I've been reading through the seach forums for the last two days and haven't found much advise on what to look for on these trucks. I've driven 3 or 4 that are in my area and all of them seam to run about the same.

This is what I'm looking for

Budget $20k max, I passed on a $15k truck with 178,000 miles, I'm kind of kicking my self on that one.

must be crew cab

need to be a buisness colour (white, dark grey, black, no greens or reds)

must have greyish interior (personal prefrence, I very much dislike tan interior)

must be diesel (I would buy a 1500 are an F150 if I wanted a gas guzzler)

I'm leaning toward an automatic, I drove on 6-speed and it didnt feel right

4x4 would be nice since the truck might need to go offroad (onto a farm offroad or camping, not rock crawling)

I pull a 3300lb trailer 5 days a week, not too heavy, but almost dangerous on my 1990 4runner


I'm going to sit down on monday with a friend of a friend who is a wholesaler and buys for my friends dielership, is there any advise or items that I'm overlooking?

 

Good luck on the truck search. I bought my truck about 6 months ago and it is a 2001 F250, PSD, auto, 4x4. It is the club cab and not a crew. A crew would probably run a little more, but manueverability was an issue for me and I didn't want the extra length. I bought it for a little less than the $20K you mentioned. They are out there. Try to find one with a service history or an owner you can visit with. I bought mine without talking to the owner before, but after I got it I visited with him and he confirmed good care. Beside the usual stuff, I'd pull the aircleaner cover off and look for dust in the intake hose between the cleaner and the turbo. Dirt in there would make me nervous.