The truck I used for the Hideout was a 2016 F-250. It was a combination work and personal truck. The specs were right on the line as being able to tow the new camper safely. If we were not going to Alaska I probably would have kept it as it was a really good truck.
Along with it being marginal on payload specs it had 170,000 miles and a gas engine. It just seemed like the smart move to get something a little more capable.
I started casually looking shortly after Jen passed. Unfortunately, Covid had made this a terrible time to buy a truck. New trucks were near impossible to find and anything used was going for several thousands over the original price.
The biggest dilemma I had was gas or diesel engine. Of course diesel would be ideal. I would be towing roughly 13,000 lbs through the mountains. However with the current EPA regulations, my standard usage outside of this trip would cause a lot of problems with the DEF system and would be nothing but problems. Ford had recently introduced a new 7.3l gas engine nicknamed "Godzilla" that had pretty impressive numbers. In the end getting a truck with this engine would fit my needs and would be adequate for this one trip.
If finding a new or reasonable priced used truck was difficult, finding a 1 ton with a gas engine was like a needle in a haystack. I started talking to dealers about ordering one at the beginning of 2023. I was worried that if I didn't have something in the works that I would get close to the trip and I'd have to buy anything and be forced to get something I didn't want or at a poor price.
During one of my weekly nationwide searches I came across a used truck at Woodhouse in Omaha. It was such an odd listing I almost passed it by. It was a 2020 F-350 Crew Cab Long Box Platinum with the 7.3l gas engine. Not only was it such an odd combination, it also has less than 10,000 miles on it AND it was $5000 less than original sticker price. There just had to be something wrong with it. Nevertheless I still called them up to get the details.
Turns out my truck was a unicorn on purpose. 2020 was the first year of the 7.3l engine. Ford needed a truck to showcase this new engine and decided to build one with all the bells and whistles. They brought it around to all the auto shows around the country and once they were done some big wig at Ford had it for a while. Once they were done with it, it went up for auction and it ended up in Omaha.
Because it was such a unicorn Woodhouse had a hard time selling it. Not only did it start off at $5000 under sticker I asked for even more money off and asked them to add about $5000 worth of extras. Much to my surprise, they accepted my offer with no counter. We made a verbal agreement contingent on my personal inspection. I drove over on a Saturday, checked it out, put down a deposit and set-up a delivery date as they had to install all the extras I asked for.
So far it has been a great truck. Plenty of power. In fact, I delivered 9 tons of feed to the ISU Research faculty in Ames and I could barely tell I was pulling 20,000 lbs!
I have keep it stock as I'd rather go for comfort instead of having it lifted or a loud exhaust. The only thing I have done is to permanently mount my backup camera and TMPS.
No comments:
Post a Comment