Help for a rookie

[ten fiver]

I'm sure you guys get a ton of these threads, so I apologize in advance.

I'm in the market for a pickup to do some camper hauling, fishing, and general running around. Nothing major, and I don't put a lot of miles on my vehicles. My hunt for a new rig brought me to a dealer web site, and they have a '93 F230 7.3 that really has my interest piqued. The problem is, I know nothing about these pickups or diesels in general. First, the details (that I know as of now):

1993 F250 XL, supercab
7.3L
4x4, automatic trans.
Body, interior, tires are all immaculate (from pictures)
Equipped with a shell and snow-plow
mileage: 62,000, one owner.
asking price: $12,081

About all I know about these pickups is that the 7.3IDI is known to run a long time, and 62k miles is barely broken in. Cavitation shouldn't be a problem at this point, but I'll check it out. With that low of mileage I'm assuming this truck was probably primarily used as a snow pusher, so I'm figuring that it had plenty of parked time which always makes me leery of dried up fuel lines, etc.. I have to travel to check the pickup out in person, so I'm trying to figure out what I should look at when I get there, or if this is even worth the look at the price.

What are your thoughts on this situation? Any general concerns, or points of emphasis that I should really look out for when I see it in person? Any help you guys would have would be greatly appreciated.

 

[crash-harris]

Snow plow means it may have been a money maker at one point and plows are ******* trucks. That would have to be one VERY clean and mechanically sound truck for $12K+. Check the Tech Section at the top of this sub forum. There's a lot of good info in there, but look specifically for the New to or Buying an IDI article.

And welcome!

 

[Clb]

Plows are notorious for front end wear' ttb axles are notorious for sagging springs,( tire eaters).
Rust issues under the cab and bed are issues to check.
My truck also a 93...had 37k and only pulled a fifthwheel around front springs are gone,

 

[ten fiver]

Thanks guys. Yea, I was immediately turned off by the snowplow due to the wear and tear a truck takes when plowing, but I kept coming back to the listing due to how clean the truck looks and the low mileage. Even if everything looks great in person, I still don't see me paying $12k either. That's something I'll have to back them off of.

Clb, that's good to know about the springs. I figured I wouldn't have to worry too much about them with the low mileage, but I guess I do.

 

[79jasper]

You could get a nice deleted/studded 6.0 psd for that price.
No way in hell I'd pay that much for a idi.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[towcat]

I'm sure you guys get a ton of these threads, so I apologize in advance.

I'm in the market for a pickup to do some camper hauling, fishing, and general running around. Nothing major, and I don't put a lot of miles on my vehicles. My hunt for a new rig brought me to a dealer web site, and they have a '93 F230 7.3 that really has my interest piqued. The problem is, I know nothing about these pickups or diesels in general. First, the details (that I know as of now):

1993 F250 XL, supercab
7.3L
4x4, automatic trans.
Body, interior, tires are all immaculate (from pictures)
Equipped with a shell and snow-plow
mileage: 62,000, one owner.
asking price: $12,081

About all I know about these pickups is that the 7.3IDI is known to run a long time, and 62k miles is barely broken in. Cavitation shouldn't be a problem at this point, but I'll check it out. With that low of mileage I'm assuming this truck was probably primarily used as a snow pusher, so I'm figuring that it had plenty of parked time which always makes me leery of dried up fuel lines, etc.. I have to travel to check the pickup out in person, so I'm trying to figure out what I should look at when I get there, or if this is even worth the look at the price.

What are your thoughts on this situation? Any general concerns, or points of emphasis that I should really look out for when I see it in person? Any help you guys would have would be greatly appreciated.

welcome to the site.
in short, without seeing pics of the truck and pics of the underpinnings, that is way too much money for the truck.
i'm guessing you like the mechanical simplicity of these trucks. as long as you understand they are somewhat underpowered in bone stock form, you are doing fine. turbo and intercooler goes a long ways for these trucks and you don't need to make stupid high numbers to get good results. but it will cost. my suggestion if you are willing to spend that kinds of coin to get the truck you want, come out to kali and drive one home.

 

[ten fiver]

You could get a nice deleted/studded 6.0 psd for that price.
No way in hell I'd pay that much for a idi.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

Fair enough!

welcome to the site.
in short, without seeing pics of the truck and pics of the underpinnings, that is way too much money for the truck.
i'm guessing you like the mechanical simplicity of these trucks. as long as you understand they are somewhat underpowered in bone stock form, you are doing fine. turbo and intercooler goes a long ways for these trucks and you don't need to make stupid high numbers to get good results. but it will cost. my suggestion if you are willing to spend that kinds of coin to get the truck you want, come out to kali and drive one home.

