Buying Used - What to Expect?

[Panduh]

I'm shopping for a good used RAM 1500 or 2500 with a budget of up to $20k. It will be a large camper tow vehicle, so will need all the suspension components to be ship-shape.
Within my budget, I'm seeing trucks 2014 and older with 150k mi. and up. At this age and mileage, what can I expect to need to replace soon or right away? Should I budget a couple thousand for new bushings and shocks? Anything else beside standard maintenance that that I should be aware of and ready for? Thank you for your advice!

 

[PoMansRam]

I'd be more concerned with finding something used that will fit your needs for $20K. This is a very difficult task today.

 

[jawzs2]

My first question would be how large of a camper? You may be out of 1500 territory before you even start looking. Suspension wise these have historically been pretty solid. A few guys have expressed issues with bushing, but not many. Anything used with that mileage is a crap-shoot, you could get lucky, you could roll snake-eyes, Auto-check or CarFax helps, but not to be taken as gospel.

 

[Panduh]

Thanks for your replies. Let's leave the trailer/towing specifics to the 4th Gen Towing & Hauling discussions, where I'm covering that.

As for a good truck for $20k, I'm finding quite a few 2011-2014 1500s and a few 2500s for that price. According to a Car & Driver report and confirmed by my recent searches, RAMs are for some reason sitting in dealers' lots for extra long, like 40+ days, and therefore there are some good deals to be found.

So my basic question here is: how much can I expect to sink into a 2011-2014 1500 or 2500 with under 200k miles in order to put it in excellent working condition? I don't care about cosmetics at all.

 

[Dinky]

I don't know about Florida but in oregon if a car dealership is a new car dealer of any sorts. Dealership ship must do full inspection of vehicle before sold and fix anytime that could cause injury. Might start looking there if buying a hemi definitely cold start it and do not let them fire it up for you. You want to see if there is exhaust leak or lifter tick.

 

[Panduh]

Thanks for that, Dinky. The only V8 that I've owned so far was a Ford 5L with all the Ford add-on goodies - what an awesome motor! Not sure if I could tell the difference between an exhaust leak and lifter tick. When my BMW 325 had a small exhaust leak, I could've sworn it was the valve train making the ticking noises.

 

[chri5k]

If the truck is sitting on a dealers lot fo 40+ days there is probably a good reason. Be very careful and have an independent shop do a thorough pre-purchase inspection. Expect to pay about 1.5 hours labor for a thorough inspection.

 

[Jeepwalker]

At high mileage it usually comes down to how the truck was used and how well it was maintained by the previous owner. Did they use it as a DD or hauling loads of wet sand and junk? You'll just have to look at each one on and evaluate (yourself or by a mechanic) on it's own merits.

 

[AkNoad2]

Crawl under the truck and see if the heat shield on each side is loose, if it is then you have a broken exhaust manifold bolt/bolts. I like to test drive a new to me truck and take it to a parking lot where I can inspect it myself. I did that while I was looking for a newer truck and did find one 2500 with the 5.7 that had a broken exhaust manifold bolt. Check cv's and anything else you can think of while under the truck.

 

[GiantTorture]

I bought my 2012 (200k) last month. No leaks, no ticking and in great condition $14.8k + tax & license.

 

[indept]

Thanks for your replies. Let's leave the trailer/towing specifics to the 4th Gen Towing & Hauling discussions, where I'm covering that.

The trailer /towing info may decide if you want to stick to 2500's or if it's not a problem for a 1500. If you're at the max of a properly equipped 1500 which is just over 10000 lbs you should stick to 2500's. Can't go wrong with a 2500 with the Cummins diesel if you tow big & often.