New truck needed for towing 3500 lbs

[BJWLAWNCARE]

I personally would have a tough time going from a 250 to a 150. You may save gas but everything else is smaller. The brakes, axles, etc. You may run into problems down the road with repairs.

[jkilov]

My bad I meant 8000+ lbs GCWR not GVWR, anyway the colorado is out, I need that 8' bed for volume not so much the weight itself.

The biggest limitation is probably hitch load, noticed when the trailer isn't level loaded the truck's rear is all over the place.

Last year I accumulated well over 20,000 miles, this economy thing has me going much further for business than usual so good mpg's are important. Since I service the truck myself once outside warranty I prefer clean simple engineering.

More importantly I'm demoing a 1500 4.7 V8 Ram next week, it's not on my list but I refuse to discard any option before actually driving it.

[excav8ter]

What are you expecting to see as far as MPG goes? I have hard time believing that a gas engine is going to deliver good MPG's while being good at towing. I work with many guys who have gas engines in their trucks, and they do poorly in the MPG department.

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by Patriot Services

I wish Ford had continued pursuing diesel tech for the F150 and now defunct Rangers. I think any V6 is going to too stressed under daily towing operations. The 5.0 is probably going to the most popular option.
Posted via Mobile Device

That's my biggest gripe. If the 1500 or F-150 had a small diesel in it, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat.

If I ever become successful enough to where I have money to blow, I'll be importing an F-150 Diesel from Europe.

.......

[hosejockey2002]

It will be interesting to see how well the Ford Ecoboost holds up in the long run. People will say that there is no way a V6 will hold up to heavy towing, but not many years ago guys would have said the same thing about a diesel engine producing 1 hp per cubic inch, which is almost exactly what modern pickup diesels produce.

[Patriot Services]

Originally Posted by White Gardens

That's my biggest gripe. If the 1500 or F-150 had a small diesel in it, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat.

If I ever become successful enough to where I have money to blow, I'll be importing an F-150 Diesel from Europe.

.......

I wish it was easier to import vehicles. There are a bunch of more powerful, more efficient options from around the world. But thanks to the EPA and ignorant consumers we will never have them. If they based emissions on economy there wouldn't be any arguement.
Posted via Mobile Device

[jkilov]

OK finally demoed the dodge and it's ... suprisingly good.

Ride quality is very smooth and stable. I don't think it would tow as good as the ford, chassis wise it just seem to flex a tad in the corner, though being unloaded I couldn't give it a real test.

Economy wasn't that bad, again for the short distance and unloaded I can't really say but got 15 mpg fat the test which isn't that bad for a V8, apparently there's a V6 available on some gutted models, albeit only a 4-speed, I may look into those.

The biggest surprise is just how quiet this truck is, at 50 mph road noise is hardly audible, one could really get use to that. The "Ram-box" is a very nice feature, I definitively want one of these.

Biggest complaint would be fit and finish, the SLT tested felt kinda cheap with the lower trims even worse, I guess you get what you pay for.

To summarize quite a decent truck, any feedback on long-term reliability would be very appreciated.

[SouthLouisianaGrassCutter]

What is the price range you are looking into?

My vote is for a 2000 to 2002 F-250 with the 7.3L

BTW That 4.7l dodge you drove. hook it to a trailer and it will get 10 MPG or less.

My 7.3 got 13-15 mpg towing. Truck and trailer weighed 15,000lbs that is an in-closed trailer. 18-20 MPG unloaded

[JCA1]

If Ford no longer offers it, could you find a slightly older F-150 with the 4.2 V6?

[RSK Property Maintenance]

i read your original post, and from experience i would say go with something a little older, like an 01-03 7.3 f350 diesel, because while you may not need that much towing capacity now you probably will down the road, if your looking to grow, which i would think everyone is. I bought an f350 last year and started advertising and now a little over a year later, i'm looking into f450 dump trucks.....and will probably end up buying one before the winter hits, always buy more then you need, you will either grow into it or end up using it to its full capabilities and wishing you went bigger eventually. i know i always do.....