Thanks Sunline Fan! He says he looked at it and the motor is a 5.0 302 8cyl for sure. I didn't ask him about the hitch. Now this Thursday 4/4 I'm going to test drive a 98 F150 8cyl that I saw on the side of the road. I'm taking a good friend of mine who is a mechanic to look it over. It has 148,000miles. He wants $5000 for it. That is way over what I wanted to pay but I guess by the sounds of it I'm gonna have to scrape it together. Thanks and I'll let you know how it goes.
Hi April,
Ask your mechanic friend to look good at these places that sometimes get missed. He may already know about these, just passing it along as any older used truck that lived in the rust belt (any northern state that uses road salt) can have these issues. All these can be added expenses to correct that you should know going in on a sale.
Look for heavy rust on these areas: (it is not a complete list but a good set of them.)
Brake lines
Transmission lines
Fuel lines
Rear brake dust shields assuming it has disk brakes.
Rear axle differential cover
Front suspension components.
If is has a 2" receiver hitch on the back, is it heavily rusted?
4 x 4 drive shafts boots if equipped.
Towing a camper makes a truck work, and hard sometimes. Before you start towing locally, all these areas need their oil checked for level.
And before you head out on your trip, these same areas should have a new oil change with filter where applicable. You never know sometimes how old the oil is in these. Yes this adds cost, but is cheaper then a breakdown on the road if the original oil is still in the gear boxes/transmissions.
Engine oil
Front differential gear oil if 4 x 4
Transfer case gear oil, if 4 x 4
Automatic transmission fluid
Rear axle gear oil.
All the other engine fluids need to be checked too. Power steering, brakes etc.
Hope this helps and good luck.
John