dont slow down

I bought a Texas truck back in February and everything checked out via carfax. Truck was clean and in excellent shape. I crawled all over it, under it, looked at known problem areas but she was clean as a whistle except with the expected red Texas dirt under it. Bought the truck and have been driving it daily with zero problems.

About a a month ago I came across this Hurricane Harvey VIN checker: https://vincheck.info/floodcheck/#/

I ran my VIN and was shocked when it popped up as being there when the hurricane hit. I never even thought to check into that. That site will also tell you which county it was registered in, luckily mine was in a northern county which saw very little flooding.

I googled how to spot a flood vehicle and went about pulling carpet back, door panels off, checking differential fluids, and am happy to say I couldn’t find one single sign of water in the cab. I think I got lucky but be careful and look it over thoroughly. Also a handy bit of info: if a vehicle was flooded in order for that person or company to make an insurance claim on it the VIN, by law, must be reported as a salvage title. If a vehicle was flooded and doesn’t have a salvage title then that means the owner walked away from it as a full loss. For me mine is an 09 Platinum, hard to think if it had flooded someone would walk away from a high trim level truck with nothing at all. Make sense?

Wayne Hyrkas

Wow interesting! I will make sure to do that before going look at a truck, especially if it's in a flood zone. I'm hoping to find one in Arizona but not as many options there. Just curious how many miles were on the truck that you picked up? How do you like the 5.4?

dont slow down

Mine had 140k on it. The engine was quiet and showed no signs of the dreaded cam phaser rattle. I had a 04 with the 5.4 before this truck and I ran it to 192k with no issues. I knew the 5.4 engine well and how to work on it so I wasn’t afraid to buy another one, especially one of the later generations of it. First thing I did was put a tuner on it and I plan to maintain a good maintenance program on it to make it last.

gatorblue92

Have you looked at Carmax? I know they will bring any car in their inventory to your local store. Might be easier than traveling unless you just want the experience.

Wayne Hyrkas

Glad to hear of your success! I've looked on CarMax but can't find exactly what I want in my price range

MustangAndy

Bought my current 2014 F150 5.0 August 2017 with 32,000 on it while I was on business in Oklahoma. Drove it back home to NJ. Outside of the well known Fuse27 a couple weeks ago the truck has been great with zero problems. Current milage is 72,000.

The 5.0 is a great improvement over the 5.4 (I had one in the past).



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Wayne Hyrkas

I've been studying this map for awhile. It's how much salt is used in each state. There's quite a few trucks I've found in Iowa Missouri and Tennessee. I'm sure since there's some salt in those states there will be some clean trucks just not as many as Arizona or Texas. I just thought this map was interesting and could help anyone looking for rust free.

juanvaldez

Do some research on the paperwork required to register it in Michigan and take it with you. Texas truck will have a title to be signed over. Your state will likely require more. Take cash or make arrangements with your bank for some sort of bank transfer or see if there is a local branch of your bank like Wells Fargo. The folks you buy from will want cash, wire transfer or bank check of some sort. Also check with you insurance company. If you buy from a dealer they won't let you leave with insurance. Also, trucks in Texas can be rusty along the coast 'specially ones used by some fisherman with a boat.

IAJack

I live in AZ now and moved here from Iowa and there are some nice used trucks here. It is nice to not have the moisture, humidity and road chemicals be an issue towards rusting my truck. Just be aware that titles here must be notarized by the seller and there is also the "and/or" on titles meaning if it says "and" then it must be signed and notarized for both listed owners.

FB marketplace is a good place to search for used vehicles and you will get a better deal on a private sale of course.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...0005646349461/

Wayne Hyrkas

Ok thanks for the help! My plan is to find a truck at a dealer that I want and if that doesn't work out to have 2 or 3 Facebook marketplace options as backups. I'm looking to spend 15k and I want beige leather so it'll take awhile to find exactly what I want. There doesn't seem to be the same amount of leather trucks in Arizona but maybe I'm just imagining it.