I have never been a fan of "American-made" vehicles. I owned two Chevy vehicles (Cavalier and Corsica) and a Ford (Taurus) -- they were all junk when compared to the Mazdas and Toyotas I owned. So, the thought of making a deliberate choice of purchasing a Ford or Chevy resembled seeing a pile of money on fire...up in smoke. I also knew that we needed to be very cognizant of the various numbers associated with towing a RV in order to not run into the trap of getting an underpowered vehicle. The baseline vehicle would have to be either a Ford F-250 Super Duty or a Ram 2500 -- I wouldn't even consider a Chevy. Amy seemed to be more partial to the F-250, especially a white vehicle with charcoal interior and dual sun roofs (basically, the Leach's vehicle from KYD). My friend, Fred, who is a mechanic and gear head, explained to me that a Ram 2500 with a Cummins diesel engine would be the way to go if we were going to be doing a lot of driving. But for the weekend warrior-types (Amy and I aren't THERE, yet) a Ram 2500 with a 6.7L Hemi would be a great choice and the maintenance costs would be less than the diesel. So, I leaned toward the Ram, Amy leaned toward the Ford.
We spent several hours over the course of about two weeks digging deep into the dealer literature for both Ford and Ram. We learned about trim packages and what that all entailed. We also learned the differences between the various packaged options and how such details can either add to or diminish a truck's towing capacity. Even the size of the truck bed makes a significant difference! Needless to say, we learned about six months' worth of information in about two weeks in order to be able to winnow and sift the various inventory from dealer websites int he area. We came to a similar spot in the road as we had with the RVs...we knew what we wanted based on "paper" but had yet to actually see a vehicle to test-drive and verify the numbers. We would have to make a day of visiting dealers and test-driving trucks.