I'll keep looking. I do like the simplicity of these trucks, but I don't need something that will be an endless project either. The power isn't really an issue as long as it will pull my camper (which my 1/2 pulls ok). And don't get me wrong, I really don't want to spend that kind of money.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

I'll keep looking. I do like the simplicity of these trucks, but I don't need something that will be an endless project either.

there's nothing simple about an old simple idi truck.
an idi truck isn't for you.there is always and i mean always something an older truck like this needs.not once has either of mine needed nothing.....never lol.
id venture to guess,the only way an idi truck could bring in over 10k would be in the form of the f450 trucks and only due to having pricey setups.ie; dump beds,buckets,welders,cranes,rollback etc.etc.
i doubt you'd fine any "pickup" idi truck with a resale value over 10k anymore.that's well past the norm with a 5k idi truck already at the upper end of the scale.they have her way,way,way over book.the miles might be low but, the age is still very high.

 

[IDIoit]

if you want to spend 12k on an IDI, i suggest you find an IDI project.
you can get them for damn cheap, free, and in some cases people will pay you to take them!
i traded a super, clean 91 F350 CC LB 4WD AT for a project 87 of the same caliber and a nice *** of cash ontop of it.

i have now depleted that cash and dumped fists full of dough into it.
BUT. i have everything new, its built the way i want it, and the resale value will more than tripple due to the nature of the project.
i woudnt sell it for the world. but for 12k you can build yourself a decent truck and have the satisfaction of knowing it has everything you want..

now, i know in this day in age, people dont have the will, drive, or ambition to work.
so doing what the US did is prolly your best bet.
get something from china.

if you dont want a project, that cash would be better spent on a powerstroke

 

[Morgonzo]

Reminds me of a CL ad I saw where a guy was wanting to trade a This swapped into a That, and said he'd only accept a IDI for trade if the glove box was hard to close due all the cash stuffed inside it.

Like you said, with the plow and the low milage..I would think it sat a lot. That dealership is questionable in my mind for asking so much, but a lot of them are. I look on fleabay, and CL all the time. It's a habit/hobby of mine. The average price for an 94 and older Diesel truck has gone way up since I bought mine last October. At least around here.

 

[satx78247]

ten fiver,

1st, WELCOME ABOARD.

IF you want a clean/rust-free & LOW MILEAGE IDI Pickup, PM me. - I find lots of them in South Texas, while I'm out looking for antique boats/outboards/trailers. = Within the last year, I must have found at least a dozen perfectly serviceable IDI pickups for sale, from 500 - 2000.oo.
(It won't cost me anything "to keep an eye out for" you a clean PU, CHEAP, in my "travels".)

Fwiw, my "new to me" 1986 diesel XLT Lariat, with <55,000 miles, will cost me less than 2,000.oo (including purchase price) when completely restored to factory stock within the next 2 weeks.
(I don't know anyone in South Texas who has more than about 5,000.oo in their IDI. - IMO, somebody is trying to "get to you" at anything over 5,000.oo.)

just my OPINION, satx

 

[jonb96150]

IDI trucks are not so common in Norcal (on Craigslist at least, I live at Tahoe so pretty much had to do all my shopping online, it's too far to check out car lots). I spent over 2 months with a craigslist search engine and ended up going into central Oregon for the one I bought a few weeks ago. There seems to be many more IDI/T rigs in Oregon for some reason. Don't know how far you are willing to travel. I had to drive 10 hours and pay top dollar but it's a very clean truck with a 5 sp, just what I wanted.

I've been plowing snow for over 30 years (just got 6" last night and took the plow off our work truck on Thurs. lol) and would never buy a plow truck unless it was owner operated just for his own use. They get beat to hell. And it is extremely rare to see an IFS truck with a plow on it. Maybe the guy just did his own driveway/ road as virtually no one plowing for a living around here is gonna put a plow on an IFS front end. But we get wet heavy snow which is super ******* plows, maybe it just pushed around champagne powder only on Sundays ha ha.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

IDI trucks are not so common in Norcal

they're not common anywhere anymore.the whole era of idi trucks with any engine.the 7th,8th & 9th gen trucks are no longer common. combine all of them and you'll need to be out west/south to see them used everyday on any sort of good scale.
while down in OK/TX area i got to see more in a day than i will here in a month.hard to say if any were idi trucks or not.none of them that i could tell but there are not too many very good indicators either.some of them had to be im sure.

since owning mine since '09 iv only seen a handful of other idi trucks.over the past 4-5 years the last of the semi commonly seen 9th gens have left the roads.most of them even then,didn't look too pretty lol.nor did my 4wd when i bought it (chip truck.)

 

[jwalterus]

one thing to consider that people overlook....
if it's an off-road rig, or a plow rig, or a farm rig...
how low of miles are they really when 40,000 of said miles are in 4-low?

 

[jonb96150]

one thing to consider that people overlook....
if it's an off-road rig, or a plow rig, or a farm rig...
how low of miles are they really when 40,000 of said miles are in 4-low?

Well said.