Choosing a tow vehicle

[Leo182]

I recently replaced/upgraded my truck. I spent a few months reading everything I could find, watching videos, and shopping around. I finally found what I was looking for and got a 2024 F250 Tremor. So far I'm pretty happy with the truck and it meets my needs. Now that I have all of this extra time, since I'm not shopping anymore, I was curious what criteria others use for picking their vehicle. Whether it's brand loyalty, finances, availability, or whatever, I'd like to hear your reasons.

Here's my story. My brother and I are both retired. With the extra free time, we decided to start a little side hustle and do brush cutting, stump grinding, garden tilling, etc, for a little bit of play money. My F150 was fine for pulling the little tractor around, but either of the bigger tractors or mini-ex was too much.

I decided on a 3/4 ton to keep the gvwr at 10,000. And be able to pull a slightly bigger trailer than a one ton ( probably 11,000 gvwr), and still be under 26k CDL.

I went with the 7.3 gas over a diesel. Mostly to save $10-12k, but also the gas engine is lighter so it saves me several hundred pounds in payload. I'm not towing anything over 12-14,000 so I think the gasser will be fine.

And finally, I don't currently and have plans to off road/ trail ride my truck, but hauling hay, firewood, gravel or whatever, along with trailering the equipment, we are off the road a good bit. I probably could get by with a 4 wheel drive base model but availability came into play and I found the Tremor in my price range so it was a no brainer.

Let me hear your story and why you chose yours

 

[deserteagle71]

Only one criteria...will it do the job? Nothing else matters.

And if you'd chosen a non-Tremor model you'd have more payload. The Tremor has a softer suspension tuned to articulate and ride better off road compared to a standard F250.

Which is why I wouldn't even consider an F250 and go straight to an F350. Better payload for very little more money. But that's just me because to me payload matters. But if the Tremor works for you, that's all that matters.

Brand loyalty? Nope. I've owned all three. Right now my hauler is a Dodge/Cummins. I won't own a GM but that's only because the nearest GM dealer is 170 miles away. GM closed down the two GM dealerships we had in town.

 

[Leo182]

I get your point about payload. This is definitely not meant to be a Tremor vs non-tremor argument. I have a 3378 payload in my truck. I've seen plenty of 3/4 tons with a bigger payload, but also several with a smaller one. I've also seen some one tons with less.

My VIN search shows a gvwr of 10,300, gcvwr of 26,000, payload 3378, conventional towing 18,200, and 5th wheel and gooseneck of 18,500.

An F350 would be nice for the extra payload. Here's where I get lost in my mind. My f 250 is plenty capable of handling any load that I'll haul which would take me up to the 26k CDL limit. So, do I pay just a little more for the extra capability that I can't (legally) use? And maybe even legally have less capability due to a heavier truck. I went back and forth on this for way too long.

This is not the truck I would have bought if I were ordering but it's close enough that I'm happy with it. That's where the availability factor came in.

 

[dodge man]

I wanted an F150 for the aluminum body, my previous two trucks, a Dodge and a Chevy, started rusting. I wanted 4x4, payload near 2000 pounds, a locker in the rear, 36 gallon tank, supercab, XLT, and tow package. I found pretty much what I wanted I just had to add a factory brake controller.

 

[Tomtint]

When i chose my tow vehicle, I had a couple things that were important. One was ability to tow a 42’ 20k toy hauler so that put me into a dually. After that it had to be comfortable for long hauls, That put me into a Limited F450. The 350 version Superduty is a good tow vehicle as well but the wide front axle on the 450 allows for a much better / easier turn radius. Along with bigger brakes and heavier tires.

 

[Leo182]

Tomtint, sounds like your choice was based a little more on "need" than "want". Probably not easy to find any lesser of a truck that could handle that pin weight, tow capacity, and comfort at the same time. Nice choice!

 

[ericm979]

My criteria were: available lightly used, 10k towing capacity at a minimum, diesel engine, automatic 4wd mode, independent front suspension, and a 6'9" regular bed. Diesel lets me use renewable diesel which is common here in CA and being rolled out to other west coast states. I have been really impressed with how well my tractor runs on it. Since it's made from vegetable oil it's not contributing to global warming like fossil fuel. The irony of a diesel being better for the environment amuses me. Also the power and fuel mileage is nice.

Automatic 4wd for intermittent dry and snowy conditions. Independent front suspension for a better ride (though it might not make that much difference). An 8' bed would make parking even more difficult. Some makes regular bed is 6'4" which is too short to get 8' lumber in diagonally.

Only GM has the automatic 4wd mode. While it's possible to order a half ton with diesel, towing package and a 6'9" bed instead of the short 5'5" bed, no one did, so there weren't any on the used market. New they cost about the same as a 3/4 ton with similar equipment. So I ended up with a 2500. We'll see how it does towing later this year.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I probably used the dumbest logic. My Ram 1/2 ton died. The cam got eaten because of a lifter failure, among other things. I had been pulling trailers more than normal. Not anything that the 1/2 to couldn't handle, but I had a 3/4 ton a few trucks ago and I liked how it pulled better. So I started looking at 3/4 ton gas trucks and excluded Ram because I was still aggravated about mine dying. I know fuel economy and power is an issue so I wanted one with more than 6 gears. GM fit that bill the best so I started looking that direction and ended up finding a used 10 speed Duramax 3/4 ton Chevrolet for about the same money as a gas one.

