Today, we're talking about towing an RV with a half-ton
truck. Now, a lot of you guys are always asking us, what kind
of truck are we using out on the road? Yeah, we get a lot of
questions about our truck. When we say don't tow an RV with
this, we're referring to our first truck that we ever
purchased like almost five years ago. That was a half-ton
blue lifted oversized truck with huge tires and boy, were
we in for some surprises with the financial mistakes that we
were about to make. Oopsies. We're going to get
into that here shortly but first, let's set the record
straight. This video is very specific to those looking to
purchase a half-ton truck. If you already own a half-ton
truck, this video is in no way meant to undermine your
decisions, your lifestyle, or your specific situations
leading up to your purchase. Yeah, we love all sorts of
trucks and tow vehicles out there and whatever works for
your lifestyle works. We're just actually so that a lot of
y'all are out here living life to the fullest through RV life
already. Yeah. So talking about half-ton trucks specifically or
any trucks for that matter is controversial. There's no right
answers. Yeah. But our goal today is to tell our story and
hopes that you can learn and have some objective points of
view going forward and seeking out your purchase. For the
lifestyle you're looking for. Don't make the mistakes we
made. Use the Hanks as an example of what not to do.
Without further ado, let's just get into our story and also
introduce like who we are and what our channel is. Totally,
I'm Kyle. I'm Renee. And back in 2017, we started looking for an
RV to live in. Yeah. While we pursue travel nursing. Whoo. We
had no idea anything about trucks and tow ratings. We were
just like, hey, here's a truck and it looks cool. Let's go buy
an RV. Yeah, literally, we went and bought a truck thinking
that it was going to be able to tow anything. Yeah. All the
ratings gross vehicle weight rating, or gross combined weight
rating, curb weight, payload that was all like foreign language
to us. Yes. What what what are you talking about? Yeah. And
the half ton truck that we had was kind of like it looked like
a monster but it didn't tow like a monster. Specifically
what happened is we pigeonhole ourselves into a corner with
the truck that we initially purchased being a half ton. And
what we should have done was realized that we don't have
enough truck for a lot of RVs out there but what did we do?
We just went right and bought an RV anyway. Yeah. That was
suitable for that truck. Not much to work with. Now, don't
get us wrong. We're not saying you can't tow an RV with a half
ton. I mean, obviously, everyone is doing it. We did it
initially. I would say over half the people that have an RV
have a half ton and there's nothing wrong with that. What
we're trying to enlighten you about is our back story and
where we went wrong with our purchases and how the half ton
was not suitable towards our lifestyle. Basically, when we
bought our first trailer, we bought a trailer that would put
us at the max for that truck. Yes. Which is okay but the
problem was is we had other plans and we're going to get
into those plans here shortly. Not to mention our first travel
assignment was in California and we were leaving from
Pennsylvania. So, there was a lot of nerves about how will
this gas half-ton truck do towing over so many mountains.
Yeah, we're going on like the Sierra Nevadas, the Appalachian
Mountains. There were so many mountain passes where like, are
we going to hit bad weather on out like snow ice but at first
they weren't running through the back of our minds at first
we were just like... Wee. Let's get a truck and let's get a trailer.
So piggybacking on that topic of us making a rash decision to
buy the half ton truck we want to point out a couple
questions that we wish we would ask ourselves from the get go
that might help you when making your decision of buying a truck.
First of all think about what kind of RV are you going to be
buying? Sure maybe you're telling yourself well I know
that I'm going to go buy a travel trailer, I'm going to go
a teardrop. Or are you even thinking about just buying a
truck camper and throwing it in the back of your truck and
hitting the road? Even those can get really heavy. Yeah,
they really can. You also have to take into consideration what
type of RVing you're doing, meaning are you going to be
full time, part time, and if you're part time or a weekend
warrior, are you like hauling long trips and taking so much
gear with you like what are you going to put in your truck?
Also, if you're full time, you gotta plan that you're going to
be packing a lot of stuff to take with you to live on the
road. Do you guys have kids, is there any concerns that your
kids will graduate and then it's just going to be you and
your significant other and then maybe you go full time later
on. Like these are all questions that play into one
another and you need to consider it from the get go
rather than just playing offense and just being like,
yeah, we'll buy this and then we'll figure it out later. Are
you going to be going to RV parks? Are you going to be
boondocking? And if you're not sure what boondocking is, it's
basically the same thing as dry camping. You are not using any
hookups. You are using the holding tank the on-board
batteries, everything to power your RV. And if you are doing
some boondocking, don't forget that extra batteries,
generators, all the firewood, maybe all your cooking gear,
that's going to add up when it comes to weight in your truck.
