I went truck shopping yesterday

@Morgan3820 you could give Kernersville NC dodge/ram a try? I got my new 2500 there in mid-2021 and got a square deal with no games or mark up etc. If your set on a Ford then I strongly advise waiting, Ford is catching a bunch of heat in car circles for the dealers aggressive mark up schemes even though they have stock on the lot they aren't moving like before. Ford's corporate bosses have even started making noise about starting a direct to consumer plan to circumvent the nonsense the dealers have been doing the last couple years. FWIW - I'm on my second Ram now (first one was totaled in an accident or I'd still have it) and can't speak highly enough of what they are doing with the trucks.
 
R.L.Mauzy said:
@Morgan3820 you could give Kernersville NC dodge/ram a try? I got my new 2500 there in mid-2021 and got a square deal with no games or mark up etc. If your set on a Ford then I strongly advise waiting, Ford is catching a bunch of heat in car circles for the dealers aggressive mark up schemes even though they have stock on the lot they aren't moving like before. Ford's corporate bosses have even started making noise about starting a direct to consumer plan to circumvent the nonsense the dealers have been doing the last couple years. FWIW - I'm on my second Ram now (first one was totaled in an accident or I'd still have it) and can't speak highly enough of what they are doing with the trucks.
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+1 on Kernersville. That's where I bought my Ram in '17, and I'd buy from them again. Good pricing, they had what I wanted on the lot, no games or gimmicks. Flew in, they both paid for the plane ticket and picked me up at the airport, and I drove it home.
 
Morgan3820 said:
The Job being Towing an enclosed 7 x 14 motorcycle trailer kitted out as a toy hauler for some occasional camping while we Airbnb across the United States with our two dogs
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Think outside the box (trailer). Wife drives the car (or whatever) while you ride the bike. No towing required.
 
Groundpounder said:
Because you want something with a crew cab, the ability to tow 4500 lbs, but you think the $20k Maverick is too expensive. That is an unrealistic expectation.
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There’s no way you’re gonna get a new super crew maverick for $20,000. The Maverick may be rated for 4500 pounds but I’m not gonna tow something cross country at its max capacity that just doesn’t seem to be a good idea. My current truck is rated for 8500 pounds towing. There’s no way I would do that for any length of time or distance. I believe stated towing capacities as to be optimistic, and more of a marketing thing than realism. Kind of like the factory performance numbers on airplanes.

So y’all don’t think I can get a three or four year old F150 super crew for under $32,000? Maybe I wasn’t clear from the beginning but that’s what I’m looking for. If I’ve been quicker on the trigger in January, I would already have the truck. What is holding me up is tax season buyers. I’ll get what I want for the price and I’m willing to pay. I always do. It may take a few more months but that’s ok. this is a want not a need.
 
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Half Fast said:
Then you can both ride! Problem solved, and money saved!
;)
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You are forgetting the dogs. I would’ve thought that an engineer of your caliber would’ve been able to figure out how to do the motorcycle thing and take the dogs.
 
Morgan3820 said:
…So y’all don’t think I can get a three or four year old F150 super crew for under $32,000?.
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Order up. Does not appear to have trailer tow package.

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Here’s one w/trailer tow for $31,997.

I thought you would like this Used 2018 Ford F150 XL w/ Equipment Group 101A Mid for $31997 on Autotrader http://atcm.co/S2PVDP/2827F332
 
Morgan3820 said:
There’s no way you’re gonna get a new super crew maverick for $20,000. The Maverick may be rated for 4500 pounds but I’m not gonna tow something cross country at its max capacity that just doesn’t seem to be a good idea. My current truck is rated for 8500 pounds towing. There’s no way I would do that for any length of time or distance. I believe stated towing capacities as to be optimistic, and more of a marketing thing than realism. Kind of like the factory performance numbers on airplanes.

