Hey guys looking for some advice / suggetions here, I'm looking to upgrade to a one ton, I want to stay with a Ford so looking at something in the 99-03 range, one ton crew cab dually. Is there anything you guys can share as to what to look for / stay away from etc. All advice and suggestions would be more than appriciated. Thanks
Advice
- Thread starter Truck4
- Start date
Thanks guys, it will be used to tow a 3 horse slant, with 13' short wall living quarters horse trailer(stell & alumin.) a 24' goose neck with ~200+ bales of hay, and a DD at times. Mite do some mild mods to it, gauges(definatly) a chip and injectors not to sure yet what mods to do to improve its towing and running. Thanks for the help keep um comeing
My reason for.asking was simple. What you mod will ultimately determine what you wind up with. Seven threes can be pretty deficient as far as coolers go. If the truck has high miles and poor.maintenance count on replacing everything related to cooling.
Pretty easy to boil the rearend or trans out of a truck with a chip, right.foot and heavy load. For a tow beast like that Id recommend upgrading your trans cooler to a 6l trans.cooler/500 bucks, id get a rear cooled diff cover, and id get the radiator and oil cooler checked out/boiled out/rebuilt, water pump thermostat and hoses. Basically on these old.trucks im finding people only fixed stuff.when it.broke.
If you buy an 01,02, or 03 count on it having powdered metal rods which are occasionally seen in 500hp trucks but typically those same people have a.thread on the rods letting go.
Heres a good starting point the 99&00 trucks.probably have forged.rods. They can be run with a little more assurance tuned and with small stg 3 injectors. The insides are.fairly spartan and void of electronic gadgets.
The 01 -03 trucks have better instrument clusters and some of the seats may be nicer. The 02 and 03 trucks.might have nicer tow mirrors with turn signals. Crappy connecting rods.
I personally wouldnt want to be.sifting through the used 7.3 market but ive also had.to to help.someone I know find a truck.
If you can afford a little more at the sale point Id.get a newer truck because you'll spend the.difference on replacing things to.allow the truck to run cooler pulling the kind of loads you described.
Fwiw, ive seen 7.3 trucks with a crew.cab and lower miles still.fetching high teens for price even some at the 20k dollar mark.
Pretty easy to boil the rearend or trans out of a truck with a chip, right.foot and heavy load. For a tow beast like that Id recommend upgrading your trans cooler to a 6l trans.cooler/500 bucks, id get a rear cooled diff cover, and id get the radiator and oil cooler checked out/boiled out/rebuilt, water pump thermostat and hoses. Basically on these old.trucks im finding people only fixed stuff.when it.broke.
If you buy an 01,02, or 03 count on it having powdered metal rods which are occasionally seen in 500hp trucks but typically those same people have a.thread on the rods letting go.
Heres a good starting point the 99&00 trucks.probably have forged.rods. They can be run with a little more assurance tuned and with small stg 3 injectors. The insides are.fairly spartan and void of electronic gadgets.
The 01 -03 trucks have better instrument clusters and some of the seats may be nicer. The 02 and 03 trucks.might have nicer tow mirrors with turn signals. Crappy connecting rods.
I personally wouldnt want to be.sifting through the used 7.3 market but ive also had.to to help.someone I know find a truck.
If you can afford a little more at the sale point Id.get a newer truck because you'll spend the.difference on replacing things to.allow the truck to run cooler pulling the kind of loads you described.
Fwiw, ive seen 7.3 trucks with a crew.cab and lower miles still.fetching high teens for price even some at the 20k dollar mark.
02BigD
New member
Ty hit it on the head. There are a lot of little refinements that came along with the 02 and 03 trucks. Only down side is PMR's if one is looking to run more than 400 hp and not have a worry.
My biggest thing is this guy darn near needs someone to go look at the truck. Theres too much to.be looked at for someone who hasnt had a superduty.
Id almost want a low mile xlt that has no.gauges, no holes in the dash, and no 1/8 npt plugs in the drivers side manifold. Or even an xl and just buy new carpet, and newer seats. Cuz lets.face it lariat leather in a 1st gen.superduty is pretty bad.
