Gemeni06
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2015
- Posts
- 6
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Northern Adirondacks
- Ram Year
- 2013
- Engine
- 4.7 Liter Flex Fuel V8
My wife and I live in a small hamlet in the Northern Adirondacks. This was her home before we met and were married. I had never lived here. After we married, we moved away from the area. I am now retired and we are now permanently living here. For obvious reasons, it behooves you to have a 4WD in this neck of the woods, particularly if you hunt. Where I hunt you can't get in or out of the hunting lease without a 4WD with adequate ground clearance. After it snows, we'd also have a hard time getting up a 400 foot dirt driveway to the top of a hill and then an additional 300 feet on the flats to get to where our house sits. Prior to moving here, we both had 4WD XTerra's. Mine a 2008 standard and her's a 2009 automatic. These were ideal vehicles for both of us when we rented a condo in Northern Vermont where my last place of employment was. But after permanently moving here, we couldn't justify having two XTerra's. More practical to have one XTerra and one truck. So she kept her XTerra and I traded mine in for a truck. I went with a 2103 RAM 1500 Tradesman, Regular Cab, 4x4, 6'4" box, V8, which I purchased new. I wanted the most stripped down RAM possible with the only exceptions being the OEM addition of a front suspension skid plate, tow hooks and transfer case skid plate, aka the "Protection Group". I stripped the baseline Tradesman down even more by going with vinyl seats over cloth, which knocked $500 off the purchase price of the truck. I wasn't playing a nickel and dime game trying to save money. I simply wanted the minimum truck necessary to meet my needs without any bells or whistles, not even power door locks or powered windows. When you downshift, less is more. Went with silver color to perfectly match the silver color of my wife's XTerra. The dealer added mud flaps free of charge. Aftermarket additions I put on were Husky WeatherBeater floor and center hump mats, hood protector, window visors, Extang Solid Fold Tonneau, and stall mats from Tractor Supply used as additional bed protection for the sprayed-in bed liner. RAM wasn't my first choice of truck. My first choice was a 4WD Nissan Frontier. Wanted a standard transmission, not an automatic. The Frontier is basically the truck version of an XTerra and vice versa. And I know what an XTerra can do off-road and on snow and ice. But I couldn't get a Frontier in a regular cab configuration , only extended cab. I wouldn't own a truck if I couldn't get it in regular cab. So I had to look elsewhere. Right or wrong, RAM turned out to be the selection. I didn't want an automatic transmission and a bigger truck than a Frontier, but it is what it is.
