Looking for a lil comuter truck!

[aldochina]

I have had my eye out for a decent truck like a ford ranger, or s-10 or something in the 2500.00 range! Ideally a 4cyl 2wd 5 speed manual. Need something reliable, and good on fuel to throw the trike in and drive 2-3 hrs for our rides and such! Sick of putting fuel in the titan! I was thinking of trying to find something from the south, NO RUST!! I can hop a grayhound for 100 bucks or so, well worth it! Everything up here is a rust bucket, and the prices are the same!! Dont know alot about either truck, so if you have opinions share them! Seems there are 100 times the rangers than s-10's?? Also if you have a line on a good candidate let me know! I could also ride the bike down and pop it in the truck for the return trip!

[atc007]

Hmmm.lol.. I have a 09 Ranger,Silver,9000 miles. Was hit in the Driver door and fender,Always ran and drove. NO frame damage. Has a new aftermarket fender,used door,and the dumasses put the mangled original hinges back on! Door opens and shuts as is. But to be a brand new $27000 truck again{ That was the sticker}. It needs 2 new hinges on the door. And I'll just say 5 hours on the door/fender adjustment and scratch work on the drivers bed,and underneath the door. And I think the marker light under the headlight is cracked. It runs and drives as a brand new truck,which it is. It was a Really cool special ordered truck! Ol fella knew what he wanted and waited for it. It is push locks and crank windows,nice stereo,Fords BEST LEATHER!!!! Vinyl floor,bedliner and trailer package. And Ford factory Chrome wheel covers. THAT"S IT ! 4 Cyl,5 speed. I live at the base of a fairly nice hill,,my 1st test drive,I was going 75 MPH at the FIRST bench in our road! This little sucker hauls ass!! I don't know anyone with a truck like it,but have 2 customers with WAY older,extended cabs,and they both report they are getting 31-33 hwy mpg. To you guys I will take $7500,and I take 3 wheeler trades : ) . I am just gonna send it over to my local body guy ,have it done professionally and wheel it for $9900 If I don't get around to selling it.. Will TRY and post pics later..

[briano]

I've had 2 s10 two wheel drives, both with the 2.2 liter 4 banger and a 5 speed. They get almost 30 mpg, and are pretty easy to work on when repairs are needed. Both of mine were destined for the junk yard and purchased cheap. The first on I paid $100 for and drove it for almost 4 years, it was a deer hit so there was front end damage that needed repair, but it was all easy stuff. The second one I'm still driving almost every day, it came into our shop on the tow truck with a broken ball joint. The guy said he didn't want to fix it so I got it for $200, fixed it and drive the crap out of it.

As for the ranger, I never had one but a friend of mine has one and it seems to have a lot more power than the s10. He loves the ranger and claims over 30 mpg with it.

Stay away from the automatic transmission if you find an s10, the 5 speed is like a muscle car compared to auto. When you are putting less than 100 horse power to the ground every little bit helps.

[Mosh]

I agree..The 2.2 S-10 is a great little truck. Don't get the long bed or extended cab unless you want to deal with the crappy 3rd door rattle/rotting issue, or crappy carrier bearing drive shaft, that always seems to cause drive line vibrations on them. Also plan that you will need to do brake lines and fuel pumps and they ain't cheap on the S-10 as well as the rear diff covers rot through and leak.
The 4 cyl Rangers are great little trucks as well, as long as it has the A -arm suspension. (And I am by no means a Ford fan, but it is one product from them that I would buy.) They have a timing belt, that in most cases even if they snap, they don't bend the valves and can be changed in a few hours with hand tools.The S-10 however suffers from weak timing chains and gears that if they have been neglected from lack of oil changes will wear out around 130K and kind of suck to change out. You will also have to put rear spring shackles in the Ranger at some point as they all break and the leaf springs ride on the bottom of the bed..Either way, get a 5 speed if you can with either model. The Ranger is easier to work on with the exception of changing the 8 spark plugs, which is still easier than putting wires on the S-10 since they buried the coils down behind the RF wheel well. As much as I hate to admit it, teh Ranger is a better truck than the Chevy, all though I am partial to the fit and finish and ride comfort of the S-10 over the Ford.

P.S. Edit...
Stay away from the Colorado Chevy Truck. While some have had good luck with them, The converters are part of the manifold and are breaking off, (700$), valve dropping engines, captured rotor POS's...

[Lord Letto 20]

I Think The Mazda B Series is a Good Truck, Not that i have much experience with them. Not Sure of the newer ones but I know the older ones was a Ford/Mazda trade up or whatever in that the Mazda B Series was basically a Ranger with Mazda Badges. My Recommendation would be to get the B2200 (1987-1993), My Brother Had a 1993 as a Project but didn't Have the time to Put into it to put it on the road, I Liked it though, Here are some Pics of it:




Ended up Selling it For $175 IIRC. Ran Great, I Remember going with my brother one time to a nearby gas station to put gas in it and I remember feeling the power of being pushed back into the seat, this was the first of 2 vehicles I was in to give me that feeling. IIRC it needed the Front Bumper and Brakes.

[brapp]

i have a 96 s 10 2 wheel drive 5 speed 2.2 4 cyl great truck drove from my house to pittsburg in 13 galons of gas with a bed fullof trike and parts averaged abotu 32mpg

[tri again]

I've heard that northern state cars rust from the bottom up and Florida / seacoast cars rust from the top down.

I got a 92 f150 straight 6 for 500$.
VERY difficult to diagnose $400 computer problem that I fuxed with 50 cents worth of capacitors.
If you happen to find a 90-96 f150 that won't start,
turning the key on should run the fuel pump for 2 seconds and then shut off.
If not, it's bad capacitors in the computer.
super ez fix.
I never go anywhere so I can't comment on gas mileage

[aldochina]

thanks for the input guys. Thanks for the offer 007, just not looking to drop that kind of money. Sounds like a hell of a deal for someone!! BIG ??, will a trike fit flat in a flareside pickup bed?? Rather have the full width bed, seems like the flareside was popular!
May go take a peek at this one- http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/3740804992.html

[ps2fixer]

Most of the common problems were hit on in this thread already, another one to comment is the 2.3L 4cyl ranger engine I had had a bad coil, real leaf shackels rusted apart, cab corners, busted windshield, bad 5 speed stick with 4th gear out (skipped 3rd to 5th lol). It drove me to college for around 4 months, top speed of around 60-65mph floored with the bad coil. It was a 230k mile truck that lived in michigan so it was shot and went to the scrap yard, probably got $400 out of it.

I have an 85 S-15 (extended cab s-10) GMC. Only real problem with it is body rust. Bed was rusted so bad when I got it the side fell down. Not bad for $150 + brakes rotors, brake cyl, intake swap (87 engine was EFI isntead of the 85 carb), inline pump, replaced rear drive shaft (no carrier bearing now!). Still needs a wiper motor (in the mail atm), and a body. Truck has around 130k miles, engine, trans, and transfer case has around 20k miles on a rebuild that was from an 87 that was totaled. Been thinking about getting a cheap car like a Toyota Corolla, and making a truck cab out of it, my dad did that once back in the 90s with some old station wagon and a 4x4 ford frame, chevy cab back, olds 350 engine, 400 turbo trans, divorsed transfer case with 1 ton chevy axels, and home built leaf springs (13 or 14 leafs lol). It was his "Catruck" short for car truck. Got 20 mpg empty and weighed like 7800 lbs.