A Real Pickup Truck

Last time we were in Germany, where I'm from, we joked about the size of underground parking garages. They are built with the regular compact cars in mind and in many cases there are many narrow pathways and circles inside that only those cars can pass. Going back and forth between Europe and the U.S. keeps your sensitivity for these little differences alive. Out in the country in the U.S. there are many pickup trucks and it appears that basically every family has at least one of those, for Europeans, enormous vehicles. Well … I've got one now too :-)

This is a 2012 Ford F-150 EcoBoost with 360 HP and a big 36 gallon gasoline tank. It is made to tow about 11,000 lbs.

My intent is to use this vehicle to tow a gooseneck horse trailer so that our horses Max and Maximiliano can travel with us wherever we have to go. A gooseneck trailer is hitched to a ball located in the bed of the truck. That way the trailer sits on the rear axle of the vehicle, which provides more stability than pulling a trailer hitched to the rear bumper.

Besides towing, which isn't something I have to do every week, this vehicle is also for daily driving. In contrast to Europe parking lots in the U.S. are quite large and even parking garages are made for vehicles such as this one. So there should be no problem with that. The gas mileage isn't as bad as one might expect. When I drove it yesterday for the first 90 minutes on the highway at slightly more than 100 km/h the dashboard computer indicated an average of 14.2 l/100 km. That's a lot but still acceptable.

Inside it has a lot of space to offer. The rear seats can be folded and that provides room for stowing a few boxes or suitcases in the back. Then of course there is the bed where a cover can be attached to and thus I have more than enough room to take all our stuff from place to place. However, once we have the horse trailer the bed is being used for the gooseneck and then the stuff goes into the trailer. Those horse trailers usually have a "dressing room" separated from the space for the horses and there is more than enough space to basically transport a whole household.

It's going to be an interesting experience.

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