Help me make a decision

lots of rust , normal for 15 years old truck, looks like was operating north in deicing salt and chemicals, I would carefully inspect the frame for holes and some loosen bolts, if you sandblast/paint it should be ok;
I'm in Canada, I know guys with newer trucks shut down in inspection scales and didn't pass annual inspection for frame corrosion; and to replace frame cost 15-20,000$;

 

Rust is never your friend. It will always be there to haunt you with a northern truck. I have learned the pleasure of owning southern trucks but that isn't a possibility for everyone. You are in Virginia so you should have some opportunity to be close to a cleaner truck. Your biggest problem is now the fact that clean pre-epa are as scarce as hen's teeth and priced out of this world. Just my opinion.

 

Check out the ex wally world truck in the classifieds.

 

That rust doesn't look so bad. Mine has looked like that for years. But when I do it over again I will never buy another truck that's been run up north. It just looks bad.

 

As long as it's just surface rust,you can clean that up in a weekend.
Just because it has a current inspection doesn't mean much. You need to go over it,drive it then go over it again.

 

With that many miles here are some of the things you may be looking at for repairs here shortly:

Drive Lines: Replace or overhaul
Rear Ends: Replace or overhaul
Wiring: Already stated by others
Slacks: If they have not already been done
Engine Rebuild: That one already has 550K on the overhaul

But as far as the price, if it runs out good right now, and you can get a good year out of it. You should make enough money in a year to fix a lot of these things as you go along, and stash some cash for the bigger items.
The other option if it runs out a year for you is to use it as a trade in on an upgrade. I bought a truck with about 1.1M on it and it has ran another 200K without an overhaul, I expect it to run another 200K before it needs one.

I had drivers driving that one for me and here is the laundry list of repairs:

Both Rears replaced:
Both Drive Lines replaced:
All injectors replaced:
Rear Main replaced
Piston Coolers and Cam Follewers Replaced
New Clutch (Routine)

This is on a 2000 Volvo with an N14 Red Top, that I gave 12,000 for, the truck made me 150K before I had to start reinvesting back into it. Sold it for 19K and the guy was down to the last $8500 and just walked away. I just sold it for cash to another driver for $10K. I would say that it was a good investment overall even with all the little standard things that go wrong with a truck of that age. It still gets around 7MPG, and only uses a gallon of oil every 8000 miles, which is actually pretty good for a N14.

So if you can live with the having to fix it up, then you will most likely make profit with it. You should go for it, providing you have a place picked out to run it that allows you to have that high mileage of a truck, or you have you own authority.

Good Luck, and let us know how it goes.