I love my work van. A Chevrolet Express 2500 with a 5.7 L V8. It's been serving me well for 10 years. Everything I need is in my van. I'm ready for anything when I have my van with me. It's my office. My home away from home. My tool box.
Only two problems with using my van to help me with our project house. 1st, it gets stuck in the mud. 2nd, it's a real pain to clean out when I need to use it to haul trash somewhere. The only logical, manly conclusion, is that I need a pickup truck. A four-wheel drive work truck. Yeah Baby!
It's gonna be a Ford. I've had 2 Chevy work vans, both were purchased new, Neither one ever left me stranded. But the first one had a couple somewhat significant mechanical problems. One cost me some money and the other was a nuisance that I never bothered to get fixed. On the second one, the door mirror design is, in my opinion, poor and I just couldn't get used to it. The brakes squeak despite no wear on the discs or brake pads. I had a shop turn the rotors anyway and the squeak came back after a couple weeks. I found it hard to get excited about a Dodge. Imports? Every other non-work vehicle I have every owned has been European or Japanese. It was time to buy American.
It's gonna be a diesel. At the price point I'm at, I'm definitely buying used, with a lot of mileage. The diesel engines will generally last easily past 300,000 miles when cared for properly. So I was a lot more comfortable buying a diesel with 179,000 miles than a gas engine with the same mileage. Plus the extra torque will be handy for hauling stuff like tree stumps, tractors, and stacks of 2x10 pressure treated lumber.
It's gonna be 3/4 ton. It's just a much sturdier vehicle than it's 1/2 ton counterparts.
It's gonna have 4-wheel drive. Duh.
It's gotta have a long bed. If I can't put a 4x8 sheet of anything in the bed of the truck, what's the point.
It's gonna have an extended cab. A regular cab has very little room to keep some tools and such locked inside. A crew cab makes the truck REALLY long. And I'm more interested in hauling stuff, not people.
Armed with this list of requirements, I started searching near and far on the internet. In the end, I found this truck in Arizona and had it shipped home.
We named the truck "Otis" (thanks River B.). He's a 1999 Ford F250 Super Duty Lariet with a Power Stroke V8 diesel engine. I replaced the two back tires to match the B.F. Goodrich All Terrain TAs on the front and added the side step bars. It came with a frame mounted bumper pull hitch and a bed mounted gooseneck hitch, ready to haul just about anything. I have had to use the 4-wheel drive every time I've had to do anything on the property except parking in the driveway (it's rained about an inch over average so far this year). Ironically, it can carry 6 people. More than any of the other vehicles we currently own.
More toys to be purchased or rented soon! Stay tuned.
Only two problems with using my van to help me with our project house. 1st, it gets stuck in the mud. 2nd, it's a real pain to clean out when I need to use it to haul trash somewhere. The only logical, manly conclusion, is that I need a pickup truck. A four-wheel drive work truck. Yeah Baby!
It's gonna be a Ford. I've had 2 Chevy work vans, both were purchased new, Neither one ever left me stranded. But the first one had a couple somewhat significant mechanical problems. One cost me some money and the other was a nuisance that I never bothered to get fixed. On the second one, the door mirror design is, in my opinion, poor and I just couldn't get used to it. The brakes squeak despite no wear on the discs or brake pads. I had a shop turn the rotors anyway and the squeak came back after a couple weeks. I found it hard to get excited about a Dodge. Imports? Every other non-work vehicle I have every owned has been European or Japanese. It was time to buy American.
It's gonna be a diesel. At the price point I'm at, I'm definitely buying used, with a lot of mileage. The diesel engines will generally last easily past 300,000 miles when cared for properly. So I was a lot more comfortable buying a diesel with 179,000 miles than a gas engine with the same mileage. Plus the extra torque will be handy for hauling stuff like tree stumps, tractors, and stacks of 2x10 pressure treated lumber.
It's gonna be 3/4 ton. It's just a much sturdier vehicle than it's 1/2 ton counterparts.
It's gonna have 4-wheel drive. Duh.
It's gotta have a long bed. If I can't put a 4x8 sheet of anything in the bed of the truck, what's the point.
It's gonna have an extended cab. A regular cab has very little room to keep some tools and such locked inside. A crew cab makes the truck REALLY long. And I'm more interested in hauling stuff, not people.
Armed with this list of requirements, I started searching near and far on the internet. In the end, I found this truck in Arizona and had it shipped home.
We named the truck "Otis" (thanks River B.). He's a 1999 Ford F250 Super Duty Lariet with a Power Stroke V8 diesel engine. I replaced the two back tires to match the B.F. Goodrich All Terrain TAs on the front and added the side step bars. It came with a frame mounted bumper pull hitch and a bed mounted gooseneck hitch, ready to haul just about anything. I have had to use the 4-wheel drive every time I've had to do anything on the property except parking in the driveway (it's rained about an inch over average so far this year). Ironically, it can carry 6 people. More than any of the other vehicles we currently own.
More toys to be purchased or rented soon! Stay tuned.
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