Nice looking truck. What is hard to believe is that it would probably bring what it cost brand new if you were to sell it today.

use a ram 2500 6.4 gas to pull a 31' cigarette bullet. its over 9,500lb does it just fine.

Still tow with my 6.0/4L80e/4.10 Suburban. The old girl has 340k+ miles on her and still keeps going. It has an upgraded receiver from Curt but that's about it. Here in Hampton Roads, it's pretty flat except for the occasional bridge so it isn't too bad. I probably lug the thing more than I should when towing - if I let the cruise control do the job on the interstate, she'd just about hit the rev limit shifting!

If needed, my buddy's Duramax pickup handles longer-range towing duties.

I'm tired of buying vehicles and the truck is in overall good shape for being 20 years old - a PSI 8.8 with a little more cam would be a nice swap project.

2017 w/ 260K miles, still looks good.

I used a 2013 Tahoe with 5.3 and towing package (3.42 gears) to tow my 28 Velocity. Weighed 6500lbs loaded. Never had any issue in the mountains or stopping with surge brakes on both axles.

2022 F150 with the tow package 3.73 and 2.7 ecoboost pulls my 26' Martini with all the gear 4 people and full tanks effortless. Something about the twin turbos that tow similar to my old power stroke. It doesn't search for gears and rarely downshifts going up hills. The boat/trailer is right around the 6,000lbs mark with all the gear. I recently drove from Michigan to New York for a fun run and got 15.5 MPG at 70-75 the whole way there and back. The truck is very stable and stops just fine with the help of trailer brakes.

Then as a daily it gets 21-23mpg on average weekly commuting to work. Very satisfied with this truck.

I’d probably start thinking about a 250 around the 8,000lbs mark IMO

most people just use cheap lt tires, mine are gladiators and i had them on my 20 trailer as well. the stiffer sidewall and strait tread makes the tow much nicer.

Funny you say that. I have worked for GM corporate for nearly a year and worked for Ford corporate for the better part of the 5 previous years. I've spec'd out a new 1 ton crew cab diesel 4wd with my discounts at both. The GM came in close to your number and due to the packages Ford required, it was another $10k. I've been contemplating replacing my 4wd Sequoia with one since I'm towing 11k lbs.

the only problem is I think he wants to tow more than 50 miles round trip

My take is that there are a lot of used diesel trucks that you can buy, get reasonable, if not perfect reliability out of, and sell in 5 years for what you paid for it. A lot easier than modifying your gas motor.

I owned a 7.3 Ford, put 100k miles on it and I believe I sold it for 800 less than I paid for it if memory serves. You probably don't want something that old but I bet with a 20-30k budget you could pull it off....