cthehentz wrote: Yes, I parked my F350 and bought a 87' Dodge ram50. This is my second week driving the truck and it seems to be getting around 25mpg and takes 40 dollars to top off the tank off.
Me too!!
The F350 stays parked unless it's making me money (mobile welding). I drive my 87 Dodge Ram 50 beater with 2.6L 4cyl and 5-spd everywhere else. Mine doesn't get 25 mpg though, probly more like 15 to 20 for around-town driving. Has about 150,000 miles on it. Still, it's alot better than 8 to 12 mpg in the F350.
Only $40 to fill your truck's tank? At $4.00 a gallon, it cost me about $75 to fill the Dodge's tank. My truck has the longbed and the tank appears to hold about 18 gallons.
My wife drives her '01 2500HD to work. I drive her old Blazer to work. Before the Blaze, I drove a Suzuki Samurai to work. Now my son has it while we are working on his '79 K30.
My '02 2500HD has never been a daily driver. Since new it has only been used to tow trailers. My '94 K2500 gets most of the hauling work when needed, and farm work the rest of the time, but it sits, on average, 9 days out of 10.
My '77 K30 is now strictly a county fair truck puller.
Man, I wish I could get a fleet discount on insurance.
I still use the truck for short-distance appointments (I have a regular walking & exercise schedule locally) and some of my longer-distance ones in the area (usually around 60 miles or less roundtrip), but have started to use DH's 13-year-old Subaru (with 78,000 original miles!) for grocery shopping and some of my other meetings (60-80 miles RT), even though it's downright scary to drive on the Chicago area tollways in something that small! The truck is of course our long-distance trip vehicle and TV. Not sure what mpg we get with the Subaru - not as good as one might think - but it's paid for, in good shape (except for a bent antenna ), and it hurts a lot less to fill up its 12-gal. tank these days.
A friend here has traded vehicles with her hubby; she owns a shop close to her home, and hubby works construction, usually about 30-40 miles (one way) from home. She peeled the decals from her shop off her PT Cruiser, and hubby takes that to work. So far, she says, he hasn't gotten too much of a hard time from his co-workers (he would have if the decals stayed on!) On bad weather days, she drives his dually to the shop; on good days, she walks.
Just thought I'd see if anyone else is parking the truck. I love driving my F250, but when it's just me and I'm driving here and there, I really don't see the wisdom in it.
So, just for fun and a little fuel economy, I'm gonna buy a motorcycle. For the driving I do, it should fit my bill pretty well. How are you guys coping?
A buddy helped me rebuild the engine in a 1999 Dodge Intrepid. A very nice riding car that gets 22MPG around town and 28MPG on the highway. The only flaw is the 2.7L V6 liked to sludge up and spin main bearings if you didn't use synthetic and change it frequently. So, you can find them a dime a dozen with roasted engines.
I usually drive nearly 15,000 miles per year, so I'm going to guess at least 10K of that will be in the car. The 2500HD gets 11MPG around town, so with the car it's like I'm buying gas at $1.95/gallon instead of $3.90 in the truck. I have a little over $2K in the car so I figure by the end of the year I will have broken even and will be on the plus side of the $$$ equation.
I haven't figured out a way to put the two kids on the bike with me so that is out for now. I don't drive enough miles to offset the purchase price and additional insurance cost of a third car.
The last time I bought diesel I filled up both the aux tank and the main tank (about 86 gal total) diesel was $4.06/gal. Don't think I will be filling the aux tank this time.
2006 2500HD CC SB 4X4 Duramax/Allison
Prodigy/16K Reese/265E Tires/Bilstein Shocks
RM Active Suspension/RDS 60gal Toolbox combo
Just thought I'd see if anyone else is parking the truck. I love driving my F250, but when it's just me and I'm driving here and there, I really don't see the wisdom in it.
So, just for fun and a little fuel economy, I'm gonna buy a motorcycle. For the driving I do, it should fit my bill pretty well. How are you guys coping?
Any other bikers on this site? Take care and have a great weekend. BTW, we're having 4 consecutive days of 90 degree temps here in C-town. What's up with that?
Pete
Ohio roads and drivers scare me. Be safe on that thing.
I parked my truck over two years ago, but that was because I got a company car. Now it gets less than 3000 miles a year.
cthehentz wrote: Yes, I parked my F350 and bought a 87' Dodge ram50. This is my second week driving the truck and it seems to be getting around 25mpg and takes 40 dollars to top off the tank off.
Me too!!
The F350 stays parked unless it's making me money (mobile welding). I drive my 87 Dodge Ram 50 beater with 2.6L 4cyl and 5-spd everywhere else. Mine doesn't get 25 mpg though, probly more like 15 to 20 for around-town driving. Has about 150,000 miles on it. Still, it's alot better than 8 to 12 mpg in the F350.
Only $40 to fill your truck's tank? At $4.00 a gallon, it cost me about $75 to fill the Dodge's tank. My truck has the longbed and the tank appears to hold about 18 gallons.
My 87' has the 2.0L and I think twelve gallon tank, this morning I was at half tank and it took 6.4gallons to fill up but, my hand calc. tells me I got 22.5mpg at 144miles. That's what I get for running the A/C, lol... Also the truck only has 92,744miles and it and it was a "Barn" find that cost me $500 for the truck, another $500 rims and tires, and $300 for small stuff like new a new radiator hoses ect. The ironic thing is everything has come full circle as this is the same type of truck I started out with twenty years ago...
2007 F350 Tow Boss FX4 CC LB
2003 33' 5er Thor Tahoe Transport
They are good little trucks. Mine was $400, drove it about 3 years, then had to put $500 in the electrical (kept replacing stuff till I found the problem...). Other than that, tires gas oil and filters is all it has needed. It needs frontend parts, but it's not worth it to replace them, so I will continue driving it till it won't drive safely anymore and replace with another.
Maybe I'll pull the motor to use in a buggie project some day. It is a very peppy little motor, has alot more power than my old '78 Chevy Luv or our two early-80's Toyota pickups and even more than a buddy's '96 Ranger and another buddy's '95 Nissan pickup. The long bed is very useful too. Don't see too many mini pickups anymore with the long bed. My Luv and one of the Toyotas were long beds too.
Maybe the next one I'll look for another Ram50 of similar year and keep this one around so I have a parts truck to rape when I need parts.
As a young guy my motorcycle was my only transportation...rain, snow whatever! Now that I'm old, the weather tends to bother me more. It's still upper 40's here in WA...haven't seen the sun in weeks for all the rain. My truck is my only cage so I drive it daily! Very comfortable!
As a young guy my motorcycle was my only transportation...rain, snow whatever! Now that I'm old, the weather tends to bother me more. It's still upper 40's here in WA...haven't seen the sun in weeks for all the rain. My truck is my only cage so I drive it daily! Very comfortable!
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The truck is of course our long-distance trip vehicle and TV. Not sure what mpg we get with the Subaru - not as good as one might think - but it's paid for, in good shape (except for a bent antenna 
), and it hurts a lot less to fill up its 12-gal. tank these days.
