And she’s a beaut! She’s a 2008 F450 4x4 diesel and appears to be in excellent condition. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to see her in person yet and won’t be able to test drive her this weekend due to our scheduled garage sale. But we’re planning to drive by on Sunday and possibly take her for a test drive next week.
But the problem is we weren’t planning to buy quite yet. I still don’t feel like I know much about trucks and I don’t want to rush into a decision and end up regretting it. I’ve been poring over past forum threads and doing as much research as I can to educate myself, but I worry that there are questions I should be asking that I won’t know to ask. And this truck almost seems like too good of a deal and as the old adage goes: if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. And then there is the practical side of me which is fearful of making such a major commitment this far in advance. We are hoping to hit the road in the Spring of 2010 and although we are mentally ready and actively working through the other details, there are still many things that could happen which may cause us to postpone our dream. What if the house doesn’t sell? What if one of us becomes ill? Yes, I know we could always sell the truck and buying it used would reduce the hit we would take, but I still want to make a smart decision.
On the other hand, I don’t want to pass up a good deal. We haven’t seen many 450’s around our area and this is the first used one. Based on what I’ve read and seen, I don’t think there are probably that many used 2008’s with low mileage on the market. I’m afraid that if we pass this one up, we won’t have any option but to buy new, which really isn’t in our budget.
So I’d like to get input from all of you that know far more about this than me. What would you do? This truck seems to have everything we would need - diesel, longbed, tow package. Are there other things that I should be considering that aren’t listed? Oh by the way, we haven’t landed on a 5er yet, but our short list includes the Keystone Montana, Carriage Cameo, and other like models,. So I believe that this would be more than enough truck for this level of 5er. Here is the actual ad – what it doesn’t say is that it has 29,000 miles and is listed at $36,988. According to Kelley Blue Book, this is a pretty fair price. Do you agree?
F450 CREW CAB LONGBED DUAL REAR WHEEL, 4X4, AUTO, DIESEL, 4.88 LIMITED SLIP, ADVANCED SECURITY GROUP, OFF ROAD PACKAGE, SKID PLATES, FULL POWER PACK, ENGINE BLOCK HEATER, SLIDING REAR WINDOW, CAMPER PACKAGE, HIGH CAPACITY TRAILER TOW PACKAGE, POWERSCOPE TRAILER TOW MIRROR, FOG LAMPS, BACK UP SENSORS, POWER DRIVER AND PASS SEATS, TOW COMMAND SYSTEM, PRIVACY GLASS, 4 WHEEL ABS, POLISHED ALUMIN WHEELS, THIS TRUCK IS MINT
-- Edited by contra on Friday 30th of October 2009 02:25:21 PM
Terry and Jo said
02:23 PM Oct 30, 2009
Connie and Tracy,
I replied to your private message. Since you logged in to post this, you may have already seen it.
I would say to at least take the time to go see it first hand, in spite of your planned garage sale. That is provided, that the dealer isn't too far away.
Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Friday 30th of October 2009 02:25:01 PM
RodnReal said
03:26 PM Oct 30, 2009
Sounds like a pretty good deal but I would get a mechanic you trust to take a look at it. Ask to see the car facts report on it also.
--Rod
contra said
10:16 PM Oct 30, 2009
Well, a bit unexpected, but we decided to go see the truck tonight. She's as pretty as her picture! In excellent condition from what we can tell. We got the carfax report and no concerns there either. We were almost ready to sign on the dotted line, but agreed to sleep on it tonight. I'm sure she's all that we'll dream about! I'm still concerned about taking the plunge, but I also don't think this truck will be around for long so I feel like we need to make a decision pretty quickly. We'll see what daylight brings, but maybe it's just another sign that this is meant to be!
-Connie
Linda said
08:25 AM Oct 31, 2009
It's morning! How do you feel now?
ken and cindy said
12:36 PM Oct 31, 2009
Down here in the Houston area that truck would go for at least 42k fast.
Terry and Jo said
05:38 PM Oct 31, 2009
Connie has been communicating with us via private message and e-mail asking more questions about various things about the F450. So far, I haven't heard back from them as to what they have decided either.
Jo and I drove around Oklahoma City with ours today delivering a clothes dryer and other furniture to our oldest son and his wife. Then to see our salesman at our favorite RV dealership here in OKC. He wanted to see our truck as well. Then to get groceries at Sam's Wholesale club and Walmart before going home.