Since I got it, I've started transporting cars on the side and I'm really enjoying it. Almost enough to trade up to a dually...

 

[deserteagle71]

I wanted an F150 for the aluminum body, my previous two trucks, a Dodge and a Chevy, started rusting. I wanted 4x4, payload near 2000 pounds, a locker in the rear, 36 gallon tank, supercab, XLT, and tow package. I found pretty much what I wanted I just had to add a factory brake controller.

I've had an F150 I ordered in just that configuration! A real bladder buster, what with a 36 gallon tank and the great fuel mileage it gets! 3.5 Ecoboost, 400 miles since filling up and 417 miles still to go before empty:

(Overall fuel mileage since new, with almost 80,000 miles on the odometer, is 20.5 mpg hand calculated. Above screen shot was an anomaly, taken on a long highway trip.)

 

[Snobdds]

Since it's made from vegetable oil it's not contributing to global warming like fossil fuel. The irony...

Yes.. .the irony.

You do understand what B:20 means right? Right?

 

[Leo182]

I wanted an F150 for the aluminum body, my previous two trucks, a Dodge and a Chevy, started rusting. I wanted 4x4, payload near 2000 pounds, a locker in the rear, 36 gallon tank, supercab, XLT, and tow package. I found pretty much what I wanted I just had to add a factory brake controller.

I had the F150 3.5 Ecoboost that I traded in for the F250. I really liked that truck. It rode really nice, good MPG, comfortable size for getting in and out of parking spots. Also, the 3.5 really surprised me with its power. It was almost fun towing up to 5-6,000 lbs. My problem was I was frequently towing close to 10k. It had plenty of pulling power, but the brakes and suspension weren't always happy about it.

I have an area I would drive through pretty often with 2 lanes in each direction plus a center turn lane, 5 stop lights in about 1 mile, and several business entrances. I always tried to leave a little more stopping room through there but it was a guarantee that someone in a hurry would cut lanes in front of me because of the gap I left in traffic. That led to a lot of hard braking and a few bad words.

 

[TractorTYMe]

I occasionally mow fields in the summer for hire, I used my 2004 Chevy 1500. I was almost at max tow rate with tractor payload and trailer at 7800#. Then I loaded my rear tires and exceeded that, so I got a 2004 Duramax 2500 with 218k miles for $12500 a little over a year ago. And it tows and stops effortlessly with same load. And not bad mileage at 13Mpg vs 8 on my gasser halfton.

 

[Fallon]

If it were for my side hustle doing tractor things is have gone with gas. It does better for short drives & is cheaper. I also tow a 15k toy hauler up & down the side of the Rockies so went diesel. I want the engine brake as much as the extra power. It's also nicer to use real truck stops to fill up with diesel rather than fit a 35' toy hauler into a tighter gas station.

I picked a Ford due to familiarity. I just upgraded from a 2014 F350 to a 2024. I test drove some Chevies thinking IFS may have been a better ride. The wife & I didn't have much of an opinion on it being better, just a bit different.

F350 over a F250 for a bit more wiggle room on payload. The 2024 has 4k of payload, pin weight on the toy hauler is 2.5k + extra tools & gear. The truck goes into the upfitter next week to put an aluminum flatbed on it. That weighs 700lbs, but I'm not clear how much the original bed removal takes off. A 10k truck would probably be over weight with the pin weight & gear. A higher capacity F250, especially a gasser may have fit, but I didn't want to be close. Avoided a dually as the 2014 F350 was plenty stable everywhere including heavy crosswinds across Wyoming while doing 70. No need for the extra width, cost & maintenance for the extra tires with my loads.

 

[Leo182]

If it were for my side hustle doing tractor things is have gone with gas. It does better for short drives & is cheaper. I also tow a 15k toy hauler up & down the side of the Rockies so went diesel. I want the engine brake as much as the extra power. It's also nicer to use real truck stops to fill up with diesel rather than fit a 35' toy hauler into a tighter gas station.

I picked a Ford due to familiarity. I just upgraded from a 2014 F350 to a 2024. I test drove some Chevies thinking IFS may have been a better ride. The wife & I didn't have much of an opinion on it being better, just a bit different.

F350 over a F250 for a bit more wiggle room on payload. The 2024 has 4k of payload, pin weight on the toy hauler is 2.5k + extra tools & gear. The truck goes into the upfitter next week to put an aluminum flatbed on it. That weighs 700lbs, but I'm not clear how much the original bed removal takes off. A 10k truck would probably be over weight with the pin weight & gear. A higher capacity F250, especially a gasser may have fit, but I didn't want to be close. Avoided a dually as the 2014 F350 was plenty stable everywhere including heavy crosswinds across Wyoming while doing 70. No need for the extra width, cost & maintenance for the extra tires with my loads.

Fallon, sounds like you put a lot of thought into what you needed for your situation. I would love to have bought a diesel but for my situation it just wasn't the best option. My truck is both a daily driver and tractor puller. My towing trips are normal not more than 20-30 miles each way. And my daily drives are short trips, often not more than 5 miles at a time. Not a good situation for a diesel. Also, the initial investment was above my budget right now.

But on the other hand, it sure would be nice to be able to get fuel at a truck stop or anywhere easy to get in and out. I've had to stop at a gas station with a little 20 foot car hauler and it was a tight squeeze. Can't imagine doing that with a 5th wheel or toy hauler. Plus the better MPG and engine brake make even more sense for anything more than local driving like I do.