I plan on buying a new vehicle in the next few weeks. Being stuck in my home and bored, I've been looking at all sorts of vehicles online, but haven't been able to try any. I was leaning towards an SUV or crossover, but I am now thinking of buying a new truck instead. I currently have a 24' box truck, I use for storage, a F250 diesel, that is currently my only driver and 2 beat up Ford Rangers we only use on our farm now.

Most days we never leave home. When I do drive, I typically drive anywhere from an hour to 5 hours round trip. There's not much close to us. Most of the driving I do is at 60mph or faster.

I do make short, 6.5 mile trips to buy 2000 pounds of pallatized, 50 pound bags of feed about every 3 weeks, in my truck bed and I tow a gravity bed, on running gear, the same distance, carrying around 100 bushels of corn. The corn is usually around 5600 pounds. I don't know the weight of the gear and bed, but at least pre-surgery, I could fairly easily push it around empty.

I make fairly frequent trips, to my main customer, usually carrying 600 to 1400 pounds of frozen animals. I also transport a lot of live birds, which are to messy to put inside a vehicle.

My F250 is a 2004 and it does not ride smoothly.

I think I want a comfortable small truck, that has good pickup, decent gas mileage, that can carry at least a ton in the bed and pull at least 7000 pounds. Most of the small trucks are only rated to 1400 to 1800 pounds in the bed. Can they safely have a ton loaded in them with a tow motor and carry it about 3.25 miles?

How much can you go over the weight ratings without potentially damaging a truck.

Any suggestions on what I should get?

Keith