Vans - Ford vs Chevy

I'm good friends with our local "Speedy" delivery driver (local competitor to UPS) They are getting the best cost out of the Sprinter. We're talking units that run 500 miles a day.

Karl

I have a Ford 350 1-ton 15 passenger van. It's the best vehicle I've EVER owned! Maintenance has been less than budgeted, it's been perfectly reliable and has never stranded me.

I have the same unit (93) in a delievery truck. It passes everything but a gas station.

Very reliable unit

Karl

Avoid last-generation Ford vans - the Triton motor loves to spit out spark plugs, as they only have three or four threads in the hole.

And the guy who came out to repair the #4 hole on the company van had to do it all by Braille, with a custom right angle drill guide rig, and home-built threader and insert installer tools that would clear the header over the engine. Something I would NEVER try without doing a bunch on a conventional truck first where I could see what I was doing.

And the Twin I-Beam on the E250 chews front tires like a bandit - they've known the geometry is horrid since they designed it in 1965, but they just keep on using it.

All conventional vans are horrid for access to the engine, but that's par for the course. Go kick the tires on all of them, and take time looking at the service accessibility on anything you are considering. Access to the spark plugs, filters, oil drain and dipstick, master cylinder, etc.

You don't want to have to take the whole front end apart to get to something - this is why I like a conventional truck with a box on the back, the engine compartment access is SO much better.

Or you have to start designing your own custom repair tools - Want to buy a AC Compressor Clutch Puller that does it in situ? Saves you taking the front end out just to get the AC to work again - damn thing is mounted on the bottom...

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I have had really good luck with Chevies since 2001 when I bought my first new truck, however the last "new" truck I bought was a 2008 1500 (I've got an '03 and an 07 2500 too). That 08 really disappointed me. It ran great and had really good 4wd, but the sheet metal all over was paper thin. You drop a screw driver getting it out of the work cap, and you dented the truck. Not kidding. I opened the door once and bumped the side of a house where I had to park close, and it folded the edge of the door over. I can't tell you how it help up otherwise since I rolled it with only 7000 miles on it when a wild burrow ran out in front of us, but I can say from the look of the cab if we hadn't had a work cap on the truck it would have totally collapsed.

My other Chevies have all been excellent, but the newest one in the stable right now is a 2007.

Since 96 when GM switched to body on frame for the vans they have been much better. If you're planning on a Ford you will want to buy new NOW. They are shutting down the E serier van next year. They are replacing it with a new design. The Sprinter is OK in the larger versions. Don't buy the early units though. They had a LOT of problems with the front hubs/brakes.

Thin sheet metal due to G'ment MPG guide lines, expect them to make it even thinner in the future.

I'm a GM guy. I vote for Chevy. My buddy works for a company that's

Remove 333 to reply. Randy

I've owned a lot of trucks over the years. My first truck was an 1976 F150 heavy half with a 3/4 ton rear axle and a 360. It would haul ass upto about

I've owned a bunch of Fords all bought used, and a bunch of Chevies, some used and some new. My favorite truck of all times I ever had is one I have right now. The 2007 4wd Crew 2500HD Duramax/Allison. Its gets about 16MPG which is amazing for a truck that size with 4wd, and it has enough power to... well I don't know. LOL. It hasn't failed to pull anything I asked it to if it can get traction (which it does pretty darn good with auto locking front and rear differentials) including other trucks buried to the axles just off the side of the road. Hauling heavy loads in the hills shifting to manual and using the paddle shift switch on it is excellent, although tow haul mode works on all but the heaviest loads. About the heaviest I tow regularly is a utility trailer with two scissors lifts at about 8000 pounds total. On the highway automatic/tow haul mode is fine. I only like to shift to manual and drive with the tach in the steepest hill country. Being able to run in a lower gear keeps the oil pressure up higher and the temperature down when climbing those looooong grades on hot summer days in the southwest.

My second favorite truck was a 1965 F250 with a 352 industrial and the cast iron transmission all the race car guys wanted. I was offered more for either the rear axle or the transmission out of that truck than I paid for the whole truck. It had a utility body and it wasn't fast, but man it could haul loads. I pulled motor homes with that one too. It didn't even break a sweat. I could top Telegraph Pass with 8000 pounds behind it and still be doing 65. When I sold it I made sure it went to a guy who needed a work truck. Not somebody who was going to scrap it for the transmission and the rear axle. That guy is still driving it. I see it around town once in a while.

If it IS a 351C it has been replaced. More likely a 460.