I stumbled on an '03 F250 XLT 4x4 with a 6.0L engine through an acquaintance today that's never been driven other than to get it home from the dealer it was bought at in New Mexico. The truck is now in PA.
It belonged to the guy's father, who bought it and died soon after bringing the truck home. Its been parked in his house ever since. The truck is sitting in a game room, which essentially is his living room. Its parked along side of a 122 Volvo, and a Triumph Spitfire, neither or which have more than a few thousand miles on them. The owner said he couldn't bare to drive or sell it due to it reminding him of his dad.
On the truck, the batteries are removed, the tires are original and its parked on custom made rolling jack stands under each axle keeping the tires ever so slightly off the tile floor. I used a 12v jump pack to power up the dash and its showing 1,902 miles on the odometer. He said it gets started once a year and run through the gears on the stands, but otherwise hasn't been used. It was bought new in Sante Fe, NM in June of 2003 by his dad.
The owner is now himself having health issues and is looking to sell off his toys and move somewhere closer to medical care. We discussed price, and I bought the truck for a price I couldn't refuse.
I was looking for a truck to pull a camper with, but wasn't really looking for an F250 or even considering a diesel but I bought this for less than what I could buy a 20 year old F150 for.
I'm heading up that way this weekend to get the truck, I don't intend to drive it home, its going on my car trailer for the 125 mile ride home and I'm borrowing a buddies 1996 F350 to pull it with.

My question is what all will need to be done to this to put it back in daily use? No doubt a fresh oil change, a fuel filter won't hurt it either, a new belt, some new tires.... (The guy gave me a new set of original tires but they're dated 11/03, so I don't suppose those are any better than what's on it?)
The truck has a few nicks and dings from being inside, it was likely used as a leaning post as it sat between the pool table and a 2001 Toyota Prius, also on jack stands and never used.
(The guy had 7 cars in the house). He intends to ship most of them to an auction, but felt the F250 was best sold locally. The truck was driven to PA from NM on a temp tag, it was titled in PA but never registered here. I have a signed PA title in hand and the original Certificate of Origin assigning the truck to his dad from NM. I'm not sure why that didn't get taken by motor vehicle here but it was in the glove box with the original owners manual and sales contract.

Is there anything else I need to be aware of with these before attempting to start it and take it down the road after essentially being stored for 16 years?
For what I paid, I can't get hurt, its likely worth double what I paid in just cosmetic parts.
Its essentially a 2003 leftover truck that's been stored indoors in someone's house since new.
I'm not thrilled that its black, but its got a black leather interior to match, and its loaded with everything but a sun roof. Its got black bumpers, black grill, and no exterior chrome other than the step bars.

I'm hoping to get it in shape for a trip to FL with my 30ft camper this fall. I was originally planning on using my '84 F100 4x2 short bed but the 3.8L V6 motor and three speed manual isn't the greatest for towing, let alone trying to pull an almost 9,000 lbs camper a couple thousand miles.
I did use it to bring the camper home but it was only a 110 mile ride and mostly all on back roads. Stopping was the biggest issue since the F100 doesn't have a trailer brake controller. It actually held the tongue weight pretty well using a load equalizing hitch. It simply wasn't made to tow big loads though.
The GVW on the F250 is 8800, but how do I figure out what it can tow? It has a factory 2" receiver hitch and factory trailer wiring under the bumper.

 

Sounds like a great truck!

New belts, hoses (including flexible brake boss) , new filters, drain and replace all fluids (oil, coolant, brake fluid), new batteries, new tires, check brake calipers for correct function, examine all under hood vacuum hoses for rot or breaks, check all exposed wiring for damage.

