Good farm truck?

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I just bought three 1991 Ford F-SuperDuty trucks sight unseen over the telephone (actually, not at all uncommon in my business). They are each 2 WD with dual rear wheels, 351 V-8, automatic with power steering. Each also have 8' contractor's dump bodies and hoists and are each equipped with 8' Western power angle snowplows.

I was thinking of keeping one for use out on my land and just selling the other two. I figured it would be heavy enough for anything I'd want to haul or tow and I also liked having the ability to dump a load, too. I'm in NE Indiana so the advantages of having a snow plow are obvious.

I know many of you have farm trucks and have probably had many over the years and wanted to get your opinions as to using one of these that way. The only shortcoming I could think of was it's 2WD instead of 4WD but I always have a 4WD that I'm driving anyhow so that's not as bad as it being my only truck. What's the verdict?

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), October 19, 2001

Answers

definetion of a good farm truck? Starts when you need it,, hauls what you need,, tows what you need towed, breaks down when its conveinant for you. EVERY THING else is just options :D

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 19, 2001.

Gary, My favorite truck will always be the 1972 Dodge 3/4 ton, stick shift with granny. It was ugly as homemade sin and I had to put a manual choke in it because the carburator would flood out driving down the road. It had this huge homemade pipe for a bumper and took me to Tennessee and back three times. It had a 318 that was still running when the rest of it was falling apart. Sure wish I had another one just like it now.

-- Karen in Kansas (kansasgoats@iwon.com), October 19, 2001.

Gary, I'd think those dump boxes and hoists would be darned handy. I'd sure hang onto one if I were you. If you ever bring home any loose product like mulch, sawdust, etc., they would save you a bundle of work. I'd always buy a 4WD, too, given the chance, but you know, I don't use it all that much, even here in the North Country where we can get a lot of snow, but then I can pretty much pick my time for getting off the farm and don't travel much on the bad snow days.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), October 20, 2001.

The dump body and the ability to carry much heavier than standard loads could both be super handy. Even just the ability to bring in really heavy loads of firewood and just dump them instead of having to unload would be worth a lot at times. And a dump tray allows you to trickle a load out as you drive along (say gravel along a road) rather than having to do a lot of the spreading the hard way. And of course the trucks are four-wheel drive - it's just that those four wheels are all on one axle (if I understand correctly - although I have seen the other arrangement too).

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 20, 2001.

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