Replacement Tow Vehicle

While Julia hates the vehicle purchase process, I rather enjoy it.  

First, I made a plan.  I wanted a truck that was 2019 or newer and had less than 60,000 miles.  If it worked within my budget, I wanted to upgrade from my existing towing capacity and payload capacity.  I also wanted at least a six foot bed, so that I could camp in the back at some point with the purchase of a new or used topper.  

I didn't have any particular manufacturer in mind.  I considered and looked at the Nissan Titan, Toyota Tacoma and Tundra, Ford F150, Chevy Silverado, and Dodge Ram.  I stopped at about a dozen dealerships and talked to salesmen until I had a real good idea about the used market and what my trade-in was realistically worth  

I considered standard cab, king cab, and crew cab.  I liked the standard cab for the long bed feature, but I would have needed to buy a topper almost immediately because Julia was not going to ride shotgun with Callie.  The ideal would have been a king cab, but they just don't make as many of those anymore.  Selection was very limited.

I found a 2020 Nissan Titan in my price range with low miles, but realized after laying down in the back of the bed that it was too short to sleep in.

I nearly bought a 2019 Toyota Tundra with 60k miles on it, but it had these huge butt-ugly red splash decals all over both sides of the rear half of the vehicle and also red splashes inside the cab.

That would not have passed the Julia test.  The salesman didn't think the decals could be removed from the outside without damaging the paint but was going to look into it for me.  It had a Leer topper included that I liked a lot.  

In the end, I went with a 2020 Dodge Ram, Big Horn edition.  It had 39k miles.   I ended up getting 7k in trade for the Nissan and negotiated 5k off the asking price of the Dodge.  My new-to-me truck has more features and technology than I necessarily was looking for, but I have a feeling that is just the wave of the future.  

Closing the deal only required waking out of the dealership twice--once on the price of the Dodge and once on the price of the Nissan.  The thing about negotiating the best price is that you have to be willing to walk away from the deal.  The salesman and his manager tried to convince me that this was the truck of  my dreams.  I had to convince them that I was willing to drive the Nissan for 60k more miles if the transaction exceeded my budget.  As in all good negotiations, neither of us was totally happy with the final result.  But I could live with it.  

When I got home, the Toyota salesman emailed that they could get the decals off without damaging the paint.  The Tundra wasn't meant to be.

Buying a Different TV

Tow vehicle, not television.

My 2012 Ford Escape had a towing capacity of 3500 pounds, a tongue weight capacity of 350 lbs, 4 pin wiring, and a 1 1/4″ hitch.

Towing capacity is fairly self-explanatory.  If the trailer weighs more than 3500 lbs, fully loaded with gear and liquids, the Ford Escape could not safely tow.  Additionally, one has to factor in the gear and people added to the Ford Escape.  The tongue weight is the weight that is on the trailer tongue that attaches to the Ford Escape.  Four pin wiring is the kind used for small utility trailers or boats.  All of the trailers that i have looked at require 7 pin wiring, part of which is the wiring for trailer brakes and to charge the trailer’s battery. Finally, the smaller hitch receptacle size was inadequate for using a weight distribution hitch, recommended for smaller tow vehicles like the Ford Escape.


I could have made the Ford Escape work-probably.  However, it would have required modification/expense to change over the Class 1 hitch to a Class 2 hitch, change the 4 pin wiring receptacle to a 7 pin receptacle, and to add a weight distribution hitch which redistributes the weight of the trailer over the weight of the tow vehicle.  Even after those modifications, I may have been pushing the towing limit after factoring in water tanks and holding tanks.

For safety reasons, I decided to upgrade.  The 2013 Nissan Crew Cab below has 6100 lbs towing capacity and a 7 pin receptacle.  It’s a bit of overkill, but that isn’t a bad thing. We will have the flexibility to add solar panels, batteries, bicycles, and not have to worry about filling up with water or waste.

The first new vehicle that  I purchased was 1986 Nissan pickup.  We took that truck on all kinds of adventures across California where we lived at the time.  In some ways, it just felt right to go back to a Nissan truck for the next round of adventures.