Is it worth the effort?

[Pa Pa Jack]

A friend has a 92 F-350 he is willing to give me to do some brush hog work on his land. It has a 460ci engine and a 5 speed manual tranny. It has dual rears and a flat bed. I get conflicting info when I run the VIN. He inherited the truck when his father passed away, and does not use it at all. It runs and I drove it around a little and it seems OK except it needs a little TLC in the interior.

My questions are, I assume it will tow my Mahindra 3016 and implements, but what max weight will it handle? Is the motor reliable? It has 86,000 on it. Any ideas about mileage? The GVWR on the sticker says 10,000. But the only gross weight for the truck itself that I can find says 5400. Does that mean I can only tow 4600? this stuff makes no sense to me.


Thanks in advance.

PS- It's a four door also.

 

[Highbeam]

What's the effort? What is the trade worth from you which is essentially the purchase price.

5 speed, dually, big gas engine, crew cab. 2wd or 4wd?, low miles, it's actually a pretty desirable truck.

10,000 GVWR means the truck can weigh 10,000lbs on the wheels. If it weighs 5400 then it can carry 4600 lbs of cargo. That is good.

It will tow a good bit also but I have no idea what your tractor weighs. If it is a 30 HP tractor then the truck will tow it easily.

That 460 is Ford's big block. It will drink fuel.

 

[Diamondpilot]

460 is a good motor but drinks gas. 8mpg is about it.

The 10,000# rating is the GVWR. That is the most it can have on its axles. It does not matter what it is, fat girls, gravel, hitch pin weight, ect. So the truck itself has to weigh more than that 5,400# empty weight. That was before the flat bed, just the cab/chassis weighs 5,400#. My F-350 weighs 7,600# empty and my Nissan Titan weighs 5,840# empty. Both short bed, extended cab 4x4 with the F-350 being a diesel. Only weigh to know for sure what it weighs is to take it to the scales like I do with all my trucks. My guess is this truck you are looking at weighs about 7,000# leaving 3,000# for payload, ect.

Now for the tow rating. My towing guide book says its rated to tow 10,000# and has a 4.10 gear in the rear. It will tow what you want.:thumbsup:

Chris

 

[mooseracing]

I would jump on that deal, but I am a sucker for a project. I have a 94 F350 but with a diesel, CC LB puts me at ~7600 on the scales. I can tell you that I have run the 8ft bed full of rocks or manure, plus my trailer with about 8K on it. Not speeding up hills loaded like that but it's cheap and reliable.

With the right hitch setup and trailer you should be able to pull any tractor under 15K lbs.

 

[tcartwri]

460's can use a stunning amount of fuel. They are not particularly strong either.

 

[HHR]

I have a 91 F350 with the 460 and an automatic. I got 11.6 mpg on a round trip to go get an IH 354 with a 2800 pound trailer.

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

I just talked to my friend, and the truck is TWD. I have agreed to clear his old pasture. It is about 18 acres, but it has been neglected for about 5 years. There is a lot of sweetgum growing and I am going to have to cut it as most of it is about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. I don't think my bush hog will handle it.

 

[clemsonfor]

460 is a good motor but drinks gas. 8mpg is about it.

The 10,000# rating is the GVWR. That is the most it can have on its axles. It does not matter what it is, fat girls, gravel, hitch pin weight, ect. So the truck itself has to weigh more than that 5,400# empty weight. That was before the flat bed, just the cab/chassis weighs 5,400#. My F-350 weighs 7,600# empty and my Nissan Titan weighs 5,840# empty. Both short bed, extended cab 4x4 with the F-350 being a diesel. Only weigh to know for sure what it weighs is to take it to the scales like I do with all my trucks. My guess is this truck you are looking at weighs about 7,000# leaving 3,000# for payload, ect.

Now for the tow rating. My towing guide book says its rated to tow 10,000# and has a 4.10 gear in the rear. It will tow what you want.:thumbsup:

Chris

This could have been a regular bed pickup converted to flat bed? Also your trucks that weight 7000+ lbs are new, my guess is that this is around the 20 yr old mark. Those as we have discussed were not as heavy.

 

[clemsonfor]

I just talked to my friend, and the truck is TWD. I have agreed to clear his old pasture. It is about 18 acres, but it has been neglected for about 5 years. There is a lot of sweetgum growing and I am going to have to cut it as most of it is about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. I don't think my bush hog will handle it.

Good decision, especially if you need a tow vehicle. I would too use a chainsaw on the big stuff. It cuts way down on the wear on your equiptment. Also i have driven over 2" stuff so i thought, that turned out to be 3-4"s after i look back!!! I have a light duty 4ft cutter, that big stuff really dents up my deck also! I cut all the stuff by hand thats to big, a job better left for the winter than these 100 degreee days. You can cut it all but the big stuff or drive around it and still do 90% of the job maybe and take the truck as payment under the agreement that you will come back when it cools off to do the manual labor.

 

[Beltzington]

Are the newer models EFI? My Dad owned a much older carbureted F250 with the 460 and it got absolutely horribly mileage pulling their RV, usually less than 5MPG. Not something I would want to use for x-county but for local hauls gas becomes a much smaller consideration in the total cost.

