i had them with 6.12 gears in the rear with speed and 10 transmissions, and still had trouble getting over 55 mph with 10 ton on the back.
these trucks were almost new, and had been converted to attenuator trucks with an arrow board mounted behind the cab. by law they had to weigh at least 20,000 lbs to be used as an attenuator.
so we would weld a 1 inch steel plate to the frame, then mount the arrow board to that, and hang the attenuator on the back.
this would run them over the scales rite around 21,000 lbs full of fuel and a driver.

as to why ford puts those turds in the F600 and F700 trucks, the only reason i can think of is because the sheeple have to have a cummings.
then once they have it they realize how big of a turd it is and sell it off at a loss to some unsuspecting fool that has to have a cummings and replace the turd with a cat diesel powered truck that will actually be safe on the road with a load on the back.
for a while there we were buying 2-3 year old trucks with under 30k miles on them at auction to make attenuator truck out of for under $10 grand because no one wanted them.

10 year old trucks with 200k miles that had cat power were selling for the same 10 grand or more.

 

That was specifically the point i was trying to make... lol not sure if it got through.

Past that if you tell me you need more power than an IDI can deliver, you need a bigger truck. Just had a full exhaust put on the 97 and a 6pos chip. Thing is a beast now, by the numbers it should be around 330bhp which wont pull a backhoe up a 6% grade at 70, that is just fine by me, it has more than ample power to do what we need it to, and that is all I (or anyone really for that matter) needs. Im being practical of course... so bring on the flaming.

 

I am an IDI fan. Had em' for 5 years now. The main thing that interests me about 12 valves nobody has mentioned yet. That is, they are all mechanical and direct injected. Show me another easy to find engine with readily available transmissions that is all mechanical and direct injected and i'd love to know more about it.

 

I figured the reason Ford put the small Cummins in there was that it made for the least expensive diesel option for fleets, US gov't contracts, etc. Kinda like how they used to put the 300 six in the F250 and F350 and even some medium duty trucks, which was probably agony to drive. I read that there was a 180 hp and 200 hp Cummins option available, but the US Gov't isn't about to pony up for that.


For awhile I was seriously considering talking my boss into ordering a fuel plate and some other stuff for it to bump the power but I never did.


Oh and yes, my old boss got that truck super cheap. They bought it in 2007, so they got a 10 year old F700 with almost no miles on it (I seriously think it had like 30K on it when they bought it-obviously it never left whatever base it was on), with a flatbed and a liftgate, for something like $8000. It was a good reliable truck though.

 

for the first 6 years i had the 88 i used it to pull a 17,000 lb mini excavator plus 3 axle trailer all over the new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, and delaware area.
never had any problems with grades. drop from 5th to 4th around 55, and on some real long or steep grades maybe drop down to 3rd. but i was never any slower than semis, and usually had to back out of it because they were going slower than i was.

 

Our Cat TH330B on a wilson 25'? dovetail with 14k axles is not fun to pull with the 92. That said, thats not the engines fault, theres a reason we usually pull it with the freightliner and lowboy, but the FH was haulin hay. Gross combination was 32k +/- a ton. topped a 3/4 mile 6.5% hill at 30mph lol, 265k on stock fuel system, major exhaust leak pre-turbo, and still had to back out of it because it was overheating(100+ that day)... still havent got a radiator yet. I can pull 15k of hay on the same trailer up the same hill at 45 in the winter, about 3/4 throttle due to pyro.

 

it really is amazing what these engines can do with a turbo, and minor tuning to a stock engine ain't it hairy?

the only thing i hate about the 88 is the fact it weighs 9100 lbs, and if i forget to put it in 4X4 before going off road it sinks to the frame because the damn thing is so heavy.

 

9100? My 88 F250 ext cab diesel weighs 6600 empty, curb weight.

 

92 is 6720 according to our scale, no idea how much fuel was in it, not much in tool box.

 

Awesome! Tom has proven that knowledge has measurable weight!

 

Tom should wash his truck!! So many miles, so much dirt hidden in the body panels, so much extra weight! LOL Of course, he claims large section of body are just gone, so not sure ................

 

what if the dirt and mud is acting like temporary bondo then and it falls apart when he hits it with a hose? lol.

chip truck with it's dump bed weighs 8200 lbs.log truck with a custom stretch,dump and crane 10400 lbs.

 

that was before the body parts started falling off and the front tank sprung a leak.
back when i was running it every day, i usually had 2000 lbs of accessories in the bed.
besides the 400 lb front bumper.
as it sits now it is probably around 6500 lbs.