So my dad is looking for a new Farm Truck, to replace his '95 F350 dually Crew Cab with a 460 in it.

He has allways had Gas trucks and is planning on buying another gasser, he doesn't generally put a lot of miles on it and a lot of short trips. (IE driving from the home farm to the feedlot about 4 miles away, twice a day)

New or used hasn't been decided yet. I know he got a price on an '09 Chevy with a 6.0 in it.

How are the Hemi Powered 2500's?

WHat kind of mileage are they giving and how are they standing up?

 

I had a Hemi 2500 I liked the truck but the engine and auto are mismatched. It would get into OD quick and it would seem to lug before it would shift down and OD off was too low to run past 45 mph. I had 4.10 gears also. For what he is doing I think it would be fine though.

 

I hear the Hemi with the 6 spd manual is a great combination.

MikeyB

 

My wife has an 08 mega, and I really like it. Plenty of power. I did an intake and exhaust, it woke it up pretty good. Prices are not bad, either.

That being said, I have not shopped around with the other brands.

 

I might not be popular with my suggestions, but I calls em like I sees em. At my previous place of employment, some of the guys ran Chevy 2500's with the 6 liter gas. Good power and decent fuel economy, best fuel economy of the big 3. The ford 5.4 is a tough motor, I should know I tried to break them and could not. Hard on fuel, but tough. The hemi got the worst fuel economy of all of them (except for the Nissan Titan, it got horrible fuel economy and the rear ends and tranny's were weak, but sounded WONDERFUL at 6500 rpm, just like a nascar motor), but she has lots of power. If I had to choose a 2500 gas truck it would be the chev with the 6 liter gas.

 

Good to know, got a quote on an '09 2500 Chevy with they 6.0 yesterday.

One thing I found interesting is that the Chev had a Diff Lock on it apparently?

 

I only have experience with the chevy 6.0, my brother had a crewcab2500 4x4 auto for several years. It seemed to have great power. If I remember right though the fuel economy seemed rather low, but then again I was always comparing it to the fuel economy in my cummins. All in all I would say that chevy 6.0 is a decent gasser engine. I have several friends hemi's in their dodges but have yet to get to drive one or inquire about them,

 

They were probably talking about GM's Gov-loc rear differential. It normally functions like a limited slip but if it detects a differential slip between the two sides of about 100 rpm or more it will lock solid.

Too much power has been known to bust the little parts that lock it together. That being said I've never known anyone who broke one and I've known some pretty wild people who had one in their truck.

It'll be a good truck for him. I know two guys with a 6 liter in a 2500. Both pull goosenecks with them and they've always done fine. One is rough on vehicles too!

I've got a 2000 Silverado 1500 with the Gov-loc and a 5.3, its nearly got 85k on it and everything works good.

 

All 3 are good so he'll have to decide from what he does with the truck.

I had a Hemi in my 1500 and pulled all the time with it and i'd have to say an 04 6.0 chevy 2500 I borrowed one time and pulled a trailer with a truck on it from Wisconsin pulled much better. The power came in better without having to rev it up as much it seemed.


For durability I'd get an F250 with a 5.4 or V10 (which is just a 5.4 with 2 extra cylinders i believe). I've been in so many crown vic cabs with 300 or 400K hard miles and they've always said the engines are original(I always ask), they use a 4.6 modular motor like the 5.4. I had a motorcycle delivered by a company from Michigan and the guy had an E350 Box Van 5.4L loaded down with bikes and pianos plus a trailer load... The van had 450K miles on the original engine. The only problem he said he had was the A/C would cut off in the hills or if it was too overloaded.


If I was your dad I'd get an F250/350 with a V10. He won't have to worry about gas mileage he doesn't drive much and they seem to last as long and pull almost as good as a diesel and so much cheaper.

 

My boss has a QC 2500 with the Hemi, automatic, 3.53? gears.
runs good, cruises good. gets 18ish average.

 

I drive a 07 2500 6.0 Chevy at work pulling about 4500# of lawn equipment. The power is ok i guess. its nothing like our trucks but it gets the job done. My old rust bucket would out pull it without a problem. I hate the fact that it down shifts and revs to 5grand on every hill. It has not had any break downs but it only has 28,000 miles. But i do suspect a wheel bearing is going it is starting to develop a howl in the front end. the boss will wait untill if falls apart to fix it though

 

Probably the Chevy would be the one I would like th most - except one thing - very light-duty sheet metal. Just not all that durable of a body on them these days?

Guess I gotta ask - why would you want a brand-new truck for a farm truck? If I were not going to put all that many miles on it, I would buy and older ('04 - 06) gas or even diesel unit with some miles on it and save the depreciation. Guess i just don't have that kind of money or need.

 

Yep I hear you, the original plan was for a used truck but since the folks are empty nesters and presently have 3 vehicles, 2 Buick Allure's and the 95 F250 crew Cab dually, automatic with a 460 that they will be replacing. They are thinking of trading off one of the Allure's and selling the F350 privately and just running with one car and one truck.

Dad will be 60 next year and has never had a new truck (but likely dozens of new cars) Mom likes the Onstar and what not and dad isn't really into fixing his own stuff anymore so they like having warranty.

I'd buy a used truck for farm purposes too, but I don't argue with them any more, I just smile and nod and tell them to do whatever makes them happy.

I have a sneaking suspicion it will be a new Chev 2500, quad cab 4x4 with the 6.0 in their new future.

 

Sounds pretty good to me. He probably could get a really good deal right about now since the Cash for Clunckers didn't help truck out much. In our case my family bought pickups new (but the most base-line 2wd 4-cyl mini-trucks such as a Mazda) and the cars used. Mostly older Buicks in our family's case.

I of course had to deviate this trend, buying a Saab 900 turbo (used) as my first car for college - and that little $2600 runabout served well. My parent's didn't mind at all, but they did wince once or twice with the first (95_12V 4wd) Dodge Cummins I brought home. Quite a change of pace for our family, overall.