The old 2015 Ram has been fading rapidly over the last few weeks. It’s still running, but it’s not running well. I took it to the mechanic, and he had bad news for me. It’s fixable, but the price to get it running well again is about what the value of the truck would be if it were in good shape. And being a ranch truck, as well as a hunting and fishing rig, it has several cosmetic blemishes than drop it down to the “Fair” or “Needs Work” category, rather than the “Excellent” or “Good” it would need to be worth what the repairs would cost.
So rather than sink a bunch of money into the repairs, we opted to upgrade to the truck we have been needing for several years. We bought the Ram when Amy wasn’t going down the road with a horse trailer with the intent of zipping around cans at top speed. Because we weren’t pulling much, we found a truck with a gas engine. It could still pull the trailer, but it was much better for heading up to the woods with a bed full of camping and hunting equipment than it was at towing a four-horse trailer. It crawled through mud and snow, navigated four-wheel-drive roads and crept through the brush really well for 10 years, but when it pulled a trailer, it would pass anything but a gas station. I think I got about 18 miles to the gallon without the trailer, but with the trailer behind it, the mileage dropped to 8.
Now we’re driving a one-ton dually diesel, which is fantastic for hauling the trailer, but it’s not going to be a very good hunting rig. The flatbed will hold anything I need to take to the woods, as long as I strap it down well, but with those dual rear wheels, there will be plenty of places I used to go that I can’t get to anymore. So I’m leaning pretty hard on my hunting buddies for a ride to the hills this hunting season. Or maybe we go other places, where I can get the truck and trailer, and we’ll ride the horses farther into the woods. At least I can still offer that.
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