Looking At Buying 1997 Cheyenne C1500 As Daily Driver Feedback Please

[squaredeal91]

Hang in there buddy. Maybe you'll come across a cheaper one privately that needs some love. Not sure about your area but there's allot of good ones not running that just need cleaned up around different places. Give it some time and maybe something else will come around at some point.

 

[JamesSam]

not into an import for the daily driver thing either. may be reliable, but wait until ya gots to repair it. the gmt400's are stupidly simple to work on, cheap on parts and very reliable. my daily is a '90 gmt400 since we bought it off the orig owner in '95. in 30 yrs i put maybe $2-3000 in repairs and just for the usual stuff-nothing major at all. it's got close to 400 k on it and still driving. i've never owned anything newer than my '85 crewcab, but with the miles racking up on the '90, i went and bought another gmt400 and expect to get just as good service out of it as the '90.
and i would never let my wife park an import in my driveway, she's been dailying an '04 XUV since we bought it new, and have had zero issues with it. reg maintenance is the key...get intimate with your truck

How many miles do you drive daily? Just contrasting to my daily life...

 

[Rumbledawg]

Say what ya want about imports but my camry is made in the usa and theres about 100 million of em so whatever problem i have there's 1,000 yt vids showing ya just what to do.

got nothing' against imports, i know their reliable and all, their just not for me. and don't take it wrong, cause i'm no fan of europeon vehicles either. other than a couple fomoco's and a couple chryco's forty yrs ago, the only thing you'll ever find in my driveway is GM products-and usually older GM products.

How many miles do you drive daily? Just contrasting to my daily life...

60 miles a week for work, 'bout 30-40 miles a week for other stuff that's non work related and approx 150 miles off road every weekend. this is one truck that truly has spent over half it's life off road, would conservatively est about 250k of all miles are not on paved roads. in 30 yrs we've owned it have prob pulled 40 stuck vehicles with it, and made countless road trips all over BC with it (avg 500-800 miles per trip) been super reliable, never left me stranded. like really, how many people actually daily drive the same vehicle for 30 yrs?
with that kind of service i decided to buy another gmt400, a '96 rcsb 4by. newest vehicle i ever owned. the '90 stepper we orig bought for wife but left it in her name when i took it over in '04, so technically it's not mine.
30 yrs of sh!t and abuse...

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

and my new gmt400. haven't insured it yet, getting it the way i want it first.
at my age doubt i'll get to abuse this one for 30 yrs....plus side, should be the last daily driver i ever need to buy

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Grit dog]

To further what @Rumbledawg said, have run a few gmt 400s in the past and like I said earlier I feel they are still top of the heap for simplicity and reliability. And wouldn’t hesitate paying a little “too much” for the right one if I needed a reliable truck that didn’t cost a fortune.
Little story first one was a 90 1500 Z71 350 5 speed. Bought it in college with about 70k miles on it. Drove the **** out of it for the next about 2 years. Sold it with another 100k miles on it. Only minor repairs and a new clutch.
Seen it a couple years later hooked to a gooseneck horse trailer. Had well over 200k and the guy had been using it as a ranch truck, off road hauling hay and animals etc. He wasn’t who I sold it to but said it was still on original drivetrain with no problems.

 

[Rumbledawg]

Too bad its not a MT. If it was a 5spd I don't know if I could hold myself back lol

amen brother
both of mine are fives

 

[Rumbledawg]

My Squares PO had every receipt, all of them, back to 1996 when he bought it. I put them in a binder the day I drove it home, and take the truck to the same garage he did.

my money pit box....every single dime i've ever put into my '85. got receipts dating all the way back to the '90's in there.
no, i've never added them up, no i will never add them up but i would guess roughly on the north side of $30 G's

You must be registered for see images attach

. My wife does not, and with all other expenses occurring now she is ignoring...

bummer..
my wifey has no problems with me, as she's says, "playing with your giant hot wheels"
in fact she has now decided she's ready to sell her XUV.
she wants either a Canyon AT4 or a '55 Nomad. i say get the Nomad after i go rob a bank or something...

 

[Soundmound]

my money pit box....every single dime i've ever put into my '85. got receipts dating all the way back to the '90's in there.
no, i've never added them up, no i will never add them up but i would guess roughly on the north side of $30 G's

You must be registered for see images attach

bummer..
my wifey has no problems with me, as she's says, "playing with your giant hot wheels"
in fact she has now decided she's ready to sell her XUV.
she wants either a Canyon AT4 or a '55 Nomad. i say get the Nomad after i go rob a bank or something...

