Honestly it's just getting old... its almost over 200k miles, has a fresh motor and is in damn good shape, but it's starting to nickle and dime me. We have been travelling a ton with the boat, and are planning to head to Florida in April. (Key West) I was in South Carolina over thanksgiving, and blew a brake line on the ramp. It's stupid stuff like that that gets old fast. If I was only towing locally, I wouldn't worry about it, but being 1500 miles from home on the side of the the road sucks. 6 mpg really blows too! I'd also like something that can serve as a occasional daily driver, but the Chevy still gets 8-9 mpg empty, so I never use it.

Baja - The newer gassers are appealing price wise, but I'd sooner just dump a few grand into mine and bring it up to 100%.

I may have found the "Fatal Flaw" with the F450... I don't think it has AC! I asked the seller, so we shall see, but the controls don't look like AC.

Found this one this morning...

http://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/2107063295.html

sounded like a pretty nice truck on the phone from what John described , my son has a F -450 that he runs the pizz out of between pulling the SKATER when he wants to take it out , the enclosed race car trailer. he did put the exhaust and chipped it and no ramp problems to speak of .
good luck

I was used to my 350 6.0 with a Bully Dog programmer when I first got my 550 7.3 so it really felt weak in the beginning. I put a DP chip on it and it really made it come around. I drive it empty with the 80 HP econo tune and have no complaints about power now...................feels about like the 6.0 truck did running with the tow tune. I prefer the multi position chip semi custom tunes from DP, PHP, etc over the generic programmers for the 7.3............you can get them updated as you add better parts over time.

Hey Pat, according to Pg. 221 of the 99 owners manual, the 99's have a dana 80, that would make a gear swap much much easier, would it not?

http://www.thedieselstop.com/faq/949...er%20Guide.pdf

Thanks all...

Bill, your son's truck looks cool, I'll have to dig up some Alcoa's for this thing. I'm gonna have 100k in it by the time I'm done Did you talk to Jon at Windy Hill? I've been back and fourth via email, but I'm gonna give them a shout and see what they will sell it for.

I'm gonna have 100k in it by the time I'm done

Its only money BIG Daddy yep Jon mentioned it was pretty clean unit

RT930turbo,

Make sure you run a couple of searches with www.autotempest.com

I have found a LOT of great deals out there on CL.

I would not buy a PSD older than 1999.5.

I stand corrected According to that info it looks like in that model year the 450's had the dana 80 and the 550's had the dana 135. In that case a ring and pinion swap on a 450 shouldn't be bad.............parts should be readily available and not crazy $$ and being a 2WD you only have to worry about one end. I had thought that Super Duty 450 and 550's with the shorter cab to axle dimension had the 110 and the longer C-A trucks (used for long ramp trucks, boom trucks, etc) had the 135 axle. Maybe that started later than '99?

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/2112285147.html

They print it every day, right! I have a call in to them, no response yet...

I'm really trying to stay with 99.5 and up too. I've been watching autotempest, and all the usual sites.

I'm 99% sure it's a Dana 80, so that will open up a ton of ratio options. This is good news!

It's even the right color! -Thanks

I once bought a car that had been owned by a cigar smoker. Bought a nearly new Martin Guitar from a smoker. Got both cheap the smell went away in a couple of weeks.