Just wondering if the rear bumpers were junky? Is there a chance that the rear frame just has surface rust? This is a New England truck with 159K that I'm 3 hours from.

 

The bumpers rust through from the inside out. Yes, bet the rest of the chassis is full of rust too.

 

well, All I can say is being in the heart of New England- the tell that a truck driving by you is a 94 is the rotted through rear bumper...no it's no guarantee the frame and undersides are shot. They had issues with rear bumper coatings for the 94 year.
My 96 is a plow truck and the only rot is in the passenger door bottom.
The underside is rusty in many places, but by no means rotted or a concern.

 

Unless the truck was garage kept and not driven in winters, it is going to be rusty. Frame rust generally is not an issue on these, the issues are with bodywork and things like brake lines. The problem with rust on these is that they do it from the inside out so you don't get much warning.

Another tell tale place to look would be the bottom of the doors.

 

My personal opinion is that the rear bumper is like a scoop that catches ALL the road crap. Then holds it in there pretty well. Even if you go through a car wash with under body wash there is no garentee that the crap in the bumper gets washed out. Thats why i dont always go through the auto wash in the winter.

 

I didn't bother with pictures, but there was basically not much left of the rear bumper. The truck had fiberglass patches everywhere and the whole frame was rusty and scailing. It was a little more than I want. Ran good and shifted fine. I was surprised how slow it is. Guy says he has had 3 and this is normal. hhmmm. Have to drive another one.