Pick Out My Next Pickup Truck

My 2001 Ford F-250 Project Car (truck) has been a great companion over 3.5 years and 30,000 miles, but with used car prices starting to drop I'm planning on buying a truck in the next 6-12 months. And since there's nobody I trust more than the GRM forum, I figured I'd ask you all to help me with my plan. 

So why do I want to move on from the F-250? It's been a fantastic tow vehicle, but it's also now 22 years old and has just over 200,000 miles on the clock. 99% of its use is 1000-mile trips, towing 8,000 lbs., on a deadline. It's time to get something with fewer years and fewer miles, as I can't exactly call every attendee at the Tire Rack Ultimate Track Car Challenge and say "Sorry my truck broke down, you all have fun without me!" The slide-in camper will be going away, soon, replaced by a borrowed RV, so payload capacity isn't a major consideration.

Configuration: Four real doors, four real seats. Bed size isn't important as long as there is somewhere to put an engine and a few gas cans. Four-wheel-drive preferred but not a deal-breaker. Gas vs. diesel is a wash to me. 

Budget: Flexible, but I don't think there's any truck on the planet that I would pay more than $45k for. I'd rather spend far less or even skip a truck payment altogether, but I can be convinced to spend real money to never think about my tow vehicle when I'm 1000 miles from home in the middle of the night. 

Brand: I prefer Ford products due to positive family history. I have no strong opinion about Dodge/Ram. Chevrolet screwed me over personally by refusing to perform warranty work on a Volt that was under warranty and I'll carry that grudge forever, but that doesn't mean one of their trucks isn't the correct answer to this question. I've driven all but the newest Tundra and didn't find any reason to buy it over the domestic competition. I had a friend with a Diesel Titan and he was constantly on the side of the road waiting on a tow truck. 

Here are my ideas so far:

1. Spend $40k to buy a new or nearly new F-150 with the 3.5 Ecoboost, then use that as my daily driver too. That increases the budget and further simplifies my life, but will it comfortably tow a fully loaded 20' enclosed trailer long distances? Or am I setting myself up for another post in a few months titled "Need a bigger truck."

2. Spend $25-30k to buy a 10-year-old F-350 with the 6.7. This will easily tow the trailer, but do I really want that much money literally parked in the backyard for 300 days out of the year? And will I actually end up with something "new" enough to not worry about? This method would require a separate daily driver, too, as I'm not driving something this big every day. 

Is there an option I'm missing? Any other ideas to solve my problem?

Option 1.  

Budget another $1500 for a tune, an intercooler, and an intake.  Cut the muffler and resonator out of the exhaust.

It will be the fastest and most enjoyable vehicle in the fleet.  

Dig deep and get 21+ model year.  

An f150 ecoboost will absolutely tow an 8k lb enclosed trailer long distances fairly comfortably. I'm not sure you can buy that truck for $40k though, unless used car prices come down A LOT. IIRC that truck had a low $40s msrp back in late 2019/early 2020, I'm pretty sure it's up to around $50k now. I guess maybe the base trim could come in around budget, but the work truck interior isn't exactly someplace you want to be for long periods of time.

If you go that route, I don't know about the intake/tune, but do definitely budget a few hundred bucks for rear axle airbags and either a heftier hitch receiver or a weight distributing hitch if you're into that.

I'll throw one out of left field. 
I have a friend that rents a truck to pull his camper. Rents from Enterprise gets a 3/4 ton truck. They have usually been really new and really nice. I just price checked it and it was $82 a day. If you did that 65 days a year that would be just over $5k a year. That would have to be a tax write off in your business, and that's 8 years of your budget. 
It's also a pain to rent and it's not yours and all that. But they own the maintenance and if it breaks they get you a replacement. Just a thought. 

This guy meets all your requirements. 2010  Dodge Cummins crew cab 4wd. Stick, cloth seats, no DEF. Prices should be in your range.

You want something rock solid to do the big tows, but it's going to sit most of the time. Is this really something you should own or can you outsource? My wife works in highway construction and that's the sort of use case they rent. If they're not workin', they're not earnin'. 

With my GM discount I can build a 2500 WT 4x4 for $50k plus taxes gets me to $55k.  With my equity and saved so for I would need to borrow $35k or $750 a month x 48 months.  If I was watching Yellowstone and was at the Chevrolet dealer I would do It.  Ooh Rah!

I struggle with a loan that high so I consider the new Colorado and borrow $20k.  Even better is putting $2-$3k into the current one for some work needed and I OWE NOBODY!   

I still love that 2500.......except it won't fit into my garage for me to do service work.

I've thought about renting a bunch, but can't quite make the math work. $82 a day sounds like a fantastic deal until you add the  towing fee and the mileage fee. With Enterprise, a weekend race at Road Atlanta would cost $620 in fees, and a trip to the FIRM would cost $200. Granted the included maintenance is nice, but that's $800 per month and you don't end up with a truck after a few years.

At some point, you need to do the math on how much you would DD the truck and how that compares to your car plus a truck that sits around.

And not just fuel, but that plus registration, insurance, and maintenance.  Once you know that, you have a number to spend for the comfort exchange between the DD and the truck. 

We went down that path after 3 or 4 truck lease cycles, and it's done wonders for simplification.  Actually, the tow vehicle is the only running vehicle we have anymore.  That being said, it's a compromise for the towing it does- it's capable and all, but something bigger would be better, technically.  But it works great for us.

If you can really 100% live with the vehicle that  fully meets all of your towing requirements, that would be pretty nice.

