New Truck?

[Unsafe At Any Speed]

I've been planning to pick up a truck in a few months after I have the V paid off. I also plan to get a 2 car+ trailer to take the Talon and V to the track. Ideally, I want a 1 ton (so I can tow whatever I want ), 2000+, atleast an extended cab, and 4wd so it can split winter duty with the Blazer. I really don't want to go much over $10k for the trailer and truck.

Anyway, I just found this '03 GMC for sale locally at one of those small car lots. It's a 3500 extended cab SLE dually, all power, 4x4, auto, 8.1 liter gas engine. It has 172,000 miles though. Also, it doesn't have a truck box, flat bed or anything. Just the frame back there (I actually think it looks kinda badass like that ). Other than that, one mirror got whacked and is a little busted up and it has expected interior wear and tear. I took it for a short drive and nothing jumped out at me. It's priced at $7600.

I really don't know shit about trucks, other than what I've been researching lately. Thoughts?

[CincinnatiFiero]

I'd recommend diesel, I've hauled with both Diesel does better, gets better mpg, and seems to be more reliable. In fact the last diesel truck I drove was an F350 and I was dragging a 454 gas GMC topkick. When I sold parts, the diesel parts were way easier to find than than 8.1s, or dodge and fords V10 offerings.

172k is a lot on a gas, nothing on a diesel.

If you want to buy a truck soon, this is what my father does for a living sells light duty and commercial trucks, I could ask him.

[Unsafe At Any Speed]

Yeah, ideally I do want diesel for those very reasons. But yeah, if you'd ask him that would be cool. Like I said, I really wasn't planning on getting one for another few months.

[Fastback86]

I'd recommend diesel, I've hauled with both Diesel does better, gets better mpg, and seems to be more reliable. In fact the last diesel truck I drove was an F350 and I was dragging a 454 gas GMC topkick. When I sold parts, the diesel parts were way easier to find than than 8.1s, or dodge and fords V10 offerings.

172k is a lot on a gas, nothing on a diesel.

If you want to buy a truck soon, this is what my father does for a living sells light duty and commercial trucks, I could ask him.

Second. Gas-powered HD trucks get shit for mileage and don't have the power of the diesels. Get the oil-burner off the bat and you'll likely make up the difference in fuel-cost-savings as soon as you start towing your cars around.

[CincinnatiFiero]

That too.

They just got in a 2005 F250, diesel 4x4, leather, quad cab, everything. $45,000 truck. 215k miles, books for $23k, they'd take 18k but you said you're looking under 10k. They had a 2003 F250 diesel Lariat quad cab FX4 with 160k on it, they sold it for $12,500.

I'll have him take a look around WY.

[Unsafe At Any Speed]

Well, I should have the V paid off by next month and since the it's already snowed around here (the Blazer does awesome in snow, but still), I've started looking again.

What do you guys think of something like this?
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?c ... dard=false

[Atilla the Fun]

I think that'd be fine, but during the winter I'd remove the outer pair of rear tires. It doesn't look as stupid as you might imagine, and it really helps in the snow. I do suggest putting a normal bed on it, at least during the winter.

[Indy]

The Dodge 3500's are nice trucks, though you may want to shoot for the 6spd manual. Used an
'02 Dodge 3500 with the 6sp as a work truck for about 3 years, it was indestructable. We were frequently towing above 15,000lb of dirt with it. Never had any problems.

The GM HD truck options are pretty stellar also.

Ford is the devil.

ETA:

There's always the GM 4500's:

[The Dark Side of Will]

Looks goofy without MUCH bigger tires

[Unsafe At Any Speed]

Okay, just saw a 2004 F450 XLT Turbo Diesel manual with flatbed and a bunch of storage bins for $12,500. I'm not sure of the miles or anything that's wrong with it. KBB says it's worth $22k. I'm going to head back and take another look. Thoughts?

[Unsafe At Any Speed]

Just got back home. The cable for the parking brake release was broke so I didn't drive it, but going to head back in the morning. It has 90,000 miles and the guy before I even asked, said he'd let it go for $11,300.

[Indy]

The F450 will tow anything...until it blows up.

[Unsafe At Any Speed]

I decided to go ahead on this F450. Just waiting for my financing to go through and everything and I should be able to drive it home on Tuesday. Again, it's a black '04 F450 XLT 4x4 supercab Diesel with flatbed, gooseneck hitch, power everything, manual trans and 90k miles. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on the 6.0 Powerstroke, but some of it seemed to be a lot of brand bias and other issues with modded trucks. I went ahead and ran a carfax (1 owner, 1 accident [hit a deer at about 80 mph apparently]) had a mechanic check it over (ball joints need replacing. nothing else really noticed though), and ran the warranty history on it at the Ford dealer (turbo, transfercase, egr, and a couple of things have been replaced. No repeat problems or anything though). Ended up getting it for $10,100.

One thing that I really didn't think too much about beforehand was insurance. As in, I guess some companies (such as my current Geico) won't insure it under a normal policy as they consider it a commercial vehicle. I'll have to maybe switch back to USAA as I've read online people haven't had any issues insuring with them. Plus I turn 25 this summer, so hopefully rates will drop overall as well.

I'll try to get some pics up next week. Now I need to find a trailer. Oh and actually finishing the Talon would be good as well...

[Unsafe At Any Speed]

Should have the truck home tomorrow. I've been looking into things to increase reliability of the truck. It looks like I want to do EGR delete, switch to synthetic fluids, exhaust (to lower EGTs) and some other misc maintenance.

Edit: I guess this thread could be in the Turbo section.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I would think the manual transmission trucks would be less desirable for towing... is this not the case?