School me on Ford Super Duty

[charlieaarons]

I highly recommend the manual transmissions, from the 5spd S5-42 to the 6spd S6-650. All have PTO openings. All built by ZF. If you run into notchy shifting Red Line synthetic MTL will fix it. They're all heavy duty transmissions that are used on MUCH bigger trucks in Europe. That's because they use them with motors with 400 ft-lb in 16,500 lb GVW trucks and 650-700 ft-lb (capability of the 6spd) in trucks up to 40,000 lb GVW.

Charlie

 

[Carlyle]

Scott I looked around last year with a budget in mind. Drove a bunch of trucks and decided on a 6.0 for the mileage, and then realized the 05's had the coil springs up front which is a huge difference (to me) especially if you'll be on rough roads or off road. The other advantage already posted is the turning radius. I have the crew cab long bed and can pull a Uie (I just made up that spelling) with just 3 lanes. Sounds funny when you also drive a Toyota, but it makes the truck manageable in town, at the gas pump, on the trail, etc. Oh and if your family gets bigger later on you can tow a 12k lb trailer.

Anyway, you're welcome to come out to E Mesa and drive it around for comparison purposes.

edit: its a 2005 F350 6.0 4x4 crew cab longbed with 108k

Another huge advantage is that you can operate your 6.0 in Mexico and further south on the sulfer diesel that would destroy a 6.4.

 

[ujoint]

I've always heard that the 7.3's get better mileage than the 6.0's. That's just my independent study with data from my customers.....

 

[toy_tek]

I've never owned a 7.3, but my 6.0 averages 18mpg unloaded around town and 11mpg fully loaded with 10k trailer.

I will say the 7.3's at work are seemingly bulletproof - our guys can destroy just about any type of equipment but those engines have done very well. There is no way I could get semi-accurate mpg readings for those trucks, they're never in a 'typical' situation.

 

[jdholder]

I think the 6 liters get better fuel mileage, but that the 7.3s are almost indestructible.