Must buy used truck~woman driver needs ADVICE!!
Hi everyone! I joined this group because I need to buy an older truck to pull my horse trailer loaded with 2 draft horses. The horses weigh about 1900# each. The trailer will be heavy but I don't know the weight yet.

My friend and her husband in California just bought a 1983 F350 (460) with 8 forward gears. I just want to find out what we need to look for in a used truck and if it would be similar to that.

I do not know anything about vehicles, so I am counting on your advice. If you need help with a horse related problem I could advise, but not trucks/transmissions. No problem hauling or backing them up, I just don't know what to buy.

Diesel or gas, Ford or Chevy or other, no dually, nothing new ~ I drive a 1991 Honda ~ and my husband who works at a state prison, drives a 2000 Insight.

Please give me some info!

Thanks
Can Sweaza

 

Welcome to the site! To get these guys to provide some meaningful answers, you'll have to give a little more info...

How many miles towing per year?
How much are you looking to spend?
Do you mind driving a manual transmission?

 

Thanks, here goes....

Towing miles per year (frequent short distances of 100 mi or less) ~ about 4000 total ~ most driving will be done only when towing a trailer full of draft horses or several 900# round hay bales.

Looking to spend..., got to sell the 97 Tahoe, and we can spend what it sells for, so...I'm not too sure?

Manual would be best I think, we are not too easy on automatic transmissions.

The big thing is a dependable, get-there-and-back, truck I can count on.

Can

 

my 2 cents,
Of course, you want a Ford truck.

I would recommend an automatic. With the weight of 2 horses and the trailer, the stop and go will be hard on a clutch.

Go with a Super Duty (F250/350). The V10 (or any other big block) is less money, the diesel more expensive w/ more maintenance. The diesel has more torque and will last longer. The 5.4 V-8 (or any other small block V-8) doesn't have enough power. Depends on your budget.

Be sure and get the load bars and sway bar for the trailer. I would not tow w/o them. The trailer will weigh around 5000lbs. to handle that load. Check the axle load capacity on the trailer axles to be sure it will handle the load.

When looking for a truck, be sure it has tow mirrows. If not, be sure the aftermarket has them for the truck you buy. Good luck.

 

First thing to do is go to kbb.com or edmunds.com and find out what you can expect to get for your Tahoe. If this is the limiting factor, then you will know what price-range to shop. Obviously, older trucks are cheaper than newer ones, diesels are more expensive than gas engines, and auto trannies are more expensive than manuals. You'll have to work up a combination that meets your needs and fits your budget. Regardless, you'll want a heavy-duty Ford truck.

If towing in the mountains, I'd recommend the diesel engine. For other regions, diesel or gas depending on your preference. My preference is gas since I drive through the pasture a lot and the heavy diesel sinks in the clay mud (experience) we have around here.

Auto trannies from 1995 and up are pretty good. Before then, they had some notable weaknesses. The manual trannies are pretty good, but the dual-mass flywheel is often the weak component.

The 1992-1997 heavy-duty line is the 'older' Ford body style. The 1999+ trucks are the new Super Duty body style. I owned and like both. However, the newer trucks ride much better than the 1997 and older ones. Other "creature-comforts" are pretty similar.

 

Yeah for the weight you are likely to tow, 5,000# and up, the Ford Truck Bible and Trailer Life magazine recommend a 250 and up. Also should look at engines from 351 and up. Automatic would be wise for a person who isn't expert a towing with stick. Probably want 4.10 gears. Frame mounted hitch or gooseneck/5th wheel. Weight distributing hitch, antisway bars for the trailer, brake controller.

Just about any 250/350 heavy duty with at least a 351 auto should do the trick. All comes down to how fast you want to accelerate especially hills and gas mileage. I have heard the 460 or V10 will get better mileage than a 351 or smaller engine since the bigger engines aren't working hard all the time. Don't know but my 460 towing an 8,000# trailer gets about 8-9mpg on flat land.

The reason for a 250/350 heavy duty is the components are designed to handle more load. And more importantly the brakes are up to the task of stopping a heavy load. Braking and handling are what make the difference in safety and a relaxed driver, versus a white knuckle drive with a small truck.

Depending on money I would go with a 250 in good condition with a 460 auto, 4.10 gears of almost any year, as long as it is mechanically sound. If you had lots of money and were more serious about towing a diesel would be good.