 

Overall the truck looks brand new, the hoses, lines, etc all look perfect. I will change the water hoses and tires. The brake lines should be all fine. I drive a 36 year old F100 and its still got its original brake hoses, and they still look and work fine, but it too lives in a garage. When the F250 comes home, it'll take its place in the garage here.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to which batteries to buy for it?
I was told by someone that the new Walmart batteries are made by East Penn? (Deka)
I did notice that the new Walmart batteries are sealed and appear to have East Penn serial numbers on them

The local dealer installs what ever they get from the local parts stores, usually Interstate or another house brand battery from the local parts store.
I've had a ton of issues over the past few year with batteries in my F100,
In the last year, the battery replaced four times for not holding a charge.
I've always let my truck sit for a week or two at a time but the last batch of batteries have issues holding a charge for more than a few days.
I've resorted to putting the 6 year old battery back in it. I had changed it out with the thought that it was likely to fail at any time do to age.
(The brand new battery I bought which the replaced four times, goes dead sitting on a table after four or five days.)


My truck isn't my main vehicle, it sits more than its driven. I have a company car so
the truck is only used when I need a truck. In 36 years, I've only put 49,000 miles on my F100,
I've also got a 1996 van with only 19k on it that I keep as a spare vehicle.

 

Sounds like a hell of a score!!! Might hit the 6.0 diesel section for all the preventative maintenance info...

 

Oh, and fresh fuel.

 

Sounds like a great find and the guys have got you on the right track I will add to replace the gold coolant with a red cat Ec-1 rated elc, that will help to avoid some problems down the road. Also a turbo clean is likely going to be in order as the veins have likely gotten sticky form sitting all that time but sitting in a temp and humidity controlled environment maybe have helped to prevent this at least to a point. I’d love to find a like new 6 liter like that.

 

I’m going to throw up the caution flag. I’d take a high mileage truck that’s been worked over one that’s been sitting for a long time. A concern would be all the seals and o rings are dried up. Just something to consider. Hope you get lucky!

 

I appreciate your caution but I bought my truck with 19k KM's on the clock 5 years ago, it had been parked (indoors) for 5-6 years previously & hardly ever driven before that, I had a friend pick it up for me due to work commitments & he drove it 1500 miles home, so far the only maintenance other than regular oil and filter stuff has been to replace 6 tyres, 2 because they were badly cracked & the other 4 when I wore them out. I still have the original spare! Maybe I was just lucky?
I think it depends on so many factors as to whether hoses and seals degrade, to the op, I'd change the fluids & filters first, then use it for a while, keeping an eye out for any signs of a problem, if it makes the first month ok, it will likely be good for the future.

 

I got the truck back here last night, first thing this morning I changed the engine oil, fuel filter, trans fluid, (not sure if that was needed or not but its got a pan drain plug, so I dumped what came out the plug and refilled it).
I gave it four new Cooper AT3's I sucked out the brake fluid and refilled it as well.
Once I was powered up, it cranked about 6 times and fired right up.
I didn't change the coolant yet, I wasn't sure which to use, the dealer had only yellow stuff, Walmart had only green. The manual says to use only Motorcraft?
I did use synthetic oil, the manual spec'd out 5W/40 if using Synthetic so I used Delo 400 full synthetic since it was so much less than Mobil 1.

After letting it warm up, I hung the license plate and took it for a ride. I put about 80 miles on it making my rounds to various auctions and flea markets all day.

It runs great, and surprisingly seems to get pretty decent mileage. I filled the near empty tank when I left, ran it for 80 miles and it took only 3.65 gallons when I got back.

One thing I do notice is that the transmission feels a lot different than my car, I can 'feel' every shift, up and down, especially when coming to a complete stop and taking back off.
It concerned my so i stopped at a used car dealer and drove another truck with the same engine/trans combo and it felt the same.

I went with Walmart batteries after reading they're likely East Penn made now, two 850 CCA Groupe 65's for $189 out the door.. The local Interstate dealer wanted nearly $400. One garage wanted $165 each for Deka batteries.

The Cooper tires weren't my first choice but I found I couldn't buy the OEM BF Goodrich tires any longer and I read too many horror stories on so many other brands.

The OEM tires looked perfect on the outside, but were badly cracked on the inside.
I bought a new belt and I ordered all new hoses for it but what's on it look good, so I'm not too concerned about them. I'll deal with the hoses when I change the coolant before winter.
The truck won't be getting a lot o use, it'll spend most of its time in my garage once I know its completely reliable.
So far so good.

I have to say, its pretty quick for a big truck, when I step down on the throttle it really gets up and goes. After driving the one used truck for comparison, this one is a lot faster.

