I am looking for service experience with Ford F150, 250 and Toyota Tundra 4x4s. Probably 5.4L engine in the Fords and 5.7L in the Tundra. I am in the market and trying to get the +/- and things to look out for. Common stuff to expect?

I will be using it for daily driver, electrical contracting (light hauling), a little offroad 4x4, and perhaps to tow the race car (6) trips a year for 300mi/trip, say 7k pounds.

Let me know your opinions and experience.

Matt

Well, Matt....
First and foremost: You will loose man-card points towing your race car to events!

Plus, you are going to run street tires this year, right?

Just kidding. Hope some one replies w some good 1st hand knowledge.

Shaun,

Gotta be ready for anything, you never know. Especially would be nice to know I could recover my vehicle without expensive towing. Yeah, probably street tires, but doesn't keep stuff from breaking.

I have gotten some consistent negative feedback from mechanics on the Fords, so I may need to open myself up to other options. While I am not a fan of the new Chevy styling, I could get a recent used one before the body change. Also didn't consider the Nissan Titan, but maybe I should. Dodge is out due to my Durango experience.

Matt

My Ford E-150 van has 120k miles. Coil-on-plugs are common on the 4.6L/5.4L motors. There was a switch in... 1999 I think that made the spark plug hole threads deeper. Earlier ones had a chance to blow out spark plugs.

Other then needing 3 COPs not long after I bought it, mine has been pretty rock solid.

One of the guys at work has 235k miles on his company 1999 F150. Original motor and trans.

The Tundra is a POS. I know two people that have had them and both suffered a variety of problems, from computers, to odd noises, to service lights that didn't mean anything, and my one buddy had one of the ones that suffered cam failure.

The F150/250 on the other hand, it is a Ford truck. The one thing they do well. They last forever and you can get service or mod parts anyplace.

-Tim

And that's what you get for buying the first model year and being an early adopter...

And the reason why I wouldn't buy a 1st year production ANYTHING either (yes even the 5th gen Camaro).

Now my father's tundra has only had one issue with the tire pressure sensors and it is used to tow Demo Derby cars all over NC.

Which tundra is the question. The current model is probably fine for towing anything this side of a giant enclosed trailer. The older model shouldn't tow a car on a trailer, ever. Trans problems abound, gas mileage is worse than my 3/4 ton, and it can't get up a hill. I wouldn't consider the new Tundra just because I think it's one of the uglier things on the road, but that's 100% subjective (well, I think that it's a universal truth, but whatever! ).

I think that just about any of the domestic 3/4 ton trucks will do just fine. I've heard good things about F150s for infrequent towing also. I'd steer clear of the 4l60/4l65 equipped GMs. Sometimes they run forever, sometimes they fail often. Seems to be a crapshoot. In all cases the 3/4 ton will get you some great things one of which is brakes. All half-ton trucks have brake problems if they are pushed hard.