30th Apr 2006, 19:19

I was just about to buy a Ford F-600. How much should I pay? Owner says it only needs some brake work. I started it and each time it starts right up. Engine is very smooth running. It has 316,000 miles. Then hoist works fine. All lights are working. The owner was asking for $2500 but I want to offer $1800.00. Thank you for your response.

19th Jul 2006, 09:02

If you take good care of a truck like that, it can reach that far without a rebuild.

23rd Jun 2008, 06:50

900000 miles out of a Ford is not uncommon, I know someone with an XB Falcon, done over 1.5 million kilometers on the same engine (may have had rebuilds but still has matching numbers), was driven at least 300 km every weekend. Fords love the highway driving! Old Fords never die. I wish I could say the same about the new ones :(

28th Aug 2008, 21:19

I have just purchased a 1989 F-600 and the rear brakes seals and cylinders appear to be bad. I was told that these are Ford Dealer parts only. I have not been able to locate any on the internet or local parts stores. Can anyone confirm this?

22nd Jun 2012, 12:26

Some older Ford medium duty trucks with hydraulic brakes are notorious for high dollar brake repairs. They use a "hydraulic maxi brake", and can cost thousands to fix.

If I was going to buy an older F600-F800, I would want it to have air brakes, as brake components are far less oddball and more standardized. That being said, I'm sure Ford put some oddball parts in the air system, so you have to buy parts from them (GM was no different with TopKick/Kodiak trucks).

All this being said, there are still lots of these old Fords still driving around; even some old gassers that can backfire loud enough to make you require an underwear change, so they must be pretty durable machines.

And YES, 900,000 miles is possible on a commercial medium duty truck.

I have seen some trucks with 2,000,000 miles on them, however, usually by that time they are mostly constructed of mono foam, JB weld, and duct tape, and should not be on the road, due to the fact that they are scabby old decrepit relics, that the owner should have scrapped 10 years ago, but he is too cheap to recognize the benefits of moving into the '90's.

On the flip side, a complete lack of pollution control devices allow the exhaust to smell like the past, taking us back to a time in our childhood when diesel was stinky and bad for us. Remember when a greyhound bus climbing a hill smelled like rotten eggs when you drove behind it, there were no cell phones, no Internet, a time many couldn't imagine.

There is no better smell.