How to find good pick-ups

This is not a want-ad, but I am looking for a non-rusty duramax extended cab for pulling my tractors. I am in central Iowa and everything around here is rusty. How do I go about looking for a non-rusty truck in the southern states? Craiglist is an option but hard to use. What else is there?

Best way is to take a ride out of salt country, go down to Florida, or any of the southern or south western states, and buy something there, and bring it home. Then, if it runs good, contact a Ziebart shop that applies that product, and have them do one of their good rust-proofing jobs on it.
My son does that type of rust-proofing, for Zeibart, and if done correctly, it will extend the life of your vehicle. But, if you don"t have that stuff applied, expect rust to show about 2 years after you start driving it in salt country!
I bought a new Ford truck, in 1976, and i used an oil spray gun to coat everything with 30w motor oil! Drove it 6 years, winter and summer, and no rust on any body part, including the rear quarter panels around the wheel openings, also the front fenders.

Florida is in salt country and Ziebart is a waste of money.

a good coat of 30w under the vehicle is much better then Ziebart. That is a waste of money. I have a 97 Chev K2500 in MN that I bought new. No rust at all.

Beleive it or not most of eastern Colorado is extremly rust free. Not uncommon to see nearly rust free trucks from the 70s driving around.Colorado Springs and south along I 25 nice dry weather, closer then Florida.

Around Vegas there are a lot of old rust free iron, look at CL.

You mention that CL is hard to use. Try searchtempest.com

It will give you craigslist results from as many cities as you want and ebay too if you like, all at one time. I never just use CL by itself anymore.

Just an idea:
Maybe look for an auction company in a southern state, that has the contract to utility company vehicles?

Southwest, not South, but WSM in Phoenix has such contracts and dose get some rest free, extend cab, former utility company trucks, so there may be other companies in other states.

You guys that spray the underneath with #30 oil ?
Dosn"t everything pick up a coating of dirt ?
Which, when it rains, holds moisture ?

wgm , I agree with you on both counts! Ziebart, up here in Mi, hire any min wage people they can get and they last 6 mos tops and could give a rats a$$ about correctly undercoating someones car. And to be fair it is not JUST Ziebart. I have taken dammaged fenders off TuffCoated cars where all they did was take off the antenae and spray a little slop around the hole and re-install. I worked at a dealership where they paid the wash guy overtime to do them after hours. He sprayed the bottom and smoked and cell phoned the rest of his overtime and run the car out. Undercoating is good , idiots aren't. The only person who will do it right is the owner himself. You all have probably seen this before but this is a product of Search Tempest and persistance. One owner 1999, 73,000 mi , seats covered since new until the day I bought it , he undercoated inside the doors the day he bought it new , sticker new which I now have $43,000. Bottom and engine compartment so clean you could eat off it. Bought in southern ILL. This thing is as new as any new vehicle I,ve ever had. Price ? $ 8500.00 It is exactly what I was looking for as I had allready owned a '99 Sub and loved it but it was getting real high miles and starting to rust. In MI , just starting to rust at 13 yrs old and 140,000 mi. This "new" '99 will last me till I'm gone.

I had a friend who worked at an RV sales. He got lots of good deals on 3/4 ton pickups when the owners either sold the RV trailers or moved up to a self contained unit. Usually low mileage and always very well cared for.

These folks have a good selection in stock and specialize in out of town buyers, fly in, they pick you up at airport and drive home.

http://www.northtexastruckstop.com/
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i was born and raised on Galveston Island...we sprayed used oil under our vehicles and ran them up and down oyster shell roads...best redneck undercoating you can get.

Nevada has rust free cars.There are dealers that haul southern vehicles to Maine for sale.Ive had cars from Nevada and Florida.

You havent done much work on salted cars and trucks.The dirt gets oily sheds water.You wont find rust where a transmission seal or pinion seal leaks.I had a long term leak on a backing plate.I cleaned off the dirt and oil.Inspection mechanic asked if I had put on a new backing plate.Truck is near 200000.

try truckpaper.com, you can search by state, price, size of truck, ect its nationwide ive bought and sold trucks onther and always had good experince

(quoted from post at 17:21:21 05/03/13) Best way is to take a ride out of salt country, go down to Florida, or any of the southern or south western states, and buy something there, and bring it home. Then, if it runs good, contact a Ziebart shop that applies that product, and have them do one of their good rust-proofing jobs on it.
My son does that type of rust-proofing, for Zeibart, and if done correctly, it will extend the life of your vehicle. But, if you don"t have that stuff applied, expect rust to show about 2 years after you start driving it in salt country!
I bought a new Ford truck, in 1976, and i used an oil spray gun to coat everything with 30w motor oil! Drove it 6 years, winter and summer, and no rust on any body part, including the rear quarter panels around the wheel openings, also the front fenders.

Click to expand...

My brother used to work at a Ziebart dealer, He was conscientious about it. but it can trap dust, moisture, rust etc. and accelerate rust.

Don't think you have to all that far south from IA to get into the rust free area. Daughter in St. Louis says they use the "let it melt" system of snow removal. Any in Central MO want to chime in with salt-the-roads info?

KEH

I found a nice Dodge 3500 Heavy Duty with a Cummings on either Kelly blue Book of Auto Trader. You can search by make/model and state.

There were a lot to choose from.