I am looking for a used truck and trailer to haul Willig (and Mercury!) around in. If any of you who read this have recommendations or warnings on years/models to avoid, I would love to hear about it.
What I'm looking for right now is a 1999-2000 F250. Ideally it will have less than 150,000 miles, be a diesel, V8 7.3L engine, 4x4, extended or super cab, and have a tow package (though I think I can get that installed). I'd also like for it to have a short bed, but there's already not many trucks in Washington that meet the former criteria, and I haven't found any that meet all that and have a short bed.
The trailer is 2-3 horse, at least 7' tall, extra long, and less than $3,000 (unless I have to reevaluate). I found a web page that suggested 7'6" for a 17h horse, but I think that's asking too much. I don't care about slant or straight load, but I'd prefer a ramp to a step up. And I'd like it to have a separate tack room (not one that is under the hay manger, but one I can stand up in to change clothes). The trailer appears to be the more difficult of the two, though there aren't trucks all over the place like I thought there'd be (what with gas prices and all).
I've been monitoring TackTrader.com (the best resource for used trailers I've found) and Craig's List, and every time there's a tall trailer listed, it gets snapped up.
One of my friends suggested that I avoid Charmac trailers, and any F-250 older than 1998, so if anyone has similar (or different) advice, I would really appreciate it.
Charlie with the long sought after cooler
Spring NWEC 2013 Novice
1 comment:
check out www.horsetrailerworld.com
they have tons of info. As for the truck...I had 1997 F150 (gas engine) that I bought 100,100 miles on it and it did the job fine. The main thing is to make sure you get the hitch at the right height so trailer is super steady and look into up grading to the fancy new brakes, inertia i think is the name. I had mine installed for about 300.00.
When I bought my trailer we found the trailer first and the truck second so we would know exactly what changes needed to be made to truck. I know the slant loads fly off tack trader, good luck.
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