In the market for a work truck

Yeah, we have been looking farther afield too, but the downside there is that it's a little harder to change your mind when you've flown 1500 miles one-way vs. being within a couple hours' drive...

What about this guy?
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 ST, $5,995 - Cars.com

2001 Ram 2500, 48k miles, (snow plow! ??), one owner, Asking $6k. Plenty of dings, but it's a work truck, obviously...



Carfax good except for one "mileage inconsistancy" where it shows "34k" between "21k" and "28k." Guessing that's probably a typo.
Carfax: CARFAX Vehicle History Report for this 2001 DODGE RAM 2500

Thoughts? Hopefully the plow is easy to remove...

Edit - occurs to me the plow could be good for maintaining our gravel driveway... !!! [Still would be nice if it came off easily, though.]

Edit 2 - Or this guy...
2001 2500, 95k asking $4600. I dig the light bar. (No free Carfax on this one, but obviously a fleet vehicle.)
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 2dr Reg Cab 4x4 95k mi auto strong - Inventory | Manassas Auto Wholesale L.L.C. | Auto dealership in manassas, Virginia

Anybody? Driving up to PA to check out the green one a bit later this morning unless you guys wave me off...

I would never buy a plow tuck, unless I was using it as a plow truck. 2 I personally don't like either of those, too old and too much money.

Why? It's going to be a work truck, not a DD. I figure it's only going to get 3-5k a year, if that... I'm going to throw trees and dirt in the back. And it only has 48k now...

Well. Yes. I see.

THAT was a waste of time... 400 miles round-trip. I specifically asked the guy if it had any rust, he said "no, not really."
Thing was totally rusted out underneath. There were even holes rusted in the bed.

We drove around PA and looked at several other trucks... a few were okay but above my price ceiling.

So... I took a day off work and had a nice drive, but kind of a pointless drive otherwise.

Exactly... Plow trucks have rust issues and almost always have transmission issues.

Well, went to check out the light bar one today.

A little beat, but most of it seems to be cosmetic rust. A little wire brush and Rustoleum should do the trick, as far as I can tell. Oh, and a seat cover. And mebbe a dash mat. And I'll need some knobs for some of the dash controls, but that stuff is cheap.









. . . He's going to replace the broken side marker.
. . . I didn't try to run the lights. lol that could be fun.

. . . All the tires have plenty of life left on 'em.



. . . Looks like there is (or was) a small tranny leak but the fluid looked good. In 20k I'll replace the fluid and obviously the gasket at the same time, unless you think I should do that sooner. (Or if the leak gets more apparent...)



. . . Not sure about this apparent leak on the front of the diffy; the back is dry. Thoughts?









. . . Needs seat cover.

. . . Needs dials. And whatever else is missing there. And probably a dash mat at some point.

. . . All the idiot lights work.

Anyway, I offered him $3900 if he fixed the broken side marker, pending a test drive. (It was backed into a corner of his lot behind three other vehicles.)
He told me if I came back on Wednesday I could take it for a drive and the light would be fixed and he'd have a current inspection on it.

Anyway, the thing ain't the PRETTIEST, but the price is good and assuming the test drive goes okay and it doesn't throw any OBDII codes, I think it'll be okay for a work truck; especially if I clean it up some. I might also be able to sell the light bar. lol