Ranch Battle! Can a 26-Year-Old Ford F-250 7.3L Power Stroke Outwork the Legendary 5.9L Cummins?

what is a better and cooler truck is it an old-school 1997 7.3 liter Power Stroke Ford or a 24 valve Cummins common rail Dodge Ram Dodge well there's only one way to find out we're gonna put them to work today it's the haul a lot of hay so a happy Yak Ranch has to feed the Yaks all winter long yeah and so Roger here is the man that I go to every year because he grows some great Alfalfa okay and we're gonna you're gonna haul seven Bales in my truck and I'm gonna haul seven Bales in your truck and then we'll find out what's better [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right so I'm buying I bought hay from this guy for three years he Bales it himself he's got what 30 Acres right now back it's good Alfalfa Yaks love it in the middle of winter so I'm getting 14 more Bales we're gonna put the truck to work so what he's going to do here is we're going to take the ones on the bottom that already kind of have a flat spot and we're going to put them on the trailer first so he took the nice round one off the top and he's going to save that to put in the crevice of the two that are on the bottom so he's grabbing one that's already flattened off [Music] [Applause] so this power stroke from 1997 is capable of throwing up to 11 000 pounds it's got a 410 rear axle and a manual transmission which kind of limits its maximum towing this is an extra heavy duty trailer it's capable of a total payload of 11 350 pounds so putting 7 000 pounds on it is Child's Play although it's really tall removable fenders let me secure the fender so we can get on the road [Music] foreign [Music] oh like butter hey look what Roger caught I tightened that one up I don't think we want to go down the road like that Andre no we don't have a lot of uh good thing Roger's here to keep us oh looks like you have a system [Music] so this is the first time you're seeing this truck right yeah it's a little different than what I'm used to on the seven three what's what's this about it's been a little bit modified so it's a 97 yeah so the engine is original but the turbocharger has been replaced I see that and then the previous one of the previous owners um did an intercooler setup so these pipes are going to the intercooler system it still has a dual battery it's got this air box here underneath the hood yeah that doesn't bother me and it has a small tuner uh that's it but we're not using really the tune we're not drag racing today we're pulling in stock mode that's right we're putting it to work we're in work mode so this these trucks from what I remember they didn't have an intercooler until a new body style right so this is an aftermarket it is an aftermarket system or some of these parts off of the newer version of the seven three do you know well not exactly sure exactly what intercooler they use but you know the radiator stock uh stock numbers are 225-ish horsepower and 450 pounds of torque you got it David this truck was born with an automatic really and then somebody converted it to a five speed is that right yes cool we're ready to go you got your turbo boost gauge down there and you've got your pyrometer right on the a-pillar okay well this is my first drive but you you've had your share of trucks I've had my share of Towing these uh all right you're clear on my side give it hell yeah that clutch is like way almost all the way out in it and it's a little bit heavy not too much see nice and easy yeah just a shifter so right now we're in stock mode so it's supposed to be basically the same amount of fuel as a stock truck would have so so it is chipped but it's not it's not not using it right now at this point yes yes it's pretty good in low RPMs yeah that's when you know if it's really got torque you put a load on it and you make your ship your at 1000 RPM all right so have you driven many power strokes though never that's why I'm excited about this I have never driven a power strip now you know I had a an IDI yes yes you did the previous version of this diesel yes but I've never driven a power stroke so this this is going to be awesome so yeah first impressions are good I mean this an older truck it's what uh 26 years old 26 years old so here's your emergency trailer brake brakes okay so try is actually a little bit and see oh yeah she works they're there right yep okay because I didn't want too much yeah but not too little as well so we have brakes do we have our hay I hope this is still there okay well now the real test we're gonna need to merge on the highway we got the brakes in terms right that feels good okay yeah we're gonna pull on to 287. and uh speed limit 60 55 or 60 yeah [Music] oh yeah listen to that turbo you can tell it's an aftermarket turbo yes I like that and the gear shifter is at hand it's really nice yeah you know mine have my Dodge has a six-speed and I like the six-speed when towing but just for normal driving