Shopping for a truck... Any suggestions?

[Art Eatman]

I'm still happy with my '85 Toy 4WD PU.  Xtra cab and tilt seat.  The bed is a tad over six feet.  With radials, around 24 mpg highway with the four-banger.  Less with the LT mud/snows.  Pulled a 16' trailer with 75 rough-cut 16' 1x8s the 70 miles through mountains from Ojinaga, Mexico.  Not high speed, but no problem.  It'll do most anything a big truck will; just slower.  And in gross weather it'll go places big trucks cannot.

My down-the-hill neighbor has an 80-ish Dodge with the Cummins.  24 mpg, running empty.  He bought it way used, and had some minor tweaking on "stuff", but all the power train has been reliable these last two or three years.

[Tallpine]

I reiterate that finding something good is hard. Especially finding one of those year models that isn't beat to *expletive deleted*it. It took me 5 months to find something that wasn't a piece of junk.

Yeah but you could rebuild it bumper to bumper for less than the price of a newer one.  With high gas prices, they seem to be almost giving away old trucks around here.

I'm still happy with my '85 Toy 4WD PU.

I'm sure you are.  And so is everyone else!  Might as well buy a lottery ticket as try to find one for sale.

[Firethorn]

Thanks for all the replies.

I think I'll just have to keep saving for a while.  In a year I'll have enough money saved up to pay cash on a 90's era truck.  Unfortunately it looks like diesel is commanding a price premium today.

Some research into new trucks shows all sorts of options to look for - down to the ratio in the differentials.