Buying Truck few years before 5th wheel

4x4ord wrote:

blofgren wrote:

FireGuard wrote:

Jim2007 wrote:
Hi. With the cost of a good two vehicle and the cost of a good 5th wheel . Spreading out cost would be a good option. Jim2007.

Or take the money you would pay for payments and put into an interest bearing account and pay cash in 5 yrs and have a new truck with full warranty and no depreciation.
If you don’t need it now, I would wait. They will only get better with 5 yrs of new technology.

x2.

x3

YUP, YUP, YUP, YUP

4WD in any SUV/pickup is just about free as long as it remains operational. It costs $1500-4000 up front and retains that spread per vehicle until 200k+ miles.

Easy to make a case both ways.
Agree w Scott, new transmissions in recent years all seem to be good. No more turds like years past. I was skeptical of an 8 speed til we got one.
Starting out full timing with a low mile 4 year old truck is basically a new truck, so no worries there, but getting whatever is new for the 2022 models sounds cool too, so flip a coin?

FireGuard wrote:

Jim2007 wrote:
Hi. With the cost of a good two vehicle and the cost of a good 5th wheel . Spreading out cost would be a good option. Jim2007.

Or take the money you would pay for payments and put into an interest bearing account and pay cash in 5 yrs and have a new truck with full warranty and no depreciation.
If you don’t need it now, I would wait. They will only get better with 5 yrs of new technology.

And why buy a new truck if you plan on using the truck mostly to pull the trailer. Save the money, and buy the truck when you actually will use it as a truck. And you can bank all the money you'll get in gas savings. :)

Smart move going to a F350.

F250s run out of payload very quickly, especially when equipped with a diesel engine.

In 2023 you can buy a 2020 for a lot less.

5yrs out, I would put the money in a conservative investment and buy when you get closer.

Lots of things could change between now and then. Worst case, you can buy a 5yr old truck at a steep discount or the new transmission could get great reviews and you have the option to get that. Or maybe you decide, you want to live on a boat...well now you have a pile of cash to make that happen.

Full time with a 5th wheel, I would get the long bed. Only good argument I've seen against it is fitting into a garage but if you are full time, that's not an issue. Short bed can work but no real advantage.

4x4: If you use 4x4 now, get it. Otherwise, the only advantage is if you need to back in up a steep hill, the low range works like a creeper gear giving you good control but unless you plan on camping in rustic parks or back country, it's not critical. A 1 ton truck makes a lousy off road vehicle.

Since you brought up resale, how long do you expect to keep this truck? If you are only going to keep it 10yrs, that means you ate up 50% of the life...not needing a truck. If you are going to keep it 20yrs, resale is not a big priority. If you get more than $5k on your $60k truck, you will be doing good (especially with Michigan salt rotting the body away).

FireGuard wrote:
Or take the money you would pay for payments and put into an interest bearing account and pay cash in 5 yrs and have a new truck with full warranty and no depreciation.
If you don’t need it now, I would wait. They will only get better with 5 yrs of new technology.

Ditto.... especially with the new stuff that will happen between no and then.

Case in point; GM redesigned their HD trucks in 2015. Duramax got reworked for the 2017 model year. The 1500 is getting reworked for 2019, HD trucks will probably follow for the 2020 model year.

The life cycle is getting short and short on a given body style.

I never expected to see a new design this soon after the 2015 redesign.

I know you are talking FORD, not GM - I'm just using GM as an example of how life cycles are getting shorter.

I'd say wait until 2 years before retirement before buying a retirement truck. If you buy 5 years prior , then the warranty will be up by the time you retire.

I bought my truck about 2.5 years before the intended camper to replenish finances. I avoid borrowing money when possible, so this gave me time to recover enough funds through the sale of my previous truck and saving to buy my current camper. The old camper actually sold before the new one was built, so I even had a cash cushion I was not relying upon.

I avoid the first year of a product knowing there will be problems that were not caught in testing. If you want that 10-speed transmission let the first year beta purchasers ferret out the remaining issues.

You're realistically looking at a 15K lb GTWR fifth wheel if you want to have some reserve on your SRW payload. If there are models that interest you which weigh more, consider scaling back or buying a DRW to pull them.

blofgren wrote:

FireGuard wrote:

Jim2007 wrote:
Hi. With the cost of a good two vehicle and the cost of a good 5th wheel . Spreading out cost would be a good option. Jim2007.

Or take the money you would pay for payments and put into an interest bearing account and pay cash in 5 yrs and have a new truck with full warranty and no depreciation.
If you don’t need it now, I would wait. They will only get better with 5 yrs of new technology.

x2.

x3