I'm going to check out the above truck. It has 125k and is going for $4500. Seems like a good price. From the pics, the truck looks mint inside and out. Tires also look good (stock size).

What should I look for when I check it out? Any specific problems with these trucks? Will any major repairs/maintenance be needed soon?

Most importantly, what's the real mpg I can expect? I drive about 60 miles per day almost all highway. I have a light foot. Can I see 18mpg+?

 

5-speed that good, the auto have problems, (18mpg highway) with stock size tires and 2 wheel drive i would say yes. may want to check the plenum gasket if you can, they are a common problem with these trucks. just check it out good, take for a good drive you know, check for tight steering thing like that.......... good luck...... hope sum other people can gave sum input..... good luck again

 

i would be worried about the tranny it seems to me that on all 1500 dodges from 1995-2001 the transmissions on em started to hav problems around 75,000 miles on it. My 97 made it to 76,000 before it had to be rebuilt. When i had that done i had a small shift kit installed and havent had a problem out of since

 

the one he is looking at has a manual

 

a checklist that could be printed out and used:

http://dodgeram.org/buying_info/Inspect.htm

be aware of common problems spotted by owners in the past
(especially blown plenum gasket )

http://dodgeram.org/tech/troubleshoot/Problems.htm

know all the problems already spotted in TSB's

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/index.html

if you teach yourself about
Hypermile style driving behavior
and do some low cost mods
you could average 18 MPG
rather than the typical 13 MPG that auto trans Rams do.
starting at post #28 there is a long read on MPG mods for Rams:

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/showthr...t=56153&page=3

bargain the price of that used Ram down another $1000 or so

 

I have a 5.9L auto with 33" tires and 4.10 gears since it's the offroad edition and I usually get 12-13 mpg. If it's a 2wd with stock tires you might see more but I highly doubt you'd see 18mpg. I could be wrong though.

 

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/noframes/16098.shtml

18mpg hwy appears possible... though I am not sure I would say probable.

 

Wouldnt you know that something was wrong if that gasket were missing? maybe rough idle or engine idling high?

 

You can look down through the tb or take the tb off and look down into the intake and see if oil is pooling. If so it's bad. You may notice bad gas mileage, lack or power, etc. However, when test driving a truck you aren't going to know the gas mileage and most people probably wont have driven an identical truck so they wont know how much power it should or shouldn't have. It also sometimes causes a ping but not sure that it always does that either. Then you have the death flash that kind of hides that anyway. I'd just take a look and see if oil is pooling.

 

5.2s get about 18-20mpg anyway.