Thanks. In March I'll have had it 10yrs. Man time flies!! Did you swap gears in that rear axle? I thought 3.73 was about the lowest you could get in that vintage. The nice thing about an auxiliary is you can use it with an automatic. I've seen a few around Cleveland in F700's that had Allison auto plus an auxiliary behind it.
By spring you might not be able to find that truck. Great storage unit. I know mine is. Plus mine makes a great workbench, especially with my vise mounted to it.!!

 

10 years, wow. That's longer than I've owned any vehicle. I keep telling my wife though that I think this truck is here to stay.

The previous owner swapped in the gears, yeah. Just about nothing in the driveline of my truck is original. The big block and C6 are from a '71 Thunderbird. I suppose I could swap in the aux trans and then even use it with a manual later but my plans would most likely mean me using a much more modern, OD trans. I guess we'll see how things go.

I try really hard to avoid the whole truck/vehicle as a storage unit deal as useful as it is. It seems to make avoiding tackling little projects that much easier!

 

How does it do for mileage? Every 350 I ever owned was geared for 10mpg, including my 60. You can get too ambitious about the mileage and end up losing pulling power. I owned a 67 F350 dump 20yrs ago. 300-6. It was geared for 50mph uphill, downhill, or sideways. It would pull 10 tons of sh@t doing it. Then I broke a tooth in the ring. I bought a used set from a guy who said they were 4.25. After install my truck would run 65mph empty, but wouldn't pull my hat off my head loaded. 10 yrs for my 60 F350, I also own a 96 powerstroke that I'll have had 19yrs on Jan 31, 2019.

 

That rule seems to hold true. The only long highway trip I've done while not towing the racecar was bringing it home from Charlotte through the WV mountains. At that time it still had the ~800lb cap (cough, barn) on it and averaged 9 mpg for the whole trip. I think with the cap off, not towing, it would crack 10. Mine likes to be at 55-60 when towing or not. Mileage drops way down when towing though, I get about 6-7.

The only time the truck has struggled pulling something was going up the driveway at PittRace. I hadn't been there in a couple years and had completely forgotten how long and then steep it is and didn't build any speed before the hill. I don't think this was a gearing issue, but the trans slipping.

Sometime I'll ask you, or someone on here, to give me a rundown on Powerstrokes - which ones are most desirable/reliable, manual trans options, what to look for, etc. I want to go diesel eventually and would lean towards a 12v Cummins for their simplicity and easy tuning but they're stupid expensive nowadays and gigantic.

EDIT - I'm also a sucker for a straight 6. See Healey and BMW.

 

My truck is the 1st year powerstroke. 7.3 No intercooler, rated 215hp. Only a F250. 3.55 rear end. I get 20mpg empty, 16-17 pulling an empty car hauling trailer, and 13mpg loaded heavy. Automatic overdrive. I lock out the overdrive when hauling heavy. Otherwise it'll jump in and out till you fry something. I've got 217,000 on it, had 69,000 when I bought it. Guy I bought it from pulled a 20,000lb gooseneck trailer with it. I've changed the tranny fluid and filter in it 3 times since I've had it. More in-town driving than hauling. You can look in the forums on this site and investigate.

 

Damn - sounds like a workhorse. Love that body style with those wheels.
Judging by that pic I assume when you're getting 13mpg with a heavy load you're talking an actual heavy load, not the ~4,000lbs my racecar and trailer add up to, right?

 

@1960fordf350 5.14 gearing? Never heard that one before, always 5.13, as I have in my 1965 F-350, which I've owned since 1980.

 

I'll have to check. I have 2 different gearsets for my truck. 5.83 that was in it when I bought it, and the 5.14 that's in it now. The only other ratio available for my axle is 4.88. Hens teeth to find that. However, your truck has a DANA rear axle, my truck has a ROCKWELL rear axle. If I'm backwards by 1 digit, not gonna make my truck drive any faster.
As for Elmore, unless you have deep pockets and drive a million miles, going diesel can cost a few pennies. Especially the price difference of fuel. Is it gonna pay for itself? Do you run a tach in your truck? What kind of rpm's you turning on the highway? You said the engine came out of a car? Probably cammed wrong for your truck. You want some low end grunt, not high end power.

 

So I can't out run you?? LOL

 

Didn't know we were racing! Slow race maybe? Ever been in a truck crawl? Kinda like a convoy. Run a state route to a destination, usually a truck show. Or from a truck show to a restaurant for dinner. There's a truck show in Ashland Ohio every year. Look it up. About 300 trucks. At 4pm we head down to a restaurant that has a big rig parking lot. Betcha close to 50 trucks. Imaging watching that drive past!

 

I have many things, deep pockets is not one of them! The swap would be much more of a want than a need in my scenario and it may not even happen. Whether it makes sense or not is really a mute point as I'm towing a racecar (first mistake) with a truck from the 60's...it already doesn't make much sense.

The engine is out of a car, yes, but it's a 429 built out to a 466 (or whatever it comes to) and has an RV/towing cam. At 55-60 I'm running somewhere around 2100-2200rpm.

What's the name of the truck show?

 

Truck show would be Kewl. I've been involved with trucks most of my working career, and never been to a truck show.


Hey my 65 will do 90 (that was when I had good tires) Lol

 

I bet mine would do 90 but I promise you won't find me proving that...

 

Yup, here is the video of all of the trucks showing up for dinner....

 

Thanks for posting that