Buying a New Truck

It was 11 years since we had purchased a new truck and with the idea of going full time RV living it was time to find a truck with enough pulling and stopping power to accomodate such a large trailer.  Our previous truck was a Chevrolet Silverado HD 2500.  We had posi-traction (no four wheel drive) and a 8.1L V-8 gasoline engine in it.  It was a full crew cab (4 doors), and had a long bed.  That was one long truck and the turning radius was not that great, neither did the brakes instill a lot of confidence.  We did manage to do everything we wanted with it, pulling our 4-Star, 3-horse slant load horse trailer.

We had been looking and learning about weights now that we were looking at going to the next level in trailer pulling.  We approached the truck much the same way as the RV, that is we looked at and considered everything we could identify as an option.  We were learning about GVWR, GAWR, GCWR, pin weight, payload capacity and the like.  We looked at Heavy Duty trucks, but ruled them out when we sat in a Peterbuilt in Yuma, AZ one day.  That was just too much truck for us to handle!  We considered medium duty trucks (MDT), but could never quite get past the high price.  We finally settled on the 2013 Ford F-450 realizing we wanted to stay as small as practical.  The new Ford had an increased GCWR of 33,000 lbs!  They also boasted of an improved turning radius.

We started to look around local dealers to find a F-450 on the lot that we could test drive.  We finally found one in Easton, MD.  We scheduled a test drive and as soon as we got in and drove it we knew this was the truck.  The dealer tried very hard to sell us the one that we test drove, and they almost succeeded with the excellent price they offered.  But we ended up sticking to owr plan of ordering a model with all of the options that we thought we needed.  Those options included; 4 wheel drive, a 6.7L diesel engine, 25,000 lb fifth wheel hitch, towing package, 6-way power heated & cooled leather seats, running boards and factory bedliner to name a few.  We placed the order for the truck that we came to call Pepe LaPue, because he was kind of smelly with the diesel fumes when we first drove him.  We are glad to report that he is smelling a little better now.  Maybe the first few drives were burning off coatings or oil on some of the hotter exhaust parts.

We received the call that Pepe had arrived in Easton on December 19, 2012.  We were so excited.  We travelled to Easton that day and then continued on to Kent Island to meet my office for a Christmas lunch party at The Narrows Restaurant.  On the way we cam across road work on a bridge going onto Kent Island.  The crews had concrete Jersey barriers up on both sides of the lane we had to drive through.  This new truck was a dual rear wheel rig measuring in at 96" wide.  That was much wider a vehicle than we weer used to driving.  Needless to say the DW white knuckled the new truck right through the work zone without so much as a scratch!  She is a great driver!

Our thinking was get the truck before the trailer and get some driving time to get used to the larger truck.  We had no idea that such a precise test was only 10 miles off the dealer's lot!  We ended up having almost 3 months of break-in and practice time.  We put just about 1,000 miles on Pepe before we were to depart to pick up Pepe's new partner, Penelope the 5er.