I currently drive a 24 f350 with the 6.8 gas. However I don’t “love” it, it’s a good truck don’t get me wrong and it has never had an issue but I’ve just never warmed up to it like my 21 f250 I had. I have toyed around with the idea of selling it and buying a 79 f250 or f350 and having kincer do a 7.3 Godzilla engine swap with a manual transmission. However I’m having alittle bit of sticker shock. I haul cattle short distances but I also haul a few to the state fair and to world dairy expo which is a long drive for me. I thought maybe a 460 would suffice since money doesn’t grow on trees. What are people’s thoughts on this? Is it worth it to have a modern drivetrain? Thanks

 

If I had the money to put a Godzilla w/manual in one of my trucks, I'd do it in a heartbeat! I would love to have that combo in my 78 Bronco, it's a factory 4 speed, but to have a zilla with a ZF6, awesome!

 

Drive the '24.

 

Pretty soon that won’t be a viable option. I need a crew cab or an older truck and a daily driver and going the older truck route is a lot cheaper. I got the price on trading and it was alot more expensive than I was looking to spend

 

Shop around.

Lots of people have this romanticized idea that an old truck is going to fit like a worn-in shoe and transcend them to a simpler time of lower costs and carefree motoring.

Maybe if you have owned the truck the whole time.

And the engine swaps--unless you are spinning the wrenches yourself you'd be better off to order up a '26.

Shop around and get the newest thing you can tolerate, preferrably with some kind of extendable factory warranty.

When you haul livestock are you trailering them behind the truck?

Good luck with the search.

 

I have been shopping around for a long time but the best I can find is still going to be about 65k new. That is for a crew cab long bed XLT with minimal options.

Now if I could get a nice 79 for say 15-20k and make improvements to its braking system and suspension I would still have a lot of budget left to get a Godzilla in it if a 460 wouldn’t cut it which it probably could. And at the end of the day I’d have a truck I love.

Regardless I wouldn’t daily drive them I’d get a cheap f150 beater for that. I have a 79 f250 right now that I’m doing a slow restoration on and would just get a second 79 for this project. I have a 20ft gooseneck for hauling my cattle. My dad has a 21 with the 7.3 that we can always use as well

 

Having a "fleet" of older trucks, I used to DD most of them, however, doing that requires having tools in all of them, cuz let's be real, things break sometimes, but... if you start with the mechanicals and get the running gear in top shape, it does minimize the issues quite a bit.

When I was buying/fixing/driving/selling a lot of them in yrs past, new brakes, bearings, u-joints, cap/rotor/plugs/wires, carb rebuild, hoses and belts would all get done, plus tires/wheels if needed, which I usually did just cause, then as I would drive them, I'd address the other little things that needed fixin. Having a good base/starting point on maint is key, my 79 F250/4x/300/NP435 I bought with a bad engine, got a used one that I saw run in person, resealed it, new clutch assy, and all the above parts ^^, and that was my DD, wood cutting, hunting, wheeling rig for a good while, never had an issue, then I sold it to my BIL in MO because I had bought another 77 F250 4x/NP435. I drove the 79 1800 miles to MO and had a blast with zero issues the whole way, and as a bonus, the 300 returned a nice 18mpg avg the way there, it had 4.10's and 33's on it. And as a bonus, I get to drive it whenever I go back home, although I did have to redo the carb when I was there a yr ago or so because he had been using the cheap gas with ethanol, I made him agree to put only the premium with 0 ethanol in it moving forward.

I also had prior to that, a 66 F250, did the same thing to it, when I moved from SoCal to the mtns, it moved my garage/tools/spare parts, the VW, jet skis and whole loads of stuff with zero issues, probably 8-10 trips, and when I bought Mater, my 63 F250 4x, I towed him home with Bessie the 66 (ended up selling/shipping her to a gent in Boston). My current licensed/driving "fleet" consists of my 66 F100, 77 F150/4x/SB, 77 F250/4x, 2000 F150/4x/7700/Scab and my 2002 F350/7.3/4x/CC, all of them need something fixed/rplc'd or addressed, but I try to keep them all in "drive across the country" condition, meaning, all I would need to do is change oil (possibly), check fluids, tire pressure, fill'em up and hit the road.

All that said to say yes, you can daily an older truck, and use it to work, IF you take care of it before you start using it.

 

I daily old trucks. My newest is a 95 7.3. I don’t have any interest in new vehicles.
My 77 I just get in and go. As mentioned there is always something (right now it’s the high beam indicator) It usually takes me about two years to fully work all the bugs out but eventually I get there.
I know a guy that’s bought two vehicles from two different high end restorers/converters ($200k) and both had some issues….of course they were resolved but I just prefer to do my own work.