ok all, in the near future i am going to buy a 4wd, i am currently working and saving as i wont be purchasing anything but maybe a home in the near future with a loan. i am stepping up to a 4wd, and also at least a 3/4 ton, if i find a rocking deal i will go 1 ton but SRW. i have put some thought into this and have come up with a couple of ideas, first is i could buy a 06 ish truck with 150k ish miles on it with my budget which will be roughly 20 grand max. i would not have to do anything and i would have a fairly new truck with fairly low miles and be one of the last pre emissions trucks there are.

my other option is to buy an old idi diesel, put some money into the motor and truck to fix it up and have a older but still perfectly driveable truck, i would more than likely be fixing rust on the body and coating the frame and maybe body to keep rust away and after that take my available money and stick it into the motor to get some more power, nothing crazy, head studs intercooler upgraded turbo maybe a cam exhaust and a mild pump.

my question is ( and i know what forum this is so answers may be biased lol) is should i spring fora newer diesel that i can jump in an enjoy the luxuries or an older diesel that i can get for way cheaper and put some money into and enjoy the simplicity. i will be using the truck for hauling logs and firewood for myself, my parents and my grandma, i will also haul hay and livestock with it as well as my smaller pulling tractors. it will also be used as a driver when the weather is bad, slippery muddy ect, as i live way out in the country and am getting sick of throwing chains on and off my 92 f150. whatever vehicle i get will be a diesel, not only becuase of the towing i do but also because i work at a John Deere dealer and can get parts, oil, filters ect for at cost of the dealer so roughly 50 percent of what a normal customer would pay, becuase we do not deal with gas engines, much if at all the dealer does not have a connection for gas parts and therefore can not get them at a discount, which makes the gas and diesel parts cost very close to the same. luckily this means i also have the tools and skills to perform most if not all of the work on an older diesel

thanks for reading,

 

I would buy the newest nicest vehicle you can reasonably afford. That said, an 06 is in no way a "non-emission" vehicle, nor can you just jump in and go. 03.5 to 06 is the 6liter, if nothing else youre looking at a few grand for a bulletproof kit.

 

ahh yes let me clarify, by non emissions i meant no DEF, i am aware of the EGR but hopefully that will not cause much problem and if so is easily enough deleted, also i will be avoiding the 6.0 if i go newer i will go GM or dodge, with maybe a dt360 swapped f350 if i can find parts, they are kind of rare around here

 

Call me crazy, but I'm allergic to debt. I pay cash for my vehicles and fix them myself, since besides your home, the vehicles you own are the most costly things in typical life. (Some say you need debt in order to build credit, however mine is over 800 and I don't even use credit, FWIW)
That said I would never take a loan on a vehicle, and would advise others to do the same.
The wife and I just took out a loan for our first house, which is the only debt I'll ever have unless something catastrophic happens.
However we are making extra payments to lower the amount of interest paid over the terms of the loan.

I said all that to say the money spent on a vehicle could be put into paying off a house a few years earlier. (Which can save tens or even a hundred thousand dollars, no joke. Google mortage calculators if you don't know about this)
Obviously there's a trade-off, you have to keep the wife happy. She's gonna have a nicer vehicle than I will, every day of the year. But still something more like a 8-10 year old nice car, paid in cash, then you pay no wasted interest.

Anywho hope that helps or gives you some ideas.
I love my pickup, love the engine and 5-speed. Not gonna turn any heads but a 3/4 ton with 4x4 solves just about any needs I have in a pickup.

 

If it were me I would look for something in a state that does not have the rust problems you do. I just checked the Atlanta GA craigslist there were a bunch of mid 1990sto early 2000s with 7.3 under 15 alot of those were under 10. Some other states to look at would be AZ and Tx

 

+1 what Josh said. I borrowed money to buy a car exactly once. Only borrowed about $2K on a $4K car, and made accelerated payments and paid it off in less than a year. Total interest was just north of $100. The old car ('83 Turismo that had survived 8 Detroit winters) was running so badly, burning so much gas, that the added efficiency of the new car ('92 Colt) saved me MORE in fuel than the interest I paid during that time. So unless it's a similar sitch, buy what you know you can afford.

Esp. given the work you say the truck's going to be doing; you know one day the interior's gonna get some mud in it, or the tailgate's gonna get dinged, or what-not. You'll feel a LOT less bad about it with an IDI than a King Ranch. Save your money for a higher down payment on the house, or accelerated payments on principal.

