The Cheapest Farm Truck in America

[Jolly]

When I say Farm Truck, I'm talking V8...

www.motorbiscuit.com/heres-the-cheapest-full-size-v8-pickup-truck-you-can-get-in-2023/

[Ozarks Tom]

I don't understand why they keep using the word "cheap". The least expensive one costs double what I paid for my first house.

[joebill]

5 times the cost of our first house....!

I dunno who would put that kind of money into a farm truck and expect to show a profit on the farm, anyhow. Today's trucks can expect to ramble along two or three hundred thousand miles, and no particular shortage out there of used ones with half that many miles on them, mostly town or highway driving. I just gave my 2001 Dodsge 1500 with 240K on it to my grandaughter, and if I put a new set of tires on it tomorrow and serviced it, I would not be afraid to make a round trip to either coast with it. Trucks v ery rarely blow engines any more, and show signs of advanced wear long before that happens.

I bought that one new, sum total of repairs (not maintenance) is a throw-out bearing....notice I did not even put in a clutch plate or pressure plate while I had the tranny down. and front brake pads....oh, and front wheel bearings. They SAY you have to change the rotors and hubs with the front wheel bearings, but that is horse hockey. Part number stamped right there on the bearing and they sell them at all of the better bearing houses. Push the old ones out on the press, push the new ones in. I guess there at the last I also put a fuel pump in it, but I am pretty sure no other repairs.

The torque on the bearing retainer nut is higher than the torque wrench will read, but a 200 pound guy standing on the end of a 2 foot breaker bar equals 400 foot pounds, etc. ....duh.

The quad cab was the most comfortable truck cab I ever owned, because the seat will just slide back forever and ever, and I could drive it as long as I could stay awake. The 318 engine was faultless, ditto the manual transmission, and removing the rear seat made it sorta like a club cab automobile from back in the 50's, PLUS it had a short truck bed for merchandise that I covered with a Leer camper shell, painted to match.

I dunno what makes them think a farm truck needs an automatic tranny, no matter HOW many speeds it has, because just try pulling a feed wagon or a load of hay at a truly steady speed while somebody throws off the bales. Only a manual tranny in granny geat will pull that off and the driver (often 11 years old) only has to steer around the ditches and stuff. If her feet will not reach the pedals, she can shut the key off when it comes time to stop.

Yeah, electric windows on a farm truck .....Joe

[farmrbrown]

Feb 10, 2023 18:24:38 GMT Ozarks Tom said:

I don't understand why they keep using the word "cheap". The least expensive one costs double what I paid for my first house.

I was gonna say the same thing, lol. They DID say cheapest.
But yeah, this old farm boy was thinkin' 2, 3,000 maybe? LMAO

[rybach]

I dunno who would put that kind of money into a farm truck and expect to show a profit on the farm, anyhow.

Most of the farmers I know do everything they can to minimize profits for tax reasons. Buying a truck is one way to make a good year into a loss on paper.

But they don't drive half ton trucks and most drive diesels, so those "cheap" ones aren't on their lists. They're spending $80k and up.

I'm a GM guy (for stupid reasons) but I have to admit Ford more consistently builds better trucks. Some terrible engines, though. Take a Cummins out of a Dodge and put it in an F-250 and you might have a pretty goof farm truck. Dodge has good years and bad years because they keep getting passed around to new owners. The last 10 years or so they've delivered a lot of junk.

[Jolly]

I understand what you're saying, and maybe I'm lost in the past, but I understand the article's definition of farm truck. It's gotta be full-size, with enough power to pull a utility trailer or haul a load. That's why they specified V8 power.

Going back in the years, I remember a lot of working trucks having the old Ford 300 in-line 6 with a standard. Bullet-proof, cheap to work on and would pull more than you think it would.

[daw]

My new 2992 Cummins cost $13000. In 17 years I put over 250000 miles on it.
A heavy 3/4 T it pulled a 32ft 5th wheel.
, A 14 trailer with 5 horses
The same trailer loaded with 500-800 lb calves and I could still pass
everything on the road. Even brand new trucks just plugging along.
My downfall was an oil change at Walmart. They did not put the o ring on. By the time I got home oil was everywhere.. The truck never started again . Three new batteries and no start. A year later it sold too cheap to someone that gave it a new life. He put some kind of battery that it. It did not use oil averaged 21 mpg.

[Jolly]

I've heard of more than one vehicle ruined by a Walmart oil change.

[joebill]

I almost went to jail over a walmart oil change.

SOB drained the oil out, went for a hour BS session with his buddy, we were left standing in a freezing rain waiting for him to finish.

UGLY story, no point in reliving it......Joe

[farmrbrown]

Pretty good completion IMO.

www.toyotatoday.com/news/dissecting-million-mile-tundra.htm

The rare opportunity to tear down and examine Sheppard's 2007 Tundra was too good to pass up for the engineers at the Toyota Motor North American Research & Development (TMNA R&D) center, formerly TTC, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it was designed. After getting the truck in Louisiana, where it was sold, in October — and giving Sheppard a brand new Tundra — engineers took it on a victory lap to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, in San Antonio, where it was built.

Then it went to Ann Arbor to find the answer to the question: What happens to a truck that’s been driven 1 million miles? And, moreover, what can we learn that will benefit our customers?

Months later, Toyota’s technical brain-trust is still amazed at one thing: Sheppard’s Tundra does not look like it went a million miles.

“This is how I’d expect a Tundra with 100,000 miles on it to look,” says Frank DiMaggio, analyst at the Toyota Collaborative Benchmarking Center. “But this one has a million.”

[joebill]

Here is the thing, though....

