Been looking at 6.4l here lately to upgrade my 6.0. There is a 08 F450 King Ranch 4x4 with 74000 miles. No other info as far as maintenace records.

Elsewhere I have found a different 08 F450 with only 18000 miles. No other info about maintenance records. Both are close to the same price.

Would you be leary of a truck with fewer miles or more miles?

 

I would look into an extended warranty for either especially if you don't have any maintenance records. It would probably be cheaper for the one with 18K. Check out the threads dealing with what to look for when buying a used 6.4 it could save you a bunch of money and headaches later on. A cracked DPF is about a 3K repair.

 

I can't speak for everyone, but I always see DPF exhaust systems for sale from 150 - 300$ for sale locally for 6.4's.

 

All things being equal I would go for the truck with the lower miles as long as the history checked out on CARFAX. But they're not equal, there are a whole host of things on an F450 that make it tougher to live with as a daily driver, not least among them are the medium-duty wheels and tires and suspension that's overkill for all but the most severe service.

If an F250 is capable of the job there is no chance I would consider an F450.

 

That is interesting. I figured most people kept their stock exhaust systems in case they needed to go back to stock.

 

Good point Tom. I had an '08 F350 with a 4:30 rear end and I was lucky to squeeze 12 to 13 mpg out of her empty. Some of the '08 450's have a 4:88 rear end and they get worse mileage than that.

 

Some probably do, or did, but eventually they end up for sale I think.
I was going to sell mine, but all I could get was scrap value so I kept it for the heck of it.

 

The reason for posing this question is I know these trucks need to be run and not sit around. Would you be leary of buing a low mileage truck knowing it has spent a lot of time not getting run?

 

I bought my '08 6.4L truck in April, 2009 as a leftover model with 300 miles on it. Pulled the OASIS report after the purchase and found that the engine was replaced a few months prior. Got the opportunity to speak with the mechanic a few months later, and he told me that some of the valves were sticking from sitting that long. Shortly after that I noticed a transmission fluid leak at the rear seal, turns out the fluid drained off the top half of the seal and scored the sealing surface. Fixed under warranty, and a few months after that the A/C compressor failed, presumably from when they cracked the system open to replace the engine.

After that the truck was great until my wife totalled it running into the side of a cliff. If the truck is running fine I wouldn't think twice about buying it, the root cause of my failures was the corroding upper valvetrain that showed itself quickly.

 

I would check the oasis as Tom suggested. I don't know for sure but to my knowledge at one time the actual milage was not keep in the PCM the information was stored in the instrument cluster. I do recall hearing some stories of people changing the clusters on previous trucks to show less then actual milage to get a better price reselling the trucks. I would research if thats in fact how the 08-10 stores that information where as I'm not sure. I would believe if this was the case the oasis would show something fishy!

 

I don't think this is the case here, but I did notice there is some computer reprogrammers available from some chinese online places that are for reprogramming ford PCM's and dash modules for lower mileages.

 

Check the tires. Look for factory tires at 37,000 miles. The last four digits of the DOT number are the date code. First two are the week, last two are the year. So look for "07" or "08" as the last two digits of the DOT number on the tires.