Tow truck ideas / advice

Budget?

Do you want something that will work or something that is overkill like a 1 ton? Truck or SUV or you don't have a preference?

Thermoguy wrote:
Budget?

Do you want something that will work or something that is overkill like a 1 ton? Truck or SUV or you don't have a preference?

something that can sensibly handle that travel trailer would be ok, I'd be interested to know what the smaller size could be and if I'd drive it daily too (not so keen on that idea)... a Truck as we always have that issue of taking bikes....

Budget - reality is we've never had a car payment, but we don't have much spare cash. If I keep my car then we'd have about $10,000 to put down towards a truck, then a loan, if I sold my car we'd have additional $25,000... my daily driving is highway to and from work and to kids sports so a big truck would be total overkill though...

Really don't want anything too high mileage that ends up with issues. We are attached to the Excursion and it runs well..but cannot get this wobbly steering issue fixed, well maybe, by sinking another $5000 or so into it.. Here it's almost got no value, can't legally smog it now in CA either.....

jukes wrote:

Thermoguy wrote:
Budget?

Do you want something that will work or something that is overkill like a 1 ton? Truck or SUV or you don't have a preference?

something that can sensibly handle that travel trailer would be ok, I'd be interested to know what the smaller size could be and if I'd drive it daily too (not so keen on that idea)... a Truck as we always have that issue of taking bikes....

Budget - reality is we've never had a car payment, but we don't have much spare cash. If I keep my car then we'd have about $10,000 to put down towards a truck, then a loan, if I sold my car we'd have additional $25,000... my daily driving is highway to and from work and to kids sports so a big truck would be total overkill though...

Really don't want anything too high mileage that ends up with issues. We are attached to the Excursion and it runs well..but cannot get this wobbly steering issue fixed, well maybe, by sinking another $5000 or so into it.. Here it's almost got no value, can't legally smog it now in CA either.....

Outside of CA diesel Excursions go for stupid money, so if you can sell it out of state you should do fine. Hard to believe you couldn't get the steering fixed for $5K- the front suspension and steering on those rigs is relatively simple. Being a Ford, it will never be perfect, but I think you must have brought it to the wrong shop.

On the topic of a replacement rig, it will be pretty tough to find a "smaller" replacement rig that will tow a 6200 lb dry weight trailer very well. Suburbans, Expeditions and 1500 series pickups will do the job if configured decently (payload could be an issue), but they really aren't much smaller than an Excursion. Anything significantly smaller than an Ex just won't work IMO.

Are you set on an SUV? How many people are you taking?

A full size body on frame van would be one option if a big family or for a family of 4, a full size 4 door pickup is viable.

At just shy of 8000lb (loaded), 1/2 ton trucks would be viable, just check to make sure it has a higher payload (2000lb or more). The modern ones running empty get much better MPG than in the olden days and modern gas engines have plenty of power to pull 8000lb.

Keep it, spend the money to repair whats wrong and enjoy it for many more years.
New trucks are stupid expensive, to buy and repair.

Steering and suspension isn’t magic. You just have a bad mechanic. Find a good one. Or any newer half ton will do everything you need. But the price of gas is a real factor currently if you put in a lot of miles on the daily.

Unfortunately there are no "secret trucks" that ticks off all your boxes, but nobody else knows about so you can snap it up cheap.

That's really what you're looking for us to tell you about here... If only there were such a thing, but every corner's been thoroughly searched, and there are no such secret special trucks, no "dogs" on the market that don't deserve to be.

All you can do is shop, and keep shopping until you find the right deal on something that meets your needs. Many 1500 series trucks will pull your trailer, but if you're filling those three rows in the old Excursion with growing kids, a 1500 pickup isn't going to have the seating capacity you need.

Really in this day and age there is no direct replacement for an Excursion. The market for "3/4 ton" SUVs was such that all the manufacturers dropped them. Passenger capacity and payload capacity has been relegated to 1 ton vans, but vans aren't "cool" so very few people consider them a viable option.

Gooma wrote:
Keep it, spend the money to repair whats wrong and enjoy it for many more years.
New trucks are stupid expensive, to buy and repair.

Yep, that is our preference, we paid a 'reputable' mechanic to fix the issue but it didn't fix it, that cost about $4500. Then my husband has done some work on it. So far it's just had new track bar, Ball joints, steering stabilizer, steering box, tie rod ends. Shocks.

The steering is just not right..... but the engine is hanging in there with almost 400,000 in it...

We'd get a truck not SUV next time as the kids are growing and rarely do all 3 join us.....

What "just not right" though? Can you be specific about the issue? Maybe someone here has a suggestion.

mkirsch wrote:
What "just not right" though? Can you be specific about the issue? Maybe someone here has a suggestion.

It feels like the steering is wandering rather than a wobble if that makes sense?