Maybe time for a new truck.

[riptides]

Seems like your side business of one year can cover your "new" truck for a long while.

I am on the side of turn key and go in everything I do. Just cannot afford the no trust factor, no matter how small.

Daughter just lost a brake line to corrosion a few days ago. Lucky it happened in the driveway.

 

[LD1]

If it wasn't bothering you, you wouldn't be talking about it. In the back of your mind, you've always got this little voice asking "What's gonna break next?".

If the down-time isn't effecting your income, and your'e just doing it for side-work and enjoyment, then just add up all the costs to fix it each year, and is it still less than new/different truck payments? And ask yourself if its worth the aggravation to break down, or is the aggravation of a different truck payment worse?

Can you find a low mileage truck of the same year that's in good shape? Keep the old one for a backup. Or sell it and use the cash to offset the purchase of the different one.

Thats exactly it. In the back of my mind, I am thinking what is gonna happen next.

Cant complain....truck gave me 9 years of trouble free service. But now its either gonna cost me a fortune to make it where I wont worry......or its gonna nickle and dime me.....or its time to send it down the road. Those are my 3 choices.

I figure I'll see what I can get for this truck + ~$10-$15k. Getting 10 years newer but more miles would be an upgrade in my mind in terms of reliability.

A second truck....even of similar vintage for a backup would cost me at least that 10-15k......but a second insurance payment, tags, etc. Dont really want another vehicle to maintain either. I already dont drive the truck enough....just sitting is about the worst thing you can do to a vehicle.

Right now, my truck is certainly "fixable" and would probably give many more years of service for $4-$5k invested.....but its most certainly the aggravation at this point. Just getting tired of working on stuff. A 13 year old truck shouldnt be rotted out to this point.:banghead:

 

[Ford850]

Would you rather be mowing, plowing, and cutting firewood, or wrenching on the truck? That's what it's going to come down to since we all have limited free time. If you enjoy the challenge of getting the truck back to "reliable" then it might make sense to keep it. For me, I couldn't stand having a truck that wasn't reliable, and I don't enjoy wrenching that much compared to the other things.

 

[MossRoad]

On a funny it happened to me and not you note...

I weed eatered and tossed a rock through the rear driver's side quarter window of my mostly trouble-free '93 Suburban Thursday evening! Found one at a junk yard for $65.

:confused3:

 

[jwstewar]

You are in the same boat we were. We have the '99 Silverado 1500 that I bought new. We've been using around the house/farm and towing our camper and goats with it. It has about 147k miles. We are wanting to start going to shows a bit farther away and even towing the camper is starting to be "harder." And of course, rust is starting to become an issue. So I started looking a year or so ago. Really wanted a diesel, but didn't want to nor could I afford a new one. So I found a 2017 Silverado 2500HD with the Duramax/Allison combo. It is a crew cab with the 6.5' bed 4wd. It only 13k miles when I found it. The dealership put a leveling kit and aftermarket wheels and tires, so they were brand new. It was priced at 46,800. I got them down to 46k. It has a few dents and scratches - actually a lot for a 1 year old truck, my wife is complaining about them, but like I told her, the truck was priced accordingly, otherwise that truck would have been closer to 55k.

 

[4570Man]

I hate wrenching on stuff. I’ll fix a few things but once it gets to constant bother it’s gone. Hopefully my dump truck has a few more years of reliable service before that point. Maybe the city will retire their fleet by then because they have a bunch of nice trucks.

 

[crashz]

How is the condition of the rest of the truck? Frame and Body? I have been a Fluid Film fan for many years and have saved a few trucks from demise with it. My 2 cents is that if the truck is in good shape, fix everything bow to stern and use a rust coating (FF is my go to) to keep her going. Not all trucks can be saved though. The truck in my avatar was too far gone (frame rotted through).

The other thing is your aim of trucks: A newer used truck puts you in the 2015ish range? From company experience, the 6.7 Powerstrokes seem good, but about 120K start getting very expensive to repair. We have 11 in that age range and many of them have had EGR cooler replacments. I have absolutely no other experience with these rigs. But universally, they are very expensive to buy and repair. I'd hate to put out $45K and have to replace injectors or a turbo.

So again JMO, but I'd fix your old truck if the bones are good and keep the rust at bay. Or buy a brand new truck with long (time) warranty. Skip the junk in the middle, its just a headache.

 

[Rustyiron]

J
But going to a 3-4 year old truck is a game changer for me. I havent follows what has happened recently. Do know crap about def, what to look out for, what to avoid, etc.

Rust is a **tch!
As for the 35k miles in 10 years, I'd just buy a gas truck, or consider it very hard. Rust will get the next one as well and you'll be in a similar situation with a junk truck with a good motor.

 

[MickeyDBC]

I am sort of in the same boat except my 2014 Ram diesel is about six months (will hit 100K miles) from going out of emissions warranty and I need to at least step up to a long bed 3500. Looked at the new GM Duramax and it seems to be going through a lot of teething troubles and with the new software security in it there is no way you are ever going to be able to delete it. Ford has gotten too expensive and you hear about warrantee problems that Ford blames the owner for and refuses to pay for. So it looks like I am back to Ram. If you shop around you can get a 2018 4x4 DRW diesel for under 50K, what I am starting to shop for.

 

[coobie]

Agreed. Sad thing is, we/they have the capability of making them where they wont rot out....but opt not to because then they could never sell new trucks.

I'd pay a premium (what maybe $4-5 grand more) for a "corrosion package" if it were offered. Include all stainless fuel, brake, coolant lines, etc. Stainless exhaust....the works.

KROWN rust proofing is your friend where you live in the rust belt..