Hello FTE. I'm new the the forum and thought I'd share a shot story of our truck.

My wife and I were presented with a 1989 f250 XLT Lariat 7.3L as a wedding present in may 2015 from her grandfather. He was a general contractor so the truck was a utility work truck with the side boxes and compartments built into the bed. Unfortunately he let the truck sit in his yard for 10 years. when his business purchased a new truck. It was on us to get the truck running reliably enough to get it home if we wanted it.

We'll, we changed out all the injector caps, fuel filters, and fixed all air leaks in the full system. We added new diesel and topped off all other fluids. About 3 days of working on the truck and it fired back to life and is still going strong today.

This truck still hasn't let us down. Even when a rear tire blew out on the freeway it still proformed like a champ and was able to my wife and I safely off the road, but that's a story for another day.

 

Nice truck, other than the typical peeling paint it looks pretty straight and solid. Looks like it was well taken care of. What are your plans for it?

 

Thank you. Our plans for the truck mainly are to use it as a get jobs done around the house. It wont be doing the general contractors role any more.
Our biggest plans for this truck use wise is for camping. The utility boxes in the back are perfect for storing all of your camping supplies.
Mod wise were more focus on keeping her running strong than upgrading anything.

 

Yeah that's kind of what my IDI is used for these days. I have an 84 F250 regular cab long bed 4x4. I've had the ol girl for about 8 years now. When I found it, it was a rotted out basket case of a farm truck. The first year or so of ownership was spent fixing and replacing just about everything. When it was all said and done, I had swapped a different engine and transmission in, redid the body, replaced the rusted out box with a flatbed, built a set of heavy duty bumpers, the front has a removable integrated plow carriage, I set it up to be a dedicated snow plow and tow rig. I did a ton of other things to it as well, repaired numerous "quick fixes" in the wiring, redid the entire brake system, fuel system, yeah... pretty much everything. Most folks probably would have sent it to the boneyard, but I'm a sucker for these old Fords. Besides that I paid $450 for a running and driving (not very well) 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup, and it made the 25 mile trip home without any major issues. Mind you this was a very hard worked, heavily neglected farm truck and it hadnt seen pavement in 12 years. Like anything you have around for a while, you tend to get attached to em. Since I've had it, all it knows is work. If I'm not plowing snow, I'm hauling trailers with it. Currently I am rebuilding the engine, it blew a head gasket a few weeks ago. It's been getting a little tired, decided to go through the whole thing with some upgrades.

 

welcome to FTE, and congrats on the beautiful wedding present!!