IE Ranger / F150 / f250 / HD F250 / F350)

Need to seat more people? A full size Van makes much more sense to me than a extended cab or 4 door. Look at it this way, take a 1990 4 door F250 SRW (all of these were built on the HD chassis). It has a 6250lb rear axle capacity, the same as my regular cab HD F250. By the time you accout for the extra weight of the larger cab as well as 4wd if it has it, what, you have enough cargo capacity left for what? So you end up towing a trailer anyways, which the Van is capable of, and has much better interior room for the people.

Need to go off road? Well full size trucks in my area are uesless off road as they are way to wide and long to be effective, as well as having way to much exposed sheet metal. A Jeep makes much more sense. Even a Bronco, if you overlook the exposed sheet metal and the width, it is at least short enough to be able to turn in a reasonable radius. Bronco II's are a much better size, but still they have all of that exposed sheetmetal.

Of course if I had some nice open country or desert to run in, then 4wd / longer wheelbases makes more sense! But then we are talking about a speciality truck, with long travel relativly soft suspension to soak up the jumps, probably not the best for load hauling or towing.

Kinda like I wonder why people who buy the Raptor and then complain about the squat when loaded!? Ummm, you bought really a purpose built truck designed to go faster off road, which it does very well for a production machine, but it was not carry heavy cargo per say! If you stiffen that rear end up so it does not squat with anything but air adjustable lifts, it will reduce the higher speed off roadability.

Kinda like those who lift there trucks and then the suspension is so stiff they practicaly have to stop at speed bumps. Fustrates the heck out of me when I can go faster with my stock height 2wd truck than there lifted, useless toy of a truck 4wd. Ok I will shut up on that one! But Grrrrrrrr......

So make mine a regular cab 2wd drive so I can use it as a truck and haul / tow the most!

Just what works for me! David

 

Well said David

 

If my truck were my only vehicle, I cold see the appeal of the newer models. Say what you want, but they ride smoother, drive easier, have more creature comforts, and sometimes get better mileage.

But, I use a truck as a truck. I want to be able to put some scratches in the bed and not get that feeling like I just ruined a $30-$40k investment. I also do NOT want to drive a truck everyday because it's just not practical. I can move more people more comfortably and with better mpg in my little Scion than I can in my giant truck.

And yes, there is a charm about older pickups that I always enjoy. I like the smokers windows and the hi beam foot switch. I like the kinda bumpy ride and the handling that reminds you that this vehicle was built to work, not play. I always joke that being behind the wheel of my truck is more 'operating a piece of equipment' than driving a car. But this is all novelty stuff. After a while, you kinda just want a vehicle that can effortlessly get you from point a to point b, which is why I own a few different vehicles and drive whatever tickles my fancy when I head out in the door in the morning. Life's good like that.

Oh, and let's not dance around the elephant here. We all like the older trucks because they're cheap. Cheap to buy, somewhat cheap to run, cheap to fix, and cheap to replace should the inevitable happen.

Mike

 

I definitely have appreciation for older trucks, love the simplicity and clear purpose of an old pickup. But after driving the 89 f350 dually all week getting into my Duramax is pretty nice! Smoother, quieter more powerful and way way more fuel efficient. And even my 05 GMC duramax is work truck model w/ no power windows, locks and rubber floors.

 

i drive a 89 f150 ive drove a 99 it drives to smooth must rather drive the older one not only does it ride better looks better 2