One of the Trucks of All Time

About This Truck

This is an truck.

This truck does truck things. It has four wheels, a bed, and seats. It hauls stuff - a LOT of stuff. If you need a truck that does truck things, this may be the truck for you. Or not - I don't know you. But you should take a look. It is truly one of the trucks of all time.

We bought this truck mainly to haul scout gear. Our scout troop needed a way to move camping gear to and from campouts, as most families in the troop at the time had, you know, Camrys. It absolutely excels at hauling gear. We have hauled an entire troop's worth of gear for a whole week of summer camp, including personal gear, patrol boxes full of cooking gear, troop gear, etc, to the Sierras and back, or to Oregon and back. It has never let us down. When fully loaded and going up the mountain, it is not fast, but it always made it. It has been used to haul supplies for service projects, it has survived multiple snow camping trips, it has sheltered scouts whose tents, due to poor choices, were set up in low lying areas before rainstorms. It has tons of ground clearance and 4 wheel drive, and it's been able to go anywhere we've asked it to go.

Now, it's time to move it on. We no longer have kids in scouting, and we have a crossover SUV that carries everything we need for couple's camping. The truck hasn't been driven much in the last couple of years, and it deserves to go to a family, group, or business that needs a reliable truck.

I have the title in hand. It is currently registered non-op, for ... reasons not having to do with the truck. But I have already taken it to a smog check station, and it passed with flying colors. A smog report will be included with the truck, and on it you can see that it not only passed, it is nowhere near the limits - indicating that the engine is in good health. The smog report is good until 29 November 2025, so as long as you register it by that date, you will not have to have it smogged again. Also, the engine is that 4.6L "Modular" V8 that Ford put in everything in the late 90s, so parts are easy to find, inexpensive, and every mechanic shop in the country will have people who know how to work on it.

It is not a looker, and it has some miles on it (221,492 of them). But the AC and heat work, the power windows and locks work, the 4x4 works, and the stereo works. It starts right up and runs smooth. Before offering it for sale, I took it to the tire shop and had them put, quote, "The most afforable tires that you yourself would be comfortable driving on" onto the truck, so it has new tires with literally under 20 miles on them. The tires are also still under warranty, and the guy at Castro Valley Tire Pros said if the new owner has any problems, just come in and they'll take care of it (work order and reciept will be in the glove box).

I also took it to my normal mechanic, and said "Please do an oil change and check all the safety stuff - brakes, lights, seatbelts, airbags - I want to be able to sleep at night knowing that the new owner isn't going to die the first time they take it on the freeway". Which my mechanic apparently interpreted as "Charge this sucker $1100 for maintenance", but for that price, I did get all new front brakes - pads, rotors, calipers, and lines - a new headlight bulb, an oil change, and a thorough checkup (I take it to Boulevard Auto; they do good work, can recommend).
There are some suspension components that probably will need to be replaced - worn bushings and whatnot - in the next few years, but all the urgent stuff is taken care of, so you can rest easy about that. Also because I hadn't driven it very much over the past year or so, the battery was deader than fried chicken, so not only did I have to get a whole new battery (also still under warranty for the new owner, just take it to O'Reilly Auto Parts on Castro Valley Blvd), but because the battery died, the ECU forgot everything it knew about emissions, so I had to put damn near 300 miles on it to train it how to, you know, be a truck in order for the ODB II port to report the emissions information. Also, I swear batteries used to be like $89, but they're freakin $250 now?!?

Anyway. If this all sounds good to you, and you are not the protagonist of a country song - you need a truck to do truck things rather than LOOKIN GOOD and ROLLIN COAL and SHOWIN THEM PRIUSES WHOS ROAD THIS IS - than you should probably buy this truck.