1993F-150

I have heard so many times that the ford trucks from the 1970's were the most reliable, powerful, durable, BADA trucks of all time. Is it true?

What are yalls opinions, I want to hear from some people who have actually had experience with these trucks.

How would they be compared to modern day trucks?

Thanks in Advance

che22879

I've worked with 70s truck all my life. As long as I did my maintenance they ran great. The engines were slow but had great torque and ran forever. we beat on our trucks all day. The only difference I see is there are more electronics to worry about and the sheet metal is weaker on newer models. It was easier to work on the older trucks too. and the transmissions weren't so problematic. The new trucks have more features and are more comfortable though.

F151

Modern trucks are much more comfy, more powerful, and all around just plain better.

whitetrucks

it depends on your perspective, if simplicity of maintainance is your game it's hard to beat a 70's f150, I once replaced a rusted out cab on a 73 by way of the box, ie; i left the front clip attatched over a weekend.

On the other hand, if creature comforts and emissions/fuel economy are more important, later model rigs are the way to go. Nowadays due to the complexity of the truck and my own lazyness and lack of knowledge of the more technical issues, I do a fair amont of wrenching on my 03 f150 with my checkbook.

JJ1983

better except for.........when you have to trouble shoot an electrical probelm. Then I promise, you would rather have an older truck lol

I owned an 86, 96, and 2001. All of them had their faults, but the 86, while I liked it, it seemed to give me the most problems, mainly ignition modules and PIP sensors in the distributor. I liked the 1996 I6 the best, better than the 5.4L. Dunno why, it wouldn't outrun itself if my life depended on it.

My dads 1969 f150 was MORE powerful than my 01 by far, I tried that "newer is better, more powerful" crap with him, he dusted my truck by many car legnths, and mine is the "best" 5.4L v8 ford has in 01. He laughed at me. 7.5L is what his had, and got ~ 16mpg on hwy like mine due to a 2.73 rear axle ratio. But, his would DEFINITELY outpull my truck as well. wasn't as safe, and didn't ride as good as mine though. And I told him that, his reply" I didn't my the MF to crash it, I bought it to drive it", I had to laugh. I drove an 08 F150 5.4L, his '69 F100 would beat a 5.4L today as well. Just wouldn't get the gas mileage. To each his own I guess, I need space rather than power.

JJ1983

agreed, although I still work on mine myself. It's perspective, mainly.

bluescrew

The only 70's truck I had was a 77 Chevy. Reliability wise, hard to beat. Easy to work on...only thing that sucked was when it was really damp out.

If you have any sort of safty concerns then go for a modern vehicle. Fuel injection is also nice.

1993F-150

Thanks for the posts!

From what people tend to say I believe older trucks were built better, think about it, more metal, power, easy to work on, but less comfortable
Anyone ever seen effects of truck crashes in the 1970's, ever been in one, seems to me that the trucks in the junkyard from the 70's came out better than newer trucks that were completely crushed. what do you think?
New trucks have more plastic, less metal, THE SAFETY RATING IS RIGGED- just my opinion, what do ya think

Keep posting, I want to know youre experiences!!

tleach17

I think the biggest thing that helped the older vehicals is simplicity. More people were able to repair there own vehicals and did not require owning a $5000 diagnostic computer. I restored my 78' in high school with my dad. It was so simple and maintenance friendly.

RadioMan

What I remember most about the 70's trucks that all (the Big Three)
were rust buckets.

The Big Three didn't think they had to build trucks (or cars) that had
to last because us Americans *had* to buy American. They all did a
back flip when cars and trucks from Japan started out selling American
made. REMEMBER?