Trade Question
 

I have been offered a 2003 Ford F350 Super Crew 7.3L Diesel 129K miles four door long bed. Lariat with driver and passenger power leather seats. Power heated mirrors. Seats 6. Starts and run awesome. 6" lift and brand new 35" tires and 17" wheels. 4" turbo back exhaust, Touchscreen DVD player head unit with ipod control, edge controller and monitor, 2 year warranty. for my 2005 Ford F150 102K miles, lariat, supercrew.

I need a truck that is going to allow me to move to Alaska pulling all our stuff but I am a little concerned about the F350 and the 7.3L Powerstroke. What kind of gas mileage can I expect out of it? Can anyone help me on this issue?

Would you take the deal? It is straight across truck for truck...


Thanks

Jake

All things being equal, like condition of the motors, driving style, load weight, etc., you will get better milage with the diesel vs the gas motor while hauling a heavy load over a long distance.
However, diesels are more expensive to maintain; but with proper maintenance, they can run for many miles.
All that being said, I've made several trips over 1000 miles in my 03 SCREW, loaded and towing a trailer, and I was able to get as high as 18 mpg with a tail wind, and as low as 12 going over long passes.

For me, I would stick with the 05 since I don't need the towing/hauling capacity of the diesel, and wouldn't want one for a daily driver.
Though, I've done some long hauls in my BIL's F250 with the 6.0 diesel, and it was quite nice to have the extra grunt.

The mileage would be nice I've pulled a little with my f150 and got 9 mpg so really looking for durability and mileage

I only get 13 in my 05 as a daily driver

Same here, as a daily driver, but that is mostly around town. The stop and go really kills milage.
But, steady state driving on the interstate, the average milage goes up. Plus, for me, the best milage is found between 60 and 65.
I don't know what the diesels average for stop and go traffic, though. I suppose the low end torque of the diesel should benefit it for normal driving too.
What does the owner of the F350 get for milage?

Diesel fuel is $.30/gallon more over unleaded. I'm pretty sure that you're not going to save anything on gas.

If you're looking at this as a "Which would be a better vehicle to do a cross country move in while towing all of our belongings?"...then I'd have to go with the F-350. I'm curious as to why he's wanting to do this trade. Make sure that you get a pre-purchase inspection done on his truck.

Would the 7.3 be nice for towing? Yeah. However, I would stay with what you have if you aren't intending on doing frequent heavy towing.

Honestly, this deal sounds too good to be true. Something has got to be up with his truck. There is no normal human that would trade an f350 for an f150, with only 25k more on it. Seems fishy to me..

Well, the F350 is two years older, bigger, heavier, etc. Maybe the guy just wants to step down to something easier to drive and own?
But, for sure, the poster should have the truck fully checked out prior to making a deal, if that's the direction he wants to take.
Actually, they both should.....

So why wouldn't he just sell it, or trade it in on a newer half ton? He could probably save himself a couple thousand by doing that... Just seems kinda dumb to me for the owner of the 350.

The long bed would be the deal breaker for me. That's a long rig...
My guess is the guy just wants to down size into a more practical truck.

with the price of gas/ diesel going up.. might be a little harder to sell a F350.

6" w/ 35" tires and a tuner, tranny will be toast in short order IMO. There would;d be no Ford 2 year warranty for that truck so I would consider the 2 year warranty listed as worthless. Wouldn't expect much better mileage out of the diesel and the fuel costs more. If it would have been left alone it can get 15-17mpg in stock form and is very reliable.

To the op I recently just traded my 99 powerstroke for my current vehicle an 03 f150 fx4 four door. If you need the bigger truck for just this one trip it wouldn't be worth it IMO. Yeah you'd at gas maybe, but with a lift and tires it's not realistic. Diesel are VERY expensive to maintain that's why I down sized. Especially having a v8 diesel. I replaced my glow plugs personally and it was a hundred for plugs and too me seven hours to replace because I ran into complications. I spent 80-90 on fuel a week driving city only think done to my truck was an exhaust, intake, gauges, and chip. I avg. 15-18 In town. Everything is more expensive an oil change is 100 bucks on the cheap side, fuel filters 15-30, tires are more batteries are more there's two.

Also like others have said I find it hard to believe the guy just wants to trade with out some kind of "catch", the guy I traded with needed a bigger truck to haul a toy hauler I didn't need it that bad, both our trucks weren't in excellent condition so that's why I saw no issue with trading straight up, and my new truck books for 1500 more than mine, but in it's lowest value it was at the top price of my diesel.