Ideal farm truck....

Chevy silverado 4x4 with extended cab. Gas

Ford 250 extended.

I have a Chevy Silverado with the full extended cab and full back doors and a cap on the back! That cap is wonderful! We've hauled camping gear, dogs, stuff and Goats! (not all at the
same time!). I put a bunch of straw down and have hauled 3 adult Alpine does and 2 medium size Alpine kids. No problems. (once I tucked the back light wiring in!).
I get 17 mph whether I haul a trailer or not.

We have 2 Silverado 1500's Ext cab. One is only a year old and it took us a while to settle on gas or diesel and we settled on gas. We have one with a cap that is for work and the other one without we consider the farm truck. Hauls trash, debris, hay pretty well. And we can fit 5-6 people.

Before that we had a Ford 250 that I loved to pieces but why I don't have that now is a long story.... I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

We just got a diesel Ford 350 with an extended cab and bed and we really like it. It's a monster though. We can only use it for trailering or picking things up because it wont fit in a parking space! Lol. Unless you do a lot hauling and stuff though I can't see spending more money on a diesel instead of just getting a gasoline powered truck. It's only worth it if you're really going to haul a lot of heavy things over long distances. Plus it can be a pain having to look out for diesel pumps on road trips.

Our ideal farm truck truly is our little 2003 Chevy 150. I do wish it had 4 wheel drive though.

I am not really wanting a 1500 or a 3500, I am more headed in the direction of a 2500. We do haul round bales and wood in the bed ext.. I LOVE Silverado's!!! Our 6.5 was a Silverado, I loved everything about it, it had no work done before we bought it so it made it to 300,000 miles with out any work at all. It held up to a lot of abuse.

With a 2500 (250) the motor would be a 350, 318, or 360 I believe, and I have heard with all of them 15 mpg is as much as your getting, and that is with out a load. I like diesels if the body doesn't have a lot of miles. Since the motor doesn't seem to need as much work and they have a lot of power, pulling a trailer doesn't affect mileage to bad. We don't make to many long trips, but we do haul/pull quite a bit. 4x4 is a must around here. We are buying used, and the cost of a diesel isn't much more then the cost of a gas.

My main thing is which is cheaper to drive.. a gas 2500 or a diesel 2500.

I guess it would depend on what diesel gets mileage wise. I had a Ford F250 crew cab, regular gas. Loved the truck and it hauled everything I needed it to haul. But like was mentioned, we got 15 MPG empty and 10-11 MPG pulling a trailer or hauling large loads.

We no longer need to haul heavy stuff so we got rid of it and got a Toyota Tacoma. Much nicer to drive around town and park in parking lots. Fits our current needs and we get 20 mpg empty and 16 mpg pulling the trailer. We rarely pull the trailer now.

Ours have gotten about 22, but I was wondering what others have gotten

Our Ford 250 at it's best got 17mpg. My parents are using an F350 Diesel but they're hauling a massive trailer most of the time. Since you're not looking for anything that big I don't know if mileage matters to you but I can get mileage off of them if you think it would help you.

AmyBoogie said:

Our Ford 250 at it's best got 17mpg. My parents are using an F350 Diesel but they're hauling a massive trailer most of the time. Since you're not looking for anything that big I don't know if mileage matters to you but I can get mileage off of them if you think it would help you.

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was your ford 250 a gas or diesel? Yea I would like the mileage off your parents truck if ya could thanks

My F250 was gas.
My parents have had 2 F350's Their gas one got 8-9 MPG and the Diesel is getting around 12MPG....keeping in mind the truck is fully loaded and they're hauling a massive trailer.

They must really have it loaded down lol...

They have a crazy high specialty cap on it and they fill that truck so full and then they haul a massive 36' camper trailer. They do quilting shows and the product is fairly heavy.

Any one else, what do you find better on fuel gas or diesel ?

I know with our two trucks it's hard to decide..

Gas is cheaper than diesel but the diesel burns fuel differently than gas.. I know people that swear by diesel saying its cheaper long term. I personally don't believe that there is or would be a huge difference maintenance and gas wise once you break down the numbers but of course there is a difference in selling price.

If I didn't have travel with my horses a lot and just kept them home and did little things I would have just got gas. My little 1500 is great hailing round bales and my old horse trailer. That's why we keep it, to just do chores with and pick up things. The main reason we even got a diesel was just because we bought a big 3 horse trailer w/ a dressing room and take our horses out a lot. We wanted as much power as possible so it seemed like the right decision.

That's a good point. Part of why we got gas is that we take a lot of short trips with the truck and aren't hauling anything. If it was a truck used mostly for long range, we might have gotten a diesel. My parents got their diesel knowing we have the "farm" truck available they can drive for short trips.

The bigger gas trucks seem like they usually get less mileage than the diesels BUT.... diesel fuel costs more per gallon, diesels use WAY more oil per oil change (our F350 7.3L takes 15 qts and my 1500 Chevy gas takes 6 qts, I think the bigger gas engines are about the same) and they have two batteries that typically have to be replaced at the same time. I really like our diesel but mostly because I like the way they sound. Some diesels can be pretty touchy to start in cold weather, but will do better if they are plugged in to warm the glow plugs some before you start it.

If you get a diesel do not get a ford 6.0L diesel. That engine was made from about 2004-2006 and is pretty well known for being a lemon. We had one and every time we hauled with it we pretty much knew it would be in the shop afterwards. Most of the problems weren't little problems either, like the oil cooler, injectors and many other things!

If we get another diesel it will probably be a 90's model Chevy 6.5 turbo diesel... I have found that with dodges you get a lot of front end problems. And I won't buy a ford-- mainly because I would never hear the end of it from some die hard ford friends lol. I also love the way diesels sound, and the way they smell in the cold if we got a gas it would be a bigger a motor... No V6 at all lol