Yeah, that's huge and that's something we were like, well,
we're going to stay at RV parks along the way but as we started
full timing, we're like, well, wait a second, we want to start
trying this boondocking because that looks cool too. So, we
didn't even consider that. So, make sure you just keep an open
mind about opportunities out there and maybe think about how a half-ton
truck isn't going to accomplish all those needs at one time.
It's also really expensive to constantly stay at RV parks.
Yeah, we're always boondocking like doing Boondockers Welcome
or trying to get off grid and just maybe taking a night here
and there and staying in a parking lot or something. Yeah,
we don't do long-term boondocking but just one night
can save you like fifty bucks. Yeah. You know. It adds up
super quickly. Now, this is all tailored to your financial
goals. We're not here to say what you can and cannot afford
but when we initially got started, we knew we were
kind of on a budget and we had bought the half ton and we
realized quickly that like, oh, I kind of wish we had gone a
little bit bigger. We're going to get into that in a
second but basically, what we're saying is the RV life can
be as expensive or it could be as cheap as you want it to be.
But let's get back to like the story of what happened with us
and the truck purchases and... You want to keep the spotlight
on us. Yes. Uh it's hot though. That spotlight is hot. It is
hot. That's Tennessee. So there we were. We had like two months
till we were leaving for travel nursing. We had our truck, our
half-ton Tonka truck. The RV that we just purchased. It was
a Grand Design Imagine travel trailer, 2150 RB which is
really cool floor plan. So, check that one out. We liked it.
It was like a 26 footer. It fitted our needs. It worked.
Did we want to go bigger? Yeah. Yeah. That's why we were stuck.
But why did we purchase a half ton? Like that doesn't make
sense. Why did we know we were eventually going to go bigger
but we purchased the half-ton truck. It just. Well, we just
didn't know that like there was things about tow ratings like
we just assumed trucks could tow things back then. That's
honestly was our first mistake is we just assumed that was the
way it is and it it just doesn't work like that. The
trusty YouTube and internet research had us really
pondering is this half-ton truck going to get us to all of our
destinations safely. I'm sure it could've, right? Well, it
probably could've but we were looking to make sure we had
some wiggle room. Yeah. So, one night, we were both at work in
the ER. I'm pretty sure it was like four in the morning
because we were night shift. Yeah. Kyle approaches me AKA
Carl, Kyle, whatever you want to call him. He
approaches me in the ER and he's like, hey. I got a great
idea. And he was like, hear me out. There's this truck. Okay,
it's like it's 600 miles away no big deal it's in Illinois
we're in Pennsylvania but I love this truck. Yeah it was
sweet, it had a lift kit, it's the one we're setting on right now.
It's Dee. It's Dee and Dee stands for Denali in case you're wondering
like what is Dee mean. Basically it's a three-quarter-ton truck
and I'm like hey babe it's going to be overkill for what
we have the travel trailer. Yeah. And what could go wrong? We'll
just go in, we'll drive, we'll turn in our truck. Switch it out
for this bad boy. It'll be overkill, we'll be handling all
those roads and mountains perfectly. Nothing will go wrong
yada yada. So there we go. On our way to Illinois to go get this
truck and we're taking the old one with us. Our truck does have
a four-inch lift on it, Dee. Currently. You know the old one
the the half ton Tonka truck that had a six inch lift, right?
Yeah and it just wasn't ideal for what we were looking for, so.
And I think that was another thing that distracted me is
whether it's a 1/2 ton a 3/4 or one ton I was looking at it
more of like a visual like oh color do we like or what kind
of size lift does it have? Does it... Obviously, this truck
could handle that trailer at the time but we were still
chasing our own tails when it came to this. Where we
initially went wrong is we took out negative equity on the
current loan with a half ton and rolled it into this current
truck. Yeah, lots of debt. We're rolling negative debt
into a depreciating item like this truck and it's just so
stupid. So. Dee for debt. Dee for debt, man. We're like, what are
we doing? So, we bought the truck. We bought Dee. We're
super happy with it. We go along on our way couple years
living in that travel trailer. Loving life. It's handling it
like a pro. Yeah, what could go wrong? Well, Ney Ney needed
more space. Yeah. Is what went wrong. Are you sure it wasn't
Dexter, our cat? Probably. Probably. Currently, we have a
2019 Grand Design Solitude S Class 2930 RL. And what do we
do? We made the exact same mistake. Now, we have a that
was overkill for the travel trailer. We're buying a fifth
wheel tailored to this truck. So now we're. Pigeon hole
again. We're pigeonholed again and we're maxed out again. So
if we ever wanted to upgrade from our current living
situation we have to go buy another truck. That would be
like what did they say? Like third time's a charm. I hope.