I can report that the truck drives like a dream and is very comfortable. It corners very well and I am pretty quickly getting used to its size. We traded a 2002 Ford F250 with the short bed and club cab (meaning half doors for the back seat) in on this F450. The F450 has the full size bed and 4 full size doors. It is roughly three feet longer than the F250 but its turning radius is about the same as the shorter truck.
I foresee that I will probably have very little trouble backing a fifth wheel back into a slot.
Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 31st of October 2009 05:40:34 PM
Delaine and Lindy said
08:18 PM Oct 31, 2009
That F-450 is probably a Job 1 built Truck. Check to see if the Radiator has been replaced. That is one of the problems I have read about Job 1 built Trucks. Also keep in mind about the fuel mileage. With the 4.88 rear gear you will turn a higher RPM, which doesn't do very good on fuel mileage. However it will tow a very heavy 5th wheel. As for price I don't have a clue if its good or bad. Good Luck with your decision. GBY.....
contra said
09:38 PM Oct 31, 2009
YIKES!!! We did it. We went and bought the truck tonight. After thinking about it all day (and all last night) and analyzing the numbers, we decided it was a deal we couldn't pass up. Hopefully we made the right decision. It's all very surreal. Less than a month ago we were at the Rally and just being introduced to the concept of a 5er and here we sit tonight as truck owners. Are we moving too fast? I don't know, but it feels right. I guess there's no turning back now!!
Thanks to everyone who replied and shared lots of useful information. We still don't feel like we really know what we're doing but we're just going on faith!
-Connie
Workinrvers said
05:36 AM Nov 1, 2009
congrats on the new truck. Sounds like a nice tow vehicle.
Linda said
06:58 AM Nov 1, 2009
Congrats on your giant step!!!!! Now keep telling those voices in the back of your mind to be quiet.
Cindy T said
07:01 AM Nov 1, 2009
BIG CONGRATS on the truck!! Were you able to find it at a dealership or was it through a private seller?
contra said
07:10 AM Nov 1, 2009
Yeah, those voices in my head have been pretty loud...they woke me up at 4am (ok, it was really 5am body time, but still it's a Sunday!!). No buyers remorse, just the feeling of 'what the h&$* did we just do?' It's all happening so fast, my head is spinning!
Cindy, we found it at a dealership, Longmont Ford. They were very pleasant to deal with.
Terry and Jo said
08:28 AM Nov 1, 2009
Congratulations on the F450. As I said in the e-mail last night, "Now you are committed." (Although sometimes being committed has a negative connotation.)
I looked online at one at Longmont. Is yours in the Dark Shadow Gray Metallic color? If so, that is a nice color.
Anyway, enjoy the rest of the ride to the RV life. In one sense, maybe you are lucky in changing your considerations from a motorhome to the fifth wheel choice. Jo and I have waffled back and forth so much between motorhome and fifth wheel, but since we now have our F450, I guess the decision has been made on that aspect. Now, we need to nail down the fifth wheel.
Terry
DreamerBob said
09:42 AM Nov 1, 2009
Sounds like a great truck! Look at the bright side - even if you decide against using it for towing a 5ver you could use it to: 1. Pull very large stumps (~5 feet diameter or so) for a side job 2. When nobody's looking, hook your chain up to the parked car in the front spot at the mall, drag it out of the spot you want (wheels locked & all), and take his spot. 3. If your house doen't sell, drag it behind with the new beast (just watch out for those low overpasses) 4. If you decide on a motorhome after all, hitch it up and drag it behind as a toad - you'd have the best of both worlds
.....at least that's the way its working out for me with my new F350 dually anyway. I absolutely love these beasts! And this is coming from someone who's driven only small convertibles for the last 20 years.
Best of luck - you're gonna love it!
Bob
contra said
09:47 AM Nov 1, 2009
Bob, I like your way of thinking!
Terry, yes it's the shadow grey one. We really liked the color too; that was just a bonus since you don't get to choose when going used.
Thanks to everyone for all of the support! That's why this family is so great!!
Roz said
10:07 AM Nov 1, 2009
Swing your partner and hug the truck!
Yee Haw!
contra said
12:44 PM Nov 1, 2009
Ha! You're going to give us a reputation, Charles! You remember how short Tracy is, don't you? Do you really think she could hug that truck. She can't even see the top of the hood while standing on the ground!
RodnReal said
06:00 AM Nov 2, 2009
We're really happy for you too and I can't wait to hear what you decide on for your fifth!
-Connie
jagco said
01:23 PM Nov 2, 2009
We're really happy for you too. You're living our dream.
Can you post a pic or two of it? I've never posted a pic on this particular forum, but I've seen some, so I am assuming it can be done.