Just my opinion,

Jim Henderson

 

I tow a tandem axle flatbed trailer with a small 4wd farm tractor on it. The tractor weighs around 5000# with the implements, so probably about the same weight as you will be dealing with. I agree with 95cobraR.
Get diesel, automatic and the sway bars. The biggest problem area to watch in buying used is the transmission. Unless you run it hot, or out of oil, a diesel is pretty bullet proof if you maintain it. I have put thousands of hours on my marine diesels, mostly at nearly wide open throttle and never had a hiccup, but I know there have been some serious problems with truck automatic tranny's. If you could afford it, the new ford 5 speed torqueshift is a beast. Just have a good independant mechanic check out whatever you find.

 

I have a standard half ton truck with a towing package (transmission cooler, trailer brakes, etc) and I don't really have a problem towing our 2 horses (~1900 and 1600 lbs). If I had my druthers, I'd probably go up to 3/4 ton for a little more security over bad roads, and a beefier engine for some of the steeper hills around here.

I definately can't argue against diesels lasting longer than gas engines, but I didn't like the idea of putting my horses behind that lovely aroma for an extended period of time, so I'm sticking with gas. And my automatic keeps the shifting pretty smooth so the horses don't get jostled too much.

Good luck, and enjoy the ride.

 

like the other guys said, id definately buy a ford truck, and definately a 250 or up. i do have do disagree with the part about the 5.4 not having any power though, and the part about the 460 getting better gas milage than a smaller engine. i have a 5.4 with 4.10 gears and i pull 9k once a week and have no problems, plus i get better gas mileage than my cousins 460 pulling the same load. he gets 8 mpg and i get 14, so its not even close there. no a 5.4 or v-10 wont make the same power as a diesel, but if youre only pulling 9000lbs for 4k a year they will do just fine. plus they cost less, are less expensive to maintain and a lot less noisy to ride in and dont have the bad diesel smell. if you want a regular cab id say a 5.4 will be plenty, if you want a crew cab id go with a v-10 if you buy a newer one. and at least a 351 if you buy an older one. some guys on here are hardcore diesel and some like me cant stand diesels, so i would take what we tell you as nothing more than our opinion and go test drive a few different trucks and make a decision based on which you like best. theres also a link to a faq on here that will give you all of the towing capacities of the newer trucks(not sure if the older truck section has one or not). hope that helps.

 

First suggestion, is go to a towing forum and ask your question. They will more than likey give you unbiased answers. Not that a Ford SuperDuty is the wrong truck, but there are a lot of other options out there that may work for you as well or better. It will depend on your finances, part of the country you hail from, what is available locally, and other relevant data.

From my perspective, if you don't already own a horse trailer, I would seriously consider a goose neck trailer. Very stable towing, easy connection, and more robust than a Bumper Pull. If you have the Bumper pull, don't sweat it, people have been pulling horses with them for close to 60 years without much problem. Just a goose neck is a little less taxing on the driver or tow rig.

Again, after your finances are deterimined by the sale of your Tahoe, look at what is available in your area, and look for any good 3/4 or 1 ton truck with low mileage and big engine. Fuel mileage will not be a concern since it sounds like you only plan on driving the truck when the trailer is behind you or a load is in the bed. The larger engine will prevent you from going nuts driving into the wind, or pulling passes. Mileage won't be much different than a small engine while towing.

Good Luck and happy towing!

 

Well, this gives me a lot to think about.

I drive acceptable with manual trans, but I think I want an automatic. (Thanks FarmboyEric) So I think that means a little bit newer model than I had originally planned.

If we can afford it, start out looking at the 1997 - 2000 years, and diesel because I don't want to trade again. And we will hopefully be doing more and more hauling, showing etc. So thanks to NoMo and 95CobraR.

Now we will have to figure out where to cut costs to afford the newer model and diesel.

And I will follow this advice from Hjudge49: Just have a good independant mechanic check out whatever you find. I didn't think of that.

Towing Forum, great idea, I just found this forum and have learned more than I expected. We actually want a goose neck, sold the bumper pull trailer a few years ago. For a time we can borrow our friends big stock bumper pull. But we want our own goose neck. And after having pulled a smaller stock trlr in windy Oklahoma I can see how a bigger engine and more stable trlr would make the driver happier and calmer, thank you jfralph, that helps so much with this problem.


Now, at least I know what the heck to start looking for...
Can Sweaza