I'm with Keith.  Buy an old Dodge with the Cummins.  It'll never be worth any less than you paid for it.

Not sure how helpful this is, but I've been very happy indeed with my 2021 F-250 powerstroke.  Tows great, and is a much quieter and more comfortable place to be than any other tow vehicle I've driven.  It really helps with the fatigue and long tows home after an event.  I'm not sure how much that applies to the previous generation that you're talking about, though.

Strangely all the photos I have of it have a BMW parked in front... :)

Between your two options- I haven't had any more issues dailying an F-250 than I did with an F-150, although the mileage is worse. I also tow an 8k enclosed race trailer and the F-250 is MUCH better at that job but technically I didn't "need" it, the F-150 did an OK job. I got tired of constantly messing with the weight distributing hitch. 

You can get 2019-20 F150's with under 40k miles on them for less than $35k

If you can live with 'only' an XLT, a 3.5/5.0 F-150 with the Heavy Duty Payload Package might be the droid you're looking for. It beefs the truck up (including the frame itself) and increases the payload by ~500 pounds over comparable typical 3.5/5.0 F-150s.

Driven5 said:

If you can live with 'only' an XLT, a 3.5/5.0 F-150 with the Heavy Duty Payload Package might be the droid you're looking for. It beefs the truck up (including the frame itself) and increases the payload by ~500 pounds over comparable typical 3.5/5.0 F-150s.

Interesting! What's the easiest way to tell if a used truck has this?

yupididit said:

You can get 2019-20 F150's with under 40k miles on them for less than $35k

Send link 

For what he's trying to do he really wants the max tow package.

Both the max tow and payload package are only really visible by checking the window sticker.

FWIW unless I really suck at operating the ford configurator the payload package now only applies to the small ecoboost. But the truck he wants is $55k in the current model year, so that's probably not really an option anyway.

Tom Suddard said:

Driven5 said:

If you can live with 'only' an XLT, a 3.5/5.0 F-150 with the Heavy Duty Payload Package might be the droid you're looking for. It beefs the truck up (including the frame itself) and increases the payload by ~500 pounds over comparable typical 3.5/5.0 F-150s.

Interesting! What's the easiest way to tell if a used truck has this?

IIRC, 7-lug axles vs 6.  When I was shopping them, they seemed kinda thin on the ground.  EDIT - I may have been thinking of the heavy duty payload package on earlier models.  Window sticker lookup at Researchmaniacs is probably the safer bet.

I ended up with a '14 F-350 Powerstroke and it tows a 10K trailer through the hills of PA without breaking a sweat.  That said, be ready for the diesel tax when something breaks.

Two diehard muscle cars with current ownership of 70's cars both have the F150 with a twin turbo V6 and claim it's super awesome.  

I don't know Ford engines well enough to tell you more.  

Datsun310Guy said:

yupididit said:

You can get 2019-20 F150's with under 40k miles on them for less than $35k

Send link 

Link

Link

And link

Tom Suddard said:

Driven5 said:

If you can live with 'only' an XLT, a 3.5/5.0 F-150 with the Heavy Duty Payload Package might be the droid you're looking for. It beefs the truck up (including the frame itself) and increases the payload by ~500 pounds over comparable typical 3.5/5.0 F-150s.

Interesting! What's the easiest way to tell if a used truck has this?

As weird as it sounds, they have a specific alloy wheel. On 2023, only the XL can get HDPP, 2022 you could get it with XLT, and in previous years all the way up to Lariat. If you search f150 payload HDPP there's a whole thread about how to find them used, that I could only confuse the matter. 

I'm going to go against the grain on this one.  New trucks are huge!  You can get a Ranger 4x4 XLT that can tow 7,500 pounds.  It's also a lot easier as a daily driver and great for some light to medium offroading, camping and anything else you want to do.  They seat 4 in relative comfort for long trips and are truck tough.  They are also better on fuel than larger trucks and cost less.  You can get new for the same price you are getting a big used truck.  I have a friend with an FX4 Ranger he uses for everything and pulling his rallycross Mustang.  I used my Colorado Z71 for everything and loved it.  It was honestly the best DD I've ever had.  I changed my DD because my commute now is LONG and I wanted 40+ mpg.  If I could make do with 22-25 mpg on my commute I'd still have the Colorado and have driven it until it's end of life. 

>>99% of its use is 1000-mile trips, towing 8,000 lbs., on a deadline.

Maybe I'm missing something but daily driveability doesn't sound like a factor. And I'm not sure how a 7.5k lb tow rating is relevant to comfortably towing 8k. Note there's a big difference between what these trucks are rated for and what they can do comfortably. I can't imagine the ranger would really be happy towing much more than 6k and it sure isn't going to be happy overloaded. Not to mention how far past its payload rating it would be with an overloaded trailer and carrying four adults.

I'd vote #1, as I can't see spending that much for the larger truck just to sit most of the time.

I have a 2017 F150 3.5 EB MaxTow to tow my 8500lb 24ft box trailer, and it does fine. Though this thread reminds me I need to order up airbags for the rear axle, the springs are a little soft for the trailer tongue weight.

I got a Lariat because I wanted the creature comforts, but if I had it to do over again, I'd get an XLT and get aftermarket leather seat covers installed. Mainly to avoid the sunroof which is problematic and expensive to have fixed. And while dual zone climate and cooled seats are nice, I'm not sure they justify the price premium for me.

In reply to yupididit :

Thank you