Troy as you have mentioned there are a ton of different options to tow with. My suggestion would be that you try and figure out exactly what all you want to do with the tow vehicle. Daily driver, winter daily driver, haul people and how many, etc... Then figure out exactly how often you'll really tow with it.
Be sure to leave a little room with towing capacity because you'll always end up with more weight than you expected. Basically once you have room to carry more, you will.
Then try and figure out a happy medium. Don't go over kill on the towing capacity when you may only tow 3 or 4 times a year but plan on driving the vehicle say all winter and some in the summer.
I tow with a 2005' F250 Crew Cab V-10. I bought the truck new in 05' and only have 10,000 miles on it. Besides other reasons I didn't want a diesel I wasn't going to drive enough to justify it either.
As far as a trailer goes steel is obviously the cheapest (by at least half) but also the heaviest. If you get a smaller vehicle like say an Explorer V-8 you should consider an aluminum trailer. But also keep in mind if you buy a bigger tow vehicle you can save money on buying a steel trailer instead of aluminum.
If 4 X 4 isn't an issue I would look at 4 X 2 150's or 250's with the 5.4 V-8. Decent fuel mileage and very good towing cpability for a fair price. As you know 4 X 2 is much cheaper than 4 X 4 in the NE.
If you need any Ford towing capacity info just hit me up. I keep the towing guides from year to year so as long as you have the engine, tranny and rear axle ratio info I can give you the towing capacity back to like 91'.
Darin
Be sure to leave a little room with towing capacity because you'll always end up with more weight than you expected. Basically once you have room to carry more, you will.
Then try and figure out a happy medium. Don't go over kill on the towing capacity when you may only tow 3 or 4 times a year but plan on driving the vehicle say all winter and some in the summer.
I tow with a 2005' F250 Crew Cab V-10. I bought the truck new in 05' and only have 10,000 miles on it. Besides other reasons I didn't want a diesel I wasn't going to drive enough to justify it either.
As far as a trailer goes steel is obviously the cheapest (by at least half) but also the heaviest. If you get a smaller vehicle like say an Explorer V-8 you should consider an aluminum trailer. But also keep in mind if you buy a bigger tow vehicle you can save money on buying a steel trailer instead of aluminum.
If 4 X 4 isn't an issue I would look at 4 X 2 150's or 250's with the 5.4 V-8. Decent fuel mileage and very good towing cpability for a fair price. As you know 4 X 2 is much cheaper than 4 X 4 in the NE.
If you need any Ford towing capacity info just hit me up. I keep the towing guides from year to year so as long as you have the engine, tranny and rear axle ratio info I can give you the towing capacity back to like 91'.
Darin
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