Originally Posted by Gizmo

I have been looking at getting a f450 or f550. I have never owned a diesel, nor a Ford truck. I have read all of the stories told in this thread. You guys have scared me into reconsidering. I have been towing with a 90' 3500, 7.4 gas Chevy dually for the past 9 years. At 206000 miles, the timing chain gave up. I replaced the engine with a new crate engine, had the trans rebuilt. Haven't had any issues since. Granted, I"m not getting the mileage, nor towing as much weight (<9000lb), but the dependability has to factor in. I don't have the patients to be stranded on the road while towing or dealing with the kind of mess that Chuck and others have been going through.

Originally Posted by BOSS302

I know the post has been going a long time, but i thought i'd tell my ford story, Bought a 05 f-250 to pull my new at the time 05 36 outlaw. live in seattle built a new home in havasu
used the 250 to pull back and forth twice in 05,a total of 2800
miles broke down 6 times had atotal of 27 recalls and ford would do nothing. the truck was the biggest pice i ever had.
in early 06 i paid it off and sold it to other dealership that traded it to the dealership it first came from. I've heard they have had fun with it. I then went and bought a 06 GMC dually and have not had one problem, not one. In the past 4 plus years have made many trips back and fourth to AZ and all I see is ford broken down on the side of the road in one trip counted
19 fords 1 chev. 1 ram 1500. always a ford, I also will never buy a ford again. I fought with ford for a year, never got anywhere and just decided to move on to much stress to keep up the battle, in the end everyone lost, both ford and myself.

Originally Posted by cpiefer06

All I want to say is that the trucks and engines from Ford are not the sum of the problem. Some dealerships simply do not know how to properly diagnose and fix all issues. The original issue in this post in my opinion from what I read and understand is exactly that, they did a poor job identifying and dealing with the real issue and in doing so too much time elapsed and the end result is what you read. The new 6.7 ltr that is coming out will be the engine everyone flocks to wait and see. If there is one thing Ford does do is listen too its critics and find solutions to current situations.

Folks remember one thing, Ford didn't go bankrupt, didnt take money from anyone, isn't being bought by a foreign company nor does it put warnings in its 1500 series not to put campers in the back of its trucks. Yes it is true if you get a Dodge as someone said, they put a warning on it that they do not recommend placing a camper in the bed, so then how is it supposed to be able to tow our fine toys?

The other side of this is that no one ever tells the whole story either. How many people over chip their rides or push them to the limit but never mention that when it comes tell the story? I am not saying this is the case on this particular issue but we see it all the time.

One last thing. Our Ford store has had NO lemon law returns in over 5 yrs. A GM store in our group has had 4 in 3 months, and one of those siezed the engine so bad while going down the road it flat spotted the tires coming to a hault. Food for thought.

Originally Posted by Jassman

This is a good post.. for you guys that hop these diesels up (me included) . Throwing in a programmer, chip, module is way different on a gas vs a diesel. the results are stammering the amount of power one can gain..

Originally Posted by 10x

I have had 2 Ford diesel trucks, a 06 F-350, and a 08 F-450. Both were bought new, and left totally stock. The 350, had a 4.10 gear, and got about 12 mpg, and 10.5 mpg towing. Got rid of it to buy a 08 F-450. It had the 4.88 gears in it, what a phuckin mistake !!! Got 8.5 mpg all around driving, and 8.0 towing. Sold the 350 with 20K miles on it, and the 450 with 16K miles. I never had one problem with either one of em, other than stopping to refuel all the time. LOL
A very good friend of mine bought an 05 3500 Duramax dually with the 4.10 gears in it, and it gets 21-22 mpg's on the highway. I did'nt believe it till he took me on a trip from Michigan to almost Iowa and back to prove it to me. AND, we cruised at 75 mph most of the way. We towed a 46 Cig with it, and it was showing 14.5 mpg. The next truck will be a chevy duramax for sure.