I had a 2004 that I bought new and loved it but went through a divorce and sold it when it had right around 50K miles.
2 years ago I bought a '95 as it was in my budget and was decent enough.

Well...2 years later my 3 kids are bigger and the club cab just isn't going to cut it for much longer due to the back seat size not being big enough.

I know the 3rd gen 'quad cab' isn't huge but having had one I know I would not need more room than that for my kids. Plus my '95...thought it runs great and has never let me down...it does have low compression on#1 and I figure best case I'm looking at $1000 or so to get that fixed. Then I still don't have enough room.

SO...knowing the trucks I'm looking at will probably have 150K or more mileage I need to know what to look for. I do know that ball joints are an issue and have heard of some folks with injector problems (maybe on the '04.5 and up more than the '03-'04?) and the usual leaks and rust etc. But is there anything else to watch out for?
I'm really wanting a 6 spd (had one before) but would settle for an auto (my '95 has a rebuilt auto that's nice) if it seemed in decent shape.

I'm hoping to do this around October or so and put about $7K down on a $12K-15K truck and make payments on the rest (selling my '95 also to pay for some of the rest).

Now that you know my life story... any input is appreciated.

 

Ball joints are always going to be an issue, so if they've been recently replaced then that's worth an extra $1k vs. a truck that has worn ball joints. New tires are worth $1k as well. Definitely check all front end steering parts for excessive play, wheel bearings, u-joints on front axle and prop shaft. Check the lift pump, OEM engine-block mounted ones are prone to failure but with 150k miles odds are it will have been upgraded. 150k is the danger zone for new injectors and an auto tranny rebuild (depending on how the truck was used). Better to pay more for a truck with good maintenance records than one with unknown history.

 

Check this thread out buddy. Sorry about the divorce.
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...93#post3219593

 

It was 9 years ago and I'm happily remarried with 3 kids so I'm good!

Thanks for the info guys. I will check the link out.