Hi everyone.

I'm a BMW guy and have had a lot of fun with them over the past couple years. These past few winters have not been very much fun with it's low clearance and RWD (not like having all-seasons instead of snows helped), but yet when I ride with one of my friends and his F-150 he turns on that 4x4 and drives through it like it's no big deal.

I'm just here to ask details about these trucks, but in particular the Ranger and F-150. I'm looking for a truck around $5,000 so it's going to be older, and because of that I'm going need to know things like common issues, average miles on an engine before it needs major work, things to look for, etc. The only thing I know I want is a manual transmission.

Don't worry, though, I'm not a complete noob to trucks. As I've said I've rode around in my friend's F-150, but on top of that my grandpa owns a 3/4 ton Chevy diesel, and my mom owns an '08 Ranger. I've been around them all my life.

I've got a lot of time before next winter to learn about these trucks and set myself up to get a good one for a good price. Any help would be great and it's nice to be here.
Thanks.

tl;dr
BMW guy wants to know about Rangers and F-150s, also not an idiot

 

I had my 1998 Ranger 4.0 5 speed for 10 years before I traded it in on my 2010 Ranger 4.0 5 speed. It had 200k miles on it and the only thing I ever did besides regular maintenance was rebuild the transmission. It had the original hoses, water pump etc. I just saw it the other day as a construction truck so I struck up a conversation with the guy and it now has 220k miles on it without any trouble. As long as you take care of it, it will last a long time.

 

Hey, ill try to help you out all i can
for 5k you are probably gonna want to look at a regular cab truck cause you can get a decent one for 5k that would have been a fleet truck or something like that
for millage i would look between 100k and 160k on those trucks
of course if you can find one for less money by all means look into it for yourself
Some of the important things you should look at on the old fords are the rusting on the trucks, the frames can get messy

with that much money you are getting a pretty basic truck so if you are looking for something with less millage and more of the stuff you might be accustomed to from owning a BMW (like power windows and locks for example)
you might ether want to consider putting some more money into it or looking at AWD/4WD SUV's and cars that would be eaiser to find with equipment like that for a lower price

For example you could probabaly find a 1998 body style tahoe or suburban for that kinda money with the very good 5.7 v8 in it