I was making the same decision recently, and ended up with an Expedition. So far I’ve been quite happy with it!
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Get a suburban. It hauls fine, but needs sway bars and a proper hitch. Go with a lite weight 2 horse and it pulls like a dream.
We’ve got a Yukon XL at work that we use to haul people and pull a very large mobile lab and it’s great.
There was a time when I still had kids at home and had a pickup as my every day vehicle. I had a tonneau cover and I kept plastic bins with covers in the truck bed. Whenever I needed to carry stuff, I just lowered the tailgate, pulled out the appropriate sized bin(s) and put the stuff in a bin. I also kept a rake in the bed of the truck to grab bins that slid out of reach. That system also made packing up for vacations really easy.
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We bought a Ford F-250 quad cab ( 4 door) new in 2000 when our kids were small. We used it for everything until we got a car when gas prices went way, way up. Still have it and use it for all our towing.
@KittyinAus Are you planning to get a truck to pull the trailer you showed a picture of? I would not feel safe using the car you showed in a previous post.
The car isn’t stock. It’s had a heavy duty tow pack installed. That means it has an extra oil cooler for the automatic, a heavy duty tow bar and upgraded suspension. The photo isn’t my car. It’s a public domain photo of the same model.
I admit that it’s an old fashioned setup but it’s one that was very much the norm in Australia a few years back and is still done a lot.
Truck? Do you mean a US style of truck? If I had more money, I would have bought an SUV with a towing capacity of 3,500kg. Some people use the US style of trucks for big gooseneck horse trailers but the US trucks cost so much that most folks use a horse truck when travelling a team of horses.
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This one carries four horses and has living quarters including a kitchen and sleeping arrangements. There are bigger trucks that carry more horses. This is what I could buy for the same price as a US style pickup truck. (If there are any magic wish fairies reading this, could I please have it?)
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Both the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition were redesigned for 2007 and based on Ford’s T1 platform, which is related to the same platform that the 2004+ F-150is based on.
Since 2007 the Navigator is built at the same Ford truck plant in Louisville that builds the Super Duty pickups
Wow, thanks everybody, this is all good food for thought. I was laughing at myself as I was reading through the replies – I’d read one and think, “Yep, sounds like a pickup truck will be best” and then two replies later I’m thinking, “Oh, good point, I should go with a SUV” lol.
I can’t seem to quote…so to answer some questions and reply to a couple posts:
@Texarkana – thanks for your feedback about the tonneau cover and cargo bars – I do think with a setup like that, some of my concerns are eased. @NoSuchPerson - that’s brilliant - if I go for a pickup I’ll be stealing your idea.
@Second Star To The Right - I’m confident that I’ll only need a two-horse. I own one horse, and I suspect that if I get another I’ll lose a husband, lol. Most of the time I’ll be hauling one TB but could haul a friend’s now and then - they’ve been hauling me around for a while and I’ll be happy to return the favor. So I don’t feel the need to “over truck” for the horse trailer, but I am leaning towards “over trucking” for what we need as a family.
@clanter - I hadn’t thought about a lease. My DH leased a car years ago and it ended up not being a good financial decision in the end, so I haven’t looked into that. Might be worth checking out since terms may have changed since then. I’m unlikely to buy new since I’m cheap and they depreciate so much the first couple of years. A new-ish used truck will help fill my need to get a good deal 
Thanks for all the input - even though there’s no consensus, this has all been really useful and is helping me figure out what I need to think about in terms of my priorities. I’m all ears if anyone else has any thoughts or any specific trucks or SUVs they love - I’ll be researching everything you all mentioned.
If you get an SUV, make sure you can get into the back gate easily while the trailer is hooked up; the hitch does not block access to the gate or keep the gate from fully opening.
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I’m unlikely to buy new since I’m cheap and they depreciate so much the first couple of years.
trucks are still a hot item so the depreciation rate is less (less than half of that on a car)… and most manufacturers have low or zero interest on a new purchase… just do the check and verify .to make sure the used truck is actually the best buy
with the manufacturer’s incentives and lower interest rate it may be a wash when comparing late model used (three year old or less) verses new
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Since I am old and therefore very experienced (LOL!), I have had the opportunity to haul with all three - a 1/2 ton pickup (1983), 1/2 ton Suburban (2000), and 3/4 ton Yukon XL (2011). I also used all three for toting my family. I loved the pickup when we bought it, loved the Suburban when we bought it, and now - love the Yukon XL. Each generation has been a huge improvement over the last. We still own all three - the 1983 sits in the garage, waiting for my DH to retire so he can restore it, the Suburban has 200K miles and still drives well, and the Yukon is in active horse trailer and family travel mode.
Some thoughts: the 1/2 ton versions are adequate if you have a somewhat lighter trailer and live in flat country. I did a lot of local hauling with both and they are just fine, even with 2 horses on board. But they cannot compare to the 3/4 ton and I would never go back. The Yukon hauls like nothing is hooked up, even up and down the hills in Kentucky. We bought it new and the build quality was excellent. My husband loves it too so a winner all around.
