Levees Come to Mind

We searched for what seemed like weeks, but I think it was really only one or two, for a truck that could tow the RV we got (2002 Cedar Creek 34CKTS), but it seems everyone in MD is in love with 4x4s, or crew cabs, and gasoline engines.  Just as soon as we thought we’d found the right truck with the right price, one little thing would be off that would make its towing capacity far less than we needed (at least 13,700 lbs).  I think most of the builds we found for sale (in our price range) averaged around 10,000 lbs.

I was getting particularly discouraged.  Nothing says fun like spending another evening searching every online car database ever contructed and every dealership’s site in town.  We’d even started looking at dealership sites in PA, WV, and VA.  Seriously – two to four hours every day on some site, looking up some other build’s towing capacity using the charts and pdfs at trailerlife.com.  I was beginning to lose hope and then on the 14th, MJ sends me a link to some craiglist posting about a truck.   I scan it over and think, yeah.. that’s pretty nice, but with all the previous disappointments I didn’t really pay attention.

She called me later that afternoon to ask me what I thought of it and as I looked at it again I finally noticed that it was a brand new truck – leftover from 2008 – never been titled – just 35 miles on it – and selling for just a couple thousand more than some of the used diesels we’d been looking at with 60,000 miles or more on them.  The sticker price was $42k but now they only wanted $26k for it.  Still a little out of my price range considering I was still $10k upside down on the Altima I’d bought in 2006, but I talked to my mother about it and she agreed to help me out with the note for awhile.

So, that same day, MJ and I took a drive up to Havre de Grace, about 30 miles from where we live, to see about this truck.  The salesman went down all of its bells and whistles and was shocked that the manager had listed it so low as he’d just sold an identical truck a couple of weeks previous for 10K more than the current asking price.  After a 10 mile test drive, we sat down with Glen (our salesman) and bought a truck:

My new truck

2008 Chevy 2500HD Silverado LT  (a total of 45 miles on when we left the lot)
6.6L Duramax Diesel with Allison Transmission
Tow Package
OnStar
Radio with Single CD and XM
Windshield washer heater
Auto-dimming driver’s side mirror and rear view mirror
Individual driver/passenger A/C controls

…And all sorts of other blah blah blah, but the important thing is that it can tow our RV.

If I was free to buy the truck of my dreams, this one has a lot of things that I would change (the black interior, the lack of assist steps, no bed liner), but with so much off the sticker price, I’m not going to complain – much.  I’m really glad we went that same day though, because I don’t think the truck would have been there if we’d gone on Friday.  They had an almost identical truck on sale too – crew cab though.  A family drove up to see that one just as we were driving out for our test drive and when we got back their salesman came to get the key to show ours to them as well – I’d alreadly claimed the truck in my mind as soon as the test drive was over.  At some point, Glen took our truck around back to “hide” it because he was concerned about the number of calls they’d been getting about these discounted trucks (the crew cab and mine).  The guy who had test driven the crew cab bought his as well that night.  I think I do need to mention that Glen was hilarious, he had jokes and deadpans left and right.  Despite all the hours sitting around the dealership waiting, he kept it entertaining.

All that’s really left now is saving for and getting the 5th wheel hitch installed – we’re expecting our RV walk-through and delivery at our long-term site around July 1.  Oh and getting rid of around 80% of stuff that won’t fit in it.  We’ve had what I’ve dubbed “The Parade of Strangers 2009″ as MJ sells or gives away our unnecessary possessions through Craigslist and FreeCycle.   It never seems like you have that much until you start getting rid of it.  Stuff I never even knew we had has turned up – like a harmonica that I’ve decided I’d like to learn to play (look for an audio sample at some point in the near to distant future).

Hopefully we can hit the road for a couple weekend excusions this winter!

Wondering – is there something about white trucks/cars and birds?  I park it in the same place I parked my green Altima and I’ve never had as much birdshit on it as I do on this truck already.  Is it something in the way the white reflects?