It's been a very long time since I've been on this forum. Had to say goodbye to my 99 a few years ago. I'm scouting out trucks again. Trucks have gotten so big in dimension and price, it's crazy. I've been downsizing in my life, and am thinking of applying it to future truck purchase. I'm single, and my kids will be out of the house in a couple years. Snow has been relatively light in Omaha, Nebraska the past few years, so I'm thinking of going with a 2wd, 2.7 Reg cab, short box truck. I have a dirt bike, probably another this spring. I'm looking ahead at a bigger trailer than what my current Kia Soul could handle. Let me hear from Reg cab, short box guys and gals, and tell me what you think.

 

I can't answer all of your questions, but I can answer a few of them. I had a string of short box / regular cab Ford F-150's (1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2010) but all were 4x4's with various V8 engines. I loved the size of those trucks and still think it's the absolute best looking style truck one can buy. Sure, they don't have the extra room that the other cab configurations offer, but I never seemed to need it. And the shorter overall length made of a much easier fit in my garage. An added bonus was the shorter turning radius. As for trailer towing, I think you'll find that it won't even know two dirt bikes are behind it because I towed much bigger / heavier / longer stuff than that.

 

Even the base V6 is decent if you aren't towing heavy, I'd also consider the 5.0. All but the base V6 now have a 10 speed transmission.

 

just to add to what glc so correctly said, my 2010 with the 4.6 liter motor and the 6 speed automatic would absolutely run away and hide from my 2005 with the 5.4 liter motor and the 4 speed automatic - with the same rear end gear in both. Having more gears in the transmission makes a huge difference in helping to keep the motor in its power band, and thus in acceleration and fuel mileage. So that new 10 speed automatic should be really sweet with any engine!

 

I owned a SWB 2wd 86 F150 5.0L V8 and while I had it, I towed a 24' travel trailer. With WDH and Reese dual cam sway control, it did great and was stable on the interstate. i first towed it without sway control and that was a big mistake.

 

Thanks for your replies. I've not seen any 2wd locally, just a couple 4x4's. 22-25k for less than 15 thousand miles. Like I said, not purchasing for a while, but happy to see what's out there.
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My local dealer has a ton of brand new 2018's. Most of them are XL's with the base V6 priced in the mid 20's. There are some with the 2.7 and/or XLT's priced in the high 20's and low 30's.

 

I used to be strictly a V8 man until I owned my first 3.5L V6 Ecoboost. I'm now the proud owner of my second 3.5L Ecoboost. A 2018 F-150 Platinum FX4. Having said that, I still would stay away from the smaller engines only for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I would think that it would be better to have a little extra power if you needed it than not having it. The other reason is the resale or trade-in value. A lot of folks don't usually take that in consideration when buying. Shop wisely and consider your real needs verses what you would like to have. They are not always the same.

 

I have never considered resale value when I bought a vehicle. To me it is more important to get what I want because if I get what I want, I will keep it a long time.

 

X2 on that one! I do the exact same thing. Oddly enough, I've never had a problem getting top buck for my "never find one on a dealer lot" trucks either. That's probably due to equal parts "it's in unbelievable shape" and "man, that's a sweet looking truck!"

Now if I ordered, drove and was trying to sell a pink, cab & chassis, 2 wheel drive, crew cab dually long bed," that might not be the case.