Anyway, congrats, congrats......
contra said
09:02 AM Nov 3, 2009
I'm not sure how to insert a picture here, but you can see a picture of her on our blog: http://gypsygmas.blogspot.com
She has been christened Frieda B. (a.k.a. "Free To Be"). Enjoy!
-- Edited by contra on Tuesday 3rd of November 2009 09:09:51 AM
jagco said
11:03 AM Nov 3, 2009
That is one good looking truck!
I'm jealous........
Parrothead said
02:06 AM Nov 4, 2009
Congrats on the new truck!!! Nancy and I love our big truck too. Have no problems pulling our Montana in AZ and NM.
Look forward to seeing you two on the road.
Roland & Nancy
RodnReal said
07:54 AM Nov 4, 2009
Connie I just saw the same truck in our local paper......47,000 miles and listed for $43,950.00
Sounds like you got a good deal.
--Rod
DZ said
11:06 AM Nov 4, 2009
Congratulations on the new ( to you ) truck. We've had ours for two years now. I think you'll find it's a very capable and comfortable tow vehicle. As far as the radiator issue, make sure yours has had the venturi T upgrade. This was Ford's fix to the problem. We haven't had an issue in 25,000 miles with the radiator, but talked to a guy in N.M. with the twin to ours who was on his third radiator. The big issue with ours was a bent pushrod at 20,500 miles, coolant got into the cylinder. Fixed under warranty, total bottom end rebuild. So far no issues with that. We have 4:30 rear end, and fuel mileage is not great, your 4:88's won't be good either. I took out the 38 gal. tank and installed a 60 gal. transfer flow to get a better range. Now the computer still thinks it has 38 gal. and is pretty useless. get the 50 miles to empty and still have 25 gals. left. Would be glad to answer any questions that I can.
contra said
03:03 PM Nov 4, 2009
Thanks DZ. Yes, I believe ours had the venturi T upgrade. Not that I know that that really means but we got a copy of all of the warranty work and I'm pretty sure that was one of the items listed (I'll double check when I get home tonight). Great to hear happy stories. I hope to be able to report the same many miles down the road. Thanks for being open to questions. I'll be sure to ask once I figure out what they are! :)
-Connie
traveljunkie said
11:48 AM Nov 11, 2009
Many congrats on the new truck. She look slike beaut! We also purchased our truck in advance of a fifth wheel that actually needed that big of a truck.
Now its time to go shopping for a fifth wheel and actually use the truck. Enjoy!
And she’s a beaut! She’s a 2008 F450 4x4 diesel and appears to be in excellent condition. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to see her in person yet and won’t be able to test drive her this weekend due to our scheduled garage sale. But we’re planning to drive by on Sunday and possibly take her for a test drive next week.
But the problem is we weren’t planning to buy quite yet. I still don’t feel like I know much about trucks and I don’t want to rush into a decision and end up regretting it. I’ve been poring over past forum threads and doing as much research as I can to educate myself, but I worry that there are questions I should be asking that I won’t know to ask. And this truck almost seems like too good of a deal and as the old adage goes: if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. And then there is the practical side of me which is fearful of making such a major commitment this far in advance. We are hoping to hit the road in the Spring of 2010 and although we are mentally ready and actively working through the other details, there are still many things that could happen which may cause us to postpone our dream. What if the house doesn’t sell? What if one of us becomes ill? Yes, I know we could always sell the truck and buying it used would reduce the hit we would take, but I still want to make a smart decision.
On the other hand, I don’t want to pass up a good deal. We haven’t seen many 450’s around our area and this is the first used one. Based on what I’ve read and seen, I don’t think there are probably that many used 2008’s with low mileage on the market. I’m afraid that if we pass this one up, we won’t have any option but to buy new, which really isn’t in our budget.
So I’d like to get input from all of you that know far more about this than me. What would you do? This truck seems to have everything we would need - diesel, longbed, tow package. Are there other things that I should be considering that aren’t listed? Oh by the way, we haven’t landed on a 5er yet, but our short list includes the Keystone Montana, Carriage Cameo, and other like models,. So I believe that this would be more than enough truck for this level of 5er. Here is the actual ad – what it doesn’t say is that it has 29,000 miles and is listed at $36,988. According to Kelley Blue Book, this is a pretty fair price. Do you agree?
