Hey guys,

I've owned trucks in the past, but I'm starting to look around for my first diesel truck. I am very excited, but also very uninformed.

I guess my first question is will it be ridiculous to use a 250/350 as a daily driver? My job doesn't require me to use a truck nor do I tow anything regularly. I just happen to like trucks and diesel applications. Is this unreasonable?

Here's a link to a truck that I'm looking at. I read somewhere to avoid the 6.0 Powerstrokes so I've basically exclusively looked at 6,4s:

2008 Ford F-350 SD - Used Truck Cleveland OH | FIAT of Strongsville

good price?

Thanks in advance,

CT

 

My daily driver has been an F-250 for the past 13 years. My wife has been driving hers for a couple of years now....

Seems to work out well for us.

Happy hunting. Hope you get a good deal.

 

Thanks for the reply! What kind of "real world" mpgs are you getting? I've read anywhere from 14-15 mpg to 20 mpg if you baby it and maybe get a chip?

I do a fair amount of city driving and used to own a gas truck which was getting around 15 mixed so I was hoping a diesel would be an improvement over that.

 

I was in the same boat as you about a year ago. I have wanted a SuperDuty Diesel since I was 17. Fastforward 8 yrs and I have a 2008 F250 King Ranch 4x4. I bought mine with 59k miles for $28.5k out the door. Don't take that as a regular price tho, I worked all day to get them down from their original listed price of $33.5k.

I don't hardly pull a thing with my truck and it is a daily driver. Just understand in stock form these trucks have issues with idling and in town driving. My daily commute is 23 miles each way to work. Stock I got about 13MPG. Tuned and deleted this thing is an animal and people are regularly dynoing just shy of 600HP/1300TQ with just an intake, tune and exhaust. Tuning mine also netted 18MPG for me. But be careful the modification is an addiction (and if you are stupid with the power it will break. You are doubling the factory rated power after all).

I don't know where you are located, but if you live in an area where there is emissions testing, it makes deleting a little more difficult but can still be done, just takes extra effort.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

I think this truck has been modified. It has dual exhaust. Could just be dpf back. You will have to check.

Degas bottle is low on coolant. That is another concern that needs to be looked into.

Can't quite tell because of the quality and angle of the pics but it may not have had the ventri T recall completed either.

since this is not at a Ford dealer I'd have them take it over to Ford for a complete check of the coolant system before I'd consider it.

Also the emissions. Are they inspected in your area?

 

Hey Tyler, thanks for the reply bud. I'm literally in the same situation as you - I live about 10 miles from work each way, almost 50/50 highway and local. I've owned a few gas trucks, but have always wanted a diesel. I don't tow, haul and will be using this as a daily driver.

I'm not trying to race this truck every chance I get or turn it into a dyno monster. I'd like to maybe get a chip, look into a dpf delete, exhaust and try to maximize fuel economy and the everyday fun factor. Are you getting 18 mpg mixed and higher on the freeway? Those numbers are looking a lot better than a gasser which is what I'm looking for.

 

Hey Scott, good looking out. What is the degas bottle and the reason for the ventri T recall?

Yes, I live in northeast Ohio and we have emissions here.

I haven't really started a conversation with them yet, but I will keep those items in mind.

 

Here is a link to all you need to know about the recall:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...tallation.html

You can also punch in the vin on fords website to see as well.

Degas bottle is the same as a coolant bottle except on a diesel it is part of the cooling system vs an overflow.

 

Thanks for the information Scott. After reading the thread it seems pretty easy to check once I'm there in person. I wonder if the guy is trading it in due to a radiator leak or an overheating issue.

 

very doubtful about the overheat issue. Radiator leak possible..since it is low on fluid.

 

If you aren't going to tune and delete I would suggest looking elsewhere. There are 6.4s out there stock with little to know problems, but deleting the DPF/DoC and EGR make these so much more reliable. If you don't want high HP then run the lower tunes. The best mileage comes from running the hotter tunes (High HP) and keeping your foot out of it. I'm running the Spartan 300. Its blazing fast when I want it to be, but I don't push it very often. And I can tell in my MPG when I do push it. I have a motorcycle that I do most of my cruise around town with so 18 is pretty much 80% HWY. 18 also comes with not running every stop light like its a drag race (don't get me wrong I'm not running stupid slow, but I am easy on the skinny pedal most of the time).

I've seen people claim up to 20, and I don't see that being out of possible, just depends how you drive it. And make sure your front hubs are unlocked when you are cruising down the HWY... less rolling resistance the better.

I tend to modify a lot tho (it's an addiction... see link in signature). I keep adding and my mileage varies some. The tune/exhaust/intake definitely made the biggest jump tho.

 

All my trucks are 7.3 models. My daily driver ( Alvin) '99 F-250 gets 16.7 mpg on most tanks. Lifetime average of 15.5 mpg over 295k miles. I would say it's 80/20 (highway/city).

My wife's truck (Theo) '00 F-250 CC 4x4 gets 14.5 mpg most times. She drives 20/80 (highway/city)

You don't want to know what mileage my F-450 gets...


We once had a couple 6.4 liter trucks in our work fleet but we gave them back because they seemed to be less fuel efficient then our V10 gas trucks. It was one of those deals where the dealer took back a couple of our 6.0 trucks and replaced them with 6.4 models and gave us 12 months to love them and hopefully keep them. We didn't have any problems with the 6.4 trucks....they ran good, they just were too expensive to operate compared to the V10 models.

 

For the way you'll be using your truck I would recommend sticking with a gas rig, Clevelandtundra. Only running 10 miles one way to work isn't really far enough to get things up to operating temperature on a diesel. I've had one and drove it daily 19 miles one way to work every day. It barely got everything up to temp. Short hop driving is really hard on diesels, especially emissions diesels. The diesels are made to work and for long haul driving. At only 10 miles to work you could be considered severe service use. And those $80 oil changes, $40 fuel filters, and the added price of fuel make the 08 PSD much more expensive to own than a V-10 SD. Before you buy a diesel, check out injector prices, glow plug replacement price, battery replacement, and etc before taking the plunge. The 6.4L engines were better than the 6.0L diesels, but they had problems as well. Check out the 6.4L Powerstroke thread before buying.

 

My life average with heavy towing and cross country driving is 11.5 with my 6.4. 73K miles and 1850 or so hours.

I'd say that is pretty decent. But short hops are hard on the emissions. I think 10 miles is generally ok.

You can buy the motorcraft oil and oil filters at wally world btw.

 

Thanks for the input guys.

I read somewhere to avoid the 6.0 Powerstrokes and go with the early 7.3 (too old for me) or the 6.4 (what I've been filtering for).

I just talked to a buddy of mine who said the 6.0 just needs new headstuds to be bulletproof.

Is this true about the 6.0? If so it could be better for me as the 6.0 are cheaper than the 6.4s...