If this is your first time buying a surplus truck, expect a great many possible things to be wrong with it. You want to have an actual inspection - either you, or a trusted experienced truck mechanic (or "handy friend"). Trouble charging could be a number of issues from wiring, alternators, bad batteries, bad grounds, light switches left in the wrong position, etc... Bent drive shaft is indicative of handling the truck with a forklift, sadly a common occurrence at surplus facilities (GL is famous or rather infamous for it).
Be aware that you really can't trust most gauges coming out of the military - yes it could be 68,000 miles, or that could have been the milage of the truck some depot mechanic pulled from another truck to replace a bad speedometer... the better depots keep track of the milage when they do a change in their own paperwork, but you are not likely to ever see that.
A truck coming out of surplus could be a lump of gold, or a lump of petrified horse poo. Some just need basic PM and they will turn over and run like they just rolled off the line, others will be missing "a bolt that is really important to the function of the truck and darn near impossible to source". Some are rust free and dirty, others are clean but rusted out... Really an inspection by your team is the only way to know.
Things to look for when buying are like just about any other car purchase:
- Does it run?
- Does it make any funny noises when it runs, like clunks when you go over bumps, or when you shift into/out-of gear?
- Does it sound like the engine is running right or like one or two cylinders are not firing?
- Does it drive?
- Bent drive-shaft will preclude this test at anything other than a crawl - you'll do more damage to the truck's drive-train if you don't replace the drive shaft first, so consider that cost.
- Does it go through all the gears? How does it shift (soft, hard, reluctantly)?
- Does 4WD work? Can you get it back into 2WD? Are the front hubs working? Does the low-range work?
- Does reverse work?
- Does it stop?
- Parking brake work and hold against hill or first gear moderate throttle?
- Do the service brakes stop the truck from slow and fast speeds?
- Does it leak?
- Coolant, engine oil, transmission fluid, transfer case oil, differential oil, power steering fluid, brake fluid?
- Do the lights work?
- DOT road required lights, headlights, turn signals, brake lights, parking lights
- Other lights: blackout markers, blackout drive, dome light
- Do the windows operate?
- Can you roll them down and back up again?
- How do they feel when they are operating - do they get stuck or are they hard to move?
- What is the condition of the rubber?
- Tires - tread life, cracking...
- Hoses - cracking, leaking, swelling...
- Door seals - complete, broken, missing...
- Window gaskets - complete, broken, missing...
- What is the condition of the body?
- Paint?
- Rust?
- Dents?
- Trim and grille in good shape?
- What is the condition of the frame and suspension?
- Rusty?
- Cracked (especially around the steering box)?
- Twisted/square?
- What is the condition of the interior?
- Seat cushions torn, seats operate and latch correctly?
- Seat belts functional?
- Steering wheel in good condition or is it going to tear up your hands?
- Rats nets in the cab?
- Major things missing?
- What is the condition of the electrical?
- Does it look like it has been butchered or heavily modified?
- Does it look like it has caught fire, or safety devices like fuses have been bypassed?
- Does everything work roughly as you would expect?
When you can answer all of these questions, you can start to price out what you want to fix and decide if you want to fix some things, then you can take a step back and think if you want a truck with all of these things to fix and if it's still worth what they are asking for it...
Your Milage May Vary of course, but that's how I would approach it.