So y’all don’t think I can get a three or four year old F150 super crew for under $32,000? Maybe I wasn’t clear from the beginning but that’s what I’m looking for. If I’ve been quicker on the trigger in January, I would already have the truck. What is holding me up is tax season buyers. I’ll get what I want for the price and I’m willing to pay. I always do. It may take a few more months but that’s ok. this is a want not a need.
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Used? OK, maybe there is a chance in 6 months. I was under the impression you wanted a supercrew F150/250 and expected to pay $25k for it. But 4 years old is soon going to be late 2020, which is when supply chain issues started happening, and the deliveries plunged, so the market is probably going to get even tighter, barring a major slowdown of the economy. I would say that a year from now the prices are going to start going back up again for used vehicles.
 
Groundpounder said:
Used? OK, maybe there is a chance in 6 months. I was under the impression you wanted a supercrew F150/250 and expected to pay $25k for it. But 4 years old is soon going to be late 2020, which is when supply chain issues started happening, and the deliveries plunged, so the market is probably going to get even tighter, barring a major slowdown of the economy. I would say that a year from now the prices are going to start going back up again for used vehicles.
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I agree that next year the market will become tighter again unless there’s this huge recession kind of thing. So I missed my window of opportunity in December January. I figure my next window will start to open around June and I’ll be ready. In the meantime I might get lucky.
 
If you only need the towing capacity of the full-size truck every now and then, it might work out to buy the smaller truck (Maverick/Colorado/whatever) if you want new, but just rent an F-150/Ram/GM 1500/Expedition/Tahoe when you need the extra towing capacity. Just thinking out loud, as I know Enterprise typically has tons of them. May not be feasible, but it's worth considering if you only need to tow heavy a few times per year, and it keeps the miles off of your personal vehicle.
 
SoonerAviator said:
If you only need the towing capacity of the full-size truck every now and then, it might work out to buy the smaller truck (Maverick/Colorado/whatever) if you want new, but just rent an F-150/Ram/GM 1500/Expedition/Tahoe when you need the extra towing capacity. Just thinking out loud, as I know Enterprise typically has tons of them. May not be feasible, but it's worth considering if you only need to tow heavy a few times per year, and it keeps the miles off of your personal vehicle.
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I confess, I've never looked into this, but do rental trucks come typically come with tow hitches, and no prohibition in the rental agreement against actually towing?
 
I think only Enterprise Truck Rental allows this (you'll see "Tow Package" in the truck listing on their site, it's only a few models of truck), along with the moving-centric rental companies.

The dogs would certainly fit in a 10' U-haul box truck towing a trailer. :D Not sure that's ASPCA approved though.
 
GaryM said:
I confess, I've never looked into this, but do rental trucks come typically come with tow hitches, and no prohibition in the rental agreement against actually towing?
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Honestly, most of the 1/2 ton trucks (and even Nissan Frontier/Tacoma/etc) come with tow hitches unless it's a base-model. The "tow package" is often an upgraded hitch with a 7-pin connector/trailer brake controller, and maybe a higher GCWR or aux transmission cooler. You might even decide that you would rather tow with an SUV on your longer trips if you don't need a truck bed for those occasions. If so, even an XLT-trim Expedition, base-trim (S) Nissan Armada or LS-trim Tahoe/SLE-Yukon/Suburban comes standard with a Class IV hitch. I'm sure there is probably a prohibition for towing in the agreement, but if you get into a wreck, I'd assume your own private insurance is covering the bill. What is Enterprise going to say if you were towing against their agreement? You can't rent from us again?

schmookeeg said:
I think only Enterprise Truck Rental allows this (you'll see "Tow Package" in the truck listing on their site, it's only a few models of truck), along with the moving-centric rental companies.

The dogs would certainly fit in a 10' U-haul box truck towing a trailer. :D Not sure that's ASPCA approved though.
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Well you don't have to tell them you're going to tow with it, lol. However, you are correct that Enterprise Truck Rental specializes in that sort of stuff and you can specify that. Or even get a 3/4 ton if you feel the need for additional load capacity.
 
