Good morning! I’m back, after a mishap in Mountain Home, Idaho the other night. I’ll tell you all about it when I write up my trip report, but suffice it to say that when the fender of a U-Haul trailer meets a cinder-block wall, they both lose. I’m gonna have some ‘splainin to do. Good thing I bought the insurance.
Massive thanks to Thomas Hundal for covering yesterday, in his inimitably locquacious way. Excellent picks, too. Who doesn’t love a mid-engine sports car? (Put your hand down. You do too.)
After adding my vote for the X1/9, the results are pretty clear. There’s nothing wrong with a good 914, of course, but it’s hard to beat two-tone brown, especially with those gold wheels. The X1/9 is the other sports car I have wanted ever since I was in grade school, along with my beloved MGB GT, so this was an easy choice for me.
So let’s continue with our eastward journey. I’m writing this from the Fairfield Inn in Laramie, Wyoming, after a very long drive through the mountains. Wyoming is the least-populous state in the country; fewer than 600,000 people call this big rectangle home, and you can tell driving across it. There are places on Interstate 80 where there is not a single sign of human habitation in sight except for the road itself.
As such, the entire state of Wyoming has but one Craigslist site to serve the whole thing. And as is typical of sparsely-populated areas in the US, the most common vehicles by far are pickup trucks. I found the two cheapest viable trucks listed for sale within our typical price range. Here they are.
2001 Ford F-250 Super Duty – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 6.8-liter overhead cam V10, four-speed automatic, 4WD
Location: Casper, WY
Odometer reading: 312,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Ever since Ford spun off the Super Duty line of trucks as its own body style in 1999, it has been a huge hit. When a mere F-Series just won’t cut it, you reach for the big guns. And in this case, that means a gigantic V10 engine displacing 6.8 liters, or if you prefer, 415 good ol’ American cubic inches. You could get this monster with a five-speed stick; I’ve seen one, in US Forest Service Green, in fact, but this one makes do with Ford’s 4R100 automatic.
That transmission, however, was replaced five years ago, so it doesn’t have nearly as many miles on it as the rest of the truck. The rear suspension was just refreshed as well. The seller says it runs and drives well, but I do wonder how that’s possible with no battery. Maybe they swiped it for some other vehicle, or maybe they took the photo mid-replacement. Either way, it’s odd, and something you should ask about.
This isn’t quite the luxury truck that you can get today, but it is a comfy truck, and since it’s the Lariat model, it has quite a few bells and whistles. The heater and air conditioner work fine, and really, what more do you need? Oh right; four-wheel-drive. Done and done.
Comfy or not, trucks in harsh environments get used hard, and this Ford bears the scars of a life well-used. It’s got dents and rust, and a plastic bed liner and a toolbox in the bed give it working-truck cred as well. Luckily, Wyoming doesn’t use road salt, as anyone who’s ever tried to drive through here in December knows all too well, so it shouldn’t be eaten away underneath.
1986 Jeep Comanche – $4,250
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter overhead valve inline 4, five-speed manual, 4WD
Location: Laramie, WY
Odometer reading: 170,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
How do you improve on the beloved XJ Jeep Cherokee? Easy: Chop its ass off, weld on a couple of frame rail stubs, and make it a pickup truck. That’s what AMC did in 1986 to create the MJ-chassis Comanche pickup, to compete with the likes of Ford’s Ranger and GM’s S-series, as well as a host of imports. The welded-on frame rails were necessary because, unlike its competitors at the time, the XJ was a unibody design – no frame to build on.
This first-year Comanche is set up just about how you’d like: it’s four-wheel-drive, of course, with a five-speed manual and AMC’s tough 2.5-liter pushrod four-cylinder. The mighty 4.0 liter six wouldn’t come along for another year or so, and the optional engines were a Renault diesel and a GM-sourced 2.8 liter V6, and the less said about those, the better. This Comanche runs and drives just fine, and the seller says it is a veteran of many an off-road adventure.
It looks like it, too, with rust and dents, a beefy-looking steel tube rear bumper, and a 2-inch lift. The icing on the cake is the factory stripe kit; nobody does stripes like these anymore, and they are sorely missing from new car lots. It looks a little rough, but the seller says all the rust is on the surface from damage; it’s solid underneath.
No mildly obscure vehicle worth its salt would be complete without a battered Haynes manual and a bunch of parts the seller never got around to installing, or picked up years ago “just in case,” and this Comanche doesn’t disappoint.
So that’s Wyoming. Tomorrow if all goes well I should be at my aunt’s house outside of Wichita, staying there for a couple of days before hitting the road again. In the meantime, choose the 4WD truck you want from the high plains.
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
This has reminded me that I forgot my monthly search for used work trucks, the best trucks are the ones you don’t have to care about (and they still keep going)
We always bought farm trucks after hail storms. Cheaper and no worrying about damaging it.
Commanches are cool, no doubt about that. The Renix EFI is a liability with the Commanche. However, since it’s mostly the same as an XJ Cherokee, parts are still plentiful and cheap.
I never really liked Ford SuperDuty trucks. They drive terrible (IMO, even by big truck standards). Ball joints and u-joints don’t last on them. The body mounts sag, they eat rear brake calipers, and at 300,000 miles, the V10 is probably due for new timing chains.
