Yes. 8)

Although it's an automatic transmission, it has a floor shift lever for 2 / 4 wd. I know my dad occasionally put it in 4, when he needed to, but so far? I haven't needed to.

I understand that. Currently, it's my "drive to Long John Silver's on Sunday while the fish-hating wife is off being churchy" truck. But I'm buying a patch of ground in the high desert, middle of nowhere, Arizona. It's my / our intention to build an off-grid fortress hacienda hermitage in a few years. We're planning to retire out there, read a lot of books, and watch the coyotes run. But first? We gotta build it. So I'll be usin' the truck to haul construction schtuph.

 

If you steering is sloppy, see if you can find where the slop is. There are two different linkages used on these trucks, the inverted Y, and the T steering. (though, both look like "Y"s to me.....) The T steering will have a the tie bar going from on steering knuckle to the other, the Y steering has a link from the steering box to the passenger side knuckle, and another link from that one, over to the drivers knuckle. Steering boxes are notorious for being sloppy, and the T steering has a problem with tie-rod roll. (turning the steering wheel just rolls the tie rod first, giving you a dead spot in your steering.....) See which ya got, go from there.

For gas mileage, (I would never even consider calling it 'fuel economy', as there is nothing 'economic' about it......) best thing is to make sure all the maintenance is up to date. Plugs/wires/air filter/etc. Synthetic lube in the differentials helps a bit too. Keeping your tire pressure where they should be is another consideration. Tire size vs gear ratio vs what kind of roads you drive on matters as well. Going larger than stock will get you better gas mileage on the freeway. Smaller tires will be better around town. Should find out what gears you have in there now, and size your tires accordingly.