Might buy this pickup; any weak areas to look for?

[Winger Ed.]

Prices on used pickups are pretty ridiculous around here. Anything under $5k is typically worn out garbage, so finding a really clean one for $2500 is very rare..

Whatever you decide, and its a good deal, there is little to be gained by waiting.

I had a buddy that thought & thought, hemmed & hawed,,,,
Several times when he finally made up his mind- it was gone.

[Idaho45guy]

Attachment 261199

The only other truck in the area in my price range is this beater. It's a `90 F250 4x4 in pretty rough shape with the 460 and either 151k miles or 251k miles. Owner doesn't know. $2000.

[Texas by God]

Take the blue one for a test drive. Your eyes ears and senses will let you know if it's worth $2,500 or not. We bought a 1995 F150 with the 5.0 liter motor for $3,500 back in 2005. All three of my children learned to drive in that truck and each one drove it until they bought their own vehicle. It had 150k miles on it when I bought it, when it blew a piston 3 years ago it had 287k miles on it. It was a two-wheel drive, and I had a gooseneck hitch on it and pulled a 30 ft cattle trailer more times then I can remember. A neighbor gave me $600 for the truck with a bad motor and I was glad to get it. My family got our money's worth out of that truck, it was a good one. It's funny about four-wheel drive, before the 1980s a four-wheel drive pickup was a rare thing. I wonder how we got along without them?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Mica_Hiebert]

Id question the authenticity of the milage, other than that 2500 is a decent price. Id test drive it and see if anything screams at you to run. If it has dual gas tanks the valve that switches between tanks can give you problems and be expensive to replace. Also if it towed a 5th wheel I would find out how heavy and how frequent.

[Petander]

My only hesitations about it are...

1. It's 2wd. Now, around here, 2wd pickups are hard to sell. They are useless in the winter, and nearly useless in the mountains. But, I will be using it for a daily driver on a rural highway and for occasional light hauling duties to the dump and home improvement store. I really don't need 4wd. Besides, I will still have my new 4Runner for going into the mountains and for camping.

Sounds like my reasoning to buy a nice Chevy Van last year. I also have a 4Runner,an old but fine working one. Never had a Van before. So I bought it.

The 2WD Van ended up being useless all winter,I really hated looking at the poor car under all that snow,waiting for summer. 2wd is not happening here in winter. I just sold the van last month and got a Suburban instead, 4wd limited slip 5.3liter Z71.

I would love a nice Van or a Corvette but the fact is we have six months of mud/ice/snow/thaw. And I ride motorbikes in summer so no need for a "summer car"...

But: get whatever you want,you seem to like that truck so that's a good reason. Only then you will know.

[abunaitoo]

It's a ford.
I wouldn't touch with a mile long pole.

[jonp]

I'd be careful of anything that old that was used to tow substantial weight. Farmer probably horses, hay or cows to auction. Not sure id go that price

[kenton]

Any thing from the 60's is by definition 50 to 60 years old so either it is going to be clapped out or someone spent a bunch of time and money making it nice again. Plus everyone else wants a sweet old truck to cruise around in, which helps keep the price up.

Here in Illinois that truck would sell in a heartbeat just because of it's lack of rust. I personally would buy that truck if it fit what I was looking for assuming it test drove well. It is a 25 year old truck so it will likely have some issues but that is the cost of a 2500 dollar truck. As for the transmission, they can always be rebuilt if it comes to that. I assume living in the mountains there are some reputable local transmission shops.

You could always ask the seller what was pulled with that truck and get a feel if they are feeding you a line.

One other note, my dad had the gm equivalent of that truck when I was young and the extended cab plus long bed makes for a deceptively long truck when you are maneuvering in a parking lot or driving downtown.

[Petrol & Powder]

There's a possibility that blue 95 is priced low because it is a 2WD truck and is 25 years old.
There's another possibility that the seller priced it low because he wants a potential buyer to bite quick and not look real hard.

As I said earlier, at $2500 it could be a decent deal. The mileage (134K) is suspiciously low for a 25 year truck, particularly one out west. That's about 5300 miles per year. That $2500 isn't a good deal if that truck will need over $1000 in repairs shortly after you buy it.

[Petander]

Can you get a Carfax report with VIN code?

Sometimes too low mileage is just that,too low to be true. I once found my car had a clone twin in Canada.

[MaryB]

If that was here I would snap it up! The rust free body alone is worth the $2500! I m still on the hunt, my truck is toast, intake cracked, the #1 cylinder hydrauliced and broke the cam bearing caps over that end... runs but makes a racket and will self destruct... also blew #1 plug out fo the head so threads are stripped(Ford 5.4 Triton issue....), 151k miles, rusted out bed, cab is rusting through in spots.. my truck is not worth repairing...