I'd prefer a five speed because they're a little further apart for when you're not pulling along so what's your times now I mean on the Pyro well let's let's go to fifth gear and see what happens when we're pulling this that I mean it's 800 right here 150 miles an hour 800 850 so it's pretty healthy yeah it's pretty healthy well here's what I'm also trying to figure out I'm used to brand new trucks yeah and even 9 000 pounds for a half down a new one would be within its realm yeah you know well within its capability your F-150 power boost could handle this load yeah no problem but here we are this is kind of the Pinnacle of heavy duty F250 right for that year and what do you think I mean do you feel this way behind you well yeah I mean you do feel in an older truck you know you have a load which with the new Cummins when we went to Arizona yeah and we were pulling bahunka all the way yeah Arizona I mean some you didn't even know I forgot I was going it's just amazing yeah how effortless it is Towing so it's kind of good to actually feel the weight behind you because because it reminds you what's going on remind you you've got a lot of weight it's going to be pushing you around okay magically bam we're back we're near your Ranch get close yes so what are your impressions I mean you've had about half an hour behind the wheel now right yeah I'm a little bit in traffic and a little bit on the highway so confidence you're being confident that's my word that's my work I feel confident in this truck I feel like he got the power to pull whatever you want through town I feel like you got the power to go up a hill it feels my braking is really precise yeah uh I love the sound of the motor pretty nice huh I did Goose it off of a signal light and down and I watched this family was sitting at a at a cafe on the side yeah and I watched all the eyes turn towards me when the turbo kicked in yeah that was kind of fun you know when the same thing happened to me um yesterday morning uh there was a construction crew on the side of the road and this is what I wasn't goosing it either no I'm just gonna you know went by and all their heads turned so any Ford guy would know that sound yes and they would turn their head a medium yeah and their friends will follow I guess exactly it's so distinct well now you're running at like 2500 PM so this engine actually likes to rev a little bit higher huh it's what I found out that it it is happy when it hits 2000 RPM and it gets unhappy over three oh but oh a little road construction here oh she wants us to go slowly gonna make me lose all my momentum here gal hatching it oh there's a hole in the road right there see this fellow likes it yeah so that was at 3 200 on my shift right there all right then I shipped I went down to 2000 I'm pulling a hill your thumb went to a thousand degrees you're pulling 25 psi of Boom boom 3 000 RPM I've got a shift goes down to 2100 and loves being over 2000 RPM that's what it's happy is that's why it's happy yeah which is going to be different when we get into the Cummins right all right it's fun to drive it really is fun truck to drive I'm so glad you brought it sweet see that's what you're saying you can appreciate drugs for what they are it doesn't have to be one brand right or something else I've got some buddies that have had the seven three and you know they always brag about them you know and I said oh yeah yeah yeah well it's good to argue sometimes but not ever driving one I couldn't I couldn't agree or disagree yeah but now I can fully agree I do like this truck well now let's unload okay um and then let's run the Cummins I'm anxious to hear what you have to say about my truck [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] in one piece well I knew we were going to be in one piece but I really wanted to hear your thoughts and it sounds like you're pleased oh very pleased you know I was kind of I know it has four tens in it yes so you got to start out in first gear but you have to start out when you're just normally driving it no yeah second gear start is actually okay okay it has bigger tires almost 33 yeah yeah yeah so yeah you got to be in first gear but once you pull the RPMs up then get going it pulls awesome I love the sound of the turbo all right well let's unload okay foreign [Music] equipment makes any job easy the support it is a Ford no it does I couldn't live without that for no way but you have a lot of GMS and other comments come and Dodge except for the one most utilitarian tool as a fork that'll give you that and a bobcat and a bobcat yeah can you show me your uh uh rock crawler yeah my wrecker it's no longer a wrecker you want to see it no it's rock Wrecker last time I was here this was months ago you had an old G one time tow truck basically a wrecker body with a with a winch on the back and now now you took it down to different did you sure this is what's left yeah so they had they had put two feet in it okay okay right