# 89 f250 5.0?



## crappiemiser (Sep 24, 2016)

im looking for a fire wood truck and this 89 f250 with a 5.0 with a manual tranny is maybe fitting the bill. My question is, people say a lot of good things about this engine but is it big enough for hauling heavy loads? There are a ton of the 460's for sale for less money and I'm not really worried about mpg . Thanks


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## Flint Mitch (Sep 24, 2016)

crappiemiser said:


> im looking for a fire wood truck and this 89 f250 with a 5.0 with a manual tranny is maybe fitting the bill. My question is, people say a lot of good things about this engine but is it big enough for hauling heavy loads? There are a ton of the 460's for sale for less money and I'm not really worried about mpg . Thanks


I would say it should be fine as long as it is running right. That was a strong engine.

I had an F150 inline six cylinder with a manual transmission. That thing was absolutely bullet proof. That straight six had plenty of torque to pull a car trailer loaded up after I added some helper springs[emoji16] 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## Jed1124 (Sep 24, 2016)

If your hauling down a highway at speed then no. Moving a load on the back roads a couple of miles and you'll be fine.


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## ChoppyChoppy (Sep 24, 2016)

What do you consider heavy? If your 're talking just a cord or two it'll be just fine.


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## crappiemiser (Sep 24, 2016)

Well, I have an older half ton Chevy that works but every time I load it I tell myself I need something more. i see myself with about a 8-10 cord per year harvest and burn less than half that.


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## DR. P. Proteus (Oct 23, 2016)

Its all in the gearing. Some of these older big chip trucks only had small blocks in them.

You can probably just google the VIN or something and find out what gearing is in the truck.


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## Ryan'smilling (Oct 23, 2016)

I've got a '90 F250 with the 4.9 straight six. It's got 4.10 gears. A couple of important things, during this era, Ford made"light duty" and "heavy duty" F250s that look identical. You need to check the GVWR on the door frame to find out which it is. If I recall, the light duty GVWR is around 6000, whereas the heavy duty is 8600+. If you want to haul heavyish loads, do NOT buy the light duty model. Also, Dr. P is right, Google "Ford Vin decoder". In an ideal world, the truck would have 4.10 gears, and a limited slip rear end. The decoder will tell you what you've got. 

I'm very pleased with my F250. Mine's 2wd, which is too bad, but it'll haul a heavy load. I've put 4000# in the bed before (no exaggeration, I could dig up the feed invoice for proof). Since my truck is the absolute base model, it's very light and has a massive payload capacity for a SRW truck. I won't say that it's got a lot of extra power. The 5.0 won't either. For heavy loads in the bed it's no problem at all. For a heavy trailer, you'll be going slow up hills. I towed my 3500# tractor on a relatively heavy skid steer trailer into a strong headwind. I couldn't do 55-60 in overdrive, so I had to pull it in 4th most of the way. Right around 2800 rpm for about 2.5 hours. No complaints from the truck, though. 

Good luck with your search.


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