Owner's Report On Best, Worst Pickups

Owner s Report On Best Worst Pickups PICKUPS Miscellaneous Are you satisfied with your pickup? How could the manufacturer improve performance fuel economy and construction? Have you modified your pickup in any way? What accessories have you bought for it? These are some of the questions we asked randomly selected pickup owners in an effort to highlight those pickups that perform with flying colors and to pinpoint the lemons that fail because of poor performance or failure of the dealer or company to provide service Here s how the survey shaped up This truck is a lemon and I don t know if it is poor engineering materials or workmanship says David S Erickson Altona Ill about his 1978 Chevrolet C-20 4-WD automatic with high-low transfer case In just 70 000 miles we ve rebuilt the transfer case and front differential replaced the odometer repaired a broken crankshaft and replaced the engine The 4-WD has never worked right and when we hook a trailer up to it the front wheels spin and the rear wheels won t move We take care of the truck with regular maintenance We ve got 180 000 miles on the original motor We ve replaced the carburetor at 170 000 miles repaired the transmission at 70 000 miles and put in four exhaust systems Otherwise we ve had no problems except for rust That could be partially solved by using a thicker gauge of metal and putting drain holes in the box says James R Hval Milestone Sask about his 1973 Chevrolet Custom 10 The secondary fuel filter on my 1983 K-20 Chevrolet 6 2 diesel Scottsdale is located under the intake manifold which makes it almost impossible to change The tailgate could be build stronger Fuel economy at 12 mpg loaded and 25 mpg empty is good says Robert Hamstad Finlayson Minn We ve had eight Chevrolets since 1961 We ve stayed with them because we always get 100 000 miles or more without any major repairs We modify Chevy s 350 engine to get more power and better mileage We install dual exhaust and a modified carburetor and we change the electronic ignition says Robert Anderson Raynesford Mont With a 6-cyl 300 cu in motor in a heavy pickup it s naturally not overloaded with power for towing or on hills but it s much more reliable and has more torque than other V-8 s we ve owned says John Dawson Slave Lake Alberta about his 1981 Ford F250 4-WD It s okay now but it took one year to correct all the problems says Tom Doolittle Antioch Ill about his 1980 Chevrolet K20 First the transmission seized up and required a total tear down at 400 miles The starter wouldn t turn the engine over so they replaced it The engine burned a quart of oil every 700 miles when new They finally overhauled it at just 2 500 miles The problem was that the pistons didn t have oil drain slots so oil picked up by the oil control ring wouldn t return to the pan Since the problems were corrected this has been an excellent truck Ford has the best engines They almost never take oil and the bodies don t rust out like Chevy and GMC says Wallace Fink Albert Lea Minn pleased with his Ford F100 4-WD I converted my pickup over to propane It works as well as gasoline and costs just 60 cents a gallon versus $1 00 a gallon for gasoline so savings are substantial We ve been very pleased with the performance of our 1978 Ford 3/4-ton says John Lorberg Gordonville Mo Ed Perkins Chauvin Alberta has been disappointed with a 1983 Dodge 150 4-WD When we first bought it we got 15 mpg but 2 weeks later we were getting only 5 mpg and burning lots of oil We returned to the dealer for the first of many times and were informed that the motor gaskets were gone They were replaced and 900 miles later went out again This happened four times Then when checking cattle I hit a rock and the front axle bent far too easily we felt Also the clutch filled easily and regularly with mud The dealer accused me of abusing the truck but in the same conversation admitted that there have been problems with the clutches in these trucks Another problem is that the cab and box rattled and banged more than my FOR COMPLETE STORY DOWNLOAD ISSUE

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