here you can see it and then they had put a piece of uh Channel inside of there okay I instead of cutting that out I just cut three feet off the end was that the rear yeah yeah I cut the spring perches everything right up the end okay and shorten it I moved the hanger I moved the spring hanger up I built my own spring hanger here uh these Springs are out of the GMT 400 that we you helped me move out of here okay that axles out of the GMT 400 okay uh I built a truss for it it'll get a locker eventually so I got it all cleaned up then I took the Dana 60 out it's gonna get a locker okay and be dual locked and you have a 454 right yeah so I'm gonna rebuild it and you're gonna try to do it all yourself right yeah polish it I mean surface it yep you help lap the valves I think I'm gonna put uh fuel injection maybe like an Edelbrock Pro flow 4 or something like that whoa yeah so stay tuned can we have it on our off-road Channel when you get it done yeah it might be two or three years but okay well it won't be tomorrow it won't be tomorrow [Music] all right so it's now time to switch trucks and drivers and drivers so we've gotta take the trailer the Aluma off of here and put it behind the Dodge Ram and load it up again and we're gonna see what you think of my little truck over here uh it's not little maybe not it's got a quad cab there dually yeah four thousand pound payload a passenger [Music] a little more stuff forward an inch [Music] well now it's time to take a look at this phone stock 24 valves of Freedom common rail Cummins goodness so how much power is this oh it says it on the Block 305 yeah this is the high output of that year 305 and 555 pound foot poundage torqueage and 550 555. oh triple fives triple fives so what year is this you said oh three this is the first year of the common rail this body style okay and I have the last share of the seven three power stroke OBS and they're about five years apart six years apart but you have more power and you have dualies in the back so what I like about this truck Andre uh it may seem a little strange to a lot of the viewers yeah but it's a two-wheel drive truck the reason I like that and it's a dually the reason I like that it's really stable on the road has no transfer case to go wrong it has a manual transmission with no automatic transmission to go wrong it is as simple as they get and there's lots of space to work on it do you drive it in the winter time no oh because I have 10 trucks why would I drive a two-wheel drive truck you know this is my this is my hauling truck that's a good way of doing it you have multiple trucks yep and and I typically just use it for that purpose [Music] I don't think this is fair why is that your truck seems like totally like next Generation I mean the dash is more modern it's a little bit quieter it's more powerful it's a dually it's I could go on I guess they're six years apart on these trucks yeah six years can be a lot but technology sometimes doesn't change for like Square bodies for a dozen years right or more or more yeah I gotta tell you the transmission is different feeling yeah so you're gonna find the shift points are gonna be way different than the five speed they're closer it seems they're closer together this is six speed so it took me some time to get used to it because I've been driving a heavy 4500 of my whole life yeah because I bought it one in 92 and I guess what three or four other vehicles if that's what they have yes so shift points you're just gonna have to get used to it and reverse is different instead of over and down it's over and up oh wow okay it seems like so my red line is closer to like 3200 RPM or in the power stroke it was near 3700 RPM so V8s tend to be higher revving right yeah yeah and this this coming seems to be really heavy like probably below 2000. yeah so that that six gear is kind of hard to hit it just straight oh that's four oh that's four now it can go across country I'm ready fifth gear is like fourth gear okay it's one to one so one to one okay direct drive and sixth gear is like fifth gear they're both on overdrive and they're both the same okay it's it's basically second third and fourth are kind of all different in there they're shorter distance yeah which makes sense I mean which gives you more options different speeds you can climb at different speeds right yep so you can do all those things three GTS down if you need to and you have a digital EGT gauge so you also have a pyrometer yep parameter how do you say that I put that on there probably right either way I put that on there because my mechanic suggested once you get over 200 000 miles you really need to watch your egts because if you get one injector that goes bad you're screwed so basically burning up potentially a hole through your piston or something like that you're gonna melt a piston yeah I see my egts can be as high as 1300 on a really hard pull with a really big load and you have a digital numeric gate