Teach me the world of HD pickups.

Who cares if it looks beat to hell, provided it's not rusty? That's easy enough to fix at some point, as long as it doesn't function like it's been beat to hell.

In reply to rslifkin:

That is true when unloaded, they will be shifting fairly often while towing a giant brick behind you however....that is compounded even more so by wind. There is a reason the manuals are sought after for this line of work, and it's long term durability and simplicity.

That's generally avoidable in most trucks. When you get into terrain where it starts to hunt between 2 gears and can't stay in the higher one, just force it down to the lower of those 2 gears until you're back to flatter ground, less wind, or whatever and it can cruise steadily in a higher gear again. Basically, treat it like a slightly intelligent manual so it doesn't end up shifting 10 times in 5 minutes on a hill.

rslifkin wrote: Who cares if it looks beat to hell, provided it's not rusty? That's easy enough to fix at some point, as long as it doesn't function like it's been beat to hell.

ehh...yes and no. If you're being paid to deliver shiny new travel trailers, image becomes important at some point. You're probably not dealing with customers directly, so that takes some emphasis off it, but if if you look like an absolute E36 M3 show I bet they call other providers first. Clean, presentable, and well maintained could be a factor.

Of course I'm speculating.

In reply to rslifkin:

Or get a manual and never really have to worry about any of that? Just pointing out why they are desirable.

In reply to rslifkin:

Well the company cares that I'd be working for. They don't want a rusted out, beat to E36 M3 truck representing their company. One company that I'm not going to go with doesn't want anything older than 5 years old.

I've found a couple trucks that look good, so I'm not worried about finding one.

http://rockford.craigslist.org/cto/5382676268.html

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/5418433061.html