Sorry for the delayed follow up for those who posted before. After looking at all the advice given here, combined with local availability I finally settled on a truck.
It is a 1991.5 2wd 5.9L Cummins Turbo Diesel Dodge Ram v250 Sweptline (1ton Suspension).
I drove this 159 miles to get home and got exactly
24.5mpg (
with 30psi tire in the pooring rain with a contractors topper sticking a foot above the cab+ a ladder rack on top of that) I feel with some minor mods and careful driving 40mpg is a realistic goal and the 400lbft of torque should be overkill for my purposes. I guess the thing now is to start a new thread to track my journey to 40mpg!
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...sel-25658.html