It was not long after I bought my Altima (summer 2015) and go figure – I missed having a truck (see a trend here?!) See, to me a truck exemplifies having options – freedom to go camping, make a stupid Craigslist purchase, the ability to move your belongings, tow a trailer, help friends in need and more.
After having two excellent Nissan Hardbodies, this time I was intrigued to try the Toyota side of things. I wanted to see what the hype (and premium pricing) was all about.
I started to scour the ads locally and in surrounding cities but what I found was their higher prices forced me into looking at older models with lots of miles on the odometer and more rust than I felt comfortable with. Occasionally a nicer one would come up with a good price due to an unknowledgeable seller but of course, that would be sold in a matter of hours, and good luck getting there first. This went on for a few months then one Saturday morning I happened to hit refresh on a saved search while out running errands with my girlfriend. I immediately emailed the seller (no phone number was listed) despite the ad being up for a few hours at that point. I knew how desirable these trucks were and I was likely not first in his queue to reply back to so I did not hold my breath – this is a pattern that had played over and over before with other trucks.
But, much to my surprise, the seller called me almost immediately! He mentioned he had about 47 emails on it but he liked my well-written email and since I had sent the email from my work phone, it also had my position title signature on it, too – he thought I was a straight shooter and a safe bet. I felt a little icky about that thinking of others that might actually NEED the truck more than I did but was elated to be able to get the chance to see/buy the truck. We made plans later that evening to meet up at his house and see the truck.
We arrived at the seller’s house a little before he returned from his prior obligation which gave me some time to look it over and crawl around. The truck looked great (relatively, the front bumper was removed for some reason) but it was quite rust-free and there were no leaks on the pristine driveway in front of his massive and very nice house. This seller was apparently well off, maybe this was why he was essentially giving away a Toyota Tacoma free for the price of the new tires? Anyway, the truck ran and drove extremely well and I was beside myself having this opportunity to buy it. In Iowa fashion, the deal was sealed over Busch Lights in the driveway as he told me some history on the truck and his ownership with it. The seller was using it pretty much like a four-wheeler or side-by-side at his property in southern Iowa before actually upgrading to one. This explained the removed bumper/bumper damage. He also mentioned that he had not owned it long, previously a father/son duo had “fixed it up” (it had a rebuilt salvage title) and I could tell they had done a really great job on it! The purchase price was a meager $2100.
Yours truly installing the skid plate and other “bonus parts” the seller included but were un-installed for whatever reason. Eventually I installed the bumper and everything looked pretty good and complete.
The truck was my ideal spec – extended cab to keep more stuff dry and haul the occasional passenger uncomfortably, 5-speed manual transmission, 2.7 liter four-cylinder engine – fuel-efficient and had a timing chain, not belt. 4-wheel drive (if ever needed) and I loved the rare year and a half only front end (1995.5-1997) before they went to the uggo 98s. Despite having about 210,000 miles on it, the truck ran wonderfully and shifting through the gears was both smooth (after I changed the bushings) and a lot of fun. The high vantage point of the 4×4 model with oversized tires was nice from a visibility aspect for city driving.
Overall the truck was really clean and straight. My roommate’s 74 Econoline in the background.
Ah yes, the requisite TRD stickers installed on an older truck, long before a TRD package was ever offered.
The truck never really needed much but as with other vehicles; I did do some preventative maintenance. I did a full tune-up with plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, fluid changes including transmission with the expensive but correct GL-4 fluid from Redline. I installed new shifter bushings from Marlin Crawler as the old ones were very worn and that improved shifting dramatically. I also had a loose ball joint or some other front-end malady and the shop found some other front end issues while they were at it. A big bill later, the truck was driving smoothly and straight. I thought this would be a long-term ownership truck so I didn’t mind the price to ensure things were aligned and safe out on the highway.
