Used Truck and Trailer Purchase Notes
One of the downsides of horse ownership is the cost. The cost of the horse is just the starting point. Transporting the horse is a non-trivial cost. We needed to buy a trailer and many of the trailers we looked at are heavy enough that we needed to buy a truck as well. This raised the question of what the minimum required towing capacity would be. It’s strange that these trucks are classified using tons. What Does Half-Ton, Three-Quarter-Ton, One-Ton Mean When Talking About Pickup Trucks? | Cars.com gives me the impression that tonnage is a historical artifact of payload measurement. A ton seems to be a reference to a Short ton – Wikipedia. It is also interesting that Toyota and Nissan don’t really have offerings above the half-ton classification. The approximate weight of the trailer (and the horse) that I want to transport (or alternatively, our camper) requires at least a 3/4-ton truck.
I can only afford used trucks though, so which models should I avoid? bad years for cars – Google Search did not have as many helpful results as I had hoped for. Used Cars to Avoid in 2024 | U.S. News (usnews.com) only covered 2019 and newer models. At least Worst Vehicles | CarComplaints.com had a list of vehicles to avoid. Used cars to avoid, ranked by Consumer Reports – Autoblog: Car News, Reviews and Buying Guides also had such a list and also recommended a pre-purchase inspection. I read the list of tips they linked to: How to buy a used car — 9 tips for the best deal – Autoblog: Car News, Reviews and Buying Guides. I was left wondering how you would know if there was a lean on the car? The title should show this (as per Guide to Car Liens: Lien Titles, Lienholders & More – CARFAX). It also suggests a Carfax Vehicle History Report – sounds like a good idea, not sure how costly though. Based on these resources, I concluded that we need to have the title and a bill of sale. Some due diligence related to the title: all persons on the title must sign/release the interest on the back of the title. The seller needs to print their name and sign beneath their printed name. At the end of the day, it turns out that we don’t really need a bill of sale.
One of the trucks we considered is the 2012 F 150 Towing Capacity Full Guide (with Charts) (truckauxiliary.com). The concern here was that even though it had a towing package, it was still a half-ton truck. It was also likely to be outside our budget, so we didn’t really wait for that seller to give us a price. We also looked at a 2006 RAM 2500. Our mechanic took a look at it and exclaimed that everything that could possibly leak on that vehicle was leaking (transmission, power steering, etc). That was an easy pass given that it was already at the top of our price range.
Fortunately, the next truck we looked at worked out. Cylinder 6 was misfiring on this truck (we could hear the tick) and this was confirmed by the digital codes from the vehicle. We decided to buy a new spark plug and coil for that cylinder to see if we could fix it before driving off with the truck but neither AutoZone nor Oreilly Autoparts had the right coil in stock. We walked out with just the spark plug and our mechanic replaced it. In the process of pulling out the old spark plug, the spark plug wire came apart, and we had to buy an entire Duralast Silicone Spark Plug Wire Set. Thankfully, that was all that was needed to address the cylinder misfiring. We were glad to have our mechanic available to fix that problem before we drove off with our “new” 2002 truck (through a private sale). We had also confirmed with our insurance company that the new vehicle was covered as we drove it away and that we had up to 5 days to add it to our insurance plan.
Ironically, the towing hitch was significantly damaged on this truck (one of our most important requirements). However, the mechanic pointed out that it can be readily replaced (just don’t do any welding on the existing setup since its integrity cannot be guaranteed). The only question I have remaining is how to compute the tongue weight (came up when we were looking up new hitches online). What is Tongue Weight and What Does it Mean for Safe Towing? explains various ways to determine the tongue weight. They also recommend their weigh-safe hitch, which has a built-in scale (I like how convenient this hitch makes it). This is the video they linked discussing this option.
I decide to buy the Adjustable Trailer Hitch, Adjustable Ball Mount, Truck Ball Hitch, Aluminum Trailer Tow Hitch w/Built in Scale for Anti Sway, 12,500 lbs GTW – Weigh Safe (what a mouthful). I wasn’t sure whether to get the aluminum or steel hitch even after reading Aluminum Vs. Steel Hitches so I settled on that one because I couldn’t even find the steel equivalent. We’ll see how it holds up.
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