With multiple hitch points and a 460 V8, today’s Nice Price or No Dice F-350 could likely tow darn near anything. Let’s find out if this hard-working truck is worth its asking price in hard-earned cash.
H.P. Lovecraft famously wrote of horrors so unimaginable that words on the page could not describe them. This leaves the interpretation of their visage entirely up to the mind of the reader. When you think about it, letting the reader do that sort of heavy lifting is a pretty brilliant conceit.
No Lovecraftian horrors awaited a potential new owner of the 1977 Jeep Wagoneer we looked at yesterday, but based on the description in the ad, it did have a few unknowns lurking about. Those included a smoking and oil-burning engine, some creaking front suspension components, and what was said to be hail damage that suspiciously only affected the roof, seemingly sparing the hood and fenders. That proved to be enough nightmare fuel to dissuade most of us from finding favor in its $15,000 asking price. Fully 67% of us felt that would need to be lower, sending the Wagoneer on its way with a No Dice loss.
Heavy duty
Many of you have probably watched Taylor Sheridan’s modern-day cowboy soap opera, “Yellowstone.” If you have, then you know that when Kevin Costner’s John Dutton character isn’t on horseback or in his private helicopter, he’s behind the wheel of the biggest and baddest pickup truck his production company’s money could buy.
Costner drives a Ram 3500 Crew Cab 4X4 with a Cummins diesel and dually back end on the show. That’s a lot of truck, and probably completely appropriate for someone simultaneously running a cattle ranch and engaging in a land war. It is, however, likely to be way more truck than most average people need, and it’s extremely expensive.
This 1989 Ford F-350 Crew Cab Dually is almost as big as that RAM, looks more like a work truck, and has a manual gearbox behind its fuel-injected 460 gas V8 rather than a namby-pamby automatic. It’s also a Ford F-Series, which has long been the best-selling vehicle in America. That means it’s got to be good, right?
Main character energy
To be fair, it’s also an old truck, and that means that, while it has a big block under its hood, the 385-series engine’s tune manages to make only 230 horsepower, a paltry number by today’s standards. On the plus side, it also makes a vastly more substantial 390 pound-feet of torque. That’s particularly important when considering this truck’s primary purpose, which is towing around big stuff.
According to the ad, the 460 is paired with a ZF-sourced five-speed manual transmission and a Dana 70 rear axle, with the latter featuring an extremely short 4.10 gear ratio. That, again, is good for pulling stuff. There’s no mention of how much stuff the truck has pulled over the years, but it can’t be all that much and a bag of chips since the odometer reads a modest 31,600 miles. Despite its age, the seller touts that the truck is fully up to snuff, saying, “Runs and drives great everything works heater, AC and radio.”
Whatcha’ got to tow?
They also note that it has tow points in both the back bumper and the bed, meaning it has the flexibility to do traditional lowing or that cool fifth-wheel stuff. The mount in the bed for the latter doesn’t impede the load capacity any when the hitch (which doesn’t come with the truck) isn’t there, so it also can serve as a long-bed pickup when the need arises. With the dually rear end, that can handle up to a ton, and when towing, it can pull over 12,000 pounds.
As for the aesthetics, the Colonial White paint has seen better days, and the bodywork shows a few dents and one broken tail lamp lens. Still, the patina does lend the truck a sense of purposefulness. This being an up-scale XLT Lariat means it has cloth upholstery in the cabin, along with the niceties of power windows (in front) and locks, cruise control, and a carpeted floor. It all looks perfectly habitable and without issue in here.
Lasso this Lariat
The seller notes that the truck is rust-free, showing several under-carriage shots in the ad as proof. It also has dual tanks, so fueling the beast should be a lengthy process. They handily provide a Marti Report on the truck, which reveals that, while this seems the most American of rides, it was actually built at Ford’s Ontario, Canada plant. A clean title is the final factor in this truck’s favor. The asking price is $8,000.
We now need to determine whether or not that’s a good deal. Just on space taken up by the truck alone, it’s obviously a lot of vehicle for the money. But is it still a viable work truck? Its size certainly makes a statement and would require considerable space to park when not down home on the farm.
What do you say? Should someone in need of towing, carrying, or crew-cabbing spend $8,000 on this F-350? Or is it just too old and too big to matter anymore and, hence, should be put out to pasture?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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