Trucks. Where to begin?

[Xanthoria]

No literally, what’s the best truck? (Also how long is a piece of string? )

I’m looking for a truck to tow a horse trailer that weighs #4000 and a #10,000 dumping trailer, minimum, for our landscape design business so capacity should be #12k min. My V8 4Runner has been trying to do the job but obviously can’t tow 10k and is in it’s twilight years 🩷 I do appreciate it’s reliability though!

We’re buying used.
Was thinking Ford
Was thinking F250: anything to watch out for there?
Diesel or gas: pros and cons?
Model years to avoid? Was thinking something 2017 or younger
Lumber rack: pros and cons?
Tool storage built in: pros and cons?
Was thinking crew cab vs SuperCab to put smaller, more delicate plants in: pros and cons?
Bed length?
Would like to be able to pick up a smallload of sand or gravel, weighing maybe one or one and a half tons In the bed
Used mileage on a truck related to age that’s acceptable? I see 2-3 yr old ones with 100k on them semi often…

Please share your experiences!

[2DogsFarm]

I may not be much help, but I had an F250 V10, crewcab, long bed, gas engine.
I bought it used in 2010, it was a 2001 model with limited mileage as it was used only for hauling a 2H GN w/LQ, maybe a couple times a month.
Owned by the wife of a longhaul trucker, it had been garage-kept as he owned his tractor & had a garage large enough to house both. He told me they had hauled 2 horses to NoCal (from IN) & even on mountain roads, no problem.
I bought the above trailer with it.
I never liked it, too much truck for me & I hated having to drive it a couple times a week to keep it in shape.
It had so-so mileage, averaging 14mpg with or without the trailer & horses.
I had to replace brakes after it sat outside on grass. Did not fit in my garage & I hadn’t put down a gravel pad for it.
I sold it locally after about 4yrs & it’s still on the road.

[exvet]

I have a 2016 3/4 ton crew cab Dodge Ram diesel truck. I got it used in 2017 with only 6000 miles on it from a farmer in the midwest who treated himself to a new truck each year. It was and still is in great shape. I use it to pull my 4000 lb trailer which you can barely feel behind the truck even fully loaded with 3 horses. I also have used it to pull our dump trailer loaded with rock and also loaded with our skid steer. The truck had no problem. The only thing I would do differently if I could would have been get a long bed. My previous Ford trucks (F250 and F359) were long beds which really came in handy for carrying fence panels, furniture, etc. I prefer diesel, mostly because my 1996 F 250 with 300,000+ miles on it is still going strong. I sold my 2005 F350 (not a good year) to a mechanic who still drives it with about 250,000 miles on it. My son owns the 96 F250 which I bought brand new in 1996 and glad to have access to it when I need the long bed. As for diesel engines, my preference is the cummings. My son, though, has an easier time working on the Ford engines in terms of ease of getting parts and being able to pull it apart and put it back together himself.

[Annie10]

if you’re looking at Ford Diesels stay away from the 6.0 . That engine is horrible and the odds of getting one thats nothing but trouble are pretty high. If you can find an old 7.3 in good shape jump on it. The new 7.3 gas engine is supposed to be really something but I haven’t driven one so can’t say…I drove a friends 2017-18 6.7 on a couple of cross country month long trips (from FL to Utah, and FL to nebraska) pulling a fully loaded 4h gn with BIG horses and all the crap and accessories for them and 4 people. That thing was a beast and I wanted to marry it lol.
I have a 2002 F250 7.3 and a 2001 F350 7.3 dually. Bought the 250 brand new and it’s in fantastic shape. Bought the 350 used a few years ago and it has needed more maintenace despite having the same mileage as the other one (about 250K). But it’s still a good truck and worth keeping it going as opposed to pooping out a fortune for a new one.

[LCDR]

If you would share the maximum amount that you have in your truck buying budget that would help tremendously in narrowing down the recommendations.