F450 CREW CAB LONGBED DUAL REAR WHEEL, 4X4, AUTO, DIESEL, 4.88 LIMITED SLIP, ADVANCED SECURITY GROUP, OFF ROAD PACKAGE, SKID PLATES, FULL POWER PACK, ENGINE BLOCK HEATER, SLIDING REAR WINDOW, CAMPER PACKAGE, HIGH CAPACITY TRAILER TOW PACKAGE, POWERSCOPE TRAILER TOW MIRROR, FOG LAMPS, BACK UP SENSORS, POWER DRIVER AND PASS SEATS, TOW COMMAND SYSTEM, PRIVACY GLASS, 4 WHEEL ABS, POLISHED ALUMIN WHEELS, THIS TRUCK IS MINT
-- Edited by contra on Friday 30th of October 2009 02:25:21 PM
I replied to your private message. Since you logged in to post this, you may have already seen it.
I would say to at least take the time to go see it first hand, in spite of your planned garage sale. That is provided, that the dealer isn't too far away.
Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Friday 30th of October 2009 02:25:01 PM
Well, a bit unexpected, but we decided to go see the truck tonight. She's as pretty as her picture! In excellent condition from what we can tell. We got the carfax report and no concerns there either. We were almost ready to sign on the dotted line, but agreed to sleep on it tonight. I'm sure she's all that we'll dream about! I'm still concerned about taking the plunge, but I also don't think this truck will be around for long so I feel like we need to make a decision pretty quickly. We'll see what daylight brings, but maybe it's just another sign that this is meant to be!
-Connie
Jo and I drove around Oklahoma City with ours today delivering a clothes dryer and other furniture to our oldest son and his wife. Then to see our salesman at our favorite RV dealership here in OKC. He wanted to see our truck as well. Then to get groceries at Sam's Wholesale club and Walmart before going home.
I can report that the truck drives like a dream and is very comfortable. It corners very well and I am pretty quickly getting used to its size. We traded a 2002 Ford F250 with the short bed and club cab (meaning half doors for the back seat) in on this F450. The F450 has the full size bed and 4 full size doors. It is roughly three feet longer than the F250 but its turning radius is about the same as the shorter truck.
I foresee that I will probably have very little trouble backing a fifth wheel back into a slot.
Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 31st of October 2009 05:40:34 PM
Thanks to everyone who replied and shared lots of useful information. We still don't feel like we really know what we're doing but we're just going on faith!
-Connie
Congrats on your giant step!!!!! Now keep telling those voices in the back of your mind to be quiet.
Yeah, those voices in my head have been pretty loud...they woke me up at 4am (ok, it was really 5am body time, but still it's a Sunday!!). No buyers remorse, just the feeling of 'what the h&$* did we just do?' It's all happening so fast, my head is spinning!
Cindy, we found it at a dealership, Longmont Ford. They were very pleasant to deal with.
I looked online at one at Longmont. Is yours in the Dark Shadow Gray Metallic color? If so, that is a nice color.
Anyway, enjoy the rest of the ride to the RV life. In one sense, maybe you are lucky in changing your considerations from a motorhome to the fifth wheel choice. Jo and I have waffled back and forth so much between motorhome and fifth wheel, but since we now have our F450, I guess the decision has been made on that aspect. Now, we need to nail down the fifth wheel.
Terry
1. Pull very large stumps (~5 feet diameter or so) for a side job
2. When nobody's looking, hook your chain up to the parked car in the front spot at the mall, drag it out of the spot you want (wheels locked & all), and take his spot.
3. If your house doen't sell, drag it behind with the new beast (just watch out for those low overpasses)
4. If you decide on a motorhome after all, hitch it up and drag it behind as a toad - you'd have the best of both worlds
.....at least that's the way its working out for me with my new F350 dually anyway. I absolutely love these beasts! And this is coming from someone who's driven only small convertibles for the last 20 years.
Best of luck - you're gonna love it!
Bob
Bob, I like your way of thinking!
Terry, yes it's the shadow grey one. We really liked the color too; that was just a bonus since you don't get to choose when going used.
Thanks to everyone for all of the support! That's why this family is so great!!
Yee Haw!
We're really happy for you too and I can't wait to hear what you decide on for your fifth!
-Connie
She has been christened Frieda B. (a.k.a. "Free To Be"). Enjoy!
-- Edited by contra on Tuesday 3rd of November 2009 09:09:51 AM
Thanks DZ. Yes, I believe ours had the venturi T upgrade. Not that I know that that really means but we got a copy of all of the warranty work and I'm pretty sure that was one of the items listed (I'll double check when I get home tonight). Great to hear happy stories. I hope to be able to report the same many miles down the road. Thanks for being open to questions. I'll be sure to ask once I figure out what they are! :)
-Connie
Now its time to go shopping for a fifth wheel and actually use the truck. Enjoy!