The engine will be strongest part of the package.
The automatic tranny (if so equiped) is the weakest link. If I was going to buy a truck with that many miles, I'd figure the price of a new tranny ($3000+) into the asking price and then determine if it's a good deal. At $13,500, it sounds pretty good for an '03.
One other area where high milage trucks (especially older 2wd duallies) seem to have problems is the ball joints. How are the front tires wearing? If worn more on one side than the other could indicate alignment problems. If you can, jack up the front end and see if you can wobble the tires. If so, the ball joints could be bad. These are probably OK on an '03, but say a 99-01 with close to 200K miles, it'd be more likely.
The automatic tranny (if so equiped) is the weakest link. If I was going to buy a truck with that many miles, I'd figure the price of a new tranny ($3000+) into the asking price and then determine if it's a good deal. At $13,500, it sounds pretty good for an '03.
One other area where high milage trucks (especially older 2wd duallies) seem to have problems is the ball joints. How are the front tires wearing? If worn more on one side than the other could indicate alignment problems. If you can, jack up the front end and see if you can wobble the tires. If so, the ball joints could be bad. These are probably OK on an '03, but say a 99-01 with close to 200K miles, it'd be more likely.
