Analysis Paralysis

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Jul 17, 2014 | 08:34 PM

B_line66

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Joined: Jul 2013

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Analysis Paralysis

First I would like to thank everyone for always lending me thier opinion and insight. I am sure that I am over thinking things, but would hate to have a bad experience if it could be avoided. I have been looking for the last 6 months or so for a truck to replace my 2006 chevy duramax. I have been looking for mostly pre-75 trucks as I would like to avoid the smog checks that we have in CA. I have been drawn to the 4.9l 300 engine just to have something different (I had a 72 Bronco with the 302 for many years). The truck will mostly be used (90-95%) as just my ride to work and hauling misc items, but occasionally I will need to tow either my travel trailer (5000lbs), my flat bed trailer or my dump trailer (10k capacity). While I understand that if I was towing all the time I would be much better off with one of the FE engines, but since it will only occasionally be asked to tow these loads I figured I would not be doing any damage to the truck. Recently I found a 93 F250 with right at 100k miles with the 300 engine and 5 speed, what would your opinion be of the 93 truck performing what I need out of it.

Would I also be correct in my searching that the 5 spd would be the ZF s542 transmission, which appears should hold up will for my applications? I have always had automatics in my trucks, but kind of wanted the manual this time, I was shooting for something a little more durable I guess.

I know that the range of opinions will run all over the gambit, but as always I value the opinion of this membership and enjoy soaking up any knowledge that I can from your collective insight.

Jul 17, 2014 | 10:17 PM

Crewcabber

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Joined: Nov 2009

Posts: 1,187

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From: Lynnwood Wa.

My personal opinion your crazy if you are going to try and pull that kind of weight with that engine. The straight motors have always been good for torque but you will not have the power you will need if you get into any type of trouble and you need the power to get out of it.

Jul 18, 2014 | 03:40 AM

Spktyr

Laughing Gas

Joined: May 2004

Posts: 1,062

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From: Dallas, TX, USA

Not only that but that 250 isn't even vaguely rated to pull that 10K dump trailer. Not only is it illegal, it's unsafe as hell.

Edit: From an earlier discussion -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spktyr

Here's the 94-97 Ford towing capacities chart, courtesy of another member:

-snip-

It's not just about how much the truck can pull - in fact, it's more about what the truck can stop. And the OBS trucks don't have the best brakes ever; one of the big improvements that came with the follow-on SuperDuty was much larger and more powerful brakes that increased the towing rating. Well, that and a chassis that didn't flex quire so badly.

Per the chart, the very *most* that an F250 with the 300 and a manual can tow is 5200lbs with the 4.10 rear end. If you have the 3.55 rear end, your tow rating plummets to 3200lbs. That's not a typo.

This truck is not going to do what you want it to do, not legally and not safely. The only OBS trucks that can either have the 7.3L diesel in them or they have the 7.5L/460cid gas V8 in them. No OBS with a 300, 302 or 351 will do what you have in mind.