I purchased a 1995 Ford LTS cab and chassis truck from F & C Truck Sales in St. Louis, Missouri, online. Phil Westmeyer was the sales representative who assisted me. He and I communicated extensively via e-mail and phone. Mr. Westmeyer assured me that the vehicle was used as a flatbed to haul sandbags and did NOT have a power take off unit (PTO) so I expected to see an original frame, which is necessary for my purposes.
I was extremely shocked when the truck arrived to my home in Connecticut, to find that the rear of the frame had over 100 unoriginal holes drilled (ranging from to 1 diameter) and there were warning stickers on the truck indicating that it previously had a crane or loader mounted to it. An original, non-modified frame without many hours of PTO time is very important to me because I am going to mount a heavy loader to the rear of the frame.
Furthermore, the fact that the truck had several owners and was used for many different purposes was never explained to me. It is obvious that the last owners poorly maintained this truck - many items don't function and I know that I will keep finding more as I work on the truck and start to use it. Safety factors like the horn, engine brakes, and door handles should definitely have been working, but weren't. These important and obvious defects were kept from me.
I was told that the truck would be DOT compliant, but there are borderline problems that need work. When I had it inspected, I was told that the only way some of the tires would work for DOT compliancy, was to put an acceptable one along side the poor one and it was up to me to do the work. I need at least two replacement tires. There are bald spots on one tire.
One of the main reasons I bought this truck was because I was told it came with a large fleet of trucks that had regular maintenance. The fact that this truck needed so many time consuming repairs should have been considered in the price, but was not.
I spent $36,357 total on this Ford, of which $3,000- $4,000 was for alterations to my specifications. I had this truck delivered to my home in CT from St. Louis, MO. I was charged a high price for this inferior vehicle that was not described honestly by any means. F & C Truck Sales have not responded to the majority of my email questions since the truck arrived, and has made no effort to resolve any of the issues that I have addressed.
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