Looking to upgrade campers from a pop-up to a hardside trailer (30ft or less; no ambitions for a 5th wheel).

Need to replace my 98 jeep cherokee for a truck first. Looking for advice between F150 & F250 and whether I should go with the 5.4L V8, 6.8L V10 , or try to find a 7.3L diesel (for a F250). This truck is going to sit a lot. It's not going to be used much outside of towing the camper and occasional 5x10 hauling trailer. Won't be traveling out of state for camping and if needed would upgrade after 3-4 years for across country camping if reliability becomes an issue.

Here's what I've looked at:

Given: 4x4, automatic, extended cab or crew cab

F150: Max trailer weight seems to range from ~6.6k - 8k depending on wheel size, rear-end ratio; Has to have 5.4L V8; Thinking this is model is going to be more limiting on what I can buy for a camper keeping some margin in the max towing capacity.

F250: 2000-2001 seems to have flat max trailer weight of 10k; > 2001 range is much larger from (8500lb - 15000lb) depending on engine, read-end ratio, wheel size; Heard a lot of issues with 6.0 power stroke diesel; Recommended to get 7.3 if I can find one; One of my friends has a 99 with the 7.3L which has plenty of power. He said that gas mileage still drops to ~10mpg due to wind drag of camper. Not sure what to go with here, V8, V10, or 7.3l diesel.

David

 

My thoughts:

You are right, an F250 will give you more choices in terms of a trailer. You are likely to be near max with an F150.

Engine size, kind of depends on what you are towing. Diesel seems to me to be overkill in this situation. I tow with a 7.3, but most of the time have to ask myself why. A 5.4 will handle things, but will be working hard. A V-10 might be a good compromise.

Mileage when you are towing a large box through the air is going to suck regardless.

Steve

 

Depends Steve....if only spending a few miles towing, a V10 gets lousy mileage ALL the time!

 

True enough!

Steve

 

If you're not going to be using the truck a lot, I think a diesel is a waste of money and an engine (they need to be run to be kept healthy). If you haven't picked a trailer yet, then I'd go for a F-250 to give yourself some room. Find a V10 with a big rear diff and call it good. I'd stay away from the 5.4, not enough engine there for the bigger loads IMO.

The trailer in my signature is almost 9,000lbs loaded.

 

ok, been there done that..
A long time ago I had the same thoughts, It was time to upgrade from My old chev C10 because we had a tax deduction... I mean kid. SO i search high and low, same questions. what ear end? What body style, What engine....... My desision was the 99 V10 Ex cab, 4X4 short bed Lariat. I loved it, drove it to work whenever I didnt need my van, Towed anything I could get hooked up to it. I had some misfortunes with it but that was the mechanics fault not the trucks.. I put over 100K on it. Towing my 20'tt everyplace I could. Wewent up logging roads, on the sandy beach, into any RV park and loved it. The only problem is the TINY fuel tank and tiny MPG. We got 10 unhooked and 7.5 +- or so towing. That gives a safe distance of around 175 miles before a fill up. The maintenance cost was not high at all (about the same as any truck). only having 6.5 qts of oil was wierd though...My C10 with deep sump had 8... Anyway this truck served us well. Then one day a SWEEEEET deal, I mean a SWEEEET deal came across my path. I jumped on it. I had been thinking of a quad cab (2 tax deductions now) and the kids are getting big (not much room in the back for long legs). I now have a 6.0 Quad cab lariat with heated seats.... Oh GOD I LOVE HEATED SEATS... anyway, The oil changes triple in price, the fuel goes up 10% and everything to do with diesel is 3 times the cost as a gasser... even windshield fluid I swear... None the less, With towing mileages over 10 MPG and un hitched weights over 14 life is nice at the fuel pump. Cruising up the pass at 70 instead of 50 sure is a breeze too. So I guess what I am saying is... Start with what feels right and change when the life style feels like it needs to change. Costs are WAY to high to have your rig to sit in the driveway if it is a Diesel. Stick with the poor mileage gasser for now. I will swear up and down all day about the LOWER cost of ownership of a V10 over a Diesel. Yep Diesels are more powerful, faster, cheaper in fuel but Gassers are cheaper to maintain, cheaper to insure and have no problem sitting in the driveway a bunch... Turbos dont like sitting.

Just my HO
BTW, I have a 99 V10 lariat ext cab short bed 4X4 for sale... Nice BFG AT/TA tires too... its the rig in my sig and pic.

 

One of the reasons I chose a Diesel this time around was because of its dependability in extreme conditions.
Several years ago I got stuck in an Atlanta traffic jam in the height of summer when the temps were over 100 degrees.
Short of pulling over and waiting for several hours for traffic to clear, I tried to make it to the next exit.
That 1/2 mile took 2 hours and the engine -almost- overheated.
It was in the red for quite a while.
A month later the engine started making audible noises and within a couple of weeks slipped a bearing.
The problem / issue is that even if I had taken it in for service the moment I started hearing the noise, the cost would have been the same.
Anyway $5K later (plus the cost of a rental to get back home with the family,
and the cost to drive both ways 500 miles for 2 cars (my wife to drive me to the repair shop)) I had a rebuilt replacement.

This time around I decided that it was worth the extra $7K for the Diesel.
Since they don't have a Diesel for the F150, it was just one more reason for the F250 and the knowledge that I could tow anything and go anywhere.

If nothing else, it bought me peace of mind knowing that I won't be F.O.R.D.-ed (vehicle found on road dead).

 

Thanks everybody for the feedback.

Marty, nice truck but a big gas bill driving it from WA to IA

David

 

come on, Its only 1900 miles to IOWA City, Thats only 190 gallons at 4.00 is only 800.00 in fuel.. You buy it Ill split the fuel with you.

 

Hey, if you're giving away $400 bills, I'll take some of that.

 

Lets think about it this way....get the right truck for the trailer you are going to buy.

Yes, trailer shop first then get the one that will support it.

Gas is going to be cheaper than diesel and a diesel needs more tlc and use.

 

That's kind of iffy too. Here's my thoughts about our decision.
As this is our first travel trailer, me and my wife -think- we know what we
want. It makes sense right now, but until we get on the road and do some
camping, its all theoretical.

While visiting the local Lazy Days we saw a LOT of used travel trailers in
their lot. Many of which were only a year or two old from people that
changed their mind about their needs.

While we are still highly confident that the travel trailer is the way to go,
we are not as confident as to the size or configuration. We wanted to be
sure that no matter what trailer we got, whether a hitch, 5th wheel or
goose neck, we would never need a different truck to pull it.