Tow rig - opportunity or just bad idea?
 

A guy delivered 32' a boat I bought yesterday. Between the boat and triaxel trailer is is ~10K. He hauled this with a 2004 chevy 3500 diesel extended cab w/ 200K miles. He said the boat and trailer worked well together and I asked how much? Is this a good tow vehicle to pursue? any flaws in the truck that identify something to stay away from?

It depends if it's a 2004 or a 2004 1/2. 2004 1/2 is a lly engine and has a much better injector set up and power with a variable vane turbo. Jeff Wurl

You have to have a use for a diesel other than towing a boat or just stay away get a gas .

This is true.

Any 3/4 or 1 ton will tow that boat and trailer, assuming they are in good repair. And new 1/2 tons may too, according to the ratings. Some truck years are better than others, and some engines are better than others, but figure out what is important to you in a truck, and go forward with confidence.

Congrats on the new boat, AT's are nice.

On edit: Oh, I see you are thinking of buying his particular truck. My prior info may be irrelevant in that case.

Been in the market a little bit lately and I think it boils down to these two things as a starting point:

1) Get it checked out. Don't buy a diesel based on your eye balls unless you're trained. My parents came across a F-250 7.3 that appeared to be really clean owned by someone they knew in their town. I didn't leave it up to their judgment (15 hours away), had them take it to a diesel shop and it was ready for about $4-5k in repairs.

2) Given it will likely need some work, balance that based on price and research about the model. Such as what the previous posters mentioned.

If it passes these two tests, then you can start thinking about it.

After going through this on a few trucks, I have settled on "f*** it" and buy a nice newer one rather than fixing someone's project. I don't have time for that.

Sorry guys, I had been given the wrong Truck details.

The vehicle is a 2005 F350 (3500) with a 6.0 litre diesel (Power Stroke). I read a review of the engine and apparently had a fair amount of issues, but by 200K miles I would think these issues would have been addressed.

I will have the vehicle checked out.

Vehicle is $4K. Assuming all checks out as reasonable, is this a good purchase for towing or not?

The 6.0 Ford diesel is a POS, I would avoid them like the plague. To get them to be a semi-reliable engine, youll need to spend about 6-8 grand in PARTS alone to fix what Ford F'ed up.

$4K for a running 6.0L is a good deal. But need full specs on the truck, and what has been done to it.
Does it have a tuner on it? Any other aftermarket parts?

Any transmission work? When, what, & how many miles?
Any engine work? When, what, & how many miles?

Nearly all 'worked' 6.0L trucks have had the following done: Head gaskets & stud kit installed.
03 & 04 trucks had the most problems.
05 -07 trucks had many of the bugs worked out, BUT they all need the head gaskets & studs eventually. This is roughly a $8K repair.

The LLY engine has a history of Head Gasket issues, choose wisely or get hit with a $ 6,000 repair.