Let me say first off if you are looking for the extended cab to give you usable seating for anyone in a car seat or anyone over 4' tall keep looking. I have a 95 extended cab and the back seat is not usable for us on anything over 20 mile drives. My son is 6'4" and about 165, I am 6'6" and about 290, Lovely Wife is a trim 5'5" and none of us can sit comfortably. I should have gone for a full crew cab instead and have been whining about it for eight years. Guess I should get over it or replace it, eh?

That said, what kind of money is the seller talking? Also, what transmission is in it? I thought back then the manual tranny was a 4 speed, is this one an overdrive? Anything at "high speed" (70+) in a truck is not going to be great on fuel economy. I just did a trip to Cleveland and back from Cincinnati and got 400 miles on the front tank, averaged 24.58 MPG (519 miles, 20.990 gal of fuel and the tanks were all the way full). The secret? Drive as if there was a full fish tank in the back, set cruise at 57 mph.

 

Well it looks like the '85 has an upgraded tranny in it... I'm not sure which model (hope not the lighter duty mazda one). If it's the ZF S5 42 that would be nice. According to the seller, it gets about 20mpg at 65.

Asking price is $3500. I haven't seen it in person yet, just have info from a friend who knows I'm casually looking for a larger cab in excellent shape. Price is high for such a high mile truck, but also has been very well looked after (altho seeing is believing :thumbsup

I get you on the back seat being tiny. But it's still better than no back seat.

I just need to decide if a 420xxx mile truck is worth the gamble. I'd hate to buy it, sell mine, and then realize I'd made a mistake :icon_rolleyes:
Lemons happen...

 

420,000 miles is a whole pile of miles for $3500. i betcha you can find an ex government crew cab 2WD as new as even 1997 with a powerstroke for that price. yeah, keep looking. But just for reference, switching from the E4OD to a ZF5 (mazda 5 speed wont bolt up, so forget that) will give you a 1-2 even 3 mpg increase. I get at least 18-19 mpg's on the highway with my ZF5 and 355 axle ratio in my '90. Figure about 14-15 in town.

 

get an oil sample and send it to black stone if your serious about it. these diesels can go close to a million miles if they are taken care of. or it could be a P.O.S.!

 

black stone? What's that?

I've been told the engine in this truck was recently re-built, so it should be fine for a long while. Has about 50xxx since the rebuild.

rebuilds vary, but I think this one was good.

 

If the truck has 400,000+ miles on it I am sure its not a lemon. Black Stone is a company that looks at motor oil and can tell you if there is metal shavings, copper shavings, how dirty the oil is and so on. With 50,000 on a rebuild that motor should be good for a while now. But as for the price, I think its WAY too high, that many miles means that much wear. Sure the motor has been rebuilt but what about the chassis, suspension, and axle as far as we know they all have the high miles. I would look at it, but there is no way I would pay that much for that old of a truck with that many miles.

 

well, in that case, go with your gut feeling. you'd be the best judge being able to look at it in person. Blackstone is a place where you can send in oil samples for analysis. They will notify you if there is anything out of the norm in your oil such as high copper, iron, aluminium, fuel, coolant, silicon, etc. When you do have excessive readings they will also give a probable cause. For example, if you have a high copper count, they'll say this is common if you'd just replaced an oil cooler. Its kind of neat but at the same time can give some heartache if it comes back bad. You can also get oil and coolant sample bottles from your local cat dealer pt#A5000 for about $15 bucks. Fill it up with oil or coolant, bring it back to the dealer where they'll send it out to the lab and you get a report back in a few days.

 

Price should be lower. I paid 4k for mine 3 weeks ago.

 

I agree re price. Did anyone notice that '85 F250 xcab on ebay last week? It looked pretty minty, and it sold for $3900. I don't believe the 70,000 mile claim, but it definately looked great. Even the interior looked mint. Apparently a one owner. Still, with the C6 in it, the mileage wouldnt be as good as one upgraded with the ZF5...

If I was even close to WA, I would have thought about the ebay option....

I may just stick with my '90... it's nice and dependable, and familiar :icon_wink:

 

You can do what I did, by one off e-bay, fly to the vehicle, and turn around and drive 1100 miles in a truck in the dead of winter that you have no clue if it will get home or not. If anything it gets the blood pumping.

Best and worst decision I ever made :thumbsup:

 

Ebay vehicles scare me. But I drove 3 hours to look at and bought/stole mine for 4k. So far getting awesome fuel mileage. Found it on Crailslist.

I could not buy some thing with out crawling all over and under it and seeing if the 4x4 was tight or not and starting it cold and put some fuel in it and driving it for a while.

But I'm just a poor country boy.

 

Does anyone recommend or prefer 4x4 with high miles or 4x2? I find my high mile 4x2 is loose to steer at high speeds... at 70mph for example. This may or may not be the high mile issue... it may just be ford's older front end design. My steering box is a fresh rebuild and nice and tight. But at high speed, it's just loose feeling. Is the older 4x4 much different? I've never driven an older ford 4x4 (80-91) at highway speed, so I don't know...

 

i have an 87 4x4 and at highway speeds i guess you could say it feels loose but im used to it as its all my familys ever owned (ford trucks) as far as cramped back seat my 87 super cab is comfortable for two freinds who are about 6 foot but i also have the seat risers on it to make it higher. I have to agree with the others though the price seems steep.