I heard the other day that Ford had made the deal to put a diesel in the F150 with John Deere. Being a John Deere drivin farmer, I would like to know if this is true so I can be the first to order one. I hope this is true, it would blend my two favorite things in the world.

 

They teased us 2 years ago, promising a baby PS in the 2004 F150's. I'm hesitant to get excited about another rumor, but it will be great when they finally wake up and put an efficient diesel in the 1/2 tons.

 

I have not heard anything, recently, about 1/2 ton w/diesels. The J/D would be good, I'm sure, but I didn't know they made one that would be small enough. Still a good idea though!

 

a CAT would be a good engine. Inline 4s, 6s and v8s, v12s, v16s v24. the cat/perkins inline 4 or 6 would work great.
i am bias since i work on cat stuff all day

 

That's a great point. Even if it wasn't in an f150, imagine how cool it would be to have a cat diesel under the hood of your truck. You would have insane torque in a superduty with an I6 cat putting under the hood. Any of you ambitious people out there, here is a project for you!

 

sorry, that was meant to say "purring", not "putting". Ya'll get what I mean, though. Forgot to mention, I'd take a comparable John Deere under my hood too.

 

I work at CAT in the foundry. We make a nice 7 liter I6 that can make about 300HP & around 750 FT. Lbs of torque. More than enough power for anything I could ever need

 

I agree that a diesel in the F-150 is a sensational idea. However, look at it from a business standpoint for Ford. The Superduty (F-250 and F-350) make a lot of money per vehicle sold. The F-150, as well as it is selling, doesn't make as much money. By dropping a diesel in the F-150, Ford will most likely lose some of the Superduty sales to F-150. One can argue that the increase in F-150 sales may be able to make up for the 250/350 sales decline but it may not be enough.

Just my two cents.

 

GM did well with the 6.2 diesel option in the 80's. Backed by a 5 speed, they were rated 18mpg city and 22 highway. I know a couple guys that have them with auto trans and they pull down about a 20mpg average. With current diesel technology, we could get great power and great mileage.

 

I can tell you this.

I've been a ford guy forever. But the first one that puts a Turbo charged direct injection diesel in a 1/2 truck will probably get my money.

I heard throught the grapevine that Nissan is working something there in the symrna plant. I would buy a Titan with diesel. I don't so much need the towing capacity or stump puling power. I need the room and the availabilty of a decent sized box on the back.

A TDI engine that gets 25-30 mpg in a 1/2 will be mine.

 

Same here msparks!

I think the first company that comes out with the 1/2 ton diesel could market to the $$$ conscience people like myself who are looking for mileage in a 4x4 truck. With current technology, 25-30 mpg is not unrealistic.

BTW - about 8 years ago I had an 83 K2500 4x4 with 3.73s and the 6.2L diesel. It averaged about 24 mpg on the highway!

 

I had heard about the baby PSD and was holding out for that, but when Ford canned the idea I bought on 04. As much as I love this truck I will be the first in line when someone puts a fuel efficient diesel in a 1/2 ton.

 

I doubt that will ever happen with John Deere...i just dont see JD wasting its time with a pickup engine...they already have a booming market...however I grew up on a farm, still am growing up on it, and all we have ever had is JD tractors....The technology used in the engines today is light years ahead of any pickup diesel in the market.....absolutely bullet proof, will run forever.....i have always told Dad that John Deere should make a heavy duty pickup for farmers, ranchers, people who actually work trucks, like they make tractors....would be very pricey but you wouldnt have to buy another truck for decades.......maybe someday......course if you would spend $230K for a pickup, you would expect it to last as long as a tractor.........

 

This idea has been tossed around before. I believe it comes down to emmisions. The 250/350 are medium duty trucks therefore they have different emmision standards than the 150 which is a light duty. I highly doubt that a half ton diesel will be sold by anyone before 2007, they just can't get the engines run clean enough on the current fuel. However in 2007, low sulfer diesel fuel comes into play. This will allow the engines to meet the emmision standards. I have seen several reports on the internet about Ford wanting to put a small (4.0-5.0) diesel in the 150. However, no vendor has been named, Detroit, Cat, Cummins and International have all been rumored to be in discussions with Ford. If Ford does build a diesel 150, look out because I will be fighting to get to the front of the line.

Joe

 

My dad is a machinist in product engineering at John Deere. They built a diesel motor for pick-ups a few years ago, but they didn't put it on the market because the John Deere implement dealers didn't want to wrench on pick-ups. I am sure there are other reasons, but this was a major factor.

I have heard that one of the reasons that FoMoCo hasn't put a diesel in a F-150 is because they would have to put a 3/4-ton front suspension on the truck because of the heavy motor. It would never ride like a gas F-150.