My purchase story, some mpg numbers, perf numbers off a dyno, ford vs. dodge comparisons a bit, etc.
re: A few back, buying a new Ford or Dodge with a gas motor, or buy a used diesel, and the $4K difference.
Forgive the long story, it does have a happy (1st gen!) ending. In 1996 I needed a tow vehicle for 3 horses in a gooseneck - the F150 was fine on flats at sea-level with a tailwind. However, I live at 7000' and there is always a side-wind or headwind when ya tow! Being a Ford type, I headed for the dealer, Powerstrokes going for 32500 MSRP, and 460's in the same truck for under dealer cost, they were dumping them. I bought an F250 XLT Loaded, 460, Supercab, 4x4, for 25K new. $7K was the difference. I briefly checked dodge, and they couldn't keep the cummins on the lot, so they wouldn't deal either (can't blame them I suppose). We looked for 4 months for used 3/4 and 1 ton trucks - they were beat to heck, or they wanted too much $$$ to make going used worth it. Remember, this is about when a lot of non-truck types were just starting to by powerstrokes and cummins to get groceries in! 8mpg towing average load 9K lbs at 75mph down the insterstate over about 20K miles of towing. At sea level (south dakota), that thing is a monster. Coming home, near denver, and towards Colorado Springs, it is grabbing gears, sweating like heck to keep speed, and drinking fuel.
I refuse to drive the Ford gas pig daily 40 miles round trip to work, so I bought a gas sipper Nissan little pickup. However, I-25 between my house south to Colorado Springs has seen 12 fatal wrecks so far this year, and climbing. The place is nuts, not so much for traffic jams, but for high speed random drivers in very large Expeditions, Excursions, Suburbans, etc. Off to find a full-size truck to drive to work. I went looking for F150, 2wd, 5spd, 300ci 6, EFI. I wanted an F250 Powerstroke 2wd, way too much money, and the 7. 3/6. 9 normally aspirated trucks are dogs, with cavitation problems. Found an F150, almost bought it, and just happened upon a 1992 2wd LE that had been on the side of the road with a for sale sign for about 1 hour before I called the guy. Bought it on the spot. 20+mpg, 3/4 ton, matching GlassLite topper, maroon over gold, air, cruise, tilt, pw, pl, 3. 54 Rear (I'm guessing, see the dyno below) 143K miles, new tires, no dents, very few dings, bedliner, class V hitch, tekonsha brake controller, 2nd owner, $8000. Beautiful old dodge body style. I get to drive a tractor to work that happens to have a truck body on it! I took the topper off it - too much of a blind spot, and I want to put a gooseneck in it.
One of the interesting things in CO is you have to dyno diesel vehicles for emissions, it costs $$$'s, but some shops give you the dyno readouts! Here is a block stock 1992 LE, in 4th gear, 6700' altitude, 10% humidity, 68 degrees, on a Superflow dyno:
Speed Hp Rear_Wheel_Torque
------------------------------------
58 137 309
48 121 404
40 104 441
Mpg through 3 tanks, 60% hwy, the rest city, romping on it showing friends, and up and down Pikes Peak: 20. 1 - amazing to me. No
clue what it does towing yet. The Ford mentioned above, is 12 empty (high of 14, low of 9) and 8 towing, (high of 10, low of 5). The high and low were on the same trip this spring - 10mpg towing 8K lbs from Fargo south on I-29 to Omaha with an awesome sustained 30mph tailwind. 5mpg floored in drive on I-80 from Omaha all the way to I-76 where I got out of it and started heading south to Denver.
I'm gonna dyno the Ford for grins, I'll post numbers here. It has intake and exhaust mods to make it breath thin air better. Empty, it will run circles around the dodge (The ford is 10 seconds flat 0-60). However, a trailer, a hill, and a headwind, and I bet the torque numbers on the dodge will take the ford out. Add $500 in mods to this dodge, and I'll bet it is damn close 0-60 and would slay the ford towing, especially up over 11,000' spots on I-70 towards Grand Junction.
Sorry for the long post, just the story of how I ran into this absolutely fine truck.
Later, thanks for the great conference, especially the info on mods I just have to make!
Jon Nordby
Monument, Colorado.
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
