Thanks everyone for the input. It really helped me decide. The V8 dealer wouldn't meet me where I wanted. I ended up going with the truck I already bought. If turns out that it's not enough power then I'll worry about that then.
2007 Limited w/ 74k miles.
I'm on a business trip for 2 to 3 months but I'm eagerly waiting to get back and hit the open road with it. I'm sure I will be back to ask questions on the local forums about what unpaved roads we shouldn't miss.
Right now our road trip route is:
Chicago to
Boulder/Estes Park Colorado
Sundance/ Utah
Trucke/Yosemite/San Fran/ California taking the cost up to
Crater lake/Eugene, Oregon
Tacoma/Seattle, Washington
(if we have time, we want to save this for sprint 2013) Glacier Mountain NP/ Montana
West side of North Dakota
Minneapolis/ MN
Back to Chicago
Pack up and move to Colorado.
Thanks again for the overwhelming number of responses and opinions.
dc