The New Tow Hog. Ford E350 content

A couple of years ago I sold the E150 van, that I used to tow my 20' enclosed trailer. I never could bring myself to sell the trailer so it's been sitting and getting used as storage. I used an open trailer behind my wagon or work van for a while, they did a fairly good job, but I sure missed the enclosed. Having the car locked up at hotels and not having to unload Sunday night sure is nice.

Yesterday I pulled the trigger on a new to me tow rig. I picked it up today.

The requirements were, be able to tow anything I wanted, seat 5 and cost under $3000. I met two requirements and was close enough to the third.

Meet Tow Hog:

She is a 1994 E350 Crew Cab Dually, powered by a 460ci big block with an automatic. Now you understand the hog part.

Over all it's in pretty good shape. Runs like a top, cold A/C, hot heat, PW, PL, CC, 162K miles. Mechanically it's damn near perfect. Cosmetically it's fair. It will need paint eventually and has some dings that will need work. It was a California truck until last year, so it has no rust at all. It has some squeaks and rattles that will need to be tracked down and some annoying little things that will need attention like locks that don't work.

Yes, I know it's going to go through gas like the Exxon Valdez. The van it replaced got about 7-8mpg towing the enclosed at 65mph, my father's diesel Dodge only got 12mpg. Rather than spending $8-10K on a diesel, I went gas. It will spend most of it's life in the yard collecting pine needles. Driving it 1200-2400 miles a year, I just couldn't justify the extra cost of a diesel and the diesels in my price range were junk with 400K miles on them and needing high dollar repairs. If I can get around 6-8mpg towing, I'll be happy.

I'll let you know the towing mileage when I find out.

Damn, the title is supposed to say F350.

Toyman01 wrote: I'll let you know the towing mileage when I find out.

6mpg won't matter if it's 6k pounds or 20k pounds out back.... BTDT.

Oh and a hi-po torque converter will help MPG greatly.

Nice truck.

Read this about fourwheeler magazines project mpg. It's a dually 460 ford as well.

http://performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/projectmpg_4-part_magazine_series.pdf

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine:

I read through that last night and bookmarked it. It has some pretty good ideas in it. Thanks for the link!

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to Fueled by Caffeine: I read through that last night and bookmarked it. It has some pretty good ideas in it. Thanks for the link!

It is a bit dated though, GTS headlight covers. Eww.

FOr the locks, try lubing them first. My truck's locks were frozen when I bought it. i hosed them down with WD-40 and they freed up. Also, if the door handles are not moving smoothly, stick the WD-40 hose in behind the interior door handle and just spray up and down (make sure the window is up). Mine started getting kind of sticky and I was afraid of breaking the handle. I used the WD-40, let it soak over night, and they're good as new.

In reply to CGLockRacer:

Just got done lubing the locks. This is the only Ford I have ever owned that had a right side up on the key. Stick it in one way and they work, stick it in the other and they won't.

One of the rear doors won't lock at all, so there is a rod bent somewhere if I had to guess. I'll dig into it tomorrow. There isn't anything to steal in it at the moment.

Mine wasn't a dually, and regularly pulled down 9 mpg; gas was .98 then though.

They will pull anything!

You'll never be short on power with any big block Ford. It looks like a nice tow rig.

The 460 will make 600hp+ NA with just bolt ons if you feel the need for more power.

I also have a complete, tank to mixer, propane setup still for the regular cab EFI 460....still. Oh and the tank will hold 50 gals of propane at 6 mpg, plus the 35-ish gals of gas.....

That is a sweet truck!

Thats a nice one. I've always liked the 9th gen. Thats why I have a ¼ ton. It does is job. 10 MPG with the 302. Yours will guzzle, but won't let you down.

Nice buy.

I like that a lot. I'm interested to see how it tows, I'd sure rather have an old 460 than an old diesel, and I'd love to have truck stout enough to my Mustang easily.

Awesome truck, especially the rust free part.

My father's 97 454 gmc pickup towing a 12' enclosed gets about 8 mpg fwiw.

ultraclyde wrote: I like that a lot. I'm interested to see how it tows, I'd sure rather have an old 460 than an old diesel, and I'd love to have truck stout enough to my Mustang easily.

I recently bought a 96 Crew with the 7.3 Powerstroke. Diesel. Love the 14 mpg towing or not. Pulls my enclosed race trailer like its barely there

Well, I think I found the only expensive part on the truck. The actuator for the drivers side rear door lock is $245.00 I'm pretty sure for that price I can reach back and lock it manually. I might see if I can find a generic one to do the job. The good news is all the doors now lock and unlock.

I'm reasonably certain that the latch assemblies haven't been lubed or adjusted since Ford assembled the truck, so I took care of all of that while I was at it. All in all I still like it.

I found out a couple of other things while I was working on it. It's got plenty of power. It may well have a limited slip rear end.

This thing seems to be bringing out the redneck in me.

Toyman01 wrote: This thing seems to be bringing out the redneck in me.

A Dually does that, now all you need is a gun rack and a confederate flag with a pic of your half naked wife riding a bear on the tailgate...

Toyman01 wrote: Well, I think I found the only expensive part on the truck. The actuator for the drivers side rear door lock is $245.00 I'm pretty sure for that price I can reach back and lock it manually. I might see if I can find a generic one to do the job. The good news is all the doors now lock and unlock.

Looks like $60 for the actuator from LMC truck, so local should be similar.

I spent some time on the Beast today. The paint is officially dead. A fair portion of it will never get it's shine back, but I polished it anyway. It helped, but not much.

The oil has been changed. The blower fan was only working on high, so I changed the resistor for it. Once changed, the fan motor rattled pretty bad on low and medium, so it got changed too. Man I'm glad Ford parts are cheap. The resistor was $15, and the blower motor was $28.

Next on the list is to install and wire a brake controller. I kept my Tekonsha Prodigy when I sold my van so it will be going in the truck.

I mean this in the bestest way possible, you suck.

Yesterday was spent digging through the rear brakes. What fun that was.

The PO had ignored the disappearing brake fluid and the odd noises coming from the rear end. Most of the springs on the drivers side were in a small pile of scrap at the bottom of the drum. They had managed to almost cut the drum in half. The mixture of brake fluid, ground up springs, ground up drum and brake dust make for a fun cleaning project. New wheel cylinders, shoes, spring kits and drums went on. Much better.

I got the brake controller mounted and tested. Naturally the wiring is screwed up. Looks like the charge circuit for the break away battery is wired to the running lights and the Prodigy won't recognize that the trailer is even plugged in. That will be another fun project while laying on my back getting crap in my eyes.

It's coming together though. I think by the time I am done it will be a pretty good truck for fairly cheap.

In reply to Toyman01:

Why does trailer wiring get so messed up? The wiring on my Cummins looked like it had been reworked by a monkey.