Goodness. With this Hanks family we're rolling with
things. I don't know if there's any charm in it at all. I just
don't know if you ever want to give up Dee. If we ever have
a family and we want to start raising kids on the road we're
not going to be able to live in this forever. We might need
something a little bit bigger and unfortunately Dee cannot handle
that. So that is hey look it. I'm not just hating on half
tons. I'm not just hating on 3/4 tons. I'm just saying find
something that's going to be sustainable throughout all your
RV travels. And it's not that we're talking bad about our
current RV. We love our fifth wheel and when we purchased it
it was still an upgrade. We went from 27 foot travel
trailer. Yeah. To about thirty-four thirty-five foot.
Mm hmm. It is the smallest of the solitude lines from Grand
Design but I'm telling you like it's huge inside. And we were
just like, whoa. Yeah, for sure and we're concerned not
expressing you deserve to at least hear our side of the
story because we don't want you to get out there and have the
same issues where you're like, well, I want to upgrade now.
Cuz we get emails from you guys where you're kind of in the
same situation. You're not sure if you could, if you should
upgrade the current truck you have to something bigger and
you guys will say, what do you have and what truck do you have
and it's like, we tell you what we have but if we did it again,
we would probably just have gone with the one-ton truck but
that's a personal preference. You guys might not be RVing as
long as we do. You just want to do it short term and maybe you
do want a smaller RV so you can get into the all the nooks and
crannies of the country. You were thinking like we should've
went with the one ton right off the get go, right? So that we
would cover our bases throughout whether we have a
small travel trailer or a tear drop or like a big toy hauler.
We could've hauled it all. Buy one truck that fits all your
needs, right? We love when we're walking around the RV
park and we see like a teardrop trailer and then like a one-ton
truck and we're just like ooh are you sure you can pull that? Are
you sure you can pull that? But they're like jokes on you I can
pull anything I want so I'm going to be able to pull this
and then go upgrade and pull anything I want. And
unfortunately with the half ton truck you're not left with much
wiggle room at all and that's up for debate but from our
experience in all of our research over five years of
full-time RV living we've met a lot of people heard a lot
of stories and what we've heard is there's not much wiggle room.
So,... Yeah and we know lots of people who started in a half
ton just like we did and then they were like sending us
pictures like surprise, we got a bigger truck like they upgraded
to a 3/4 ton. And we're like hey why does everybody do
this? Right. Why do we do this? We personally feel like it's
better to over truck your trailer than over trailer your
truck. Basically saying buy a bigger truck that can handle
everything rather than just buying a truck and then
matching that trailer to the truck. Yeah. Cuz if not you're
going to do this whole like stair stepping game and you're
just going to be blowing money out your butt. Exactly what we
did. With the current inflated economy, you're already paying
out the butt for a new truck. That's so true. Yeah. It really
is. Everything is jacked up in prices and if you're already
looking to purchase in this market, unfortunately, you're
already behind the game. So, make one purchase that's
going to fit all the needs. So, if we would suggest anything is
if you have any potential to go back and answer those questions
and those aren't subject to change like your lifestyle may
go full time eventually or the kids may grow up and you and
your significant other might to do more traveling, we would
suggest on buying a bigger truck especially in this
economy. With a larger truck, not only do you have the
benefit of increased tow capacity. Yeah. But you have
things like increased fuel capacity because aren't the
tanks much bigger on some of the bigger trucks. Yeah, it's a
great point like you won't have to stop as much to fuel up. Mm
hmm. Which is really nice and convenient during your travels.
That's really nice and you also have the benefit of not having
that negative equity if you're constantly like buying a truck and
having to upgrade and having to upgrade again. Like we did. And
I think we don't go we don't do a 3500. We don't do a 4500.
We get a 5500. Wow. Those are huge. Let's just go really big.
Do you see what I have to deal with here? This is. So all in
all, this is peace of mind. If you buy a bigger truck, you can
handle anything from the smallest loads to the heaviest
tows. I mean, that's cool. I love it. And it rhymes. That
was, you didn't just, you just came up with that, didn't you?
Just off the top of my little head here. Make sure you
subscribe because we have new videos every single week. Much
love to you all. We'll see you next week. Bye guys. Later.