But off the top, I’d go with an 8 foot bed. Short bed pickups are just big boy show toys in my opinion. So bring on the anecdotes about how you can do all things with your short beds, fellow CoTHers.

Another consideration you haven’t shared is where you will be towing. If you’ll be towing at higher elevation you should strongly look at turbo diesels. If you live and tow where I do, on a coastal plain 290 feet above sea level, gas engines are fine and will save you a bunch on purchase price. Also you won’t need to deal with a diesel engine emissions system. Some new gas pickups now have turbochargers and should perform well at higher elevations but probably would be a budget buster for you.

Finally, do you want an upscale interior, or will a work truck interior suit you?

[Calvincrowe]

Buy as much truck as you can afford and consider where, how much and what you’ll be hauling-- both horses and trailer.

I’ve owned Ford and Chevy/GMC and by far prefer my Chevy Duramax diesel to the gas Ford/diesel Ford from a comfort and performance standpoint. Definitely an 8 foot ‘long’ bed given the choice (short beds are useless!) and four wheel drive. The longer wheelbase is easier to haul with in my opinion.

[NancyM]

Dodge diesel, pre def. 3/4 ton or 1 ton, whichever you find in decent shape.

[Zevida]

I had a friend helping me shop who convinced me I had to get a long bed, which I did. Although when I look around everyone else I know with a truck has a short bed. It is nice to be able to haul something like a bookshelf or mattress laying fully flat. However using it to run errands it is a total pain to park anywhere in a “normal” parking lot and that often makes me wish I’d gone short bed. If you will be doing any kind of regular driving with it that’s not towing/hauling I’d get a short bed. But if it’s 99% for towing/hauling then yes long bed, and when you are stuck going to the grocery store in it park far, far in the back and take up 4 spots like me.

[Annie10]

I have both a long bed and a short bed. Both trucks are crew cabs. Other than being able to bring home 2 rolls in the long bed, I haven’t noticed one iota of difference.
I have 2 trailers. One is a 2h straight load gn w a dressing room. The other is a 3h LQ w a 12’ short wall. I’ve hauled both with both trucks and the only difference is the 350 is a dually, which helped stability going through the mountains out west . But both trucks pulled both fine.

**the only other difference is depending on the nose of your trailer you have to pay attention to your back window when backing up.

[Pezanos]

The dumping trailer is #10,000? Or can haul #10,000? I have a 2016 Ford F250 XL (base model 6.2l V8 but w tow package) and it comes with a Class III hitch, only rated up to #13,000 so your dumping trailer fully loaded would absolutely be overweight. That model can only tow #12,000 lbs safely so just be cautious.

[LCDR]

Using the truck in their landscape design business a long bed makes more sense to me. I’d want a long bed to haul bushes and trees flat in the bed to minimize wind damage during transport from nursery to the job site. I suppose they could be hauled in the business dump trailer, but why tow it just to deliver a few trees or bushes?

It sounded to me as if the truck plans are for it to get more business use outings than horse trailer outings. Which brings me back to the work truck versus upscale country club truck question.

[Xanthoria]

Yes you’re exactly right - the landscape business use is key, so long bed it is!

[Xanthoria]

@Pezanos

The dumping trailer is #10,000? Or can haul #10,000?

It weighs 3,000# but the chassis (?) is rated to10k total so max material load about 7k

[f0rf31t]

@Xanthoria

We’re buying used.

