Maintaining/Purchasing a Used Truck
 

Hello friends, this is my first post here. I am looking at used ~15' trucks to convert to full time home DIY. Am hoping to spend max $15k on the truck itself, and I have some mechanic experience with cars, but 0 experience with trucks.

I see some trucks for sale $5-10k that sellers claim in generally good condition but with mechanical issues, such as engine and transmission issues. In this situation I would pay a mechanic to do a once-over with me before purchase, but worst case scenario I wanted to ask if anyone knows what cost for engine or tranny rebuild on a light truck would be like, and is it worth it in general to risk buying it that cheap. I know that for a basic car engine or tranny rebuild is ~$3k, would it be something I could buy for $6k and maybe at the worst put $5-6k into repair? THANKS.

Depends on what your looking at....a Volvo or Peterbilt etc your looking at 10 to 20k to inframe the motor. If your going with a medium duty like Freightliner M2 with a Cummins ISL your probably 7 to 10k.

Big trucks command big prices for parts and stupid labor rates but they last a long time. Its a good thing you can do some work yourself.

My recommendation, as a mechanic, buy they best you can with the funds you have alotted....look for something with a verifiable maintenance history as mileage sometimes really doesnt matter of its been well taken care of.

Thanks
 

Thank you, do you have experience with Ford or GMC, because those seem to be what's around in my budget, like a decommissioned Penske or Uhaul. I'm reading the engine is usually anywhere from 4-7 liter V8 depending on the model year.

Personally i would stay away from anything that had an early Ford Triton V10 as it was known for blowing sparkplugs out of the heads and was major $$ to fix. Any of the V8 or inline 6 motors will probably be ok just have a compression test and a cylinder leak down test done [if possible] so you know the overall health of the motor. Everything can be fixed but before you plunk down any funds do a little research to see if its easy to get parts for that unit at NAPA, Parts Source etc....no point at any price if parts are obsolete.

Thank you !