How many of us have blown an engine or tranny in a vehicle made in the last 20 years? I am betting it is somewhere near zero, or if it is a high number, I betcha there are multiples from just one or two folks. I simply cannot estimate how many engine rebuild shops have gone belly up since Y2K, andI dunno of any open in the area, except for racing engines, big truck engines, stuff like tha.....almost zero demand, in spite of the vehicles costing more by a wide margin.

Why do they get repalced, then?....pretty simple in my book. Whereas your 1953 chevy would eventually just lay down and die, your 2010 will just make you wish it would.

Persistent wiring and electrical problems are one reason people grow to hate their rides. Transistors almost never die, but the smaller wiring and loads of additional features made possible by them are much more vulnerable than the simple circuits' and 14 gage wire of yesteryear.

Worn body parts that are hard to replace are another problem that is not easily fixed, and they multiply rapidly. For instance, the hinges on you drover's door wear out and they are often welded to the body, so replacing them is a HUGE deal......and THEN, your door needs to be slammed shut to make it latch, and you use the arm rest to do that, so eventually you have pulled the arm rest loose from the door, along with the inner door panel....yuck!

When I was on the road with the box business, I put most of the miles on my trucks in the left hand lane on I-10 or I-25, cruise control set at 78MPH, which will get you there fastest with no risk of speeding tickets, and my little Dakota still looked and drove almost like new....and maybe never did die. I gave it to a friend in need when it began to develop....you guessed it....wiring problems, and I could not afford the down time any more......Joe

[farmrbrown]

To be honest joebill, I've known many people with blown up engines or trannies in the last 20 years. Even I finally seized up the 2001 Jeep a few Thanksgivings ago, but I towed the old girl home and will rebuild that inline 6 one day soon and put her back on the road. It's just too good a vehicle for these mountain roads in the winter to throw her away like that, lol.
No, I think the real reason you may not hear about long term car owners much any more is because by the time they get close to 100,000 miles, they get traded in and/or scrapped for a newer one.
There's a 2018 and a 2015 Subaru Forester in our driveway right now and I hope they're both gone before the year is over. One has about 130,000 miles and if I tell you what I've put into it in the last 2 years, I'll start crying.... The newer one is under 90,000 and as of Monday, has 2 brand new lower control arms for $800. And thank God my mechanic is a great guy or I'd be crying again, lol.

My 2000 Tacoma needs a tuneup pretty bad, but I used it Sunday to haul a trailer full of stuff, putting me closer to the 1/2 a million mile mark on the odometer. She's a "keeper" too.

[joebill]

Yep, steering and suspension parts make people buy new cars, too, but that is not a blown engine or tranny.

When I speak of a blown engine, NOT talking about one that simply quits running for an unknown reason, but rather piston, cyl clearance is so loose it needs bored out and oversized pistons and rings, or it throws a rod, spins a main bearing taking the crankshaft along with it.

Even a flat cam shaft is relatively easy to repair and does not qualify as a blown engine. A lot of early failures used to happen because folks ran them low on oil or water, and an automotive engine that uses a lot of oil is rare these days, plus you may have noticed that your belts and hoses are often good dang near forever, eliminating overheating from water shortage or circulation problems.

Yeah, you can still blow or wear out an engine, but you have to wqork pretty hard at it....Joe

[farmrbrown]

Feb 25, 2023 8:46:36 GMT joebill said:

Yep, steering and suspension parts make people buy new cars, too, but that is not a blown engine or tranny.

When I speak of a blown engine, NOT talking about one that simply quits running for an unknown reason, but rather piston, cyl clearance is so loose it needs bored out and oversized pistons and rings, or it throws a rod, spins a main bearing taking the crankshaft along with it.

Even a flat cam shaft is relatively easy to repair and does not qualify as a blown engine. A lot of early failures used to happen because folks ran them low on oil or water, and an automotive engine that uses a lot of oil is rare these days, plus you may have noticed that your belts and hoses are often good dang near forever, eliminating overheating from water shortage or circulation problems.

Yeah, you can still blow or wear out an engine, but you have to wqork pretty hard at it....Joe

Oh, I understood the criteria, but I don't agree the newer cars are any better that's all.
And you DID say engine OR tranny.....the Subaru's mentioned in the driveway have CVT transmissions. The 2015 has its 2nd one now, curtesy of a $6,000 check I wrote to a local mechanic who specializes in trannys. That was 1/2 the price quoted by everyone else around and he found a rebuilt one with low mileage which is the only reason it's not in a junkyard now! Hard to justify spending $10,000 to replace a tranny on a car that's worth $11K, right?

There are all kinds of lists you can google, but here's one from CR.
www.consumerreports.org/car-repair-maintenance/cars-that-are-most-likely-to-need-an-engine-rebuild-what-to-buy-a3227614920/

*Another note on the newer Subaru's*
It's not that hard to blow one up when they "loose" oil without any leaks, meaning they're burning oil in fairly new engines. My own mechanic quizzed ME on this because several of his customers experienced the same thing. I told him that I notice the bluish white smoke from the tail pipe often when I start mine up, then it goes away in a few minutes. My guess was leaky valves or rings and it collected somewhere after it sat for awhile, then burns off when restarted?

[joebill]

Yeah, I'll have to admit I was never in the tranny business and do not really know the numbers of trannys letting the magic smoke out and dying, but I DO know that the life expectancy of a gas engine back in the 50's and 60's was not much past 100K without at least an in-frame overhaul which was often only good for another 24000 miles.

Now most cars top 200K without major ENGINE trouble, most trucks top 300K ditto. Lots of things involved, like better filters, better oil, fuel injection eliminates flooding which dilutes oil, especially in cars that never get fully warmed up.

In the paper these days, they are selling chevy small blocks in cars with 100K on them and calling them LOW MILES....and they are right....Joe