thesheriff

Hello all, the time has come for me. I have two little ones and the standard cab is not cutting anymore. I absolutely love my truck and don't want to get rid of it. But, it is completely pointless for the family. My wife bought this truck new in 98 and this thing has been the best truck I have ever owned. What do you think I should do? What would be the best year to buy with a cab that can handle the whole family. I am honestly thinking about going to a gasser. I really appreciate the advice as I am at a lost what to do.

patdaly

Buy a Chevy Impala for the family and keep the truck?

Seriously, unless you just can't have 2 vehicles, any Truck is useless as a family vehicle, and a family vehicle is useless for hauling.

There are a ton of used full sized family sedans out there at a very reasonable price.

thesheriff

Unfortunately, I already have a sedan for the family. We go to the mountains quite often and end up taking two vehicles. I am looking more toward a quad cab/mega cab.

patdaly

You are in Cali, so that rules out a late model Furd stupid duty crew with a 12 valve swap....... I would probably look at either a 2003 or 2006 Dodge crew unless you can live with the impossibly short Mega bed. Hate to say it, but a Super Duty 7.3 Crew is a really nice truck.......

CoastalDav

The 2003 Dodge Quad Cab, Not Crew Cab, is a really good reliable truck. They
are common rail. That year with the low hp compared to todays trucks and torque around 555 ftlbs got the best fuel mileage of the common rails. 3:73 gears are good. If your going to tow alot 4:10's do nicely.

I have a friend on the forum that has a 2003 and pulls a 37ft 16000 lbs Fifth Wheel that gets 12 towing. His has a NV5600 6 sp manual tranny. His DTR handle is FiverBob. If you sent him a PM and ask some questions, I'm sure
he'll give some honest answers.

But, I guess you need to find the truck first. Try the Truck Trader.

I had a 2000 Dodge, put 203,000 miles on it before I sold it to a friend. That was a good Truck. The truck before that was a 12V 96 Dodge. It parked in my Sons driveway with 305,000 on it.

The quad cab will be good untill the kids get older. Got to go to 2010 before you can get a real Crew Cab from Dodge. Never have understood why they waited so long to produce one. I'll bet they lost a 100 million or more.

As stated the 03 Ford CC was the last year with the 7.3 which was the best they ever had not including the ceramic block 6.7 that is currently being sold.
So far it seems to be doing good.

Dave

gorms

I was sort of in the same boat, but we have a 98 quad cab (4 door). Which right now it works with one little one, and we go camping several times a year. But we really wanted a bit of a bigger cab, so we started looking at 03-05 trucks with the full 4 doors, and the interior was much larger in the rear and good for anything less than 6' tall passengers. We were real close to buying an 03, but previous owner had done some performance mods, hacked wiring to an mp8 tuner, and the shift kit needed some adjusting as it wouldn't hold 1st gear and the dealer wouldn't budge on the price so we walked away.

Also a nice truck to consider is 07 Duramax, large interior and a pretty good powertrain/no DPF etc. Seem to run a bit cheaper around here than fords/dodges too.

If you aren't planning on towing anything though by all means consider a 1/2 ton! The newer ones ride nice and get decent mileage, and no ridiculous prices on injectors/pumps/etc.

But with all that said we held on to the 98! Cheaper to keep her...

joem

Same boat here in reverse, I Lost my sweet 06' dirtymax in 2009 in order to keep the house, Bought a friends beat up 1995 dodge CTD standard cab for $2K 2 years back and I love the turning radios or the standard cab so much im keepin this truck! When we take the family the wife drives her civic and that also gives up a second car to check things out in.

thesheriff

I thought about going to a Ford or Chevy. We really don't tow like we used to so a 1/2 ton could be an option. I just worry about whether or not in the future a good towing vehicle will be needed. I have a long bed now and going to a megacab would probably not work. Sometimes we put the quads in the back or tow a flat bed. I am almost ready to just keep what I have and drive two vehicles. It is always scares me to buy someone else's rig. At least right now I know what I have. We tried buying a big suv for towing. It ended up instead making me want to put a gas pump in the front yard. I couldn't take I anymore and got rid of it. Decisions....

macattack_ga

The ford super duty I has was really nice for hauling people. 7.3L

sootnsmoke

The 4 door 7.3s are nice cab wise for lots of people. I had a 2000 F350 7.3. Never did like working on that big 7.3 V8 under there. The fuel routing, turbo position, room to work and access was a nightmare compared to 12v's.
Always a give and take though and you can't have it all.

thesheriff

I really appreciate all the good input. I started putting my feelers out and what a mixed bag. Either high mileage and overpriced. Or, just
flat overpriced. I am thinking of holding onto it until the kids get a little older. I think driving two vehicles will have to do for now. Unfortunately, the 7.3 Fords are tough to get a hand on. I can get a 6.0 all day for a reasonable price. You all know the saying "you get what you paid for". I would rather ride a bike haha.

sootnsmoke

I found that trying to find a 94-98 12 valve Cummins extra cab truck in great condition was way harder to find than a 99-03 7.3 Ford crew cab. In the Seattle area there were always 2 to 3 times more Ford's for sale at more reasonable prices. It actually took me a while to sell my 7.3 F350 as so many were available for sale within 30 miles of me.

joem

I almost got my hands on a sweet strait rust free '00 F250 x cab 4x4 gasser at a salvege yard that was clunked just like this one, but the law wouldnt allow resale of the clunked vin
would have been great to drop my 12V into! And they only wanted $1,000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4VTS...eature=related

sootnsmoke

Video was hard to watch. Something about trashing a running engine like that

joem

oh i know, so wastefull it makes me sick. there are a couple chev 6.5's on youtube too