Speaking of trucks again!

I got a kick about the dodge post below, so at work today, using my work truck, the 2000 f250 w/7.3 towing my 4000 some pound trailer, I got thinking about my trucks, as I said in the past I have all 3 chevy, ford and dodge. So what's your favorite work truck you either had or still have? Some post rule, no foreign trucks, Nissan, Toyota ect, lets say 3/4 tons and up to say a f550 or so, no bigger. Let go from 2005 back, anything newer dosent count, not been around long enough. 1990 up to 2005 1/2 tons don't count, there just a heavy duty car, mid 80s half tons can count. Let's not count 2wd trucks either! Just kidding lol. Any way one of my best trucks is my 1989, 3500 chevy dually, it's the older body style. It has 172,000 miles on it,,4x4 with a t400 tranny never rebuilt, and pulled the said above trailer 5 days a week, tbi 350 and a 9 foot dumping rack body. The cab is soild, drivers side rocker panel is rusted, iv had the truck painted, and it hasn't seen a salty ny winter road since 2002. This truck has been great to me.

Everyone has their favorite brands and will until the day they die. If you get one you like stick with it you will be happier. I've seen too many switch brands ( all brands ) and then had problems.

As far as rusting out. I'm in Ohio and if you go look at used trucks to buy it's VERY hard to find any of any brand even fairly new ones not rotted or starting to rot ! Manufactures quit doing the some of the extra steps to help them last as cost cutting measures I'm sure.
Then add to that the "brine" which is calcium cloride they dump on the roads. We all know how that eats up tractor rims.

I meant to post 80s half tons and back, 60s 70s ect,

1974 F250 4 X 4 bought it new, ran it 35 years. Darn winter chemicals on the road turned frame to dust.
Replaced with '98 Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins, Better milage, but the Ford was a better TRUCK.

Can't find any fault with my '01 Chevy 1 ton dually. It is there to do the job without complaining any time I need it, but at the same time I kinda miss that old '63 Ford 1/2 ton. That Ford had been used and abused even before I got it and its life wasn't much better while I owned it, but it never let me down. I drove that thing until it was burning oil at the rate of about 2 quarts in 20 miles, and then, only because the cab and box were about to fall off due to rust, I parked it.

I'll tell you what the worst truck is I've ever owned. My 1969 Dodge Power Wagon. I still use it and bought it around 1975. By 1979, both front doors starting falling off. I finally welded then on and used to climb through the window (like Dukes of Hazzard). 318 HD low-compression V8 with 4.88 axle ratios. I used to commute 50 miles a day and it got a best of 8 MPG. I have replaced just about every moving part on the truck at least twice. Even cut it in half and replaced the rear frame. Everything on this truck was crude and low-quality. The Dana 44 front axle has brass bearing cones for ball-joints that constantly wore out. The driveshaft U-joints are held in by tiny little straps and 1/4" bolts. This truck had manual steering and as I recall, power was not even an option. Sometime in the late 1980s, a State trooper crashed into me at a very high speed and knocked the entire cab off the truck with me in it. That led me to replace the cab. I put a 1971 GMC cab on it and at least then it looked like a GM.
Nothing in that truck worked "well." Even the lock-out hubs in front are FULL manual. I wonder how many here have ever used them? Full manual hubs are not spring loaded. So if you got to lock them - most of the time they will not lock unless you rock the truck back and forth. Oh yeah - one more great item. Wheels were all split-rims. I d*mn near got killed one day hauling 500 gallons of maple sap when a wheel blew apart. I later put Ford one-piece rims on it. Got to watch out for those left-hand thread wheel nuts too!

Then the big insult to me. In the early 90s, I decided to "improve" the old truck. I tore the engine apart. I put in high compression pistons, small chamber heads, crane "RV" cam, dual plane Edelbrock hi-rise intake manifold, a tweaked GM Quadrajet carb, and headers. Got all done and guess what my fuel mileage was? 8 MPG!

I still have it. At some point in time I welded in a GM power steering box. When I turned the steering wheel to the left- the truck wheels went to the right. It only took me a few days to decide I could never get used to that. So I built a reversing box from two John Deere Cessna hydraulic pumps coupled together. I still use it and it still runs. But what a piece of JUNK.

My all-time best work-horse truck is my 1992 Dodge W250 4WD extended cab. Rides like a Sherman tank but gets the job done.

My all-time "nicest" truck is my 1994 Ford F-250 4WD extended cab with an IDI turbo 7.3. Rides like a Cadillac and has been extremely reliable. Gets 2 MPG less then my Dodge when empty and 3-4 MPG less when towing a heavy trailer. Real nice truck though. All I'll ever need.

Here's a photo of my worst truck taken quite awhile ago. The little girl on the right was my youngest kid at the time. She is 30 years old now. Note the 1971 GMC cab and some sort of Ford box on the back.

It's a 1969 Dodge Power Wagon although it doesn't look like it at first glance.

