Diesel Bombers

Hey everyone, New to this site and somewhat new to diesel trucks. I have been a Mustang guy all my life. (to my dad's dismay lol) Ill try to keep things brief as I can get kinda long sometimes.

A couple years ago my wife and I found out we where going to have a baby. We where both floored because the Dr.s said we would never have one. But anyways, needless to say I was in total shock. I had no idea how we could ever pay for everything. We both made good money but we where in debt to our eyeballs. So i found the Dave Ramsey plan and paid off just over 64,000 in debt in 18 months. YAY. But in that I had to sell my 07 Mustang GT/CS and was glad to do it.

My dad had an 88 f250 7.3 diesel 4x4 that needed the c6 rebuilt for 600$. I rebuilt it but it has 410 gears so about 55-60 was about as fast as it would go and then the motor was screaming at that speed. I found a 5 speed in the local pull a part and switched it over. LOVE the truck. It is rusted from one end to the other the bed is a different color and the exhaust is rotted off just behind the cab lol. But it starts every time I hit the key and hasn't left me stranded (yet). But my wife now says that she wants to go back to work and will be working second shift so that we don't need daycare for our son.

And for some odd reason she doesn't want our son riding in that truck every day lol. So I am going to be in the market for a newer truck in a couple months. I want to use that time to research the different diesel trucks and find the perfect one for me. I am a ford guy at heart but realize there might be better trucks out there and diesels can be very expensive to fix even though I will do all the work myself, so this has to be right.

OK that is the short version, I will be reading and reading and reading. I am members of several forums so I know how to use the search function, but please forgive me if I ask a question that has been answered before.