New diesel shopping

Golden_HVAC wrote:
All of the new diesel trucks will feel more powerful than a 10 year old pickup. What kind of trailer do you plan to tow? How much will the family weigh before the kids want to stop camping at 18 years old, and will they still fit into the crewcab in a few years?

Our camper is a Rockwood Mini Lite 2504S. It weighed just over 6000 pounds on the axles loaded for our two week trip to the mountains. I am not sure on tongue weight, as I never had a chance to weigh the truck unhooked. It is well within the capability of one of the modern half tons, such as an F150 max tow, max payload. That being said, after a long day of driving with it behind my truck I am just exhausted. I have read so many people say that the difference between gas and diesel is arriving at your destination exhausted with gas and arriving with energy left to go see the sights with a diesel.
We also tend to pack lots of stuff, since we have two young boys and have to pack for everything: bikes, strollers, bike trailers etc. My truck box was packed and I was 250 pounds overweight on the rear axle of my F150.

All that being said, a once or twice a year camping trip, with a not that heavy trailer, is probably not enough to justify a new diesel truck. The other reason for it is we haul water to our house. It is about 50 miles round trip to the water load station and I make this treck weekly. I would like to be able to haul more water per load, to reduce my load frequencies. This is because the load station is in the opposite direction of anything I do. It wouldn't be so bad if I could grab water on the way home from work. I would like to be able to upgrade to a 14,000 lb gvw flat deck for hauling water, that would double my water capacity! Part of me would also love to upgrade to a gooseneck for this.