Well, I bought a truck Sunday morning. I really wanted a diesel dually, but settled on a gently used Ford F250 with the V10 gasser. It's a 2003 with only 105,000 miles on it. Had limited funds from the trailer insurance to buy a truck, and all the diesels I looked at in this price range were about the same model year, but they all had 375k to 400k miles on them.
A couple of positives with this truck, I personally know the seller, he only put about 5,000 miles per year on, bascially only used it to pull trailers including his old 5th wheel, which means he tossed in the PullRite auto sliding hitch (truck has 6.5 ft bed). It's strong, capable, relatively low mileage, wasn't driven in winter (no rust) & well kept.
(https://i.ibb.co/fQsYvBj/F250-front.jpg) (https://ibb.co/fQsYvBj) (https://i.ibb.co/L5qLq6K/F250-rear.jpg) (https://ibb.co/L5qLq6K)
Nice looking truck. So what do you do with the topper when towing the 5th wheel?
I've got a couple people here in Maine that will gladly take it off my hands, hopefully soon!
Good deal. I'm glad you found a replacement. 20 yr old with 105k miles is REALLY low mileage!
Early last week I took the truck over to a friends wood lot, he took the topper off of it, and had one of his employees install the 5th wheel for me. Fast forward to today, I hooked up the trailer and pulled it forward in my site (it's a large pull through) so that instead of burning up in direct sunlight all day, the trailer now sits in the shade all day, thus reducing the work load of my AC units.
Very good! Shade on a hot day is the best.
The move did create a need for longer utility lines! I now have 4 sections of sewer hose instead of one, two water hoses, and two long cable lines (one for park cable, the other for the satellite dish). My 50amp power line was long enough to handle the move without an extension.
That being said, it hit the mid 80's today, but the trailer never got over 73º and that using just the portable 8K AC unit, the roof top unit (set to come on at 76º) never kicked in!! So the shade is doing exactly as hoped.
Shade is my friend!
It topped out at 88º today and humid, but between the 2 ac units it never got over 74º inside the trailer. I still think that the roof top unit needs to be replaced, but it does blow cold, just noisy and vibrates...
We had our A/C die one year. Naturally it was on a campout where the temps got to 105 where is it normally in the 80s or so. We did a lot of touring around to anywhere air conditioned that weekend.
My little 8,000 BTU portable room ac manages to keep my unit right where I want it, except when it gets above 85º out there, then the 13.5 on the roof kicks in when indoor temps exceed 73º...