New to the forum, and looking for advice on my next truck. I'm looking at fairly new 2010-2013's Sierras/Silverados or F150's with the engines listed above.

I currently own an 02 F250 7.3 that i'm looking to sell due to its age/maintenance/and me no longer needing a diesel. It only has 108k on it but for the amount that i tow (few times a month) i no longer think the extra cost of maintenance/fuel is worth it. i work at a marina and buy and sell boats on the side. I need this new truck to be able to pull up to a 25' boat when necessary. The f250 is starting to show its age and I'd rather be making money on the weekends than keeping up with the truck.

That being said, i am not brand biased although i'm really not a fan of the Rams. Lots of power and giddy up but (father and boss both own one), but i personally like the f150s and silverados/sierras better.

My budget is 30k so that seems to be putting me in a truck anywhere from 2010-2013 depending on mileage/package. I'm looking to own this truck for awhile so im wondering how each engine holds up, what are the common problems, maintenance, how are the transmissions on these things?, and is this thing going to start turning into a rust bucket like my current Ford.

Appreciate any advice/help.

Jason

 

Hi jbrinch, welcome to FTE!

All three engines are more than capable of towing a 7-8,000 lb boat. If you had the budget for a new truck I'd say take a good luck at the '14 Silverados, they have some pretty impressive specs with the latest gen engines. But if a used truck is what you need I would rule out the 5.3L because it is only capable of 335 ft-lbs of torque. What that means in the real world is that you'll have to downshift more frequently and turn higher RPMs to pull a similar load. And there's nothing wrong with that, just that the competing Ford powertrains will do the job better.

The 5.0L V8 makes 360 ft-lbs, and the 3.5L EcoBoost makes a whopping 420 ft-lbs of torque.

 

I looked at Silverados and they don't measure up to the current F150 in overall quality and refinement.....I chose the 5.0 for the gas mileage and am more than pleased so far.....my budget was $30K also, you shouldn't have a problem finding a newer `13 for that (mine is a `13 but was used about 14K on it) you might check out a thread I started last December titled "looking at used `13 F150 with 5.0" it has a lot of input that I found very helpful when I was looking.....good luck

 

If you're going to be towing frequently...a few times a month is frequent to me....then you want the 3.5 Ecoboost....no question.