As some of you know from my thread in family life, we are moving to an almost 8 acre farm May 1.
We're looking at farm trucks right now and with what we have for our budget after selling the Mustang for a truck, we have roughly 2000 to spend. We went and looked at a few today and have 2 favorites that we're looking at right now. I need some honest opinions and which one would be a better value and better equipped for the farm.
The 1st contender is for a 1986 Chevy Silverado 4X4. it has a gooseneck and regular trailer hitches. Owner isn't sure if the light plug in works, but it does have a back up under the bumper. It's a v8 gas engine that I know how to work on myself with a working radio, air and heat. Automatic drive with a good solid body and brand new tires. Needs a new muffler and new power window drives for both windows. Interior is good, nothing fancy but clean and no major damage to the outside body. Minor rust in the right side of the truckbed but nothing that will harm loading and unloading. And it has a gunrack.
(Sorry, just had to!) Love the way the engine sounds when cranked but haven't had a test drive yet since it has no tag. Will pass inspection no problem. Lots of work has gone into this truck, new battery, tires, air vac system.
2nd contender is a Ford F 350 Dually Custom with extended cab and a deisel motor. Has both the gooseneck and trailer hitch with working light plug in. Interior is good, but doesn't have a working radio and the mpg gage is really wobbly in exactly how fast you are actually going. The body is in good shape with a couple of dings nothing serious to worry about. It has brand new tires on the back 4 and good tread on the front 2. It has two diesel tanks and they are in good shape with an automatic switch to transfer to the filled tank when one is getting low. It also has a power breaking system for when a trailer is hooked up to the truck to break the trailer automatically.
The downsides are that in the brief test drive I took was that the truck was huge and I wasn't confident with it and was a bit intimidated at the scale of it. That and driving a new truck at night didn't help that and it was a little scary. It's a diesel and I'm familar with them, this one had a funny, hum, hum, hum over 25 mph. The power steering was extremely loose also and it felt weird like the truck was wobbling side to side over 25. I drove it and came back a little unsettled over all.
When mentioned, the owner who is a mechanic, said that he would fix that and make sure that it wasn't a problem before the sale. He says that it's out of line and the steering isn't helping which is causing the hum because the wheel hubs are rubbing when it's running at normal speed.I'm not so sure about that. I know how tires rubbing feels and the wobbling is one thing, the hum is a different issue. We are still having an independant mechanic come and look it over before we make an offer.
So after all that, and I'm trying to be impartial and include both faults and plusses from each side, which would you think for a farm truck would be the better one both in value and ability and why you think that. I'm really conflicted beacuse I like fast, tough and reliable but want something the whole family can pile into when we go show cattle, etc too.
Thanks.
The 1st contender is for a 1986 Chevy Silverado 4X4. it has a gooseneck and regular trailer hitches. Owner isn't sure if the light plug in works, but it does have a back up under the bumper. It's a v8 gas engine that I know how to work on myself with a working radio, air and heat. Automatic drive with a good solid body and brand new tires. Needs a new muffler and new power window drives for both windows. Interior is good, nothing fancy but clean and no major damage to the outside body. Minor rust in the right side of the truckbed but nothing that will harm loading and unloading. And it has a gunrack.
2nd contender is a Ford F 350 Dually Custom with extended cab and a deisel motor. Has both the gooseneck and trailer hitch with working light plug in. Interior is good, but doesn't have a working radio and the mpg gage is really wobbly in exactly how fast you are actually going. The body is in good shape with a couple of dings nothing serious to worry about. It has brand new tires on the back 4 and good tread on the front 2. It has two diesel tanks and they are in good shape with an automatic switch to transfer to the filled tank when one is getting low. It also has a power breaking system for when a trailer is hooked up to the truck to break the trailer automatically.
The downsides are that in the brief test drive I took was that the truck was huge and I wasn't confident with it and was a bit intimidated at the scale of it. That and driving a new truck at night didn't help that and it was a little scary. It's a diesel and I'm familar with them, this one had a funny, hum, hum, hum over 25 mph. The power steering was extremely loose also and it felt weird like the truck was wobbling side to side over 25. I drove it and came back a little unsettled over all.
When mentioned, the owner who is a mechanic, said that he would fix that and make sure that it wasn't a problem before the sale. He says that it's out of line and the steering isn't helping which is causing the hum because the wheel hubs are rubbing when it's running at normal speed.I'm not so sure about that. I know how tires rubbing feels and the wobbling is one thing, the hum is a different issue. We are still having an independant mechanic come and look it over before we make an offer.
So after all that, and I'm trying to be impartial and include both faults and plusses from each side, which would you think for a farm truck would be the better one both in value and ability and why you think that. I'm really conflicted beacuse I like fast, tough and reliable but want something the whole family can pile into when we go show cattle, etc too.
Thanks.
