Here in South Carolina you could easily pay 8,000 or more. I got my 87 6.9 Dually 2wd Crew Cab for 2700 after some pretty intense dickering. Guy misrepresented the condition of the truck on some very visible but easy to fix stuff and just about all the fluids were low. Body and interior were mint though and you could tell that the prior owner treated it like a baby. This guy had it for about 6 months and abused it. It had a reconditioned engine in it with 200000 on the body. Engine sounded like new. He came down 1500 dollars when i pushed him on fluids and and the two front tires that were slick. I had driven 200 miles to look at it after specifically asking him about tire condition and maintenance done. Engine sounded great and test drove good so I pushed price down as much as I could and drove off with it. Drove to the first store I could buy fluids and topped everything up and drove it a couple hundred miles home. with the 6.9 IDI and C6 I got 13MPG. Around the county here, mixed hwy and intown I typically get 11.5 to 12.5 MPG. If I feel like putting my foot in it and acting the fool I get 10.5 to 11mpg. Over first year I upgraded alternator, replaced batteries, replaced radiator, put seals and one new brake cylinder on rear. about a grand in parts and work.
I always have fun when i get to talking with someone thats into trucks and tell them what I got it for. Pretty much a used diesel truck of any kind here starts at 8 or 9 grand and quickly goes up from there. I had been keeping an eye out for a while before I found this one and was always disgusted when I would see the prices on the trucks on the west coast, it just wasn't fair that that all those trucks I wanted and could actually afford were almost 4 thousand miles away.
Only irritating thing is it's an old truck and you have to deal with little **** on a fairly consistent basis. I probably have to fix stuff around the edges once or twice a year. Right now I have to fix the leak in the fuel system that is pulling air, a window motor or switch and the wiper motor. Drive train is solid as a rock though and engine cranks like a champ even If I let it sit for a few months between uses. Actually let it sit for 8 months once waiting for me to fix the radiator. Just took me a while to get to get to it. Truck crank first time no issues, no smoke, just smooth.
At some point I am going to set it up to run some sort of alternative fuel, veg oil, filtered motor oil etc.. Thinking motor oil as I have access to all the free motor oil I could want, couple hundred gallons a month if I wanted it. I ever get that set up and I will probably make it my primary vehicle
I've had it about 4 years now and over all love it. With my budget I couldn't afford a big diesel truck period nor to do maintenance or repairs on a newer one. I have a friend that had a decent 2000 ish chevy diesel truck and he had to replace the injector pump.. Cost more for the part than I paid for my truck in total plus several years of maintenance.