im sure this comes up a lot. Iv read a good few threads and articles about the trucks. Trying to be as knowledgeable as i can in a short period to buy one.

Looking to buy a 6.4 f250 or f350. My unanswered questions id like to hear opinions about on the trucks is the transmission, the engine issues and tow capacity. I worked at Kenworth so all i see are cummins all day and the paccar engines on the massive scale. Iv never been a truck guy and id say im still not. I however just cant ignore the NEED for a diesel truck. My current tow vehicle is an 02 suburban. I tow 5 to 6 days a week. Over a year of doing this and regularly sitting at my tow capacity the transmission finally gave out. No real surprise there.

This brings me to my first real question. I hate automatics. They are basically a black magic box that takes engine power and multiples it out the other end. That coupled with them always wanting to be in the wrong gear for pulling hills i hate them. They are always the weak point of a car to me. Always seem to be ether needing a rebuild or working perfectly. No in-between.
so do the 5R110 transmissions tow well? Do they hold up up to constant towing? Do they down shift to help with braking? Do they stay in a good gear for hills? Can i manually shift it and will it stay in the gear i asked it to?

Next is the engine. Dispite working cummins a lot i dont really work on them at all outside of work. So i don't know much of anything about the power stroke engines. What i do know is the 7.3 is legendary, but all thos trucks are dam near 20 years old now. Im really tired of driving at or near 20 year old vehicles. The 04 to 07 trucks with the 6.0 have a long list of stay away. I dont want to pay for the parts to bullet proof one. I can do the labor but i just don't want to. Now the 6.4 i have read where a massive improvement over the 6.0. In every aspect. However they still have there list of issues. What im unsure about is all this reading on what could go wrong pushing me away from the 6.4 a reasonable move or is this more fear mongering? I get it its still a 13 year old truck its going to brake. But is this going to be a regular issue im going to have to fight? Constant brake downs?

Lastly the tow capacity. Looking it up it says 8 to10k lbs. I imagin this is just conventional towing. 5th wheel says 16k. Good old suburban says 7k lbs. Over loading it killed my transmission. So i dont want to kill my transmission loading the trailers to 7 or 8k conventional towing. My assumption is 8 to 10k is more of a safety issue with suspension frame and such. Just want to be sure i understand. Despite working on semis and towing a lot i don't know a whole lot about towing outside my convention tow experience.

Otherwise the trucks look grate. I love the interior id really love to have one just want some input on these truck out in the real world

 

All of the auto transmissions that Ford put behind the Powerstroke have been very good for quite awhile. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

The 6.4 Powerstoke is quite possibly the worst engine ever made by anyone. They make good power while they run but they are quite unreliable and when they break it is usually thousands in repairs. In my opinion the 6.0 is a significantly better engine. Once they are bulletproofed they are quite reliable. You can't really make a 6.4 bulletproof. If it were me I would either try and swing a 6.7 Powerstroke, anything 2015 or new is best but 2012-2014 is good, I would avoid 2011 if possible. If you can't swing a 6.7 Powerstroke I would buy a Chevy way before a 6.4 Powerstroke.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/33776/...need-a-rebuild

 

It sounds like you don't tow heavy enough to have to have a diesel so I would recommend looking into the V10. I had an 08 F250 with the V10 and regularly towed a 10-11k lb toyhauler without any trouble and only went to a diesel because we upgraded to a 5th wheel that's closer to 16k lbs and it was slightly over the tow capacity (I towed it for a year with the V10) and I worried about wearing it out and wanted the assurance of a dually with that much weight behind me and couldn't find 1 with the V10, otherwise I would've bought another V10 instead of having all of the maintenance of the diesel. I do enjoy towing with my current truck, and it will hold my speed going up the hills better than the V10 did with the same trailer, and since deleting it I get slightly better gas mileage than I did in the V10, so there are some positives but I owned my V10 for over 6 years and only had to do oil changes, brakes, and a drag link in that time, so really liked that part of it.

 

the 6.4 is a great engine.....when used as intended by International the manufacture of the engine...which is in a school bus.

put the 6.4 in a pickup, add emissions, put US post 2006 low Sulphur fuel in it....and now you have a disaster waiting to happen.....repair costs are in the thousands if not 10 thousands.

it is possible to own a 6.4 and never have a problem.....severe duty maint schedule.....southern use...lots of highway miles....long drive runs.....but the horror stories are out there and in my area..the local ford shop wont touch it.

 

It’s already been said but I will tell you what my local ford diesel shop told me when I had to have the rear end rebuilt. I picked it up and the head mechanic walked out. Explained the break in procedure and told me the best thing I could do is sell it. He said he could build me an engine when this one went, it would cost $16,000 to build a good one..........sold it 3 weeks later and haven’t looked back. Tons of power and the nicest truck I had even driven, but it was time to go.

 

I fully agree with this post.
The 5r110 is incredibly durable when maintained. It is the same tranny ford used in the 6.0. The 6.4 is capable of wrecking your bank account worse than any other truck out there, IMO.

Even if the 6.4 was as reliable as the 6.7, I wouldn't touch one. The parts costs on a 6.4 is WAY higher than any other powerstroke, not to mention being the most labor-intensive engine to work on. I'd buy a 300k mile 6.7 over a 100k mile 6.4. The 6.0 is good, once you invest some money into it. The 6.4 cannot be made reliable long-term.
I drove a 2010 6.4 at work for a bit. It had 141k miles and engine #3 was on its last leg when I last saw it. Cracked piston. The company had about 70k worth of engine work tied up in a truck that cost less than 50k new. It was never modded or abused, other than slightly excessive idle time. They chose to sell it dirt cheap, rather than install engine #4. They had multiple 6.4s with similar stories. That company has had MUCH better luck with their 6.7 PSD and 6.7 cummins trucks. They had switched to cummins entirely after the 6.4s​​, until they figured out the 6.7 fords are good too.

 

Awesome thank you. Yea i ended up getting a 11 6.7 142k miles. The thing is a beast. Service records show the turbo on it was replaced with an updated version. Supposedly resolved there early turbo issues. However i got the truck at a good price and im just going to put money aside for a possible turbo in the future. I kept reading and reading about the 6.0 and the 6.4 and just could not bare to actually buy one with such a long list of issues i was reading. Then i decided i really want a ford whats the next engine up 6.7 just like u said there. Reading about them its been compared to the 7.3 and stories of 300k to 400k mile trucks no problem. So i felt good with that. I did see there turbo issues in the early years just as you said but honestly i expect some repairs to be made. Just as long as its not constant and hugely expensive all the time i can manage.

 

Currently no i dont "need" a diesel to tow what i do. However reason being is i never baught anything heavier or a 5th wheel as i knew i had no way to tow such a thing. A plan is to get a 3 to 4 car trailer and a 5th wheel eventually and will likely triple tow with the 5th wheel. So im just preparing for future purchases and buying over rated for what i need. Not to mention towing 5 days a week with a car trailer and towing cars regularly i really just wanted to tow at the speed limit and not constantly have to rev the **** out of my gas to climb a hill. So its a convenience thing for me with the frequency i tow. Towing up hills 5 times a year sure a gas is fine but everyday it gets frustrating to not have that ease of towing. One less stresser and all that

 

Wise choice, it sounds like you have reasonable expectations and I am sure it will be a great truck!