Hello. I have owned some form of Chevy SUV since high school in the 90's and currently have a 20 year old Tahoe that I am ready to replace. While an SUV has been great for our family, I am ready to make the switch to a truck because we like to go camping a lot and would like to purchase a travel trailer in the next year or so. Naturally, I am considering a Silverado just because I am used to them and honestly have not had one issue with my Tahoe in 20 years, but want to look at everything out there. I am just casually looking for now as I am in no rush so could prolong this until the end of the year if I need to, but I did go by a couple of lots. I sat in and drove a Ram for the first time the other day and I have to admit, it looks way more modern and luxurious inside than the Silverado. The Silverado is nice but definitely has some resemblance of my 20 year old truck! The Ram felt like I was driving a car too and was amazed at the ride and the turning radius too. Anyways, I will definitely look more into Rams now that I drove one.
The other part of this equation is that when I first considered getting a truck this year, I just figured I would get something a few years old with not a lot of miles for around $30k. I then realized that the used truck inventory is pretty low and prices are up. I also started noticing that the payload capacity on half ton trucks varies but must of the used ones I looked at ranged in that 1500-1600 pound range. I figure once we load our family of 4 and a dog, that could potentially be about 700 pounds leaving only about 800-900 pounds of payload for the tongue weight of a trailer. Add a weight distributing hitch, and you are down to only 700 pounds left. With that math, at the very most I could tow a 7,000 pound trailer if the tongue weight is 10% of that but it would likely be more so I might be safer in the 5,000 pound range. It is just frustrating to see these trucks say they can tow 9,000 or 11,000 pounds or whatever but in reality you are limited by the payload. So all that now has me leaning more toward a 3/4 ton truck just so I don't have to be right on the limits and be careful with everything that gets loaded. The Ram I drove did have a 1,730 pound payload so there is a little more room. I'd like to get a 1500 because there is more selection, cheaper, better mileage, etc. but I am also don't want it to limit me. I think we have to get an idea of a trailer first and I have really only looked online but the biggest ones that may interest us have had a max weight of around 7,000 pounds loaded. So then looking at used 2500s of any brand, it seems like ones that are 4-5 years old have over 100k miles on them and are still $40k so now I started considering buying new. It is tough because I probably won't get a whole lot of use out of this as it will be our secondary vehicle (I have only averaged about 5k per year on the Tahoe over the last several years) so it is hard to justify spending that much, but on the other hand I probably will keep it forever like I did with my current one and keep it garaged so it should last a long time. It is nice knowing what the truck has been through by owning it since new which is probably a reason the Tahoe has been trouble free for so long because I have had it since new and know how I take care of it. I definitely do not need all of the options or leather or the diesel but would not like the bottom of the barrel either (the Bighorn model I drove seemed really nice). I know this is a long ways from the $30k I started from, but I guess if I had to go the new 2500 route, if it got up to $50k max I might go for that, if that is even possible. I don't know, sorry for all the rambling, I guess I am just throwing this out here to let people weigh in or try to set me on a path since I am all over the place, or even to convince me to lean toward Ram now. Thanks for reading!
The other part of this equation is that when I first considered getting a truck this year, I just figured I would get something a few years old with not a lot of miles for around $30k. I then realized that the used truck inventory is pretty low and prices are up. I also started noticing that the payload capacity on half ton trucks varies but must of the used ones I looked at ranged in that 1500-1600 pound range. I figure once we load our family of 4 and a dog, that could potentially be about 700 pounds leaving only about 800-900 pounds of payload for the tongue weight of a trailer. Add a weight distributing hitch, and you are down to only 700 pounds left. With that math, at the very most I could tow a 7,000 pound trailer if the tongue weight is 10% of that but it would likely be more so I might be safer in the 5,000 pound range. It is just frustrating to see these trucks say they can tow 9,000 or 11,000 pounds or whatever but in reality you are limited by the payload. So all that now has me leaning more toward a 3/4 ton truck just so I don't have to be right on the limits and be careful with everything that gets loaded. The Ram I drove did have a 1,730 pound payload so there is a little more room. I'd like to get a 1500 because there is more selection, cheaper, better mileage, etc. but I am also don't want it to limit me. I think we have to get an idea of a trailer first and I have really only looked online but the biggest ones that may interest us have had a max weight of around 7,000 pounds loaded. So then looking at used 2500s of any brand, it seems like ones that are 4-5 years old have over 100k miles on them and are still $40k so now I started considering buying new. It is tough because I probably won't get a whole lot of use out of this as it will be our secondary vehicle (I have only averaged about 5k per year on the Tahoe over the last several years) so it is hard to justify spending that much, but on the other hand I probably will keep it forever like I did with my current one and keep it garaged so it should last a long time. It is nice knowing what the truck has been through by owning it since new which is probably a reason the Tahoe has been trouble free for so long because I have had it since new and know how I take care of it. I definitely do not need all of the options or leather or the diesel but would not like the bottom of the barrel either (the Bighorn model I drove seemed really nice). I know this is a long ways from the $30k I started from, but I guess if I had to go the new 2500 route, if it got up to $50k max I might go for that, if that is even possible. I don't know, sorry for all the rambling, I guess I am just throwing this out here to let people weigh in or try to set me on a path since I am all over the place, or even to convince me to lean toward Ram now. Thanks for reading!
