My own "what truck" thread

I'm just lightly considering ditching my 98 F150, but I would need a suitable replacement. I currently use my F150 for the following (and would need its replacement to do the same):

• daily driving
• towing an 8000-lb car trailer locally about three times a year
• towing a 3500-lb boat
• using as a weekend camper, mini RV
• hauling small amounts of firewood
• hauling dead deer about twice a year.

Problem is, the above only accounts for 10% of its use, the other 90% is daily driver/work commuter. Frustrating, because when you need it, you need it, ya know? I thought about keeping the truck and adding a beater Civic to the stable, but I already have 7 cars most of which are projects. Adding another car would be pretty stupid, especially just to let the F150 sit around most of the time.

So, I need something (tree hugger alert) that doesn't waste fuel and can be daily driver enough while still at least being somewhat competent at the above tasks.

What I really need is an F150 with about a 4.5L diesel, but I don't see that happening.

Vans and SUVs aren't out of the question either, but I can't picture myself in anything FWD or Unibody for these tasks. I thought about a hearse with a 6.5TD, or a small 10' cube van with a 6.5, but they bring such a premium to start with.

Help me think of what I'm missing in my list.

What's the cost of replacing your F150 vs the cost of getting one of the 7 projects driveable?

ReverendDexter wrote: What's the cost of replacing your F150 vs the cost of getting one of the 7 projects driveable?

I'm following this line of thought as well. Sell some projects, buy a sweet, yet cheapish commuter.

I like where you're going with this. I can sell the F150 for about $4500 and I have another $3000-4000 to put into an upgrade, or spend that 3-4k on the project as a second driver.

I'm afraid that the least expensive project to complete is an Impala SS with a gnarly 383 putting out about 450 hp. I don't expect it to be an economical driver, and even if I detune it a bit I don't want it to be a daily use vehicle.

The next closest (chronological) project is about $15,000 away from completion, and the next one is about $12,000. The $15,000 project has taken me 8 years so far I sometimes wait for a year to find a cheap deal on the next part.

I'm following this line of thought as well. Sell some projects, buy a sweet, yet cheapish commuter.

Good idea, but I have a problem with emotional attachments.

96 Impala SS - first car I ever owned since new and it has defined a great portion of my life
67 Lemans/GTO clone - my favorite car of all time and I finally scored one in decent shape for $250.
66 Bonneville - my great uncle gave me that car (my first car) on his death bed. Not selling.
65 Scout - I could sell that, but I think I would have to pay someone to haul it off. Its that bad. I also keep it around as a sacrificial anode to draw rust away from my other projects.
The remaining three aren't actually projects, they're what my wife and I drive, including the F150.

And, since they're projects and not running, they don't represent a cost like insurance, registration, and inspection. Another car would represent additional cost. Not much, but its not a good time for me to add

Why not rent a large truck when you need one and just daily either a small truck or a car. It might seem expensive to spend a few hundred bucks to rent a truck but the cost of gassing a large truck to use as a daily is so high depending on amount of driving that it doesn't make sense to own a large truck. Maybe economy on them is getting better though.

good point, baron. I thought of that which is kinda why I'm posting this thread... to make sure I didn't forget an obvious solution to the problem before I just trade away the F150

How about a Honda Ridgeline with an automatic containing 8 or 9 gears?

Otto, I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I had similar thoughts a few years ago... get a 8' trailer for my TDI (which can easily tow about a ton) and just rent a truck when I need to haul something bigger.

Somehow, I ended up buying a '95 Cummins 4x4 instead... women... ...it does get about 22 mpg when I bother to dig it out of the snow...

Thought about something like this as well. Diesel, SRW, would do everything I need and should get 18-20 mpg.

Sounds like you need an older F250 or GM 2500 with a turbo diesel!

NGTD, that thought crosses my mind daily. It would definitely be a step in the right direction. Now if I can just find a cheap source for biodiesel. I wish I had the space and time to do it myself.

You get discounts on trans rebuilds, right? Might be time to look for a Dodge with a Cummins .

I don't really see anything that'll get you away from a truck in your requirements, without the dead deer requirement you could conceivably look at a bunch of SUVs but as I'm currently finding (I'm not a truck guy and want to get rid of my Sierra for something else), most useful SUVs seem to gargle at least as much juice as a full size truck.

I wish ford would release an F100 with a ~3.0 Turbo Diesel for under $30k....

I's confused.

What are the two unlisted cars?

What about them makes them unusable as a DD? Are they both the wife's? I'm guessing at least one is... but that leaves one more.

65 scout - sacrificial rust anode
66 bonneville - far from completion
67 lemans - farther from completion
96 impala ss - will soon be a 450-hp behemoth
98 F150 - daily driver
05 Scion xB - wife's daily driver
18' flatbed trailer construction project - (not a wise daily driver choice)

Then there are also the two boats, a travel trailer, and a 24' box truck, but who's counting?

It sounds to me like you've painted yourself into a corner.

There's a lot of duplication across the vehicles you have. The Impala has a lot of modern niceties that make it an awesome DD, why ruin that when you have a similar but even more awesome chassis to turn into a race car?

