Looking to buy a used f250 or 350, just need something that can pickup one car at a time with a single car trailer. will a gas 2012-207 single cab be enough? Looking to not spend too much, as It would be only used for that purpose.

 

There is an entire sub forum that may help



https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum289/

 

Any superduty will do that well.

 

Any Super Duty F250 will do the job.
My 05 F250 with the 3 valve engine tows my race car & trailer easily.

 

Yep. Any one will do. But good luck finding a single cab. They are pretty rare in the land of Crew Cabs.

 

As the guys above have said, any SD will get the job done. You're probably going to end up with a work truck (XL) if you're looking for a single cab, though from the sounds of it that wouldn't necessarily be an issue for you. For what you're trying to do, any motor would be fine so long as it's been cared for and runs good.

If you aren't going to be traveling at high speeds or long distances, if you loaded it properly you could possibly get away with an F150 but I do NOT recommend it.

 

Here's my old 2003 with the 5.4L. It pulled this car like it was nothing. That was a great truck.

 

My old 2007 F-250, with a 5.4L V8 and 3.73 gears, towed a 28 foot enclosed car hauler, loaded with an early 1960s full size Pontiac, all over the US, without any issues.

You won't win any drag races, your fuel economy will be abysmal, but you'll safely get the job done.

 

Towing it can be accomplished with most any pickup. Stopping it is where the need for a bigger truck comes in, including good brakes on the trailer. The longer the wheelbase the smoother it will ride.

 

My '99 V10 F250 SD pulled a 8x24 cargo trailer loaded to 10,000 lbs without much trouble, though a "load leveling hitch" and independent brake controller were must have add ons. I also bumped the shocks up one level in stiffness (according to the Monroe catalog at the time) and I put about 1,000 lbs in the truck bed so that the truck and trailer were closer to the same weight.
Turns out pulling a heavy trailer is not a problem for a 3/4 ton truck, and it's much more stable than the 1/2 ton. The challenge is stopping the rig...that's where the SD's larger brakes, teamed with brakes on the trailer axles (the cargo trailer was tandem axle with brakes on both axles) made a huge difference.

 

One car on a car trailer is going to be less than 7,000lbs. Might be as little as 4,000.

I'd say a V8 or ecoboost F150 will suit your needs as well. But any super duty will handle it well.

 

There’s so many single cab gassers up in new England where I live, many many crew cabs too lol but there’s definitely more than a few