New Ford f450 opinions
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Joined: Sep 2004
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From: South Fork, Colorado
The F450 is a huge hit for Ford. You could buy a dodge 4500 but then you have a terrible cheap interior and have to pay to put a bed on it.
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Joined: Jul 2007
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From: Arlington, Tx
To each his own, I think this is the ticket for all the cutting horse people in our area and rv'ers as many of them want the nicest interior they can get and run around horribly overloaded in their 3/4 and 1 ton lariats/king ranches and (in the case of the cutting horse guys) rare laramies. With the cutting horse people it isn't just a horse competition but also a truck/trailer show, so the ford takes the cake as dodge just doesn't build a truck quite as nice as the ford. Only time will tell on the engine, but i hope for their sake that they learned from the 6.0.
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Joined: Oct 2007
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From: Houston, Texas
My dad has one of the brand new 450s. It is an extremely nice truck. I really like it alot. He has the 410 gears in which is a lot better then having those 488s. He put intake, exhaust, and a bully dog on it and for what it is, it goes and the mileage increased on it also! I just dont like how quiet those engines are i like the loud engines! It is pretty steap in price but it is a very nice truck! The biggest prob i always here of is the gas mileage.
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From: South Fork, Colorado
My mileage is so bad that even though this truck costs less than my 04.5 CTD by over 200 dollars a month, i am looking at trading. I went on an 1800 mile round trip and had to fill up 8 times!!!!! 13-15mpg highway is terrible.
I love everything about the truck. with an SCT this thing runs like mad. Everything about it i love but im a college student paying for everything i do. I can find an 06 or 07 Dodge or GMC that already has some nice 20" wheels or something and love the power and love the mileage.
I really wanted some aftermarket 20's on my truck with some 35" tires but the mileage is so bad already i want a 06 or 07 GMC classic, EFI live it or a CTD, put some money in the tranny and a box or two and run like mad and still get great mileage.
I love everything about the truck. with an SCT this thing runs like mad. Everything about it i love but im a college student paying for everything i do. I can find an 06 or 07 Dodge or GMC that already has some nice 20" wheels or something and love the power and love the mileage.
I really wanted some aftermarket 20's on my truck with some 35" tires but the mileage is so bad already i want a 06 or 07 GMC classic, EFI live it or a CTD, put some money in the tranny and a box or two and run like mad and still get great mileage.
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Joined: Jan 2004
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From: Oregon
the trans temp gauge never moves after it gets to full operating temp no matter what the conditions are.
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Joined: Jul 2007
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From: Arlington, Tx
Ford in notorious for disguising their "idiot" lights as "guages". They used to do that on their oil pressure "guage" It would read right in the middle if you had pressure and read 0 if you didn't, it didn't correlate to actual pressure at all.
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Joined: Sep 2004
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From: South Fork, Colorado
The trans temp gauge does not move at all. once its at full temp it stays there no matter what conditions.
Engine temp seems to work. Pulling a heavy trailer up a grade it will go up just a little bit. Boost gauge reads about 3psi high compared to what my SCT readout (reads from ECM) shows.
Fuel gauge is accurate. Just constantly drops and doesnt do it at a slow pace.
Engine temp seems to work. Pulling a heavy trailer up a grade it will go up just a little bit. Boost gauge reads about 3psi high compared to what my SCT readout (reads from ECM) shows.
Fuel gauge is accurate. Just constantly drops and doesnt do it at a slow pace.
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Joined: Apr 2003
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From: Cummins Technical Center, IN
I just don't see $60K in a truck 450 of lighter. If I was paying that much for a truck it better have a billet aluminum frame and carbon fiber body panels. tow 20K, get 20mpg, and weigh 5000 lbs empty.
Maybe I need to go into business making REAL trucks
Maybe I need to go into business making REAL trucks
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From: Texas
Johnny5.9, No offense taken. Its just that sometimes people tend to forget that there are other ways of living. I do get the question put to me every so often of why do I 'need' are truck that big. Well I need it to move my home, and it does happen to be a BIG home and there are some bigger than mine.
These bigger pickups are far better built to handle these bigger barns on wheels better than a one ton. Which would one rather see coming at you or beside you, a 40ft 20,000lb home on the back of a 3/4 ton barely holding the road with a very experienced driver, or a so-so driver driving a truck that can handle that load with ease.
A Kia in some peoples hands is too big, too much vehicle to drive, and yes your right about that. But most of the 'younger than me' generation dont know how to drive in the first place. They arent taught how to drive, only aim. The newer vehicles out there drive themselves to where ever you aim it. Give them a 67 Chevy now and it will be crashed inside of 15 minutes because they didnt have antilock brakes, electronic traction control and automated steering back then. Couple that with the need to have RVs that are larger and better suited for full time living and that means larger private trucks to move them that does have all of the safety controls of the new cars. That means the average driver can do at least as well as the most experienced OTR driver and his rig pulling his load. The rest, well,,,,,,,,,,,,,, they do have to know WHEN to turn that corner pulling that RV.
