Good manual trucks/SUVS? Under 15k?

I'm a college student who lives in Pittsburgh, I go to school up in Erie PA, and drive to WV for monthly Army Reserve Drills. I owned a couple wranglers and most recently a 2008 Mustang GT. Man it was fun, especially a stick, I love that car like a child but the first snow in Erie must have been half an inch and I couldn't drive up a slight grade! The bottom line is I have realized its impractical and pretty dumb to drive a muscle car where there's snow and hills etc. A truck or an SUV would be nice. I don't need a big truck I don't tow anything, although I do find myself saying "Man I wish I had a truck I can't fit two mowers and this and that in the trunk of a car" I do mowing and landscaping in the summer and not even just that, I find myself at times wishing I had a truck because I'm buying wood or moving it etc, it's just nice to have. I need something reliable that will get me around in the snow most importantly. There's a part of me that refuses to want anything to do with a foreign truck, not so much cars. I realize Toyota and Honda are reliable, our Toyota's have lasted longer than some of the American cars we have owned but a Chevy Silverado is more appealing to me than a Tacoma. Although some of the Tacomas have manual and it is a Toyota so I think well maybe it's good but what about a mid 2000's F150? I'm not sure, so I guess that's why I'm asking. What do you think the best truck or SUV is under 15k that's reliable, and will get me around in snow?

If you do go foreign, the Nissan Frontier is a great truck! I've owned two, both manual, one was a 4cyl which was good on gas, around 22 avg. 24 hwy. My most recent one was a 2006 with the 6cyl and 6-speed manual. That truck has a lot of pep and is fun to drive. Both trucks were problem free and they are less expensive than Toyota.

The Mid 2000's F-150s were bad about spit'n out spark plugs = Unreliable, I'd get either a 95-98 Chevy Silverado with a 5Speed or a 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 with a 6Speed and a Cummins, I know ya said ya don't really need power but if your gonna buy one ya might as well get the biggest, the motors last 1,000,000 miles of you take care of them, and 2002 has the redesigned NV5600 6Speed vs the NV3500 in the Chevy, that's what I would do though, plus Cummins get amazing mpgs