Can’t help you with trucks, specifically, as I’ve never had to have one but if you’re buying used, don’t care about getting the best possible deal but do know your budget, what, generally, you want, etc. CarMax in my experience was fairly easy to work with if there’s a location near-ish to you (I know in a rural area that might not be the case, I got fairly lucky that there’s one 45 minutes to an hour-ish from me.) just be prepared for everything to maybe be faster moving than you expect but then again I’d never exactly car shopped prior to my run last year of trying to get a new to me car b/c I was upgrading from a family hand-me-down of an old Honda I bought from my uncle when I was in college so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Not trying to sound like a shill but you can get a vehicle you’re interested in shipped to the nearest Carmax location for free if it’s within a certain distance, and then the shipping price will increase depending on distance. Think when I was looking it was like $199 for the stuff just out of the free range (the range/radius for “free shipping” to a test drive location felt generous to me - the car I had shipped for a test drive was going from just outside of Chicago to central Indiana). You can reserve a test drive on the wesbite. Mostly found them easier to deal with than actual dealerships but you can sometimes find a better deal on the price at a dealership (e.g. my little Mazda, I probably if I waited it out, etc. could’ve found one for maybe $2k less than I paid for it from CarMax at a dealership but I’d not had great experiences with traditional dealerships throughout my car hunt.

That said I have zero clue if CarMax (or any of the CarMax type places but CarMax is specifically what my experience was with) does trucks very well as all my experience was with a Mazda3 sedan. I’m pretty sure they have trucks.

[poltroon]

I have an F-250 long bed crew cab and it’s served me well. It’s not fun to park in the city, but it has taken a lot of cargo and a lot of people many places. If it doesn’t have to be your daily driver I don’t think you’ll regret the crew cab and I’d definitely always go long bed again if at all possible.

[Demerara_Stables]

I’ve got an ‘18 F350 diesel SRW with just over 100k miles on it, that I bought brand new - designed it myself and ordered from the dealer. Other than a sunroof issue, I’ve had zero problems with it (knock wood!) and I absolutely love it. It’s rated to tow up to 18,000 lbs, and mostly tows my 5h head to head, and has no problem with a full load. It’s an 8’ bed crew cab, lariat trim, and really is a sharp looking truck inside and out. The year I bought it, the only difference between the 250 and the 350 was the 350 had a beefier suspension, so better for hauling (I didn’t think that’s always been the only difference between the two).

I’m a big Ford fan, this is my 4th and they’ve all been really solid trucks. My 2005 ranger had over 200k miles on it when I sold it.

I would avoid the dealer that’s close to us on the coast.

[Xanthoria]

@LCDR

If you would share the maximum amount that you have in your truck buying budget that would help tremendously in narrowing down the recommendations.

Another consideration you haven’t shared is where you will be towing. If you’ll be towing at higher elevation you should strongly look at turbo diesels. If you live and tow where I do, on a coastal plain 290 feet above sea level, gas engines are fine and will save you a bunch on purchase price.

Sorry editing because I can’t read apparently! Budget is 50k. Does that seem reasonable?

Max for horse trailer would be 7000# and dumping trailer 10,000#. Would like to be able to put 2000# in the bed too (small load of sand or gravel)

Towing would be 90% low level and maybe 2 trips a year from N Cal to So Cal via the Grapevine which tops out at 1,500’ so not really high.

[Bonnie2]

We take the seats out of the back of our crew cabs. Personal trucks for dog beds, work trucks for equipment. If you are more likely to be hauling tender plants than passengers.

[LCDR]

Do either of you have a history with GM, Ford. or Dodge /Ram that would made you strongly consider one make over the others?

In my situation I grew up with GM cars so when I started shopping for trucks I concentrated on Chevrolet /GMC. I looked at the others but the bias was there, and I really don’t know if I would have been happy driving one of the “other brands.”

Now if Toyota/Lexus made a heavy duty pickup, I’d be all over it. We are on our seventh Lexus, and it is all about reliability and the service experience for us.

[Pezanos]

Around here the landscape companies all use 350s and higher. With the weights you are talking, it still very much seems the 250 is not beefy enough. My hitch without weight-distributing bars is only rated to #6k, and that seems like a royal pain to set up for your dump trailer.

That said, I have loved my truck and like Demerara, it has been trouble free in the 7 years I’ve owned it (KNOCK WOOD!!!). Will happily buy another but next time it will be an F350 for sure. I hate worrying that I am bumping up against overloading the truck.