SoonerAviator said:
What is Enterprise going to say if you were towing against their agreement? You can't rent from us again?
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I assume something like "you owe us a new transmission, that will be $money dollars please" :D

Also I need to stay in the bounds of the rental agreement for my Chase Sapphire insurance perk to stay lit. So if I need to tow that trailer loaded with bikes and dogs into some Karen in the next lane over who shot me the bird, it will be covered when I bring back the sideswiped wreckage. :D

...I actually need to look deeper and make sure Chase's perk covers towing or trucks at all, this whole premise may be nonsense. I've only just started researching it, and now have doubts. I know they won't cover U-haul type stuff.
 
schmookeeg said:
I assume something like "you owe us a new transmission, that will be $money dollars please" :D

Also I need to stay in the bounds of the rental agreement for my Chase Sapphire insurance perk to stay lit. So if I need to tow that trailer loaded with bikes and dogs into some Karen in the next lane over who shot me the bird, it will be covered when I bring back the sideswiped wreckage. :D

...I actually need to look deeper and make sure Chase's perk covers towing or trucks at all, this whole premise may be nonsense. I've only just started researching it, and now have doubts. I know they won't cover U-haul type stuff.
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Lol, they would have to find out that you were towing when the transmission failed (pretty unlikely event towing sub-7K lbs anyway). Either way, Enterprise Truck Rental will allow you to tow it the "approved" way. Couple hundred bucks for a weekend is probably worth it if you don't need the capacity the other 50-weekends a year.
 
I tried to rent a truck a couple years ago. None of the major rental agencies I called would allow towing of anything with their truck rentals, unless we were talking about a big Uhaul or Penske type van. Even they would only allow towing if it was on one of their rented trailers.
 
lsaway said:
I tried to rent a truck a couple years ago. None of the major rental agencies I called would allow towing of anything with their truck rentals, unless we were talking about a big Uhaul or Penske type van. Even they would only allow towing if it was on one of their rented trailers.
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That's why Enterprise Trucks exists. Although they may only "allow" towing with a 3/4-1 ton, depending on the local site. They specifically list it on their website. The downside is that most of those kinds of rentals have a 300-mile limit depending on the length of the rental period, so they may not work well for some applications. Honestly, I'd just take my chances with the regular "towing not authorized" version for half the cost per day and make sure my car insurance was satisfactory. YMMV
 
steingar said:
Trucks have Phasers now? Can you set them to stun? How about to vaporize? That would be the coolest thing imaginable in rush hour city traffic!
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Yes. Actually, they have phasers, and the phasers do have a stun and vaporize feature. They vaporize somewhere around 80-90K miles and stun the owner roughly $4,000 to fix. I actually just had them replaced on my 2017 F150 3.5L (91,000 mi) two weeks ago. Only cost me the $100 deductible, I had two days left on my Ford factory extended warranty.

To be fair, this seems to primarily happen in early year Gen 2 3.5L Fords (like mine). 2.7L does not seem to have the issue. They've revised/updated the parts to "fix it". We'll see.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Honestly, I'd just take my chances with the regular "towing not authorized" version for half the cost per day and make sure my car insurance was satisfactory. YMMV
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I don't know about Enterprise Truck Rental, but all the other companies that had 1/2 trucks or large SUVs on their lots did not have tow hitches on them.
 
Here I thought the only thing to watch for are the steel body cabs pre 2015/2017…
 
lsaway said:
I don't know about Enterprise Truck Rental, but all the other companies that had 1/2 trucks or large SUVs on their lots did not have tow hitches on them.
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The full-size SUVs have them, but they're behind a vanity cover nowadays. Trucks can go either way, but if it's a 1/2-ton Lariat/SLE/LS-series it comes standard with a Class IV hitch.
 
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