I say these things from the point of having a truck.that vintage and knowing Ive.dumped lots of.$$ in mine so its not old and worn out. Mine might actually be nicer than when I.got it, lol.
Id almost want a low mile xlt that has no.gauges, no holes in the dash, and no 1/8 npt plugs in the drivers side manifold. Or even an xl and just buy new carpet, and newer seats. Cuz lets.face it lariat leather in a 1st gen.superduty is pretty bad.
I say these things from the point of having a truck.that vintage and knowing Ive.dumped lots of.$$ in mine so its not old and worn out. Mine might actually be nicer than when I.got it, lol.
Thanks for all the advice, and I aploligize as I should have my sig filled out
, I currently have a 96 PSD CCSB, with stage 1 inj. TS chip, built E4OD and cooler and some other odds and ends, I know that 99 was the year things started to change, ie factory intercooler, etc. just dont know much about the 99-03 7.3, I have had some try to steer me towards the 6.0s but just not big on having to dump alot into it to do what I need it for such as, head studs, erg delete, coolers etc. If Im off in my thinking of the 6.0 please let me know just alot of the others who we rodeo with have not had many good things to say about them
, I currently have a 96 PSD CCSB, with stage 1 inj. TS chip, built E4OD and cooler and some other odds and ends, I know that 99 was the year things started to change, ie factory intercooler, etc. just dont know much about the 99-03 7.3, I have had some try to steer me towards the 6.0s but just not big on having to dump alot into it to do what I need it for such as, head studs, erg delete, coolers etc. If Im off in my thinking of the 6.0 please let me know just alot of the others who we rodeo with have not had many good things to say about themThanks for all the advice, and I aploligize as I should have my sig filled out
You are not off on your thinking.. I don't want to start the usual 6.0 VS 7.3 back and forth that happens all the time here..
IMHO, see if you can find an 03 7.3 in good shape at a good price and buy it..
Jason
New member
Don't over think it. Gauges, intake, exhaust, gearhead tunes. My '02 pmr truck had 283k on it when I sold it, toasted rear ujoints pulling some wicked hills, and trans started acting funny at 240k. Truck was lifted, lowered, leveled, different heughts, different sized tires, all with the same mods, and heavy towing. It drug 27k gross across i-10, and up to vegas to carroll shelbys birthday bash flawlesly, and I don't tow slowly...minimum 70mph, it grossed 32k a couple times, and did what I asked of it. Great truck. I bought the one in my sig on a whim, smokin deal, gave it a once over in the p.o's driveway, and handed over the cash. It's been a great little truck, 17.8mpg hand calculated mixed driving, 38 gallon rear tank, so highway trips get long winded lol. Check fluids, blowby, drive it...if all seems good, buy it.
Yea, Jason, thats pretty much it. I just wanted to be.forthcoming about.some of the skeletons. Like leaking windshields that lead to gem and electrical panel issues. But you are correct, if it runs good and was maintained well it should be A-ok! If the op is looking to runs stg 1's or 2s and literally just have a sweet towrig I dont think pmrs would.matter would they? Even stg 2's with pmrs and a tow tune is gonna.be anywhere from 300rwhp to 350.
I would just want to.make.sure all the cooling systems were good if not upgraded to.drag far and long. Im admittedly a poor spokesperson on that. Ive got a million plus in towing miles but 75% of those are in lb7, lbz, lmm, and lml or whatever the ***k the last two dmaxes were. Ive got an honest 350+ thousand on 7.3s buuuut my truck is lifted and ran huuuge.tires with modest 100hp tuning. I only towed locally even in the duramaxes. I run from rural countryside.to Chicago everyday.
I would just want to.make.sure all the cooling systems were good if not upgraded to.drag far and long. Im admittedly a poor spokesperson on that. Ive got a million plus in towing miles but 75% of those are in lb7, lbz, lmm, and lml or whatever the ***k the last two dmaxes were. Ive got an honest 350+ thousand on 7.3s buuuut my truck is lifted and ran huuuge.tires with modest 100hp tuning. I only towed locally even in the duramaxes. I run from rural countryside.to Chicago everyday.
