You can get a trifold hard cover for a regular bed regular cab truck for not a lot of money. Latch down the cover and lock the tailgate and everything in the bed is safe. Locking tail gate handles are cheap also. My 03 has some storage behind the seats even with them back all the way.
That's good to know and probably won't be a bad option.
When did they go to the 8-speed transmissions? Just curious.
This looks like a good match to what I'd be looking for. It shouldn't be too hard to finance:
https://www.carmax.com/car/14185602
