I drive Semi-trucks for a living and the shifting and double clutching (yeah like I do that, he he he) doesn't bother me at all. Them guys that complain about manual trannies in P/U's and cars should try driving rush hour traffic in LA or Chicago in a semi, maybe they'll look at shifting a regular truck differently. Luckily now, I have gone local out of Grand Rapids, so I only have to deal with Detroit, he he.

 

deckedoutf150,
i live just on the southside of dayton, irun all over southern ohio and ky. visiting all the tool rental stores, i do spend a good amount of time in cincy. yea some time we can shoot the breeze, some times when its close to 5pm,and i'm in cincy area, i try to find things to do, till after 6ish, so i can avoid the 5 oclock rush to dayton, i'll e-mail my phone# to you later. do you remember seeing a blueish t-bird for sale on rt 4 ? just before the bypass? if you do, check out my profile.i bought it from guy whose nic name is chop top charile. lots of cars in hot rod mag.

 

I really got turned off by the f150 lately. The simple fact that they stopped offering a manual trans with a v8 was bad enough, now the 2004 has no manual trans. I have been a Ford person, dyed blue forever, but the f150 is no longer a real truck. They are way to light built and have been lightened up soo much in the last few years, that I just really dont want a passenger vehicle that they call the f150. My 94 F150 could easily handle a snow plow, it had a 5spd and 351w, was 4x4, EXT cab, off-road, etc. My 99 was lightened up so much, that nobody wanted to even help me pick out a plow. the front GVW was lowered quite a bit and would not handle a plow. I further proved this point by putting a plow on it and had to immediatly beef up the front just to pick-up the plow. After putting timbren overloads on it, it was much better. I have since rebuilt the rear axel ($700), u-joints, and need to do front ball joints. This truck only has 70k miles on it. My 94 had 160k on it and I only had to replace the driver side ball joints due to normal wear.

I use my trucks, I have had Rangers in the past, but they were WAY to light for my type of use, thats when I moved to the f150. they were a great truck until 97. Just too light. I need something that will pull a loaded trailer and not scare me, and something that has enough power and weight to get the job done. I am looking for a SD diesel with the 6 sp manual, but I may end up with the F350 before I am done. I dont want the DRW, but a crewcab short box would be nice. In fact, my ideal truck would be a SD 350 crewcab shortox 4x4, 7.3 6spd manual. BUT, they dont offer the good 7.3 anymore. Yet another thing that ****es me off about ford.

Sorry for the whining and complaining, but I am just upset over how light duty they have made their trucks recently.

 

Itsays that you have no photo's in your t-bird gallery

 

Lxman1
here it is, this is home coming day for the bird and the trucks first tow.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...=37465&width=0

 

Awesome tbird! For some reason I was expecting an MN12 chassis tbird (89-97).

Anyway, in regards to the manual v8, check the towing capacity for the manual transmission before you go out buying one, you will severely reduce your capacity.

I have driven stick shift cars in LA traffic, and its not fun at all, and you will be putting extra wear on that clutch no matter how good you are.

But nothing, absolutely nothing beats driving a convertible car with a stick down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

This all coming from a guy in upstate new york.



JH

 

f=2504by497 thats cool i will send you back my number when you email me. i have nextel if you have one of those send me your two way numbers.


the ford f150 is no where near light duty. i dont know where Jeffdoerr is getting his information from. i got a friend with a 200 f150 and he has a snow plow on it and it does great. the new f150 is the toughest light duty truck out there. and they will be offering a manuel trans for the V6 and prolly the V8. but i would still rather have a auto cause of all the towing i do. i was at the sharronville trans plant last summer at the open house and got to see the newest version of the E40D that they are putting behind the new F150. its a tough trans.

 

I have a 98 V-6 manual with 3:08 gears, and thought it wasnt really all that bad. Daily driving on Dixie hiway started to suck but on the hiway its all good. Automatics are better for towing, they seem to hold up better. I ordered a new cluster with the tach, and discovered the powerband, and the 4.2 has *****.I like the gear ratio due to the city driving and i can ride in third and stay under 2500rpm. She comes stock with 205 hp and 250lb. tqe(correct me if im wrong) Pulls bass boat nicely!!!

 

yeah, we use to pull our bass boat with a 300 I6 in a f150. but we have a ranger boat and they are known for being heavy. and theres still nothing like rompin down on that V8 with that boat behind you and it out running a S10 unloaded up a hill, toping the hill at about 85 and it still beggin for more. i ahve a 2002 with a 4.6 and a 97 with a 5.4 both autos

 

hmmm... ford never made an F-150 in the 92-96 body style with a 351 and manual transmission, much like you couldn't get a 97-03 with a 5.4 and a manual transmission. the only way to go with a standand and the "big" V-8 was to get it in an F-250... just thinking out loud