Greetings All:
First post - Background - I have a '91 f150, 4.9L (300-6) with a manual trans and I am looking to upgrade to a newer truck. I have 4 requirements for a P/U: manual trans, regular cab, 8 ft box, rust free. I realize my four requirements means I am searching for a 4 wheeled unicorn.

I am interested in the '04-'08 regular cab (with the two small cargo doors). I am thinking this might be useful for carrying relatively flat/fragile items such as window panes or bath vanity mirrors (I'm a small time landlord). How useful do you find the small cargo doors to access the area behind the seats of a regular cab (only one row of seating)? A while back someone told me that how one closes these cargo doors is critical to avoid windshield cracking - real issue?

 

Include F250's and you will have a wider field.

 

F250 has a completely different cab than the F150.

 

You can find regular cab 05-08 2wd with the base 4.2 V6 with a manual in this gen. 4x4, larger cabs and V8 engines are not an option for the 5 speed manual. They also didn’t offer the V6 in the 04 model year.

The XL work truck model with manual windows and locks will the easiest to find. There are occasional XLT’s with chrome bumpers and power windows and lock, but they’re not common.

Edit: I had a 2008 regular cab with the small rear doors for about 14 years. I found them to be useful. Not a lot of space, but you can fit grocery bags, and other cargo back there. More room and easier access than other regular cabs.

 

I had been searching 50+ Craigslist's and had alerts on all new eBay listings for '04 to '08 F150 since last Nov. One manual trans long bed in OK, salvage title, claimed 77K miles but the driver's seat looks like 150 to 200K miles, one man trans, long bed in south central WA - paid for an inspection, it was built w/o air. I made an offer (based on the fact that I would need to buy all the A/C parts and pull the dash) but they expected more money. Another man trans long bed near San Jose, tried to get the seller to have a phone conversation but he chose to avoid that and I was not about to send someone money to hold a vehicle if I did not get a good impression of the seller (was still for sale last week). I ignored rusty trucks.

Finally I decided I would also look for a wrecked/rusty/non-running man trans truck as a parts donor and buy an auto long bed truck to swap parts over from the donor to get the man trans. So I widened my search to closer to home where the roads are salted. I found my 4 wheeled unicorn in Marysville, OH - and its not rusty. Saw it last Wednesday and was there to pick it up the next afternoon. A 16 yr old truck to replace my 32 yr old truck, kind of weird that the new truck is almost the same shade of gray as my old truck (so many of the man trans trucks are white). Runs rough (#3 cyl misfire) but the air blows cold. Time to get busy with some deferred maintenance.

My 32 yr old truck about to bring its replacement home.

 

From the pic it looks to be in good shape. Those front gray panted bumpers are usually covered in rust in the salt states, and that one looks free of any rust.

Just a note on the seats, the drivers seats on this gen usually get destroyed pretty fast from people sliding in and out.

Keep us updated and post more pics of the truck.

The only thing to keep in mind, the new truck with the M5OD can only tow 3400# with 3.55s max.

 

From memory, the '91 with the M5OD is only rated for 3K lbs tow (mine has a miserable 2.8x rear axle ratio). I did fit an F250 clutch disc/pressure plate soon after I got it back in '09 (the larger pressure plate bolts right up to the flywheel - dual mounting pattern, since the 300-6cyl was also fitted to the F250 and even the F350).

 

That might have been the weak point I’m thinking of. I know the M5OD is a pretty strong transmission, it just had some weaker fail point, that I can’t exactly remember.

 

The input shaft is the weak spot. Makes fancy clutches and whatnot a moot point.

 

Yep that’s it. It’s been years since I remember reading about that. The M5OD is tough, except for that.