Day #64 – We Buy a Truck

Sarasota FL

This morning, we decided to buy a Chevy Silverado.  I didn’t like the appearance of the Dodge Ram; neither of us liked the Ford trucks; we agreed we love our current Chevy.  We also decided to buy a new truck.  While the ticket price was more for a new truck, the incentives and financing brought its cost down into the range of a used truck.  Many thanks to Jim (our Money Guy) for helping us with this analysis.

We knew what we needed –  towing capacity of at least 7,000 pounds, a bed at least as long as our current one, an extended cab rather than a regular cab.  While we would accept a crew cab, we did not want an 8-foot truck bed or one shorter than 5.5 feet.  We were hoping for white with cloth seats, but we’d be fine with blue or red.  We would not accept a tan interior.

We drove down to Venice to look at several options.  The only truck that met our criteria was two-wheel drive, white with leather seats and enough chrome to make us squint.  The leather smelled good.  I figured cows get wet and muddy all the time, so we could probably keep the interior clean, but that chrome was really bothering me.  We were also concerned that neither Debbie nor Linda (our vegan friends) would ever ride in a vehicle with leather seats.  The weird thing was price – the fancy truck cost quite a bit less than the bare-bones one in Sarasota.

While we were in the Venice show room, I contacted the Sarasota salesman to ask him some questions about the truck we’d seen there.  It was pretty obvious we were looking at his competition.  The truck in Sarasota had four-wheel drive.  That added to the price, but not enough to explain the huge difference between these two trucks.  We decided to use this as a bargaining strategy and returned to Sarasota to negotiate.

We used everything we had ever learned about negotiating.  Kelly hates this part of buying a car, but I like it.  I work so hard on being nice - sometimes it’s great to just cut loose.  Kelly wanted me to do all the talking, but since I used silence to make the salesman uncomfortable, it shot me in the foot – Kelly felt uncomfortable and filled the silences.  We walked away at one point.  In the end, they came down a couple thousand and threw in two options we really needed – a rubber mat for the bed and running boards.  They had offered us a free bed liner, but we opted for a rubber mat because it was more practical for our road trip. (Objects in the bed won’t slide around.)  We tried for a rack, but they wouldn’t go that far. 

Here’s what we got: 2009 Chevy Silverado with V8 engine and towing capacity of 9700 pounds (room to grow to a larger trailer if we love this lifestyle), extended cab, built-in tow package with all kinds of safety sensors, white with grey fabric seats, radio with CD and MP3 jack (This was a HUGE point for Kelly and the Fords didn’t have it.)  The safety sensors made it more expensive than the one with leather seats.  When I realized the difference, and what those sensors would give us over the next year, I made up my mind very quickly.

Kelly and I were very happy with our decision.  We used teamwork and got the best deal we could on the truck we wanted.  We’re both nervous about driving it – it is friggin’ huge!  While sitting in the front seat, we can barely reach across the middle to touch each other.  We’re telling ourselves it’s smaller than many of the pick-ups on the road; it’s no wider than the trailer; we’ll get used to it.

Day #63 – We Need a Truck

Sarasota FL

Today we decided to buy a truck.  It really comes down to the journey and what we want it to be.  We could quit – just settle here in Florida and maybe try again later, but this is really not acceptable to either of us.  We already know we could not tent-camp for a year, so that option isout, too.  We thought about continuing the adventure with the Colorado or Prius, and switch to cheap hotels.  That really doesn’t work either.  We’d give up cooking our own food; we’d lose all sense of home; the trip would be considerably shorter (the money would run out more quickly).  A bigger truck is the best solution to this problem.

Kelly told me that many of our friends had told her we should get a bigger truck.  Maybe they told me too, and I just didn’t hear it.  She tried to tell me I wasn’t a failure for not seeing this one coming, for not buying a new truck earlier in the process.  She reminded me that we started planning this trip with a pop-up tent as our shelter – the Colorado could handle that weight with no problem.

I nursed my wounds and Kelly did hours of Internet research.  We decided: no older than 2006; no more than 40,000 miles; no history of towing.  We found prices in the mid-20s, about $10,000 less than new trucks. 

We started wondering whether it made sense to consider a new 2009 truck.  The 2010s were available in October, so the 2009 models were on sale, with lots of incentives.  It looked like we might end up paying roughly the same amount of money for a 2009 as we would for a used truck. 

By afternoon, we were ready to go look.  We looked at the Chevy Silverado and the Ford F-150.  Each of these has several lines, with several models within each line.  How many cylinders?  What axle ratio? (These two determine towing capacity.)  How much space behind the front seats?  How big a bed?  Our heads were spinning!  We looked at both used and new trucks, and test-drove a new Chevy Silverado.

The Chevy dealer worked some numbers for us on a new Silverado, based on trading in the Colorado.  We weren’t ready to do hard negotiating yet, so we took his numbers and moved on.  Because it was dusk by the time we got to the Ford dealer, we did not test-drive any of their trucks.  Their pricing was about the same, but they did not have attractive incentives or 0% financing.  Also, the warranties on Ford trucks were not as robust as those on the Chevy trucks.

I was really worried about the money.  We still don’t know what it really costs us to be on the road and I wasn’t comfortable making such a huge monthly commitment.  Still, it didn’t much matter – to move forward, we had to buy a truck.  No truck: no trip.  We came home and did more Internet research.

We also decided to sell the Colorado privately, if possible.  We contacted Beth, one of our kayaking friends and offered it to her, at Blue Book.  She accepted and we settled on an amount.  This will work out great for all of us.

Day #62 – Plodding through the Do-List

Sarasota FL

The last few days have been devoted to completing tasks.  Nothing terribly exciting.

1) We finished the cupboards in the garage and started filling them with items we’ll need when we settle in Sarasota.

2) After an hour on the phone, I was able to schedule a mammogram – it’s on Tuesday February 2 at 10:00.

3) We picked up our bikes from the repair shop; Kelly got a haircut; the returns were finished.


The big issue has been trailer weight and truck size.  We were nervous about our weight at the beginning of the trip.  But, when we weighed the rig in Virginia and it totaled somewhere around 9,000, Kelly was relieved to find we were not over our weight limit.  Her logic was this: if Chevy says the total weight of truck and “stuff” cannot exceed 9,000, then we’re spot on.  She wasn’t worried until we hit mountains, but she was upset to be max’ed out so early in the journey.  

I’ve been reading a lot about towing and learning there’s more to it than total weight.  There are about seven different truck, hitch, and trailer limits to consider, plus four different weights to consider.  These eleven variables are not linear – there are ratios all through the comparisons of one weight to another.  It is complicated and confusing.  Every time I did the math, we were coming up too heavy to be safe – even on flat roads.  I tried the math from different angles, trying to back in to some of the numbers.  The results were roughly the same.

I wasn’t just worried – I was angry.  The folks who built our trailer were pretty clear that we could easily tow it with our Colorado.  This was a helluva time to find out differently.  I was also angry about the timing.  We’re living on less money now and our trip has already begun: why am I hearing about this NOW???

I felt like a failure – not a feeling I handle well.