The 6.0 diesel has problems. Go to Bulletproof diesel.com to find parts that will solve the 6.0 problems. I tow a 12,000lb gvw 5r. My total weight is 17,800 lb. nothing is overloaded. Have towed 77,000 miles with this rig. That said: Welcome! Lots of the free advise you get here is worth just what you pay for it.

funny - had two of the 6.ohs as some call them and both performed flawlessly until I traded them in @ 120k+ miles....

although we LOVE the new crew cab, still miss the Excursions on occasion (the dog especially misses the cavernous back area !)

Thank you for all of the advice! I think everyone confirmed what we knew in the back of our minds, but it is just so hard to see all of the things that we want ("need") and know that we just need to wait. Living in a world of instant gratification seems to bleed into most every aspect of life...and this is obviously no exception. Someone told us when we were purchasing "buy what you want the first time around". However, that's just the thing...you don't know on your first time what exactly you want/need and our towing capability was not there. We have learned so much on this site - I just wish I would have known about it before we took the plunge.

As for the truck, it is temporary, and hopefully will not give us any problems. We heard that they have had some issues, but we are hoping with good maintenance, it will give us a few good years. It has done well so far, and certainly better than our previous tow vehicle, so keeping our fingers crossed.

My 2002 6.0 was a good engine after Ford reprogrammed it many times. I had an F250 SD crew cab. It’s bed payload was only 1500lbs. The 5vers I wanted had more pin weight than that. Keep that thought in mind.

Update
 

We just couldn't stand it any longer...we tried to "take it slow" but were "losing sleep over that 5er" and had to get it. :blush: Although we did take a little loss, we feel we got a good deal, and best of all, we are SO happy with our new 5er that we don't feel compelled to keep looking at what we would like to have (for now anyway). I'm sure there will be other things that make it to our wish list as time passes, but for now we are satisfied (a feeling we never quite had with the TT).

Wow nice setup!

Now that you have jumped in with both feet I'm sure you'll have many joyful trips enjoying your new roomy rig!

Have fun and be safe out there!