As much as new trucks cost the Nomad is probably cheaper!

 

[JamesSam]

Someone bought it. I was watching it for months. My first thought was one of you guys, LOL. I hope whoever got it loves it. One day. Suddenly my CRV is acting like the alternator is going. I have to drive the truck today and tomorrow and get the CRV to our garage Monday, hopefully. Was just about to get the truck inspected, and that will have to wait now. Funny thing: the CRV just passed inspection and now has to go right back to the shop.

 

[Grit dog]

Anyone out west or not, here’s another gem. Phone number in the add.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Grit dog]

Interior pics looked like new too.

 

[Grit dog]

Nice ones all over CL today. Not a GMT 400 but another bulletproof clean low mile 5speed truck for cheap.

 

[Grit dog]

Ha some of you guys love these old S10s. This one’s almost free! And a stick shift too…

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[45tt]

We sold our 98 Sierra just a little over a year ago. It was a money pit that just kept getting worse and I really liked the truck. It was for my 16 yr old son to drive and he got a job to pay for it and he had big dreams of what he wanted to do with it.

We found out the weaknesses of the OBS/GMT400 trucks. The biggest problem is the auto transmission and radiator. The trans cooler lines go into the plastic radiator and when the radiator cracks it sucks trans fluid into the radiator and into the cooling system ruining any gasket or rubber hose it comes in contact with in the engine (anything coolant system related gasket/hose we replaced including intake manifold). It also sucks coolant into the transmission and the coolant eventually destroys the clutch plates and you will have to rebuild the trans. And that’s on top of the 4l60e already being a fragile trans.

Also, The heating/cooling air box in the dash disintegrates overtime because it’s made of plastic. It will eventually fail and fall in on itself. Only way to fix it is to take the dash out and try to rebuild the air box if you can find parts.

All plastic parts on the truck will fail, from the interior, dash, exterior and engine. The plastic was just not meant to last and it won’t.

Not trying to scare anyone off, as we did like the truck, but we had to cut our losses and move on to a different vehicle. If we were to get another one, it would be manual transmission or one that is in really good shape or has been completely restored.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Rumbledawg]

We sold our 98 Sierra just a little over a year ago. It was a money pit that just kept getting worse and I really liked the truck. It was for my 16 yr old son to drive and he got a job to pay for it and he had big dreams of what he wanted to do with it.

We found out the weaknesses of the OBS/GMT400 trucks. The biggest problem is the auto transmission and radiator. The trans cooler lines go into the plastic radiator and when the radiator cracks it sucks trans fluid into the radiator and into the cooling system ruining any gasket or rubber hose it comes in contact with in the engine (anything coolant system related gasket/hose we replaced including intake manifold). It also sucks coolant into the transmission and the coolant eventually destroys the clutch plates and you will have to rebuild the trans. And that’s on top of the 4l60e already being a fragile trans.

Also, The heating/cooling air box in the dash disintegrates overtime because it’s made of plastic. It will eventually fail and fall in on itself. Only way to fix it is to take the dash out and try to rebuild the air box if you can find parts.

All plastic parts on the truck will fail, from the interior, dash, exterior and engine. The plastic was just not meant to last and it won’t.

Not trying to scare anyone off, as we did like the truck, but we had to cut our losses and move on to a different vehicle. If we were to get another one, it would be manual transmission or one that is in really good shape or has been completely restored.

there are some good trucks out there to be found, like any older truck sometimes you just have to look harder and longer. i myself prefer the manual, esp when you got 3:73 axles, makes for a real good crawl ratio- like around 40:1-ish. after driving nothing but solid axle 4x4's i was kinda leary about an IFS front susp, but after what i've put my gmt400 thru, i would not hesitate to get another ifs truck.
i guess i was lucky when we bought our '90, it was only 5 yrs old at the time and from the orig owner who also lived in the city. was so clean underneath, no scrapes, no rocker chips, no mud or gravel stuffed up in the skidplates. while the p.o. was getting some transfer papers, i asked his brother if they had ever taken it off road considering how clean it was, he replied, ya, we drove it down a gravel road once....yep, we'll take it...
my newest gmt400 did take awhile to find. was scanning ads off and on for about a year and a half before we found it, but was worth the hunt, rust free, low miles and almost never taken off road (another city truck)
never had any probs with any of the plastic though. if i had to point to a recurring prob with both trucks, it would be the rear slider winda. they both rattle a bit.