I know it's exactly where it's at yeah I don't like it when it gets up there it but it's only when I'm got you know like a sale I'm pulling behind me or something going up a hill going 70 miles an hour okay yeah so I just saw 950 degrees a thousand degrees Yeah a thousand eighty eleven fifty you know what's scary is how fast it climbs it does climb fast yeah but then you know you're kind of relax it and it goes back to 800. yeah and that kind of has to do with power right the more fuel you're feeding to it I mean this I don't know if you can tell this definitely has more horses in that forecast uh yeah and also closer gears facing it seems yeah it's definitely like a Next Generation you could kind of tell it's kind of the next level next level of that you know what the truck is closer to the Powerstroke probably as cases Cummins because he's got a lot of he's got a well he's also modified that's true you know what's happening to me now I forgot I was telling those dualies make you feel really stable yes I'll tell you that much I hope I'm not losing bales we're hitting another torrential downpour every day it seems like it rains every afternoon we're getting like an inch of rain but without complaining no which means we have a lot of headache it is green green and it's really really green and our Lakes are full which is what we love yeah but you know what I'm learning after driving your truck for a while as the rain increases I'm learning that this truck is easy to drive because it has a Dually rear end it feels like tremendously stable it's so stable like because you have a toddler in the back I couldn't see the trailer if a guy that was Towing and also I'm near 1500 RPM the entire time yeah and that's what's the difference between the eight and the six yes because it's a straight six right there's no Pistons going against each other right in the way um it's really well balanced and that's what comments really has always been known for right that's just low RPM yeah it's really happy with lower RPMs um the shift points or lower RPM or and they feel a little bit more calm you know I'm it's a little bit quieter also so I feel a little bit more calm but still like in the power stroke like I was telling you like I could feel my chest hair grow know you're revving it to like 3 000 RPM that turbo lights out yes it's kind of screaming at you but this has a similar feeling because I could also wrap this higher but it feels a little bit calmer it does yeah I I would agree we were confident in the power stroke but we're calm in this one yes yeah and both did the job just great yeah just amazing this one feels a little different since simply because it's six speeds so the shift points are different yeah I feel like I have more choices more options here so if I'm taking some of these Canyons at higher speeds than I should I'm pretty top heavy here yeah the corner is pretty good though so I saw them you know your egts I've seen about 11.50 yep today and you said and you said you've seen higher numbers too yeah yeah I regularly see it at 12 when I'm pulling pulling hard at high speed yeah all right well let's get back and uh get a summary [Music] well I gotta say David your truck the dually did not squat as much probably nope it was a little bit more stable I do have airbags on it too oh yeah it just keeps getting more and more unfair so in the beginning I said which is better I really didn't mean that I just said I just wanted to see I just want to compare older diesels I mean they're not anywhere near the trucks of today but they still do the trick you can still move a lot of stuff and had some Heavy Hauling and I learned a lot because I could see the older Power Stroke working and its character right high revving yep or higher and there's still the calm character of this Cummins and both are great yeah I I'd say yeah confidence in the Ford calmness in the Dodge and they both were fun to drive because they're both manuals but how much was your RAM can you tell me Well you bought it what a year or two ago yeah year and a half year no about two years ago okay so I bought it from my cousin my cousin bought it new so I knew exactly what I was buying okay so uh you know it was a good buy uh it takes a hit because it's two wheel drive it takes a hit because it's a dually not everybody wants a dually yeah and it takes a hit because it's a manual because not everybody wants to drive a manual with more or less than 17 000. it was twelve thousand dollars but those OBS fours are really desirable people love those they do yeah yeah I can see why they love them yeah but me personally I'll take the comments all right well there you have it let us know what you think in the comments below and we'll see you next time when it stops raining [Music]

Channel: The Fast Lane Truck

Views: 597,510

Keywords: TFLtruck, The Fast Lane Truck

Id: AfeG4ttleos

Length: 26min 53sec (1613 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2023