What's the Best Farm Truck to Haul my Tractor and Cattle with?

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I finally bought a bigger truck, idk how long it's been now, been window shopping for awhile.

1990 (Ugly) F350, 5.8 v8 with 165k, 5 speed, duel exhaust, new tires, 2wd, brake controller with a 7 pin round.

Gave $950 for it, I didn't have a second driver so I towed my F150 back (54 miles)

It needs some love but will work for my needs, now I have a truck that I would trust towing my tractor.

 

[Farmer495]

Nice, that should work!

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Nice, that should work!

I left out the part where it didn't make it the whole trip, she died 1/4 mile from my house and had to tow it the rest of the way with the tractor.

55 mile trip and it died at 54 3/4 lol

I didn't have time to even play with it, had to head to work, it was odd, it was driving and then the engine was off and the rig was coasting. I didn't hear it sputter or anything, I will play with it in the morning.

 

[aczlan]

I left out the part where it didn't make it the whole trip, she died 1/4 mile from my house and had to tow it the rest of the way with the tractor.

55 mile trip and it died at 54 3/4 lol

I didn't have time to even play with it, had to head to work, it was odd, it was driving and then the engine was off and the rig was coasting. I didn't hear it sputter or anything, I will play with it in the morning.

Out of fuel and a bad fuel gauge (or crud plugging the fuel filter/pickup? Fuel shutoff solenoid gone bad?

Aaron Z

 

[paulfun9]

I left out the part where it didn't make it the whole trip, she died 1/4 mile from my house and had to tow it the rest of the way with the tractor.

55 mile trip and it died at 54 3/4 lol

I didn't have time to even play with it, had to head to work, it was odd, it was driving and then the engine was off and the rig was coasting. I didn't hear it sputter or anything, I will play with it in the morning.

My guess is the Pick up coil in the dist.

 

[farm boy00]

My guess is the Pick up coil in the dist.

Second this

 

[bspeedy]

That's not good...

What's the piece of chain hanging underneath, below the front axle?

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

That was the chain I used to tow the rig home with the tractor, I just unhooked the chain from the tractor and left it hooked to the truck.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

My father messed with it a little after he got off work, he threw 4 gallons of gas in the tank and he said there was no fire. He's thinking a coil or fuel pump, he said when those go out they don't give much warning.

I'm off Friday and Saturday and will tinker with it a little, my Main project is the dump truck I have been working off and on for like two years. it wasn't road worthy when I got it, I don't plan to keep it and would like to sell it before winter so its more of a priority. I redid all the brakes on the dump truck and now I have gas tank leaks and a possible hydraulic issue raising the bed.

That truck drives and stops under its own power at least lol.

Ill keep the very trusty F150 around till im satisfied I can trust this F350 flatbed.

 

[JB13502]

Second this

X3

Had a '78 F250 that ate pickup coils like candy. Be driving along, no skips, no hesitation and would just die. I'd Replace the pickup, and be good for another 6 months or so. Never figured out why she ate the coils.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

It's got spark and a small shot of starting fluid and she will fire, it's not getting fuel to the rail. When the key is on, the fuel pump comes on, runs for a few seconds and shuts off but the rail has no fuel.

So it's some sort of relay or fuel pump.

A buddy and I messed with it for a little while.

It's also real hard to start sometimes, others it turns over fast so could be a bad starter or starter solenoid there.

 

[oliver1555]

I'd run a compression test.

 

[paulfun9]

If I remember correctly they have two power wires to the pump. One kicks power to the pump when cranking to get it running then after the switch turns to the run position the other power wire takes over, Problem is its wired threw the oil pressure sensor and if it doesn't think it has oil pressure it doesn't feed any more power to the pump. I honestly am not sure if they are all wired the same but my dump was and a short in the wire caused a similar problem. I had good oil pressure but the bad connection didn't let the pump work.

I would hot wire the fuel pump and see what happens.

 

[oliver1555]

I'd run a compression test.

Okay, reread. I thought it was firing up and running when you gave it a shot of starting fluid. Reading comprehension....

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

If you have no fuel in the fuel rail, what would the starter have to do with that problem? And it starts with either, again, not connected to the starter.

I had a 1993 and it had an external fuel filter mounted under the cab on the left side. That's where I would look next. What's the odds it's never been replaced or is full of old varnish?

That's a separate problem, the motor is hard to turn over most of the time, it cranks slow or just stops cranking like the battery is dead and turns over fast (normally) sometimes. It's not a lack of battery, when I work on these trucks I jump them to a Catapillar 4D battery I have in the barn, the 4D has 1400 cca and 200 amp hour, we even unhooked the battery in the truck and went strait threw the D4 battery in case the battery in the truck was bad, same symptoms.

When I climbed under the truck I did see the the filter, it's something I will check the next time I have time to work on the truck, on second thought I'll just replace it anyway for reasons already suggested, its prob been over looked and not replaced.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Well it took awhile before I dug deeper in the truck. $15 in parts and she’s up and running again.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I didn’t see this issue the first time I looked at the truck but the truck had duel gas tanks at one time, someone took the rear tank out for whatever reason, left the fuel pump and all the lines tied up in the rear.

They had two other lines blocked off and one of those plugs blew off.

I cut both lines back after buying a few things from the auto parts store:

I spliced both lines together, fired up the truck and it ran rough, give it gas and it cut out so I redid it by using the barbed union and took some 5/16th gas line I happened to have in the barn on the other end of that brass union and a bolt in the end of the rubber gas line, truck runs good now and doesn’t leak any gas, I’m confident that this set up won’t ever blow off.

That gas line in the truck is a 5/16th rubber coated nylon and no matter what bolt or screw I stuck in there with a band clap around it, it just sprayed gas out, so I had to pick up the barbed union.

I may see about isolating the front tank better in the future, I have no plans on putting another tank in the rear but all the plumbing is there and the transfer switch in the cab works I guess.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Picked the trailer up with the F150,

Swapped to the F350 after I found out the trailer has brakes

So much of an improvement over the F150, manual kinda sucks hooking up trailers though vs auto.

 

[Farmer495]

manual kinda sucks hooking up trailers though vs auto.

I went from hitching with a 6-speed to a automatic with BACK UP CAMERA, I still have to use the parking brake when hitching the auto lest "Park roll" get me....parking brake worked on the 6-speed...

 

[Garandman]

I left out the part where it didn't make it the whole trip, she died 1/4 mile from my house and had to tow it the rest of the way with the tractor.

55 mile trip and it died at 54 3/4 lol

My definition of a good car is one that breaks down conveniently.