Oh my...considering possibly parting with my truck.

[towcat]

i just bought a jeep to daily drive so i am not putting alot of miles on the dually. 93 wrangler 4.0 automatic for 1700 bucks. has 220000 miles but runs great. and yes, i DD a jeep and wheel a f350.

you must be one of those "forward thinking" cart before the horse kinda guys

 

[subway]

my .02...........
imho a reg cab truck is great for a single guy. once he starts a family, it now is an endangered species. if your truck was a ext cab 4x4 and you know you'll be settling down for real, I'd say keep the truck and teach the other half how to drive stick. I have proven to the ardent naysayers that a diesel stick requires almost no coordination to do the throttle and clutch.....except in San Francisco, CA. with the ext cab the truck can haul the family in a pinch and the loose stuff you don't want to keep in the bed on shopping runs can go behind the driver's seat. this is not an option with a reg cab truck. A crewcab is really nice for hauling family and friends to activities comfortably....boating camping, dinners...etc. but it is a bear to park especially when it is a dually in a urban area. My suggestion is trade plus cash for a ext cab 4x4 if you want to retain the practicality of a full size 4x4 diesel.
Exploders are not a good option especially the 4.0 v-6 family. ford has yet to build one that doesn't eat head gaskets at the 100k mark. even the new SOHC 4.0 v-6's haven't been cured of that habit. Plus the new ones require more book time to do the gaskets. I love the older Exploders because they are a good income source for headgaskets and transmissions most of those owners are ******* deep in payments or money poured into one and have no choice other than pouring more money into it.
Jeeps are OK but you won't get a sig other to do a winter commuting in one. another thing is the mileage on a jeep sucks. I don't know why but I suspect the height of the vehicle has alot to do with it.
hope this helps.

Nailed it, i have a Jeep and had a single cab until the family appeared. now i have crew cab and run around in a ext cab ranger usually. 2x4 stick shift 3.0consistantly gets 22-23 mpg not econocar good but not bad, and i can actually turn into a parking spot

 

[Diesel_brad]

I would say your truck is worth 3-4 k depending how bad the rot is behind the fender flares

 

[towtruckdave]

I don't get it. My truck gets the same or better mileage than an Explorer and is way safer and more comfortable on the big road.

My 4x4 diesel truck is the last thing I would ever sell.

 

[Dieselcrawler]

you must be one of those "forward thinking" cart before the horse kinda guys

*** is a horse? lol

 

[BleednBlue68]

I agree with a ranger. Damn good lil trucks. Good mpg and still a 4x4 and can haul some stuff. Jeeps usually ride like crap for a daily driver. And the old inline 6's dont get very good mpg. I love jeeps and if I had extra money I'd love to have one. Always wanted one. How bout an escape/mariner/tribute? They get great mpg for a small suv. and they can be a 4x4 for your bad winters.

 

[david85]

My sister's 87 ranger got close to 25 MPG highway with the factory non EGR 2.9L V6. Tirning circle tight enough to make you dizzy even though its technically a long wheel base. Plenty of leg room in the front, VERY easy to drive and still some room in the back jump seats for two more if the need arises.

Its diesel now, but even as a stock gasser it did pretty good. Newer ones tended to get thirsty from what I can tell. Almost everything got thirsty around the beginning of the 1990s (except the old IDIs - sorry, not helping now am I...).

Early explorers are loosely based on the ranger, but I feel they are just a typical 10 year vehicle. I'd sooner look for a bronco ll, but those are likely all rusted out by now.

one thing I notice however is the over all height of the truck. Big tires, tall stance and fender flairs do nothing for MPGs. Even rangers these days have friggin huge tires and personally I think there's no real need for that.

 

[ghunt]

I fixed the area behind the fender flares, it's just not real pretty, that's part of the reason the flares are on it.

As for the truck's stance...whaddaya want? It's stock height with tires only a little bigger than stock. It's a brick, of course it won't do great on mileage.

If the truck was an extended cab then yes, I probably would be more inclined to keep it. But decent extended cab trucks seem to all be PSD's that are going for $10K around here.