As long as the Commanche’s unibody isn’t rotten, I’d go Jeep all the way.
I’ve always had a hard to explain soft spot for those early Super Duties… Duty’s… Supers Duty, and a V10 would really help pull up my fleet avg cylinders and displacement. For 2500 smackers, it’d be worth it just to say I have a 150 *and* a 250, even though the 13 years younger 150 is probably better in every way.
You said doodie. 😉
Big Ford all the way for me. While I’ve always like the Comanche this one is just too expensive and rusty for me. I’d pay more for a very clean one, or less for a rusty one. I’ve driven a few Fords of that generation and they were fine. Well except the one we cracked the frame on doing some fast travel on logging roads too many times.
I stay in Laramie quite often, as it’s exactly 1,000 from my house on the way to the west coast. The noise from the rail yard will keep you up all night.
The stripes are worth the price
Comanche here. Always liked them. Rust abatement is possible and engine swaps, too, but nobody’s making any more trucks like these.
I hate to vote for the boring white vehicle over fun stripes, but that price makes it hard not to.
Was the mishap being in Mountain Home? Because that was your first mistake.
Glad you made it home alright, though.
Not the good part of Idaho. The very small good part.
Man. Weird being a townie to a town that gave way to development and sprawl; it used to be that I could see myself going for miles in those mountains like in the background of the Comanche, now I get itchy not seeing sidewalks.
Both of these look amazing from my midwest perspective. While the Ford is going to be more reliable despite its pile of miles, I simply don’t need that much capability. I’d buy the Comanche. As a bonus, I could easily turn a profit if I ever wanted to clean it up and resell it. Those things are unobtainium in rust country.
I don’t know about the ford being more reliable. Those Triton V10’s certainly had their issues and the transmissions aren’t anything special, either. The 4 cylinder in the Comanche is bulletproof and doesn’t make enough power to hurt any driveline components. It’s an XJ, parts are cheap and plentiful and they’re super easy to work on.
No enormous modernish pickup monstrosity for me, ever. Comanche by default
I’d get the Jeep just because I know I could sell it to a Jeep guy. I’d be stuck with that Ford.
I want the Jeep, but it’s just too expensive. I’ll go with the Ford, even though that thing will guzzle gas like crazy
Somewhere west of Laramie, there’s a Bronco-busting, steel-rusting truck that knows what I’m talking about. We’ll take the Jeep, even though the price is delulu, and hope that cash talks.
I wanted the Comanche, but not for nearly double the price of the F250. Ford for me!
Way easier parts availability with the Ford and I can actually use it to pull a car trailer and such versus the essentially useless to me Jeep. Ford is the easy winner
And if it only lasts a year, still got your money’s worth. And you can beat on it and not care.
That F250 is suspiciously cheap. Are you sure they didn’t forget a ‘1’ in front of the price? Assuming everything is on the up and up, the Ford is a no-brainer in this match up.
Who wouldn’t want a V-10 for $2500??
No one I’d want to be associated with, that’s for sure.
I know where there’s a classic Ferrari that needs a Ford V10 shoehorned into the engine bay. Just sayin’.
Oooo! A Ford V10 in that GTC would be a helluva slap in the face to Enzo’s ghost! Only thing better would be a 427 CJ, since there were a few Ferraris breathing in their exhaust.
Doesn’t it seem like the ultimate blasphemous engine swap?
“Who wouldn’t want a V-10 for $2500??”
Someone who lives in a place where gas isn’t cheap.
But having said that, I voted for the Ford due to the lower price and having less rust.
Over 300,000 miles. That puts it in unreliable everything territory.
I can sell that ford for good money if I give it a paint job and a new front bumper… I wouldn’t keep it but I would sell it for a higher price >:)
Yeah but that only makes money if you can do the paint job.
…after a mishap in Mountain Home, Idaho the other night…
Were you doing 120, plowing over mailboxes?
https://youtu.be/ytZ83YOSH70?si=l1tdR5WtOeilTAqj
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Comanche, but now they make no sense to actually own for me (cab size, age, etc). This example at this price… no way.
My heart says Comanche, but my head says Superduty.
I think the right call is the Ford with the price difference put into some small off-roading mods and repairs.
Oh, and some stripes.
the 2.5 L in the jeep is just not worth it. I have owned a jeep 2.5L jeep, never again.
I went with the Jeep, mostly because I haven’t owned a Comanche, but I sold a similar year and mileage V10 F250 a couple of years ago. The 4-cylinder and AX-5 (possibly AX-4) isn’t an amazing combo, but it could still be fun. The Ford is obviously the better choice, of course.
Newer, bigger, more capable, more powerful, more seats, more features, less money?
These votes are rarely this easy.
More of everything except pedals and charisma.. I’m taking the Jeep.
Manual in a truck is a negative to me, and I don’t think a rusty Jeep has any charisma.
[awaits the DT ban hammer]
Can confirm. I own a manual Toyota T100 with the 3.4 V6, and it’s a dog. I previously had an automatic version of the same truck and it was substantially quicker and more more pleasant to drive
With that kind of attitude I’m surprised you didn’t spell it Manuel! LOL