A little older, but I daily drive a 97 F350 crewcab dually with the 7.3 PSD.
For my money, if you're going to buy a truck to work out of, spend the money for the diesel. I've owned many gas trucks, and for a half ton that is used as a passenger vehicle, they're great. BUT, if you're going to carry a lot of load or do much towing, you cannot beat a diesel. This thing pulls like a freight train with 7000 pounds behind it...and it has 269000 miles.
When I was shopping for a crewcab, I really didn't look at the diesels, because they were priced higher than the gassers. However, after looking at a few gas trucks with 100000 miles, I quickly realized that most were worked to death, or were show horse tow rigs with lots of extras that really didn't do anything for the truck (running boards, cab roof spoilers, goofy eater-egg paint, etc) and priced in the diesel range. I was specifically looking for a 92/97 F 350 CCD.
Here's the thing, the gas trucks pretty much get about 10mpg with the 7.5, or 11 mpg with the 5.8 (empty). When towing that can drop to about 8 (7.5) and hope-there-aren't-any-big-hills-cause-we'll-never-make-it (5.8). Daily driving it to work I get about 16-17, worst ever was towing an enclosed 16 ft (6000 pounds) aerodynamic-as-a-brick trailer at 75 MPH with a result of 13.8 mpg. Bear in mind this is with a 4.10 axle (only ratio offered on the DRW truck that year) and a mild tune. Single wheel trucks usually get better, as the general opinion is that the duals cost about 1 mpg, and the single wheel trucks can often be found with 3.55 rears. I have read reports of 20/21 mpg on the highway with single wheel 3.55 trucks.
Ultimately, I bought the truck I now have (and love!) because the price was right, it had already had many things repaired, and the few minor things it needed were easily fixed. Upside of the 7.3 is that with any kind of care at all they will go 500K miles, and resale is better...even with lots of miles. In fact, I personally think that buying one in the 200K range is a good deal, as most of the potential issues have already been addressed...in my case, it had already had a Jasper trans installed, new glow plugs, injectors serviced,
A/C serviced, BIG all aluminum radiator installed, came with a new CD with remote, 1 week old CB/weather radio, and a tuner.
They're not for everybody, but this one was good for me. I paid $2000 last june. I have less than $300 into it for repairs (radius arm bushings, axle pivot bushings, heater blower, window switch, dashpad (vanity), brake hoses (peace of mind), and have driven it 9000 miles.
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Originally Posted by landmine
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