 

[SandburRanch]

A friend has a 92 F-350 he is willing to give me to do some brush hog work on his land. It has a 460ci engine and a 5 speed manual tranny. It has dual rears and a flat bed. I get conflicting info when I run the VIN. He inherited the truck when his father passed away, and does not use it at all. It runs and I drove it around a little and it seems OK except it needs a little TLC in the interior.

My questions are, I assume it will tow my Mahindra 3016 and implements, but what max weight will it handle? Is the motor reliable? It has 86,000 on it. Any ideas about mileage? The GVWR on the sticker says 10,000. But the only gross weight for the truck itself that I can find says 5400. Does that mean I can only tow 4600? this stuff makes no sense to me.


Thanks in advance.

PS- It's a four door also.

_______________________________________________________

The transmission sucks if it's the same as the 5 speed ford put in the 1988. Reverse ratio is about 3 times too fast.

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

these discussions seemed to raise more questions, in my mind, so I rode over and went over the truck again. It is a CC, LB 2wd. It is an injected engine. The wheelbase is 169 inches. The flatbed is 92 inches wide and 9 feet long. Wooden bed. Jeff says his dad bought it new in 1992 from a local dealer and never had a bit of trouble with it. He used it to haul their old MF around to hay fields they used to have. The interior is rough because his dad had an old bluetick that went everywhere with him.

We came to an agreement about the pasture he wants cleaned up, and he and his brother will cut the sweetgum down. All I have to do is bush hog everything else to the ground.

I not only have the truck here now, I get deer and turkey hunting rights to the pasture once I get them cleaned up. And I can plant a small one acre area as a food plot, as long as they get some venison.

I think I came out WAY ahead.

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[Wolfy]

Sounds like a real good deal for a nice truck.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Sounds like a real good deal for a nice truck.

It almost seems too good to be true...Are you sure there is not dynamite or something out in that pasture???

 

[Diamondpilot]

It almost seems too good to be true...Are you sure there is not dynamite or something out in that pasture???

He has not done the work yet. 18 acres is a lot to Bush Hog when its been neglected for years. I charge $60 a hour to run my tractor when doing jobs and its just a little 28HP unit and if BH I am only pulling a 5' unit. Bigger equipment means less time but also means more to operate it. Well see how he comes out in the end. Book value on that truck ranges from $1400 to $2800.


Using a 30 HP tractor like you have and 5' cutter is going to take you some time.
Chris

 

[timswi]

He has not done the work yet. 18 acres is a lot to Bush Hog when its been neglected for years. I charge $60 a hour to run my tractor when doing jobs and its just a little 28HP unit and if BH I am only pulling a 5' unit. Bigger equipment means less time but also means more to operate it. Well see how he comes out in the end. Book value on that truck ranges from $1400 to $2800.


Using a 30 HP tractor like you have and 5' cutter is going to take you some time.
Chris

The way I look at this is: if I don't have much going on, my free time is free dollar wise, in his case it'll be some gallons of diesel and he's getting a truck that he wants in return. As long as there isn't any equipment damage, sounds like a win-win to me. 18 acres is alot of ground though.

Barter is a good thing...Do it all the time. You get to decide what each side of the equation is worth to you and either party can say no...Nice.

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

The way I look at this is: if I don't have much going on, my free time is free dollar wise, in his case it'll be some gallons of diesel and he's getting a truck that he wants in return. As long as there isn't any equipment damage, sounds like a win-win to me. 18 acres is alot of ground though.

Barter is a good thing...Do it all the time. You get to decide what each side of the equation is worth to you and either party can say no...Nice.

That was my thinking. I am retired. Jeff is in no real hurry to get the pasture cleared. It's only about 4 miles from the house. I walked most of the pasture, and there doesn't seem to be anything that worries me. It's flat, no ditches, no stumps and should be about as easy a job as it could be under the circumstances. I am going to try to get started tomorrow morning. Once it gets up to 100*, I'll call it a day.

 

[johnk]

That was my thinking. I am retired. Jeff is in no real hurry to get the pasture cleared. It's only about 4 miles from the house. I walked most of the pasture, and there doesn't seem to be anything that worries me. It's flat, no ditches, no stumps and should be about as easy a job as it could be under the circumstances. I am going to try to get started tomorrow morning. Once it gets up to 100*, I'll call it a day.

I am retired also. Looks like something to to do for the day. Let me know how it pans out....

 

[timswi]

That was my thinking. I am retired. Jeff is in no real hurry to get the pasture cleared. It's only about 4 miles from the house. I walked most of the pasture, and there doesn't seem to be anything that worries me. It's flat, no ditches, no stumps and should be about as easy a job as it could be under the circumstances. I am going to try to get started tomorrow morning. Once it gets up to 100*, I'll call it a day.

By the way, that's a nice truck and the interior doesn't look as bad as you described. I've seen a lot worse on much newer stuff....A weekend of detailing and a little TLC and that'll be a sharp truck...Set of simulators maybe

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

By the way, that's a nice truck and the interior doesn't look as bad as you described. I've seen a lot worse on much newer stuff....A weekend of detailing and a little TLC and that'll be a sharp truck...Set of simulators maybe

I didn't show the back seat. It's really not even there. It was in such bad shape we threw it out. How are things in Beaver County. I was raised in the area and used to hunt around Raccoon State Park for many years.

Excuse my ignorance, but what are Simulators?