Hello. I am Flatbed Ed. New member. I drive a 2008 Ford F-550 w/16-ft. flatbed. It has the new 6.4 diesel. I am a member of the Ford diesel website also. I am known there as Flatbed Ed also. I visited your site to see how the new 6.7 motor is doing. There is some talk on the Ford forum that it is not doing so good. So I joined to learn more about it. I did not join to trash Dodge or Cummins. In fact I used to have a 1990 Dodge diesel,3/4 ton back in the day. I was one of the first people to buy a Dodge diesel.
I remember everyone wanted me to open the hood so they could see it.
The truck served me well. The 5.9 was a solid motor. Anyway,let me know if you have any questions about the new Ford diesel and I will do my best to answer them. I am very satisfied with my truck but I want to see those new Dodges(4500/5500) hit the street in Houston. They sound good on paper.
I would like to know the MPG on the 5500 with a long wheelbase/auto/4.88 gears/and steel flatbed to compare to mine.
Have a blessed day.

 

I think i can speak for most of the 6.7 guys...

a few... very irritating glitches in the first few months of production that has been solved with the latest & greatest software updates... or in my case, software & a new turbo

I'm very satisfied with my purcahse

 

definitely love my truck. havent had any problems yet and am getting 17mpg to boot and well away from being broken in. Also i love the new fords, my buddy has an 08 and its a good truck, but the 8mpg he is getting kept me away (not trying to bash). Also the scare of taking the cab off for motor work. Anyways other then that i think the fords are great. But i wouldnt buy a 6.0 for nothing. My family has had quite a few and have yet to have a good one.

ANYWAYS, welcome to the site. Lets see some pics.

 

I have had minor problems with mine also, but was fixed with the latest flashes. i have 9600 miles on mine and was in the shop twice around 2500 from the new flashes and thats it. Overall very happy with the 6.7 and the gas milage is not that bad either. Once its fully broken in I expect it to go up. I have also had a 6.0 and was traded with less than 8000 on it. How does your 6.4 pull and how much weight are you pulling?

 

My buddy that has an 08, he upgraded from a 06 F350 SRW to the 08. He says he really cant tell a difference btwn the two when pulling and i have to agree. But he also has 35s on the truck, they were on the 06 as well. So we are comparing apples to apples, same exact wheels and tires of the 06.

 

I don't really pull anything with it. I have a 16-ft. flatbed and haul stuff.
I am a hot shot driver in Houston and load stuff(pipe,OWDT,totes,ect.) on the bed. I have hauled up to 11,000 on the bed so far. It can handle more than that. The specs say it can tow 24,000. I can say that it accelerates way better than my old 99 F-450.
By the way,I put 677,000 miles on the 99 before the injectors started to go bad. That's when I traded it in. I miss that truck. It served me well.
When I am empty the 6.4 has a brief "bog" from a standing start,then snaps you back in the seat.
You better hold on to the wheel with both hands at that point. My truck is stock,I never modified the motors on any of my vehicles. Back to towing.
The 6.4 has a "tow mode" button that you push to engage during towing.
This allows the truck to shift the gears according to the load on the vehicle.
And it really slows the truck down with a heavy load,so much so that you can actually take your foot off the brake and let the tranny work to stop the truck. I like this feature a lot. My 99 had this also but did not slow the truck down at all. You don't need an exhaust brake for the 6.4
See ya...........

 

Since you wanted to pick on Dodge somewhat I will pick just a little bit on Ford.

At least we won't need a new longblock in 46,000 miles like my friends truck. I saw it go boom myself!

 

BTW, Nobody minds if you drive a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy on here. At least it is a diesel. Just don't act like a poot head. Picking on another person's vehicle can and will bring you bad carma. That's what happened to my friends Ford. He picked and picked on me asking if he needed to bring a tow strap to tow me up the hills and he ended up on the side of the road. Sure didn't wish it on him by no means, it was not fun at all.

 

Don't be a Wussy........... All I said was it does not need an exhaust brake.
You need some medication and anger management classes.

 

Welcome Ed!

BTW. It was the way you said it, "You don't need an exhaust brake for the 6.4". The exhaust brake is a great thing and on the ford sites they all say that its cool that dodge has one from the factory and at no charge.

One other thing if you don't mind my asking, how much did you pay for your F-450? (The ford dealer here wants $68,000. for a king ranch )

 

Thanks for the welcome Dodge Man. My new truck is a F-550,my old one was a F-450. The 08 550 cost me 40k plus 5k for the flatbed. BTW,my 1999 F-450 cost me 29k back in 1999. Big price increase I think. BTW,I also think the Ford 6.0 motor stinks....... See ya........

 

Pics on the way......need to wash truck soon.

 

> I visited your site to see how the new 6.7 motor is doing.

I bought my 3500 6.7 Chassis Cab in March and have 71,533 miles
on it now.
About half of those miles are towing various size and weight
travel trailers and 5th wheels, in all terrains, coast to coast.

I have had no problems at all with the 6.7s performance and no mechanical
issues either. I did have a glitch in he left turn signal that a reflash
solved.

I'm sure you have seen the "New Poll" posted in this forum. If not take
a look at the numbers there and,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I'm not a diesel expert by any means but I wanted a Cummins motor,,, It just happens to have a Dodge wrapped around it.
I also wanted a new 07 Chassis Cab and it just happened to come with the 6.7.

I'd do it all over again if I had to.

 

hello flatbed ed, I have a question, you seem to be up on the 6.4, and i borrow one that was bought in the begining of summer. They dont use it vry much, in fact, i think i put more miles on it than them. (Which isnt many) Truck has about 9k on it and is mainly used for hauling smaller parts of reconditioned underground mining equipment. I use it for pretty much the same thing when I have break downs untill our 5500 comes in. Anyway, I must say it is a stout truck. I am impressed. My question is, there hesitating taking back to the dealer for the same "stumble" that your experiencing along with a noticable miss at idle and at around 1500rpm. The fuel consumption is also an issue. It really does swallow the fuel. When they called to schedule a day to take it in, the service guy told them they will check it out and apply a "update" to it. He said the update should help with all 3 of these issues. Do you know about this update, what is it and will it work. Truck is a 08 550 flat bed (ed) 4.10 auto. Also im not noticing the brakeing power your experienceing, is there a button you push or is it the 4.10 opposed to the 4.88 that help slow it down. Thanks

 

Hi. Well the update you are refering to is a reflash for the computer. It will help with the regen operation but not the stumble. Most likely it stumbles because when you stomp on the accelerator pedal,the turbo vanes open up wide open(they are adjustable) and this may cause the stumble some how.
I figure it is getting either too much fuel or too much air. Hard to know for sure as these new diesels are very complicated with all the sensors and what not. As far as the tow/haul mode and braking,yes there is a button you push to activate it and i bet it is more effective with a 4.88 gear(like mine) than a 4.10 or a 4.30. The TorqShift tranny with tow-haul mode changes shift points under acceleration, keeping the truck at a higher rpm and further up in the power range. Tow-haul also prevents the transmission from upshifting when the vehicle crests a hill, and it provides downhill braking that allows the transmission to downshift, letting engine-compression braking slow the vehicle and maintain a steady speed while going downhill.
I only use this feature when I load the truck up with 10,000 lbs. or more as the truck is capable to stop very well with lesser loads. It also has a built in brake controller(no need to add one on later). The stumble can be mitigated if you only punch it 3/4 of the way and ease into it. But still I want Ford to find a fix for this one day. Hope this helps. See ya