Jeremiah, thanks so much for sharing your opinion. Your situation is one that I want to avoid in several ways. Camping and being together as a family is more important to us than any of the needs or wants I have in a truck or trailer. The fact is, our current truck would make any of the trips we have in mind. Sure, it will scream up and down the mountains...but it will make it. I'd rather work the old girl hard and have the money to enjoy ourselves on trips than to be riding in a beautiful truck and eating rice and beans. I'm keenly aware of this careful balance that we all must make.
I was putting my two boys to sleep, we said our prayers and then I asked what they thought of that new Ford truck. They both said, "it's nice but we would miss Chevy too much". Hahaha, out of the mouths of babes. They really give some perspective.