In this episode, me and Craig go straight after something most of y’all actually shop for: volume-trim, “cheap” full-size trucks instead of the $90K halo stuff. We grabbed a Ford F-150 STX 4x4 with the 2.7 EcoBoost and a Ram 1500 Lone Star SST (standard output Hurricane) 4x4, both with about 5,000 miles, and we talked real-world value—because the brands will happily send a King Ranch or a Raptor, but they won’t send an STX. I recommend the STX to people in real life all the time because it’s often heavily rebated: this one stickers around $53K but can land in the mid-$40s. Then we got into what matters: powertrains, ride quality, and who each truck is actually for. The Ford 2.7 is still the “people’s truck” motor—refined, smooth, shockingly quick, and I saw 23.5 mpg on a short highway stretch (versus 20 mpg in the Ram on the same run). But the Ram SST is the new value turbo king: 420 hp and 469 lb-ft with the ZF 8-speed, and it flat-out dethroned the Ford in our 0–60 testing (5.54 vs 6.66 with three people in the truck). We also tested the Bodega Cooler M75, and I’ll just say it: it’s the best cooler we’ve ever tested for overlanding and tailgates.