Hello all. I am brand new to this site, but have been looking into 6.5’s for a while now. I just came across this forum tonight and thought that, since I have made up my mind to buy one, I would look to the experts for some advice. I have read all the stickies. I am trying to decide between 2 specific 2500 suburbans that will be long distance/overland trucks for my family outings. They will not be daily drivers. They will see moderately rough trails regularly, but will not be rock crawlers. The truck will tow our Offroad camper (roughly 2000lbs) and will occasionally see other countries.

One suburban is a 97’ with only 107k miles, is white, has some surface rust on the frame but the body looks clean, and everything looks stock. Unfortunately It is a state away, i haven’t seen it up close, it is at a dealership and it’s history is fuzzy, and they are asking $7k for it.
Oh and it’s white (not a big fan)

The other one is a 94’ with 207k, it has minor surface rust on frame, and bubbling just below the fuel cap. It is nearby, It is owned by the son of the original owner, had a new engine put in 40k miles ago (short block), runs drives, shifts, and brakes flawlessly, and is asking $3500. Its blue which I really like but it had a maaco paint job a couple years ago (same colors as original.) this was used to tow a 6k lb boat to lake mead from salt lake once or twice a summer and that was it apparently. It looks to be all stock except for a PMD relocate.

I’m a bit more drawn to the 94 because it seems simpler (manual 4x4 shift, OBD1, etc) and it will give me more money left over for upgrading/bulletproofing, but the mileage on that 97 makes all the unknowns seem less scary...

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!