Test driving a 95 k2500

Going to look at a dirt cheap 95 K2500 with a TBI 350 and the 4l60e. I have little experience with these but am hoping for a cheap tow/firewood vehicle.

The truck in question has spent the last 3-4 years as an on site commercial plow truck. Normally I'd run away at that but it appears to be minimally rusted and only has 115k on it, being priced slightly above scrap helps as well.

I am meeting up with the guy in a few hours, any advice for looking this this over? Supposedly runs/drives fine but I'd like to be somewhat confident it doesn't need a trans/engine rebuild in the near future before dragging it home. Also, any hidden rust spots I should check for? TIA

sure it's a 4L60E?

If it's been local-only for 3 or 4 years, find out if if has anything preventing it from being inspected and reregistered.

In reply to belteshazzar: Its a 6 lug truck so I'm assuming light duty = 4L60E, However I will be checking.

Owner says it has a clean title. I believe at least one reason for the low price is the fact the paint is absolutely awful with the characteristic early 90s GM de-lamination.

The 2500 usually had a 4l80e which is a lot tougher than the 4l60e. I've got a '95 C2500hd and the rust trouble spots are "all." Not really, the thing that's caused me grief has been (1) gas tank strap rusted through, and a couple brake lines have rusted out. Check the long hard line that feeds the rear brakes.

A friend of mine bought a '92 that had its frame rusted through behind the cab. I think that's a rare case.

If it drives okay and there's no glaring rust problems you should be able to fix anything that does go wrong with a hammer and $5 in parts. These are cheap, simple, durable trucks that work well if you don't expect more than that out of them.

Normally I'd be leery of plow trucks but at near scrap price what's it matter. GM trucks had issues w/ brake lines rotting, dunno if the 95's were prone tho.

dculberson wrote: A friend of mine bought a '92 that had its frame rusted through behind the cab. I think that's a rare case.

Nope. I have a buddy whose passenger side of the frame rotted out behind the cab. Which really sucked, because it wasn't a bad truck.

6 lugs? Probably, a 1/2 ton 4x4.

Plow trucks quite often have bent frames, especially light duty ones. Watch for "crabbing" ie. not driving straight down the road.

If its a 6 lug truck with a 4L60e its probably a 1500 with 2500 fenders, check the rear axle, got ten bolts on the cover and two ears on the bottom, only a few leaves in the spring pack? Its a half ton.

6 lugs means that it's a light duty 3/4 ton, which means it will have the "small" 14 bolt rear end.. i personally would never put a plow on anything that wasn't at least heavy duty enough to warrant putting the 8 lug wheels and all the other HD stuff that goes along with them on the truck.. so, yeah, i'd run away from it unless they are only asking about $500 for it...