about 3 weeks ago as I was getting onto the highway, real carefully I might add, the rear tires on my old 2000 model f-250 went out from under me on a patch of ice and well, the truck got wasted. It spun all the way around across the highway and slammed the concrete wall in the middle with us facing the wrong direction. Cars were coming at us in the fast lane at over 70 mph (idiot drivers didn't even slow down) but even with one wheel broken clean off at the axle and the other one bent so bad it was not turning I still found a hole in the traffic and got off the road.
Anyway, noone was hurt thankfully and I'm not too happy with the insurance adjuster right now because that truck was worth 16000 dollars but we only got 11000 which was the payoff on it.
As soon as I found out they were totaling it we went back to the dealer where we got that one from and they had just gotten in a really nice 97 model f250 4x4 that I fell in love with. I really prefer the older bodystyle anyway and my last f150 I put a million miles on before we sold it so that style just agrees with me I guess.

Well, this "new" truck looks like a brand new truck. The last owner was a good customer of mine when I ran the garage at that dealer so for about the last 5 years I did all the maintenance on it. The ford dealer before that. It has 160,000 miles on it and untill last week still had the original tires and brakes on it. It never once saw any city driving. It just pulled a small travel trailer around the country and was kept in the garage the rest of the time nice and clean. I don't think he ever even let it get rained on. It has a conversion package on it which is really nice. Custom seats and a nice big back seat. 8 foot bed and the big axles with 4.10 gears. The trans is a E4OD and I will probably end up rebuilding it this spring because 3rd is getting a little weird but I know it won't have any major problems. I changed the fluid in it every 3 months for the last owner so it is really clean. I also put on a deep aluminum trans pan a few years ago for him that has fins and a drain plug. Sometimes he would bring it in for an oil change every three months even if he hadn't driven it and everything was always motorcraft that I used on it.
So I got a really nice truck now and am happy even though I'm probably never gonna get over the last one. That was my first ever accident and we were really lucky.
I own a horse farm here and this truck will be doing a lot of work pulling horse trailers and working in the field on various chores. There is only one mod I want to do on it and that is a PTO idle switch. When I go out on my weekly fence checks in the truck I hate shutting the engine down every time I get out and in the winter if I don't idle it up it will never warm up around here. I just need to find a good way to install a idle up switch on it. I've done it on newer trucks and older ones with a cable between the gas pedal and pump but not on any of this age. Anyone know where to start looking for directions on how to do it.
I may even put a transfer case mounted PTO pump on it for my winch and dump trailer. It's got the port on it and is an easy installation.

 

Congrats on the new truck, sounds like you got a silular truck to mine, old man owned, over maintained it with oil changes ever 2000kms which i've been carring that on. like new and the upgrades that were done was on the suspinsion other then the transmission.

 

Don't ya love it when people overmaintain them untill us normal folk can afford them? I looked at some new trucks and the equivelent of this one for an 07 model starts over 50,000 bucks around here. That's way out of my league.
I am real happy though. We have been under a nasty ice storm for the last couple days and I tried to plug in the truck a couple nights ago but it blew the breaker every time. I already had 2 tank heaters, 2 electric space heaters and 3 heat lamps running on that circuit for the barn and shop. I just finished dropping wire and a new outlet with it's own breaker just for the truck out on the front porch. I found out he never even used the block heater before. It was still wrapped up in the factory position and when I took the cap off the plug is was shiny and new looking. I love surprises like that. I have a big garage/workshop but I have no room left for a truck in there. I think I am gonna have to rearrange a bit to get this one in. I know it won't fit under the door with the camper shell on but I think it will just barely squeek in if I take it off.

 

Congrats on your new truck and sorry about your old one, glad noboby was hurt. For your fast idle, check out ebay. I've seen several factory ford fast idle kits for our trucks on there. You just have to keep going back and looking until someone has one for sell.