Farm Truck

[ClinchValley]

Not to mention the depreciation of a car. Unless an import of course.

Just sold my '13 Taurus. Was a $30k+ car in 2013. Blue book in perfect condition was under $10k. Car had 92k miles. That hurt my feelings.

Then take my 4x4 '05 F250 diesel. It is well worth more than the Taurus and it is 10+ years old and has 250k miles.

Twelve valve Cummins are fetching over 10k w very high miles paired with a 4x4 almost every time they sell.

Even gasser's hold their value better than cars.

Economically speaking, it makes absolutely zero sense to buy a car. The are a tin can. Very limited in application. Not to mention unsafe. I would much rather be involved in an accident driving or riding in a truck.

My argument doesn't apply to RWD trucks. Honestly, i don't know why they build RWD trucks. I have a RWD F250 and is horrible on wet/damp ground. A pavement queen. Mud tires have helped a bit. But still cannot take it far on the property.

 

[Brute 23]

If I had one property with my house on it I could operate with out a truck. Having multiple properties spread out makes it impossible to not move equipment with out a truck.

I am a big fan of hiring out as much as possible and still do. At a certain point there are things that become a hassle to hire out.

With that said, vehicles that ride too low to the ground make me car sick.

 

[D2Cat]

In "3-F" I'd fill in with "convenience". Can't imagine waiting for someone else to help, or hire it done..then wait.

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for!

 

[RanchMan90]

I drive a $1300 2005 Chevy cobalt to work, paid itself off in 6 months in fuel savings. I leave my truck hooked to the gooseneck. If I were to pay someone to haul for me it would cost me $1000 a week @ $3 a loaded mile, pays off a $7k truck and trailer pretty quick. I couldn't see spending any more than that on a farm truck other than for tax purposes.

 

[littletom]

My ton truck hauls 16,000 pounds of tobacco plus dual tandem trailer weight 2-3 times a week for 3 months of year stays hooked to trailer. 2 months of year it pulls 24' flats of green tobacco hooked tandem 4 days a week. And pulls a 1000 gallons of water around during spraying and tran planting. The rest of the year it pulls a few loads of cattle. Other than that is parked I drive Tacoma. Also have a old power stroke that fills in on some of these task. Without a pickup I guess I would be sol!

 

[boondocks]

Stopped and looked at a few used but later-model Chevy and GMC trucks tonight (2014-2016 range). Found one I liked but then found out some of these are known for early-failing transmissions apparently? To make it worse, Western Plow's website says our (existing) plow will work on one of these, but the dealer says putting a plow on the model we looked at voids the drivetrain warranty. :bang:

(Keep in mind we were looking away from Fords after recently buying a 2012 F150 that can't take the plow that's currently on our 2004 F150. But it's ok that the 2012 won't take the plow, because it got hit by lightning and has been in the shop for the last 3 months of the 5 months we've owned it. Did I say :bang: ?)

So I guess we have to look at 2015-16 F150's--not a lot of choices in a supercrew....

 

[Nesikep]

It's a necessity here.. Last time I had cattle hauled it cost me nearly $700 to bring them to the sale barn.. pretty much 5% of the loads value.. and you gotta wait for them, your calves don't get there when you want them to, so they go through the ring when there's no one looking.
Then you want to pick up tractor here, some pipe there, and oh, someone wants to buy some hay







I could never justify the cost and depreciation on a new truck in my situation but going without a truck would be darned near impossible.
We've thought about getting a fuel-sipping car, but we don't drive enough to make it pencil out when you consider insurance etc.. just take the truck, try and combine trips with something useful.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Nesikep, I was thinking about your gas sipping car. There's no way in the terrain you live in I'd ever be without 4wd. Matter of fact 4wd is a mandatory necessity for any farm truck. IMO