Sagefemme
Advanced Member
My spouse and I are "non-handy" people when it comes to automotive issues. In June 2024 we bought our very first camping rig after being a tent/backpacking/car camping family forever. It's a 2016 FB Hawk on a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 with (currently, after driving it 2000 miles home after purchase and various 2-4 day trips in Oregon this summer) 245,000 miles. Here is what page one of the Carfax report that came with it says: Crew pickup, 5.9 L I-6 F OHV 24 V diesel RWD w/4X4.
The vehicle was owned by one person for the vast majority of its life, and he seems to have taken good care of it. There are 50 service history records on the Carfax between 0 and 230,000 miles, mostly for routine maintenance. I had no experience driving a truck this size before this purchase, but have found it an actual pleasure to drive (excluding noisiness). The biggest surprise was that it feels like......nothing is back there! No sense that I'm hauling a camper behind me.
I'd like to keep this setup for the long term; buying and selling vehicles and campers is not my idea of fun. My spouse and I are both 63. He's not retired yet (having the camper sitting in front of our house is supposed to be an incentive to him). BUT I have not yet reckoned with how to keep such a vehicle going for another 100,000 miles, or whether we should do. I understand that maintenance on such a vehicle is not cheap. But at this point I don't even have a mechanic for it! I think it's fair to say we have more money than know-how, so I'm willing to put regular cash into maintenance.
Any opinions on whether I will come to regret having an older, high mileage vehicle hauling my camper (which I love, BTW). Do I need to find a DIESEL mechanic specifically (I think the answer is yes)? It is due for oil and fuel filter change now--can any shop do that? Can I learn to do that? I'm pretty good at learning new things, working with tools, etc, as long as I have You Tube nearby
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We would like to take longer trips, 2-4 weeks, maybe off paved roads but not rock crawling, when DH retires. So far we have no extra gear but will of course obtain before any longer or off road trips (air compressor, tire fix kit, traction boards, etc,). In order to do such trips with any confidence I feel I should have meticulous preventative maintenance done on the vehicle. I understand that even so we could have a major breakdown far from civilization. For what it's worth, we do have friends we hope to adventure with who are more experienced than we are, but we'd like to be alone sometimes, too.
This is a ramble-y post and I'm not sure what I'm even asking, except for the immediate question of do I need to find a diesel mechanic (I live in Eugene if anyone already knows who I should go to), and in general what maintenance should I be doing on a regular basis.
Someone is bound to tell me I need to be looking for a newer, more reliable vehicle, and I will listen to such advice, although our history with vehicles is find one you like and drive it until it's dead. The fact that the camper is on a flatbed also, in my mind, complicates the idea of changing vehicles.
Any and all advice from you folks is welcome.
Ain't she purty? A godwit is a bird if anyone is wondering.
The vehicle was owned by one person for the vast majority of its life, and he seems to have taken good care of it. There are 50 service history records on the Carfax between 0 and 230,000 miles, mostly for routine maintenance. I had no experience driving a truck this size before this purchase, but have found it an actual pleasure to drive (excluding noisiness). The biggest surprise was that it feels like......nothing is back there! No sense that I'm hauling a camper behind me.
I'd like to keep this setup for the long term; buying and selling vehicles and campers is not my idea of fun. My spouse and I are both 63. He's not retired yet (having the camper sitting in front of our house is supposed to be an incentive to him). BUT I have not yet reckoned with how to keep such a vehicle going for another 100,000 miles, or whether we should do. I understand that maintenance on such a vehicle is not cheap. But at this point I don't even have a mechanic for it! I think it's fair to say we have more money than know-how, so I'm willing to put regular cash into maintenance.
Any opinions on whether I will come to regret having an older, high mileage vehicle hauling my camper (which I love, BTW). Do I need to find a DIESEL mechanic specifically (I think the answer is yes)? It is due for oil and fuel filter change now--can any shop do that? Can I learn to do that? I'm pretty good at learning new things, working with tools, etc, as long as I have You Tube nearby
.We would like to take longer trips, 2-4 weeks, maybe off paved roads but not rock crawling, when DH retires. So far we have no extra gear but will of course obtain before any longer or off road trips (air compressor, tire fix kit, traction boards, etc,). In order to do such trips with any confidence I feel I should have meticulous preventative maintenance done on the vehicle. I understand that even so we could have a major breakdown far from civilization. For what it's worth, we do have friends we hope to adventure with who are more experienced than we are, but we'd like to be alone sometimes, too.
This is a ramble-y post and I'm not sure what I'm even asking, except for the immediate question of do I need to find a diesel mechanic (I live in Eugene if anyone already knows who I should go to), and in general what maintenance should I be doing on a regular basis.
Someone is bound to tell me I need to be looking for a newer, more reliable vehicle, and I will listen to such advice, although our history with vehicles is find one you like and drive it until it's dead. The fact that the camper is on a flatbed also, in my mind, complicates the idea of changing vehicles.
Any and all advice from you folks is welcome.
Ain't she purty? A godwit is a bird if anyone is wondering.