It takes all kinds, I have seen more bone head car drivers than RVers, its just that we tend to ignore the car drivers because the big rig boners stand out more. But when you add up all the incidents, its the common car driver that takes the cake. Big rigs and bikes next and RVers are dead last.
Then there are some that just like a BIG pickup just for the novelty of it. Heck, if I had that kind of green to throw around, why stop at a H1 Hummer. How about a Navistar CXT instead? Those that by those are rarely seen in a repair shop, even the 3/4 and 1 tons are not big customers of collision repair shops. Its not that the people that own them are better drivers, they are just usually more aware of whats around them. After all, the bigger pickups do cost more than a Kia and there are far more less qualified drivers to drive that Kia.
These bigger pickups are far better built to handle these bigger barns on wheels better than a one ton. Which would one rather see coming at you or beside you, a 40ft 20,000lb home on the back of a 3/4 ton barely holding the road with a very experienced driver, or a so-so driver driving a truck that can handle that load with ease.
A Kia in some peoples hands is too big, too much vehicle to drive, and yes your right about that. But most of the 'younger than me' generation dont know how to drive in the first place. They arent taught how to drive, only aim. The newer vehicles out there drive themselves to where ever you aim it. Give them a 67 Chevy now and it will be crashed inside of 15 minutes because they didnt have antilock brakes, electronic traction control and automated steering back then. Couple that with the need to have RVs that are larger and better suited for full time living and that means larger private trucks to move them that does have all of the safety controls of the new cars. That means the average driver can do at least as well as the most experienced OTR driver and his rig pulling his load. The rest, well,,,,,,,,,,,,,, they do have to know WHEN to turn that corner pulling that RV.
It takes all kinds, I have seen more bone head car drivers than RVers, its just that we tend to ignore the car drivers because the big rig boners stand out more. But when you add up all the incidents, its the common car driver that takes the cake. Big rigs and bikes next and RVers are dead last.
Then there are some that just like a BIG pickup just for the novelty of it. Heck, if I had that kind of green to throw around, why stop at a H1 Hummer. How about a Navistar CXT instead? Those that by those are rarely seen in a repair shop, even the 3/4 and 1 tons are not big customers of collision repair shops. Its not that the people that own them are better drivers, they are just usually more aware of whats around them. After all, the bigger pickups do cost more than a Kia and there are far more less qualified drivers to drive that Kia.
*steps off of soapbox*
I like the f450 looks, and feel. But seriously, that truck is (at my current job) 5 years of yearly income for me. Now obviously it wouldn't work for me, because I don't need all that, but I agree about the pricing. Thats worse than having a engine you don't know about. Above all don't the new SuperDuty's get somewhere around 12-14mpg? Why would you buy something that gets the mileage of a gasser? I average 13-16 on my 5.9 gasser!
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Joined: Jan 2007
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From: Texas
There is a stock boost and trans temp gauge. the trans temp gauge never moves after it gets to full operating temp no matter what the conditions are. it definitely isnt a gauge i would follow.
The F450 is a huge hit for Ford. You could buy a dodge 4500 but then you have a terrible cheap interior and have to pay to put a bed on it.
The F450 is a huge hit for Ford. You could buy a dodge 4500 but then you have a terrible cheap interior and have to pay to put a bed on it.
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 939
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From: South Fork, Colorado
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Joined: Apr 2003
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From: Cummins Technical Center, IN
Funny thing is even at $60k+ they have NO problem selling them. I have a friend that's a Ford salesman. The dealer he works at had a 450 LOADED with every option except the King Ranch, it was listed at $65k and they had 2 people waiting in line for it sight unseen. They've even traded GT500 mustangs (which were suppose to be rare) just to get more trucks. He said that people walk in, put $15k down and still leave with a payment over $1k a month. Horse people are the easiest, I bet if you threw in a free cowboy hat they'd pay $75k for a truck bigger than their neighbors. $65k in a truck, $50k+ in a trailer all to transport a horse that's worth about $10 to the average non-horse person.
1) Judgment of buyer
2) Judgment of lender
JMO
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Well the judgement of the buyer is aparent. 
However the lender looks at it from another angle. It's easier to roll negative equity over (which most of these people have huge amounts of) to a high priced vehicle rather than a cheap one. One guy was $15k in the hole on a vehicle he was trading in (aparently he's not very good with money and has done this more than once). The bank won't let you add $15k on a $20k dollar truck loan, but it doesn't look as bad on a $50k dollar truck. These people dig their own holes, the dealer just hands them the shovel. (usually with a shiny paint job)
However the lender looks at it from another angle. It's easier to roll negative equity over (which most of these people have huge amounts of) to a high priced vehicle rather than a cheap one. One guy was $15k in the hole on a vehicle he was trading in (aparently he's not very good with money and has done this more than once). The bank won't let you add $15k on a $20k dollar truck loan, but it doesn't look as bad on a $50k dollar truck. These people dig their own holes, the dealer just hands them the shovel. (usually with a shiny paint job)
