Faults:

Front brake pads needed to be replaced when I got it.

A/C doesn't work and only blows defrost.

Under valve cover harness needed to be replaced.

Bad sensor somewhere?

General Comments:

This truck was sitting at a local small dealer for over a year. I bought it and drove it everywhere for a few months. I got the 2wd extended cab short bed. The paint looks new and everyone compliments me on how clean it looks, especially with the mud tires. The truck has a ton of power and sounds great. Found a receipt where the engine was replaced a few years prior for $7500. Rides like a heavy duty truck.

(Few may believe this part) I got 25 MPG driving a 350 trip at 60-65mph, no A/C, no cruise control. Yes, I took in account the diesel bubbles and I can do math. Used Seafoam and STA-BIL on my fill up. The truck is completely stock.

The truck has a sensor issue. Check engine light comes on when there is back pressure or when I start coming to a stop. Runs very rough with no power. The only way to get it to run right again is to turn it off and turn it on again.

This truck has way too many sensors. I recommend learning about it before you buy.

I may have a few bad things to say about it, but I still think it's awesome. Has a beefy look and a drive train to back it up. Has pulled campers and cars with ease, and gets better fuel mileage than my old 4 cylinder Ranger.

If you're looking at buying one of these, have a few dollars stored away for potential sensor issues, or make sure you have access to some parts trucks.

Faults:

Driver seat has wear.

For the year and mileage, it is in great shape.

It was a ranch pickup. They used it to pull stock trailers.

Interior is in nice shape. I have seen newer trucks of other brands. They are in far worse shape.

General Comments:

Seats are comfy. Very strong engine. Uses no oil. Gets great mpg; 20.5 on winter blend fuel. 7.3 power stroke.

The truck performs like a real trooper.

Faults:

Transmission blocker rings (twice).

Starter (twice).

Clutch (once but slave failed twice).

Three sensors.

Rear brakes (but these lasted 90K miles so no issue there).

Brake lines (two failures in the metal lines on the rear brakes).

Emergency brake (totally replaced except for the pedal).

General Comments:

First off let me say I am a Ford man and will remain one, but I want to caution anyone thinking about purchasing a heavy duty truck: If you do not absolutely positively need a heavy duty truck, then get a standard duty because the heavy duties cost 3x as much to repair on any given repair, and they break just as often as a standard duty truck.

OK, that said, this truck had the 351 engine and a ZF 5 speed manual transmission. This truck was about as good as you could expect a truck to be a pulling heavy loads, and its gas mileage while not great unloaded (13.5 MPG) was not really affected, no matter how heavy a load you pulled with it, and I did a fair amount of trailer towing moving back and forth from IN to WI over a 1 year period.

My biggest beef with this truck was repeated failures of costly parts, like the transmission blocker rings and the clutch slave cylinder. I will say in fairness the truck never stranded me anywhere.

So again, unless you really, really, really need a heavy duty truck, then I would strongly recommend a standard duty F-250, or a heavy half ton pickup.