It does have a lot of rattles, the doors, seat backs, glove box, and doors them selves make a lot of noise over rough roads. But the super cab door layout doesn't look like its all that sturdy to me.

The overall ride is great, but it lets you know your in a 3/4 ton 4x4 with 10 ply tires fully inflated when you run over a bump or pothole in the road.
I ran down a few PA back roads with 45 mph speed limits and anything over 30 mph the truck wanted to bounce off the road, but on the open highway it felt great.
I dropped it off tonight to be fully detailed, a buddy is going to buff and wax it for me. I'm not sure how he's going to reach the roof, but I can't even reach the middle of the roof standing in the bed.
He said he should be able to buff out 90% of the scratches in the paint.

It has a sunvisor on it, I told him to see about removing it if won't leave any open holes in the body. The thing is in my line of sight when driving and I seem to be getting a lot of wind noise from it.

 

I want to know what kind of house the seller had, that he was able to have 7 vehicles -IN- the house, as opposed to being in a garage or outbuilding?

 

One thing to be aware of is that once you are using the truck versus being stored the way it was is that diesels and the 6.0 especially don't take well to sitting, they need to be worked often.

 

The guys house was back in the woods, the place was built like a car showroom, with glass on two sides, a fireplace on one wall towards the main house. The house itself was stone and timbers.
The area where the truck and various other vehicles were stored was sort of between the main house and a conventional garage where he kept vehicles he drove daily.
The glass 'showroom' was decorated with taxidermy, military collectibles, and some old paintings. There was a full size pool table towards one corner, a fully stocked bar that took up a good part of the adjacent corner, a dozen or more vintage pinball machines scattered around the edges, between vehicles, and he had two motorcycles on a 6ft tall stand in the middle of the room. One bike was an early Indian Chief, the other a late teens Harley.
There were propellers from airplanes on the wall, several antique engines on stands, and a dozen or so burgundy leather chairs arranged in a half circle facing out towards one window overlooking the woods and a steep drop to the rear of the house. The floor was gold/brown colored tiles where the vehicles sat, but carpeted and hardwood elsewhere. He would not allow my to take any pics and I won't disclose where it was. other than that its in PA.
My take was that money wasn't an object for him, or his dad. It was like walking into a cross between a museum and Bass Pro Shops showroom. The ceiling, (exposed timbers), were about fifteen feet high at the peek. Both glass walls opened up, the front was ground level and where the big items were brought in, the rear opened into a sectioned off sun room with all sorts of exotic plants. That room was high in the air, even with most of the tree tops in the immediate area.
Each vehicle was on jack stands, the jack stands themselves were impressive, each one with four swivel non-marring urethane casters and made to 'lock' onto or bolt to the frame of each vehicle. They had to be custom made to fit each vehicle. Some were individual stands, some were built in pairs, one car had sort of raised platform it sat on that was on casters, with the car just slightly raised off its wheels.
The driveway to the house winded around back and forth through the woods so as to hide the house from the road. The left side of the house had a four bay double deep garage for his regular cars, and there was another stand alone car port off to the far left for open parking, with a sign stating that ALL vehicles are to park under that roof when 'visiting'. I didn't ask if that was to protect them from falling tree branches or acorns, or to be sure nothing dripped oil on the fancy paved driveway that I think was likely stamped and dyed concrete of some sort. The edges were made to look like old wood, the main drive was some sort of herring bone pattern in a lighter color.
I gathered from a few things he said that it wasn't his only house, my take was that the house in PA was sort of a vacation home, and that he had several others around the country. It didn't seem that out of the ordinary since i once worked for a guy who owned dozens of homes all over the place and up and down both coasts. All I could imagine is how much it must cost to maintain just one place like that, let alone many. I pay nearly five grand in taxes on just a third of an acre with a small garage and a three bedroom home, A guy like that likely pays more in property tax each year than I make in a year. The room where the F250 sat was nearly the size of my whole yard.

 

Sounds like a decent find, just do a lot of research on the platform. Lots of people not happy with them, some people are. Parts are apparently becoming less available for the engine.

 

Whatever you do, do not run the boost level up with a tuner.