The Ford F150 may be the best-selling full-size truck of all time, but finding a twelfth-generation (2009-present) version with the Flareside box isn't quite as easy as going to your local used-car dealer, unless of course your nearest dealer is this one in Kentucky. The Flareside bed went extinct after 2009 in the F150, likely after not selling enough to even leave a mark on numbers for the rest of the lineup. Despite the fact you could get one in all three cab types, in STX, XLT, and FX4 trims (at least based off what I've found online), it's still very uncommon to see one around anywhere, even in the land where a F150 Platinum is considered a luxury vehicle. As a matter of fact, I didn't even see one for the first time until fully two years after the style was discontinued, after which I decided I had to look for one. I had been hoping to find a nice extended-cab Lariat 4x4 model, but I ended up having to settle for this fire-engine-red XLT regular cab in Paducah, Kentucky. The XLT is the highest trim level available with just two doors and three seats, and this one appears to be appropriately equipped (with no interior photos to go by), if not the zenith of regular-cab luxury. In 2009, the Flareside box was a carryover from the previous generation, with only the new-style badging giving a clue as to what year truck you're following. This example is in like-new condition, with just one previous owner who put 28701 miles under its tires. 
While the ad does encourage prospective buyers to go out and do some work with this handsome truck, it doesn't provide much information on the engine. In 2009, F150 shoppers could choose from a two- or three-valve version of the 4.6-liter Modular V8 (248/294 or 292/320, respectively), or the 5.4-liter Triton V8 (310/365), all mated to four-speed automatic transmissions. Since this truck has a 3.55 rear-axle ratio, it's most likely the two-valve 4.6, which would make it seem somewhat Eocene compared to the direct-injection V6s and six- or eight-speed automatics that power trucks these days. Still, it should be adequate for picking free couches off the street or driving through a slightly muddy dirt road to the airsoft field. Bluegrass Honda of Paducah is asking but $16870 for this hard-to-find truck, which may seem a bit overpriced until you realize that similarly-equipped 2013 EcoBoost F150s can easily run past 35 large, so this low-mileage example isn't that bad of a buy.
When I was in high school, I remember spending most of my typing and multimedia classes on the Internet, browsing various car companies' online configurators, checking and unchecking option boxes to make perfect (or perfectly weird) configurations for cars. One of the vehicles I remember well was the Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD. In Louisiana, it was not that uncommon for the high schooler's first vehicle to be a heavy-duty pickup, usually one handed down from a parent or uncle who ran a stump-pulling business and wanted something bigger. Figuring at the time that I wouldn't need multiple doors or seats, I went for a regular cab LT model, with an eight-foot box and the awesome 8.1-liter Vortec V8, and a six-speed manual transmission, since the six-speed Allison automatic added something like four thousand dollars to the price. Doing this, I remember being able to get a very well-equipped truck for less than $30000.
Apparently, I was the only one who ever thought to build their Silverado 2500HD that way. The 8100/manual combination was even harder to find than the F150 Flareside, and I managed to find exactly zero that spawned from my idle noodlings in class. This 2004 W/T model, so long that it doesn't even quite fit in frame, was the closest I could find. Unfortunately, this results in somewhat of an apples-to-oranges, or perhaps apples to really, really big apples, comparison, but it does demonstrate how difficult it is to find twenty-first century trucks with manuals.
For towing your LeMons heap to and from races or pulling 300-year-old pine stumps out of the ground, this is definitely your truck. The massive 8.1-liter Vortec produced 340 horsepower and 455 pound-feet of torque, netting you up to 15500 pounds of towing capacity, with the minor caveat of possibly single-digit fuel economy. Without making the switch to compression ignition, this is probably as good as it gets. The six-speed manual has a dogleg first gear, since first is best suited to getting a 10000-pound load started up a 30-percent grade. The 8100 has so much power that you could probably just keep it in fifth gear and leave it there, whether it's trundling around town or rolling down the open Interstate.
Unlike the Ford, this Chevy is also four-wheel-drive, so when you have to build an airsoft field in, say, a swamp, you're in luck. It's also built to work-truck spec on the inside, with the light tan cloth on the seats and power windows being its only luxury features. None of these were option boxes I ticked back in the day, but I suppose work is work. With 61000 miles of work having been accomplished since this truck rolled off the assembly line, a visit to the McKinney, Texas dealer with $17000 in hand will net you a workhorse that will never let you down.
So, Internet, which will it be? A stylish Ford best suited for parking and light hauling? Or forego the ability to park entirely to drive all four wheels through a real clutch? Personally, I lean toward the Ford. Even just having a little more than half the power of the Chevy with two fewer forward ratios and driven wheels, I think the fill-ups on the F150 will probably be less painful in the wallet area than they would quenching the thirst of the beastly Chevy. What say you?
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