Good Used Truck??

[Huie83]

Hi everyone,

I bought my first house about a year ago and am finally starting the renovations!

The problem is I don't have a truck for Lowes/Menards runs so, I have started looking at getting one. I did some minor stuff last year and rented a pickup to haul stuff around. Renting gets spendy quick so I figure I should just buy a decent hauling truck.

I don't want a complete beater as I will use the truck to haul my hunting boat up to my cabin during hunting season, 200 miles each way.

I found a 1993 Ford F-150 XLT extended cab 4X4 in my price range, around $2800.

It has the 5.0 V8, auto trans , push button 4X4 etc. 112K miles. A little rust around the front wheel wells, I guess this is normal for these trucks being this old.

My main question is; are these any good? What would you all recommend?

I looked at chevy's of the same era and all the ones in my area are all beat up or have 200K+ miles...

Ford's in this area (Blaine, MN) seem to be well taken care of and have pretty low miles.

 

[wavinwayne]

I'd try to find a farmer with a used truck for sale. Farmers USE their trucks, so if something on it needed repair at any time, chances are it got fixed, not neglected.

In lieu of that idea, that F-150 sounds like a decent choice.

 

[panthermike]

That F150 sounds decent, and the 5.0 is a great motor. My brother treated his 92' like [censored] but it wouldn't give him any troubles.

 

[Huie83]

Thanks for the replies.

A buddy of mine also had the 5.0 series in a 95 (I think) mustang he owned. He also beat the [censored] out of that engine on a daily basis, changed the oil maybe every year or 12k miles.

Seemed like the harder he beat on it the better it ran.

Anyone have any experience with the rest of the drive-train; trans, x-fer case, diffs etc. Reliable?

I know maintenance plays a important role in longevity bt i'm talking general design flaws/issues.

 

[peterdaniel]

ford transmissions are always suspect. 80K miles and its time to replace

And in Minnesota, its normal for rust around the wheel wells. In CA it is not. I would check the frame and floor boards as well.

 

[The_Jeff]

I looked at pretty much that truck once. Make sure the frame mounts that hold the front radius rods are solid as well as the rear spring hangers. Look for rust under the rockers where the lap portion of the seat belt bolts into.

I pushed the O/D off button on the gear shift and smoke came out!! It was leaking antifreeze from one of the dozens of hoses under the hood. Took a pass on that one.

IMO if you get a truck hold out for a 2wd one, the rust will be much less because it'll be a 2nd vehicle for the previous owner.

 

[calvin1]

Ditto to the auto trans and radius arms that have already been mentioned. One more thing to check would be that the 4x4 actually works. The hubs and t-case shift motor get cranky when not used often. The auto hubs can go bad either silently or spectacularly. The shift motor can sometimes be brought back to life by shifting it on/off several times to work the gunk loose. If you can take it to a muddy or icy area and have a helper watch to see that all 4 tires spin when you floor it.

Regarding the 5.0, yes it's adored by the Mustang crowd and can be very reliable, but it isn't really a "truck motor". Both the 4.9l I6 and 5.8 V8 are more appropriate for a truck as they have a lot more grunt than scream. You really have to get the 5.0 wound up to get it to go, not exactly the best thing for pulling trailers or stumps.

 

[Huie83]

Yeah, just heard back from the owner.

It has new WARN manual locking hubs, the auto's failed last winter. He doesn't have any of the maint records as he has only had the truck 2 years/8K miles. That makes me leary of trans issues etc if the fluids have never been done...

It's hard to find a nice used truck for under 3K!

 

[calvin1]

Originally Posted By: Huie83
Yeah, just heard back from the owner.

It has new WARN manual locking hubs, the auto's failed last winter. He doesn't have any of the maint records as he has only had the truck 2 years/8K miles. That makes me leary of trans issues etc if the fluids have never been done...

It's hard to find a nice used truck for under 3K!



Those Warn manuals will probably outlive both of us, especially if he got the all-metal Premiums. I wouldn't be too concerned about the ATF if the truck has 112K on it; it's definitely due for a change, but not critical. Do you know what trans it has? '93 wasn't exactly a good year for Ford truck auto transmissions. The AOD didn't ever have a really good year; the E4OD was mostly sorted out by '94/'95. The E4OD in my '95 Bronco can be cranky but it's getting better. It likes the Castrol High Mileage (green bottle) ATF better than whatever the PO had in it.

 

[Huie83]

OK a bit of an update.

A buddy of my Dad's is selling a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 quad cab. I beleive it has the 5.2 engine, it is a 4X4. It also only has 88K miles.

Looks like it has been taken care of pretty well. Fluid changes etc are all up to date.

Price is $2.5K

Any Ram owners here, what do you think?

 

[The_Jeff]

My work has a y2k 3/4 ton dodge with the 318. Good motor, blew several transmissions. While we plow one 50-ish space lot with it that alone shouldn't have done it in.

 

[addyguy]

My wife's uncle has one of those. Has given him nothing but problems. Its now sitting in his garage, totally shot.

 

[01rangerxl]

The 5.2 is a solid engine, but 1990s Rams are notorious for going through automatic transmissions.

 

[Quattro Pete]

What about a Ranger? There seems to be a lot of them in that price range. Or is that too small for you?

While on the subject of Ranger, why is it that they're much cheaper than Chevy S10 from the same model years (say around 2002)? Is the S10 significantly better in some ways?

 

[panthermike]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
What about a Ranger? There seems to be a lot of them in that price range. Or is that too small for you?

While on the subject of Ranger, why is it that they're much cheaper than Chevy S10 from the same model years (say around 2002)? Is the S10 significantly better in some ways?


Preference really, they are both solid trucks. Around me the Rangers don't seem to be cheaper than the S10's.

 

[Huie83]

Yeah, I had a 96 grand cherokee with the 5.2 and same transmission. It lost the transmission @ 85K.

Rangers and S'10 are nice trucks, just a little on the small side for me. I take hunting tripe with 3-4 guys a couple times a year, a S10 wouldn't fit all of our stuff and us. Plus, I can't find one with low miles.

The truck blue books @ around 6K. Even if I had to drop a transmission in it next year for 2K I would still be ahead.

Lastly, if I did get the truck what weight oil would you all run?

Just picked up 3 gallon jugs of castrol syntec blend for $11 a gallon! Would this be fine?

 

[addyguy]

Agree with what you say - if you need a bigger truck, a compact ain't gonna cut it, and if you have to do a transmission, but got a good starting price, you're no worse off...

Personally, if I were running an older OHV engine in a HD application, I'd go heavier on the oil - I'd probably choose a 5W-40 like Rotella Syn. BUT, with the great price you got on the Syntec Blend, I'd run that while you have it. See howe it does for consumption, noise, etc... and go from there.