Wow I'm glad we don't have salt on our roads
Good luck with your search.

chit if you own a boat .. you can fix the truck .. as long as they2 dont break at the same time .. no dont need a fancy truck to pull a boat , slow down a get there .. enjoy the boat and do the same going home .. when i was a kid it didnt matter . id pull my stuff with anything frikken pinto if i had to . im going to the lake no matter what . putting in and out in the old days got pretty dam interesting . lot of good stories . yea i was one of those people everyone talked about at the ramp , but we went boating . lmfao

Kinda do this for a living up here. Have not seen a nice used 3/4 ton trade in for a long time. Did some work on the wives 2002 Excursion this weekend. It only has 70K on it. We have been putting it up for the last 5 years for the winter. I have seen some people put stupid money in truck with 200K on them. But what do you do. Finding a southern truck might be a option. Unless you live close it is difficult to get a hold of one. If I run across one I will give you a call. I tell my customer to check Craigs List every morning, if one shows up it is gone fast.

I forgot people in the east deal with salt. We don't have salt or much of a winter. Tons of 1970's and 1980's trucks here in good shape cheap.

For my tow pig I bought a 2000 Excursion V-10 here in Texas with 140,000 miles for $7000

Yeah, it sucks some gas (9.5 - 12.5 MPG) but I only use it for towing / hauling..
I just couldn't see making payments on a truck that sits for weeks on end...

Nice tow pig.

01 with a 7.3 here

I wish I could've swung a Diesel (I'm a Cat mechanic by trade) but they were still bringing $16,000 with 200,000+ miles on 'em
When you figure the fuel price difference my cost per mile is close.. Still doesn't pull like a Diesel though....

We vacation in Utah a lot so I may look out there.

Brake line failure is getting more frequent due to materials used.

I've been doing that but after every fix another failure appears.