We get some good natured chaffing about the “Queen Mary” but who’s the first person that gets called when someone needs to haul a group around???
We had to custom order the 3/4 ton.
If you need a pickup for farm chores, there’s always the option of buying the beater truck. My dad was a connoisseur of the old, ugly, but still serviceable pickup for rough use. Never spent much money but got a lot of use out of them.
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Most of the pros and cons have been mentioned already but I have two that haven’t. I have a Yukon XL (same as a suburban) and it tows a two horse steel trailer with full tack room easily. The down side is that with 8 seats you suddenly become a people transporter for the horse shows. Nothing like driving to a distant show with 6 girls sitting behind you ranging from 6 to 18. Buy some earplugs.
The other thing to consider since you don’t yet own a trailer is that you can sometimes find a used 5th wheel trailer for a lot less than a bumper pull. The truck can be setup to tow a 5th wheel but the SUV can’t.
Keith
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Two years ago I had the used vs. new debate with myself when I settled on a 3/4 ton diesel. I ended up new because the financing was lower for the newer trucks, the used diesels were still about 90% of the cost of a new truck so I wasn’t saving much money going used, and the warranties on the new trucks made it a no-brainer for me. YMMV
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Will you need the vehicle to haul hay and bedding? You really don’t want to stuff hay in your SUV…
I am thinking for your need, a pickup with full size crew cab should suffice. Make sure your future trailer has sufficient dressing room if you are hauling kids and horses are the same time. You will need the dressing room for your luggage.
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I’d make a list of pro’s and con’s for SUV vs. pickup. And see which one makes the most sense for you.
I have a Chevy Equinox. I love it. I love being able to toss the groceries in the back. However, it’s not exactly going to pull my 3-horse gooseneck trailer. 
So we have an “extra” vehicle for my horse habit and random towing needs (3/4 ton GMC pickup). And I’ve certainly gone grocery shopping many a time with it. We only have one child so far, so plenty of room inside to put the groceries. But sometimes we’ll put them in the box too. Not too big of a deal.
Hubby’s main vehicle is a 1/2 ton GMC. We have taken roadtrips with it before, no problem. It does have a tonneau cover which is nice (but does take up a little room in the truck bed). The pickup usually works better when we have to take the two of us and the kid AND the dog somewhere, because we can fit everyone (including dog kennel) in the pickup and put our luggage in back. We do have another kiddo on the way so that will probably force dog kennel to go in the pickup box, and luggage inside (because we won’t be able to close the tonneau cover).
I had the same experience a couple of years ago when I bought an SUV. I started out looking for used, but the price differential was not that big and I could get 0% financing on the new one.
I also found that most of the lightly used vehicles were coming off lease and had all the bells and whistles, so more than a few were even more expensive than the new version with fewer extras, which was all I needed.
we use a small flat bed trailer to haul hay/shavings/feed
Definitely SUV unless you have horses at home then you need a truck. Have had both, definitely prefer the SUV for the daily activities hauling kids, travelling. You’ll be doing that a lot more frequently than towing a trailer.
I don’t have problems with the Suburban equivalent of a 3/4 ton truck, BUT…I’ve found you DO need sway bars. I had worked for a guy with a hobby farm, and he had several pickups and a couple of Suburbans (or Expedition if you like Fords). I borrowed all of them at different times, and towing with the trucks was much better than with the Suburbans, but the Suburbans were fine when you used sway bars.
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Just adding to say my 1988 3/4 Silverado died a couple of years ago (250,000 miles on original tranny - not worth repairing at that point). I shopped around, and got a shiny, beautiful 3./4 Silverado HD. It was a 2003, but only had 50,000 miles on it. It had the plate in the bed, so I’m guessing someone used it to haul their fifth wheel or similar and that was the ONLY thing they used it for, to have such low mileage. It hauls effortlessly (2 horse steel slant bumper pull) and cost $11,000. I took it to a local mechanic shop and for $125 they ran an inspection/test. They said it needed new front shocks and some hoses - otherwise in great shape. When I told the dealership, they fixed those issues and did not change the price. So there are good deals to be had for used trucks if you have the time to shop around. I didn’t - my truck is my only vehicle - and I still lucked out.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I don’t anticipate a need to haul shavings/hay etc - we don’t have horse property and I board. I did have to put half a bale of hay in the back of my current Mazda CX9 once when I forgot to load it in my friend’s trailer with my horse - won’t do that again!
It sounds like new worked out better than used for a few of you - thanks for mentioning that. I wouldn’t have guessed, so thanks for bringing that up. I’ll see if the math works out well for us!
I guess my takeaway is that a SUV is better for the family needs, but with something like a tonneau cover and cargo bar, a pickup will work for the family stuff if I decide that we need the flexibility it offers. I’m famous for my indecisiveness, so I’ll be sure to post an update once I buy something, probably around October 2019, lol. :lol:
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