Were I in your boat, I'd be trying to hawk the Scout, boats, trailer, and box truck; taking the parts/money I had for the Impala and buy whatever I needed to make them work on the Bonneville (I don't care, a hopped up LT1 Bonneville is cooler than a hopped up LT1 Caprice); and keep the Impala a mostly civil driver.

ReverendDexter wrote: It sounds to me like you've painted yourself into a corner. There's a lot of duplication across the vehicles you have. The Impala has a lot of modern niceties that make it an awesome DD, why ruin that when you have a similar but even more awesome chassis to turn into a race car?

The Impala is not up for debate. Niether are the two Pontiacs. The scout could go away, but the fact that I tried selling it for $50 and no one bought it means that its not going to bring any money.

The Bonneville will make a FINE DD when its done, its just not going to be done for a long time. The Lemans will be a road racer and be mostly streetable, but it won't save any fuel.

Were I in your boat, I'd be trying to hawk the Scout, boats, trailer, and box truck; taking the parts/money I had for the Impala and buy whatever I needed to make them work on the Bonneville (I don't care, a hopped up LT1 Bonneville is cooler than a hopped up LT1 Caprice); and keep the Impala a mostly civil driver.

The one boat is a 14' aluminum. The other one is an I/O worth about $500. The trailer is also pretty worthless on the market, but indisposable to me and my buddies. The box truck has been for sale for 3 months at what I consider dirt berkeleying cheap.

And while I appreciate the suggestion on the LT1 Bonny, its not the engine I lack, its the everything else. The bonneville is currently completely disassembled ready for blasting/dipping. Its more or less in boxes. And the bonny will not be getting an LT1

The other thing is, I have firmly decided to NOT use the SS as a DD. I've never owned something "worthy" like that before and I have driven it. Now it needs to be the "toy" that makes weekend road trips, jaunts to the drive-in.

I think you're all assuming something that isn't true: none of these projects have any value to anyone but me (except the impala, the box truck, and the F150)

Bonneville = $300
Lemans = equivalent of $250
Scout = less than nothing
Boat A = $100
Boat B = $500

So, its not like I can "sell" all these projects and buy something with it other than a nice TV. Its also not a burden to own them. I'm not painted into any corner because of those vehicles.

I think I'm just not understanding what the F150 is failing at that any other vehicle could do while also being able to competently handle all the tasks you're currently asking out of your pickup.

Is this just AADD? 'Cause I totally understand that.

Its partly AADD.

The F150 performs all of the tasks wonderfully, and I need it to do those things for 10% of its operation. The other 90% of the time its a 12 mpg commuter car.

Before I leap into selling the F150 and renting a truck in the future, I was wondering if anyone had some ideas on a vehicle that would still do all the tasks I need, but be a better DD - MPG being a large part of that.

A friend of mine suggested a sprinter van. Not a bad idea - ample size but still "small," fair amount of torque for towing, its a shame I can't afford one (and I hear the MB diesel in them is really junky)

Lower the price on the box truck (make offer!) and rid yourself of the Scout.

JFX001 wrote: Lower the price on the box truck (make offer!) and rid yourself of the Scout.

Good idea. One of my problems is that Ryder just redid their fleet, so the market is flooded with cheap box trucks. I have $11k in the truck and its down to $8500 with about 10 tire-kickers. Someone just needs to get off their ass and pony up the cash. Its easily a $10-11k truck.

... stupid supply and demand crap

I think you need to sit down and crunch some numbers and do some cost/mile comparisons.

How much driving does that 90% equal? Take that figure and figure out how much you're spending on gas during a year. Now figure out how much you would be saving if you drove a car that got X better mileage. Take these two numbers and figure out what your value and payback will be over a given time (1 year? 2? 3?).

Then add in the 'ancillary' costs of adding the second car or renting a truck.

What you may find is it's most cost-effective to stay with what you have, putting any extra time & money into the 3 project cars.

Ian... you're giving me reasons not to buy a new vehicle. I'm counting on you guys to give me the reason to buy one.

I've been averaging 15k a year. At an optimistic average of 13 mpg, that's about 1155 gallons, times 2.89/gal is $3335 give or take.

Changing to a diesel (like for instance a Duramax like my dad has), I would change that number to 19 mpg, 789 gallons, 3.29/gal = $2600 - a fuel savings of about $750/year. Since there would be no extra car, let's assume no change to registration or insurance, but let's assume an additional $100 for the more expensive oil changes and fuel filter. That estimates a savings of $650/yr

Changing to a beater Tercel (from the F150) would make it 35 mpg, which makes about $1240 per year, a savings of $2000/yr. Adding insurance, registration, and inspection, and adding in three oil changes seems like $550. (300 insurance, 68 registration, 30 inspection, 3x30 for oil changes, other random fuses, bulbs, air filters, etc) That still means a savings of $1400 year.

None of those numbers account for the 10% of truck usage, but let's factor it in. After reconsidering the actual miles, its probably more like 3000 miles that I use the truck as a truck... so 20%. 3000 miles a year at 8 mpg equals about $1100 a year in towing fuel. However, since 1500 of that includes my yearly trip to Ontario (where I tend to spend at least two weeks, sometimes as many as 5) that could rack up the rental pretty quick.

Looks like buying a beater is the cheapest way, but the least fun way.

Dammit, I wanted a diesel.