 

That is something I will keep in mind, alot of trucks around here don't have rust problems it's usually the cheap beat or ill maintained ones that are rusty, I will simply coat the frame more for insurance that out of necessity.

To the others, I agree with you, no loans for a vehicle and buy under budget for emergency fixes are my two rule s of buying

 

What I'm gonna say is, you really have two choices:
99-02 Ford with 7.3 PSD. These trucks are extremely reliable, and the motors tend to run along with minimal maintenance for a /long/ time. The automatic transmissions are OK. If you find one with a manual, it's pretty bulletproof.
My parents have an 02 with the auto. 367K on it so far, and the engine itself is in great shape. It needs a new set of injectors(still on original set) and general tune up at this point, but it drives down the road. Earlier on in it's life, we blew up one transmission, and I think we had a warranty repair as well on the transmission. Other than that, it's pretty bulletproof.
If you don't like wrenching, something like this is more likely to just /work/.

On the other hand, I drive an 88 with a 5-speed. Parents paid 2.5K for it a good 8 or so years back. I've driven it for the last 5. I love it. I've put a turbo on it, SMF flywheel, rebuilt the engine, added performance IP... it's powerful. I'd drive it above any other vehicle, just because.

However, I've also put quite a bit of tinkering into it to make it right. I've dealt with fuel leaks, injector failures, waterpump failures, and miscellaneous wiring issues.
The transmission needs new synchros, so you have to be careful putting it into gears.
It clatters, makes various noises, has poor insulation and is generally a clunker. The power steering system leaks. But I can do anything I want to it and know I'm not losing any money.
I've used it to haul a 16K trailer of hay, and it performed fine(It performed a lot better when I released the emergency brake >_> ).


If you want a work truck and something fun to tinker with, an IDI is a great engine. There's no computers or other crap; it's all mechanical, and the bottom end is darn near bulletproof. Parts are cheap and widely available, and we now have some performance options.
But remember, there's a reason you're only paying $2-3K for a truck. Expect to put some money and time into troubleshooting, improving it. And at the end of the day, you've still got a 25+ year old truck.


That all being said, if I could do it over again, would I go with something else? No. I still love the old girl. And I expect to drive it for years to come.
(and one of these days, I'm gonna get 400+HP out of it and make fun of all those superior Powerstroke and Cummins owners!)

 

With 20k you could have a beautiful bull, brick, or obs. If you want a king ranch interior, throw one in. I'd get an oldie but goodie and laugh at the people who have cookie cutter shiny trucks that look just like all the others

 

I did that Monday night but was empty. When the EGT went higher than normal I realized it was on.

 

Lol then your e-brake sucks or you have way too much power...you can send some my way, lol

 

Naw it was not fully on hence the problem. If it had been fully on I would not have backed out.

 

Def is alot more reliable than previous tier 4 attempts, and imo alot better than dodges attempts at teir 3

Other than being one more thing to maintain, i dont understand why def has such a bad rep... it works rather well and is inexpensive.

Similar can be said of the 6.0, minus needing head studded (egr delete or stand alone cooler is a plus) the 6.0 is a damn good engine. Its economical, and usually cheap due to its bad reputation. For these reasons if i were to buy a newer pickup i would look specifically at 6.0s. The engine has its quirks but easily made dependable, easy to make alot of power, lots of aftermarket, our 03 never had a problem in the 280k we owned it and got 19-20mpg being a cclb srw F350 4x4. The torque shift is a good trans, and the trucks they come in are tough and dependable.

 

We have a winner

 

Later 6.0s ('05.5 and up) get a bad rap but actually hold up fairly well if they haven't seen a tune. And the 5 speed auto seems to be substantially better at staying together than it's predecessor. And they could still be had with a 6M! I've given thought to moving up to a either a SD 7.3 6M or a later 6.0, but I could basically rebuild my entire truck for what they fetch around here. And IMHO neither of those motors can equal the reliability and serviability of the IDI. The fact that either a CPU or sensor issue can disable the newer motors, especially as they age, is a factor for me. I'm not a troglodyte; our car is drive-by-wire, DI, turbo, etc., but I appreciate a vehicle that can't "throw a code" in this day and age...