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Tom, As you are aware my '99 F150 5.4L recently meet with an early demise at the hands of a hamfisted no account destracted driver with just over 198,000 trouble free miles on the odo. I used the truck mainly as transportaion to and from the office and jobsites with a little light hauling / towing thrown in on occasion.
The 5.4L was / is perfect for what I 'demand' from my truck and actually was more then I 'needed' from a purly practical stand point based upon the 'average non-aggressive driver'
We have two F150 XL 4.2s in our 'fleet' (one '99 & one '00) and both serve much as mine 5.4L equipt model did and do it well. One has about 125,000 miles and the other is at about 85,000.
Though these trucks have not been 'babied' by any streach, they are still in good condition and will likily go for many more miles
in them if use remains easy.
You must understand that these have the small 'cross bed' tool boxes that are for the most part unloaded and rarily if ever haul anything other then a driver. I wouldn't recomend the 4.2L for use if your dad intends to put more then a couple tools on board.
Many plumbers will need a pipe rack to go with a 'cross box' and a couple boxes that sit on the top of the bed side rails. The weight of those tool boxes and the rack (and aero effects of them) can really work a little motor hard, even if it's just for local running.
While I agree that he doesn't need a SuperDuty PSD, I do recommend a F150 4.6L as a minimum with 5.4L being better.
The best case would be if you could find a '98 F250 LD (non superduty F250 with a 5.4L) These are now marketed as the F150 7700# payload package model and have been since the SuperDuty line was introduced. You can pick them out pretty easily by the 7 lug wheels.
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