It was asked so I figured I’d post it here. Just what I’ve learned along the way…
Absolutes are (in my opinion):
Don’t get a 5.4L - 6.2L all day!
Aim for a 2013/2014
Aim for stock - mods are cool but could imply things went wrong and got changed.
See it in person
Know history; how many owners/locations - rust belt?
Drive it
Make sure 4 High/Low work
Crawl underneath and check for rusting rockers and cab corners ($5k fix last quote)- try to get one without a sunroof; the drains aren’t routed out of the cab and dump into the cab corners, causing it to rust from the inside out.
Check gaps from cab to bed - 13/14’s have reinforced frames, 10-12’s have been known to have bent frames from jumps.
Try to get shock history; how many miles on it/have they been rebuilt ever? They are rated for 50k mi on road (has it been off-roaded a lot? Only rated for 10k mi if so) - usually around $1k for a rebuild and if you don’t have spares to swap on you’re out a truck for a month or more.
Tires - it’s probably around $1500 now for new meat; a win if it has fresh/newish ones.
Brakes - again, mileage; how much, have they been replaced recently? Probably near $1k for quality replacements when all said and done.
Fluids - have they done a refresh on all? Again - mileage matters.
Plugs - again, mileage; have the plugs and wires been changed? Have the coil packs?
@FordTechOne is a bastion of information. Look up his posts and reply’s for a wealth of knowledge.