[Petrol & Powder]

If that was here I would snap it up! The rust free body alone is worth the $2500! I m still on the hunt, my truck is toast, intake cracked, the #1 cylinder hydrauliced and broke the cam bearing caps over that end... runs but makes a racket and will self destruct... also blew #1 plug out fo the head so threads are stripped(Ford 5.4 Triton issue....), 151k miles, rusted out bed, cab is rusting through in spots.. my truck is not worth repairing...

I know where you can get a 1995 F-150 in Idaho for about $2500.........

[Winger Ed.]

I know where you can get a 1995 F-150 in Idaho for about $2500.........

My Grandmother would say, "Oh, now that's just tacky, tacky, tacky".

[Petrol & Powder]

My Grandmother would say, "Oh, now that's just tacky, tacky, tacky".

I know, and your grandmother is right.

[Mk42gunner]

As an added note about used pickup pricing, I saw one on the way home last night so I stopped to look.

A two wheel drive 89 F-150 for $1100. It had an automatic, and the sign said a 352 which is obviously wrong; it might have a 351W? But without actually looking who knows?

I have long thought the best way to get a good rust free truck was to fly to the southwest and buy one there then drive it back, not that I have ever had time to do that when I needed a new vehicle. With the current stay at home stuff that option is kind of out the window.

Robert

[Winger Ed.]

I have long thought the best way to get a good rust free truck was to fly to the southwest and buy one there then drive it back,

I worked for years in the automotive body shop supply industry.
I had a customer who had family in Chicago.

He'd buy and rebuild a late model, 'totaled', luxury car every year or so.
He'd drive it up there, have his vacation, sell it, and fly back.
That paid for his whole vacation, and he even made a few bucks.

There is a dealer auto auction here for used and wrecked cars.
The parking lot is full of transports with Northern state's license plates.
They buy cars & trucks here, then take them home to sell at obscene profits.

A buddy running a junk yard told of a guy who would come down and buy just pick up beds.
When he got a big trailer full, he'd go back up North and sell them to the wrecking yards there.

[megasupermagnum]

The early 90's Ford trucks were some of the best trucks ever produced. It is astonishing to me how they went from that to the late 90's, early 2000's and just laid an egg, especially with the triton engines.

As for your truck in question it is a 1995, meaning it is an OBD-1 ECM. There is a trick to read codes, but if you want to look at actual data, you will need a real scan tool. The cheap code readers are OBD-II and wont work. All three gas engines were good engines. I'm not a huge fan of the 302 in a truck, but it is reliable. The 351W is great, but my preference is for the 300. The automatic transmissions are not bad, but nothing great. The manual transmission is the M50D-R2. It is a decent lighter duty transmission. If not used to tow obscene weights, they hold up great. They use an internal slave cylinder which is a PITA. Make sure that it isn't leaking. I'm not aware of unusual problems with the frame or axles. The front axle on a 4x4 is a TTB style, some people shy away from them. I've never had a real problem, only that some alignment shops might be less experienced in them now that Ford hasn't used them since about 1997. In 1995, they had 6 digit odometers, so unless someone purposefully changed it, it is real. The title may have mileage listed. I wouldn't be worried anyway. Provided care, there is no reason these won't go well over 300,000 miles. Most of us in the rust belt seem to give up on them due to rust well before they truly wear out. Plenty of examples of 300k+ miles here. The only quirks I can think of is the goofy fuel pump inertia switch in the passenger footwell that can leave you broke down if you don't know about it. Just reset and away you go. On 4x4's the TTB front axle, the radius arm bushings often cause a clunk when going over bumps. They are not terrible to replace. The bushings on the axle themselves last much longer. The front axle shafts use U-joints, which I consider a great feature. They are often worn out. The two outer U-joints on the front are easy to replace, but the inner passenger side is a pain.

[samari46]

Definitly pull the oil stick from the tranny wipe the oil off on a white hand towel and check the color. Brown is no good. Do it a second time and smell the oil if burnt will have sort of a caramel smell. And check the underside for any leaks,especially valve covers. Oil usually drips or leaks out at the lowest end of the covers. And the usual,like tires,lights all of them inside on instrument panel and brakes,reverse you get the idea. And check brakes with the engine in gear engage the parking brake to see if it holds. Run the engine up a tad above idle speed if it holds ok,if it don't walk away. Frank

[William Yanda]

Only four, F and O and R and D, all together on the front, side and really big on the back.

[megasupermagnum]

Definitly pull the oil stick from the tranny wipe the oil off on a white hand towel and check the color. Brown is no good. Do it a second time and smell the oil if burnt will have sort of a caramel smell. And check the underside for any leaks,especially valve covers. Oil usually drips or leaks out at the lowest end of the covers. And the usual,like tires,lights all of them inside on instrument panel and brakes,reverse you get the idea. And check brakes with the engine in gear engage the parking brake to see if it holds. Run the engine up a tad above idle speed if it holds ok,if it don't walk away. Frank

If I walked away from every vehicle that the parking brake did not work, I never would have owned a vehicle.