<a href="http://s104.beta.photobucket.com/user/jdemaris/library/" target="_blank"> </a>

At least the salt is only put on when needed,not sprayed on every time someone thinks it might snow.They have all ready done it 3 times this fall and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.

The truck I used the hardest was my '89 Chevy K3500. 454 gasser, TH400 trans with an auxiliary cooler and an RV shift kit.

Completely stock otherwise, pushed an 8-and-a-half foot Diamond plow, had a dump body as you can see, and towed my JD 750 with a loader and a backhoe all over he!!'s half acre.

Never got over 10 MPG with it, but it'd pull anything I could wrap a chain around. Went through a lot of front end parts carrying that plow around too, but otherwise very reliable.

Sold that truck in 2003 and probably should have kept it.

That a nice setup! I have dump boxes on both my 84 k20 chevy and 2000 ford. I put a sb 400 in the 84 chevy!

1989 Chevy 3500 4x4, 454, turbo 400. What a beast of a truck, always started, always worked.

Wish I never would have sold it, othe than rust took over. 10mpg was all it would get.

Rick

Tell you the truth in 14 years I never checked the milage on mine! But it has 4.56 gears in it, not good milage even with the 350!

Lol, that's pretty neat, makes me think of my dads 63 chevy 3/4 ton. It was a 4x4 with a straight 6, and 3or 4 speed manual tranny, He hauled many tons of stone to his house from the pit in Schoharie. Some time in the early 80s dads brother in law gave us some concrete steps. Dad took the 63 down there rather than his 73 half ton. Well guy on the back hoe said that truck will fall apart it I load these steps on there, dad told him don't worry, load it on. When the guy was done he got out and said wow that truck hardly squatted! I was only a kid and don't know how much a set of concrete steps weights. Well the engine burned oil, the box, which I think had a wood floor rotted away, so dad took it off and used it as a plow truck with nothing on the back. That thing always started so he could plow the driveway! Well he got an 82 f250 with a 400 CID engine, and years later scraped the 63, I was sad to see it go, in 1990 dad gave me his 73!

74 GMC Seria 1/2 ton, 6cy w 3 on the tree. Had it up in New Jursey & Mass so the rust ate it up. If it wasn't for that I'd still be driving it.

78 F350 with a 351M and 4 spd, 10ft dump bed. Followed by the 98 Chevy with a 454 vortec.

Wow, I have a 73 gmc custome deluxe! It's all rusted out thought like yours.

1951 GMC 3/4 with a dump box configured for the step side bed. 1/4" plate deck. 270CID GMC engine 4Speed 17" split rims with 12 ply michlin X. Medium blue (still 6V) Jim

as manard g. crabs, an old tv hippie used to say in the form of a question; "WORK"? no longer need a work truck but i drive a 2008 gmc 1500, wife drives a 2004 ford f150, but the pride is a 1952 chevrolet 3100.

2004 dodge 3500 5.9ho cummins with 6-speed here a picture of it weighing in at 39,760 truck trailer and 20 rolls of hay

Is that legal or just 'photo shopped'?

That look nice. Is that a 2wd??

I love my 2011 Super Duty 6.7 Diesel. It is my third Diesel truck, has the most power and gets the best mileage of them all.

My dad had a 1949 GMC 3/4 ton pickup with the deluxe cab and then had a 1972 Ford sport custom. I would love to find the GMC and buy it back.

(quoted from post at 19:51:04 11/20/12) 2004 dodge 3500 5.9ho cummins with 6-speed here a picture of it weighing in at 39,760 truck trailer and 20 rolls of hay

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kinda like my 04 Dodge dually too, over 100k miles and only repair has been one front U-joint and fuel pump (under warranty) after I chipped it. Original batteries and brakes, on 3rd set of CL cheapy "take-off" tires....very low operating costs.

Nice photo. I was getting told they break, and have lots of problems doesn't look like it to me, looks like they pull just fine

'92 F350 Crew Cab Single rear wheel. I graft a '98 5.9 Cummins/NV4500 into it 5 or 6 years ago. Best move I ever made. Now I have to graft in a dually rear into it.

99 Ford F550 150,000 miles on it engine (7.3 Powerstroke) has never been touched except to change oil and filters and I have used it as a truck hauling and pulling various trailers.Still rides and drives great just like it did when it was new.

yeah i pulled that load 400 miles at 50 mph round trip was 800 burned avg. 300.00 in diesel made 6 trips last year with the smallest load weighed in at 32,420

I don't know why you're not allowing so called "foreign" trucks. My 91 Toy logged 335K before the rust caused me to take it off the road. 22r and a stick. I hauled 100-135 bales on a home built tandem trailer over 100 miles in the mountains a couple time a month for years. Limiting your "best work truck" to American made (I'd argue that) 3/4 ton or heavier kind of makes it an unfair poll.

I did have a 72 F250 that was pretty tough. I'd put the old 54 Power Wagon or the 59 IHC way out in front for tough though.