Who doesn’t love test driving new vehicles!? Can anyone else relate or is it just us?! When we first started dating and were still newlyweds, before kiddo’s, we loved stopping by different car dealerships just to test drive and check out the newest car models. We may not drop into random dealerships with 3 kids in tow anymore, but we are definitely excited to be shopping for a new vehicle! Jeremy in particular has been extremely excited about shopping for our will be tow vehicle!! He has missed having a truck!! 

Jeremy has been researching all current truck models. Based on the weight of the RV and trailers we are planning on towing, he has found only 2 options where the numbers actually work. RAM and Ford. GM trucks do not have the payload or towing number even close to competing at this time. From what we can tell however, that is all going to change in 2019, you should be able to pretty much buy any of the 3 and have more than enough payload and towing capacity for anything you desire to tow. 

With all of Jeremy’s research we have started to compile a “truck must have’s list.” Here is what we have come up with so far!

Standard Transmission

• Jeremy has always preferred driving a standard transmission. It gives you full control while towing uphill and downhill. It allows you to put the RPMs right where the turbo is doing all of the work.

Bench seat for front seat

• God willing, we will eventually be a family of 6 so, we will need 6 seats.

4 wheel drive

• We love winter weather and due to the locations we have family and for ground clearance in the areas we want to go boon-docking 4 wheel drive will be extremely important.

Long bed

• We want the long bed for the space. The bed needs to have space for a toolbox/aux fuel tank along with the 5th wheel hitch but still have bed room. 
• We definitely don’t want to have to use a slider hitch! They weigh a ton more and take up a ton more room.

Cold Weather Package

• Again, we love winter and the cold weather package gives us the engine block heater, grille cover, heated seats and steering wheel. All of which we love!

Rear Air Suspension.

• This is important for anyone towing heavy. It makes sure the truck is level for optimum performance and safety while towing.

5th Wheel and Gooseneck Prep Package

• This way it comes from the factory with the puck system in place and also the 7-pin connector inside the bed.

Bed Liner

• Well lets be honest, the bed is going to be used often and needs to be protected.

So armed with our list we headed to the closest Ford dealership thinking we would get to test drive a new crew cab, long bed dually truck… Unfortunately we had not done our research and it turns out this particular Ford dealership didn’t carry any trucks on their lot.

We found another dealership a little further out, made a phone call to make sure they at least had trucks on their lot and headed their way thinking we were in the clear… For the first time ever, and if you remember we used to do this a lot, we were told we couldn’t test drive one of their trucks.

Apparently after sharing with the salesman our list of must haves he informed us that they did not have a truck on the lot that would fit our needs. When we asked if we could at least test drive a single rear wheel truck, we were met with a solid NO. They wouldn’t even unlock the truck for us. We left that dealership a little dumbfounded and confused but figured we would just try another Ford dealership.

The following week we drove a little further again to attempt finally getting into a Ford truck. This time they would open the truck for us… but they wouldn’t let us install our car-seats to check if they would fit… Obviously we cant test drive a vehicle without our kids so we left again dumbfounded!

Thankfully our experience with Ram was MUCH better!! This time we did our research before heading out. The dealership closest to us had a truck similar to what we were looking for, it was just an automatic transmission. We decided to head there anyway to test drive that one in case it wasn’t going to work we wouldn’t waste as much fuel getting there. We ended up really liking it, so the next day we drove a little further to test drive the standard transmission on a different lot!

We have officially decided on the Ram 3500 and will be ordering our truck with all the specific options we want in the next few weeks/months so stay tuned!!