Hello all. My name is Jeremy, new member, new-old Ford truck owner.

If someone had told me five years ago that I would purchase three 8-lug full-size trucks between then and now I would’ve laughed in their face... if they’d told me two of the three would be Fords I might have slapped them.

Between my girlfriend and I we have two OBS Fords, a brown 93 F250 and a white 97 F350 and a Square-body Suburban 2500. The F350 is the girl’s horse-hauler, she’s since paid me back and holds the title, but I fronted her the money, so I consider my statement about buying all three to be factual.

The 97 was too good of a deal to pass on. Low-mileage 7.3 fleet truck. Perfect for hauling a horse trailer. The day we brought that truck home I was CERTAIN I was neither a Ford guy or a diesel guy. I’m still not a fan of diesels, especially not to work on, but I may in fact be coming around on FoMoCo.

I bought the squarebody to be MY big boy truck and as a compliment to the F350 for camping and such. The horse crap can stay in the trailer and I could stretch out in the back of the suburban away from the tack and hay and horse stuff. That project also kept me sane(r) through 2020 and the COVID lockdowns. I had a project and somewhere to go...

Enough about my GM project on the Ford forum.

Having the F350 has benefitted me and quite unfortunately, I was behind the wheel when this happened:


Yeah... it’s as bad as it looks:


Somehow that Hyundai, the one that weighs less than the Ford’s drivetrain ruined the truck.
Adding insult to injury, I got cited, I believe because the cop figured I would take the ticket and drive off, where he would be stuck with the woman that hit me until the wrecker arrived. She was beyond shaken up and borderline abusive and I think the cop just didn’t want the hassle.

Unfortunately again for me, as much as I’m neither a Ford or diesel guy, my girlfriend is very much both. Most important is being able to haul the horse, closely followed by doing so in a Ford truck, with a diesel engine. Even though the white F350 had been rode hard and put away wet, the odometer only shows 115k or so. An hour meter would likely tell a very different story... similar to the story told when the entire AC system had to be replaced last year or the one where such a low mileage engine got its SECOND replacement alternator. While the odometer doesn’t show that many miles, I’m not convinced the truck turned off too many times in the 20 years that we didn’t own it.

Thankfully, the very same day of the accident, a family friend put this truck up for sale:



The previous owner ordered this truck in 1993. F250, 4WD, 460 gas motor with a 5-speed and 139k on the clock. It’s not a diesel and my girlfriend had never driven a straight-shift before this truck, but at the very least it didn’t take much for her to learn to drive it and be back with the ability to haul her horse around.

I hated cutting the bed to put the gooseneck hitch in, but the spare wheels off my suburban fit and look right:




I also swapped the auto-locking hubs for premium Warn manual lockers and replaced the broken factory AM/FM Tape for a modern Bluetooth receiver, but after those changes I’m gonna do my absolute best to keep this truck stock.

As nice as the F250 is, its still not the truck my girlfriend REALLY wanted. And despite its flaws, the white 350 is worth putting back together. Being that it was the opposite of the brown OBS I don’t mind cutting it up.

When we bought the F350 it was pretty obvious it was a “frankentruck”. Dual-axle front, single-axle rear and bed, XLT dash, tailgate and seats in an XL body. I joked almost from day one that if I borrowed the truck for too long it was gonna turn into a flatbed truck. I finally got the girlfriend to agree to let me put a flatbed on it, IF I found a dually axle. Ironically enough, the week before the accident an E450 dual-axle fell into my lap, thankfully not literally.

Here’s the inspiration I’m using to complete the F350:





Honestly my flatbed will be even more abbreviated than that one. Room for a bale of hay and the hitch-ball is mainly what it’ll need as we’ll have the full bed on the F250 when we need it.

Anyhow, this is my long-winded introduction. I’m looking forward to being a productive member of the community here, documenting my work as I go and hopefully learning from the community so I don’t have to make every mistake possible on my own.




be safe


Jeremy

 

Hi and welcome aboard Jeremy!
Sorry to have to the accident, hope all goes well with the rebuild.
Be sure to drop by your local Georgia Chapter:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum82/

 

Welcome to the community, Jeremy! Nice to have you here. There is a ton of information about our platform with supporting vendors who can get you where you want to go. Hope you stick around and find this forum useful!

 

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Welcome aboard!