I am finally ready to buy my first CTD! Not my first diesel( First was an IDI Ford ). I was just wondering if it worth it right now. Diesel is soooo expensive right now. I don't pull as much as some guys do but I do pull a 4wd ditch witch and Case skidsteer in the summer on occasion. Winter I might buy a plow. Other than that is all thw work I would do. I would like to do some pulls or drags in the summer, too. My main concer is I am in College and i drive 100 miles one way and an occasional road trip at around another 100 miles or so. At school I have no tools and not a whole lot of money to fix the truck if it breaks. A big concer is i have no where to plug in the truck in the winter. The parking lots do not have plug-ins. I want to get a first gen because they are easy to work on my self to save money and they look cool. Should I be worried about reliability and road manners. I am looking at a 350 4wd dually. It is a bit more truck that I need but It is nice and in my price range. Any suggestions or comments?

 

We rarely have to plug our trucks in. Sometimes the tractors require it, but usually with the trucks doing 2 cycles of the grid heaters is enough.

 

Plugging up won't be issue in cummins like with the navistar. I've started mine down to zero with no problems. The ford PSD I have an extension cord in the truck at all times. As far as tools go. I would carry a basic socket and wrench set. I also carry a special fastener set the has torx, metric and standard allens and screw driver ends all in socket drives(extremely handy). My truck has gone down a few times with electric shorts but never anything else. As far as road manners any CTD can have issues there. They pretty much ride rough, mine wanders a bit(tie rods need done). The 4x4s have a trackbar that needs replaced quite often.

 

1st gen trucks do not have a trackbar, that is the 2nd gen 4x4s.

With the price of diesel it is a hard decision right now. May just be a wait and see kind of deal. Hopefully it will follow suit with gas wich has been dropping like crazy here lately, now diesel is 3.49 and gas is 2.25... BIG price diff so my truck is parked as much as possible.

 

To be honest I don't think a CTD is right for you at this point in your life. For commuting to college in the winter a small economical car would be better. If you REALLY want a CTD, then I would suggest buying a cheaper CTD for playing/towing and a reliable econo box for daily driving.

3 years when I bought my truck it was cheaper to drive than my VW golf(gas). Now it costs about twice what my V6 Sunbird costs to run.

 

clay I was thinking the same thing.

My wifes sunfire was a great car no problems had it for almost 6 years 176k and no problems, parts were extremely cheap I only bought 4-5. motor mount, a/c pump, 3 dimmer switches.

If you on a fixed income a $650 set of tires will kill you. Its much cheaper to maintain a small car(even domestic) than one of these monsters.


As for the track bar I'm ignorant. Maybe its the borgenson shaft I was thinking about. Who knows?

 

I can afford many of the repairs. Insurance will kill me with 2 vehicles, so i have to stick to one vehicle. I have been driving economical cars and trucks for a while, tired of them. I am ready to finally have a vehilcle I can drive for a long time. I have had 11 vehicles in the past 5 years and its kind of annoying. A CTD will last a long time and give me my much needed truck fix while being a good work truck. Could I use the high price of diesel to lower the price of the truck? I know right now no one wants a big truck like this 1 ton. Tires don't bother me that much. My neighbor is a goodyear dealer and gives us good prices on tires. By the way the entire front end of this truck is repared and gone through, breaks, suspension and what not.

 

I hear you on the economical vehicle complaint. I went from a reg cab nissan(I put 100k on it) to my dodge. The nissan would kill my kidneys on long trips(10hrs+), one time I was sore for two weeks. It sure was nice at the gas pump though.