The 2V 5.4's are within 90% or their max torque from 1800 to 4000 rpms......3V's are supposed to go just as deep and bring more overall.

 

Ford now has a 9800lb. rating, I thought I saw it in an ad.

 

THE TITAN WILL HAVE A 5.6L 305 HP 379FT LBS TORQUE(90% AVAILABLE UNDER 2500 RPM) WITH A 9500 LB TOWING CAPACITY.
THE V8 IS A PROVEN ENGINE AND WILL DUE RATHER WELL.

PS I WORK FOR NISSAN BUT I AM STILL FORD BLUE

 

I think the Titan could be a solid mechanical competitor, but it's problem is it's too **** ugly. Who wants to drive a truck that looks like a car? The F-150 is no beauty contest winner, but at least it looks like a truck. You have to remember that many people aren't as concerned about how much torque a truck makes off idle as they are about what the truck will look like sitting in the driveway. For this reason, I don't look for Nissan to sell them like hotcakes. I guess we'll see next month, huh?

 

That is correct. If you compare the rear diffs (very important when you are towing heavy loads), you will see the Ford is superior.

Ford has been building work trucks for over 50 years. Datsun has never built a work truck until now. If you have alot of money and don't care about resell value, you could take a shot at the Datsun. Asian manufacturers have 4% of the truck market. Ford, GM, and Dodge have the other 96%. Just because some people think Datsun and Toyota make reliable cars does not mean their trucks can take the punishment and remain reliable. They have no track record in the USA for work trucks.

 

95CobraR,

In April I bought my first Ford Truck. Per my signature below. I love it. Enjoy driving it every day. It is my daily commuter vehicle and I use it to transport tractors to my property in Western MD. 200 miles each way and a fair number of hills.

But before I bought the Ford, I had a 89 Toyota 4 X 4 that I also used as my daily commuter and to take tractors back and forth to W. MD.

That Toyota had 250kwhen I sold it 2 weeks ago. The person that bought it is having it inspected this week. We will see what sort of issues come up but I would bet that for no more than $500 they will have the truck on the road.

Now that Toy could not handle the towing/load etc. That is a given but for the weight classification it did just fine.

BTW, I bought the truck used. The person before me used it as a daily commuter and to pull his boat and that included a boat ramp into salt water.

Chip

 

I sat in a 2004 FX4 this weekend. I opened the overhead console to see how much storage was in there and the whole box came down. I put it back and it did it again. It's held on by four cheap clips! I hope that's not what I can expect from the rest of the truck.

By the way, what makes Ford's rear end superior? I believe Nissan's arguement for using a different rear end (with Dana 44 axle) is because of it's 5-speed transmission's gearing. Which is supposed to be a superior transmission.

I'm just wanting to see some evidence on both sides of this arguement.

 

charlesh,
It seems you had good luck. How much did you get for the truck? How much did the trailer/tractors weigh? Did you have any maintanence (timing chains, etc.)? Be honest, why did you buy the Ford vs. another toyota?

 

Being a race mechanic, I like crawling under a vechicle and checking the durability of axle thickness, splines on the axle, diameter of the rear gears, and such. I did not compare manual trannies as I prefer an automatic for towing 8-10,000 lb loads (it's hard on a clutch pulling that much weight from a stop). I do prefer a shift stick for mustangs. Like anything on the internet, this is just my opinion. Don't take my 2 cents. Crawl under it. Or, wait until the market decides. Currently 96% buy domestic. 4% buy Asian. In 5 years if it is 80 to 20, the others are better. If the resell crashes for domestic trucks, that will tell you which is the better truck. Good luck!

 

95CobraR,

Let me start with the easy stuff. The local Toyota dealers were very hard to work with. Toyota had a $2,500 rebate in the Texas area, State of Washington etc. but zero rebate on the Tunda locally (Wash DC area) -- April of 03. I got tired of the BS with the local Toyota dealer and started to shop around.

I test drove the Silverado, Tundra and F150. They all had their good and bad points. The local Ford dealer was great. Worked with me and even had the 5 speed 4 X 4 Scab XLT 4.6 that I wanted driven in from 90 miles away.

I decided to give the F150 a shot. So far, I love it. I will love it more when I reach the 250K mark. LOL

I got $1,500 for the Toyota (uninspected). The buyer will have it inspected but he had taken it to someone to have a look see for inspection purposes and the mufler, brakes (rotor and Pads) were within legal limits. Actually, I think the pads were great but the rotors were close to min.

This past April the Toyota passed the air emissions sniffer test. So in general the Cat and such were OK and that also means the muffer and tail pipe must be OK.

I did have quite a few things taken care of the last 2 years. An alternator, the gas line rusted out next to the fuel tank.

Only body rust was near the tailpipe. Not sure if it will need a bondo job to pass inspection.

Interior is in fair condition. The AC even works.

As to the tractor. The weight is only 1,000 lbs or so but the previous owner towed a boat. I think he said it weighed 3,000 pounds but I am pulling this number from way back in my brain.
Most of that towing was local but he did take the boat a few times on a couple of hundred mile trips. I think from here (MD area) to NC.

I wanted that Tunda but I was willing to give Ford a shot at my business.

So far so good...

Chip

 

Ooops,

I just remembered 95CobraR asked about the timing belt (I always did hate the idea of a timing belt instead of a chain).

I never replaced it. The original owner replaced it once. Soooo, I think it only has had 2 timing belts. The original and the 1 replacement. I would expect the new owner is running on borrowed time on that belt.

Chip

 

300 lbs. difference is negligible. The engines have enough power to tow more than that. They just rate them for safety.

 

I looked at the Titan 4 door this past Sunday. The seats and the interior are much more comfy than the 04 Screw. The layout inside is much better. Depending on the EPA fuel mileage and first reliability reports- I might consider one. The reliabilty of the Frontier is really bad so that bothers me more than anything about Nissan. The rear axle ratio is another concern. I don't think a 2.73 axle and the 285x18 tires are going to be good for towing regardless of the tranny. The one I looked at was for display only and no test drives until after Dec 1 is the story I got. It had all the options. The leather is a much thicker grade than the Screw and the stitching was perfect. I was impressed but I'm going to wait awhile before buying anything "new"- Ford or Nissan.

 

Yeah, the rear end ratio might be different, BUT the Titan has a 5-speed auto. instead of a 4-speed like the F-150 and if you look you'll see that it allows for shorter ratios in each gear. The result: the Titan toasts the F-150 and Tundra on the drag strip and supposedly tows a lot better too. It's ugly as sin, but mechanically it looks like the Nissan Titan MIGHT be a strong competitor.

 

That thing (Titan) got a Hemi in it??? LOL!