Week 2.5 is all about THE TRUCK! Ever since we bought our Airstream we’ve been wondering what the heck we should tow it with! Since we’re total newbies and we have never towed anything this big before (I’ve never towed anything at all!) we were really unsure about what we would need. I did a lot of research, asked friends and family for advice and we test drove a few different vehicles.
We knew we needed a vehicle that could do the following things:
- Tow at least 6000lbs
- Have a comfortable and large enough back seat so that all four of us could be comfortable and happy for the more than 20,000kms we have planned over four months.
- Preferably have an enclosed cab so we can store extra supplies, bikes etc.
- Have a relatively large wheel base to avoid dog tailing. (The end of our trailer acting like a dog’s tail and wagging back and forth at high speeds or in strong wind.)
- Have a strong enough engine so that we’re able to climb mountains easily and maintain a reasonable gas mileage rather than wasting gas by using an engine not powerful enough for what we need.
- We wanted it to have the proper factory installed tow package with electric brakes. We didn’t want to mess around with adding this on to a vehicle.
We easily narrowed our list down to a few vehicles. One thing became clear.
We really wanted a diesel truck.
We loved the idea of possibly using biofuel in California, the lower cost of diesel and reliability of the engines. Unfortunately, all those good things mean that these trucks cost way more than our budget allowed. One of the most important reasons we sold our house before going on the road is that
we really didn’t want any more debt while on the road.
This meant the diesel trucks were off the table. We didn’t have the time to go our west to bring one home and the few we looked at here were either too expensive or has small problems that worried us. We also didn’t want to have to fix any major problems with our vehicle while on the road if possible! So the dream changed and we became frustrated at the lack of good vehicles within our price range. Then after weeks of searching something happened.
The vehicle we needed fell right into our laps.
I came upon an an ad in the Saint John kijiji for a Ford Expedition that was in our price range and looked to be in relatively good shape. We started to get really excited when we saw that it had a new inspection and was silver with tinted windows. It was well taken care of and matched our Airstream!!
It was fate!
We knew it was meant to be when we called them up and the man who placed the ad said it was his parent’s truck, well taken care of and they could meet us in an hour to look at it! We took it for a test drive and not only was it very comfortable but it checked all the boxes off (it tows 9,000lbs, has a 130cm wheelbase, extremely comfortable back seats, extra storage space/third row seats and the factory tow package with electric brakes!)
SOLD!
Did I mention that we have two names for her? They are Truckasaurus and Beastie.
Stay tuned for more posts on our adventure and follow us on Instagram for more pictures!
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