The truck towered over my roommate’s Hilux
The interior was a nice place to be with quality materials. It even had the stock radio still! There’s hardly anything more cringe-worthy to me than a nice interior broken up by some alien-looking faceplate from Walmart…
You could always sense the four-cylinder engine did not appreciate pushing those big tires around but never was that more apparent than one early October day as we returned from a distant camping trip. A strong south wind was pushing one last surge of warm air into the area and I had a few hours of interstate driving right into it, top speed was never over 60 MPH no matter what I did. In my mind, that began to signal the end of my relationship with this truck – it is almost always windy here in central Iowa. Being very green to Toyotas, I was also nervous about the odometer as this was the highest mileage vehicle I had owned by a long shot. I contemplated selling the tires and getting something more reasonable to install but that sounded like a major hassle, so I went ahead and just listed the truck for sale.
It took a bit longer to sell than I would’ve imagined, my ask was simply the purchase price plus all the maintenance I put in and this was all documented with receipts. Apparently, there was a major market segment break between a $2100 pickup and a $3600 pickup, haha! The lowball offers rolled in, for sure, but I stayed strong. I knew it was a decent truck and with winter approaching, the new tires and 4-wheel drive would go appreciated. In the meantime, I found a replacement truck – to be discussed in next week’s COAL. Eventually, the truck found a buyer at my ask, a young 18-20 year old welder who appreciated the truck and likely liked the high-riding, macho looking aspect for compensation? He was maybe 5’4’’ tall… In summary, I enjoyed the truck a lot and agreed it was every bit as good as the Hardbody. I found it ironic that the big tires that almost anyone else would find to be an asset were for me a detriment in what I wanted the truck to be and do for me.
Shifting down into 4th or 3rd gear wouldn’t get the truck above 60 MPH? Was this a DOHC engine?
Best I recall, no – downshifting did not help. A friend of mine who had a ’98 PreRunner with the 2.7/automatic mentioned experiencing the same.
Yes, the 2.7 is DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder.
Wind resistance is of course the biggest obstacle to overcome at speed. A 30 mph headwind at 60 mph is essentially like driving at 90 mph. So I can see how this would happen. These four cylinder Tacos are not exactly over-powered.
My ’78 Ford F150 4WD SuperCab 8′ bed w/ 351M V8 will only do indicated 75 MPH even without a headwind. Which is maybe 80 MPH because of oversized tires. I’m rounding up parts: headers, 3″ mufflers, pipes, cam/lifters, pistons, 400″ crankshaft, 4 bbl. carb. to convert it from around 100+ HP to more like 400 HP and especially better MPG as well…
One day I was driving into town in my Mom’s ’95 Pontiac GP with 3.1L V6 and a Chevy pickup with prolly 5.7L pulled out in front of me and so I swung out to pass him and he floored it… we were accelerating evenly side by side at 60, 70… but then I got to thinking: That’s a truck, at 90 it becomes a brick! Sure enough at 90 I slide ahead of him and was gone…
Nice write up, and a nice truck, which you got a heck of a deal on.
I bought one very much like it last year– ’96 single cab, 4×4, 2.7L, salvage title, 170k miles. I bought it for $2500 from a friend after it had sat in his driveway for 7 years due to failing emissions in his county. He planned to fix it, but never got around to it, and based on going rates here he gave me a heck of a deal. You practically stole your truck!
No emissions inspection in my county, so I planned to have it roadworthy pretty quickly.
He delivered it the 1.5 hours to my house on a big trailer he had, with his F-250, for free(!). I let the battery take a trickle charge for a couple days, and then curiosity got the best of me…..I tried to crank it on 7 year-old gas, which smelled surprisingly OK. The truck fired up, and after a few minutes of smoking and missing it cleared up and actually ran well. Well enough that I did a burnout in the driveway that day. I gave it a tune up as you did yours, got new tires for it, and on the first tank of premium the fuel pump quit and had to be replaced. I should have drained the fuel tank before I ever cranked it! The steering rack was leaking badly too, but stop leak miraculously fixed that (replacing the rack is an ordeal I could handle, but really didn’t want to). All good outside of that, and the battery from 2012 holds a charge even when I don’t drive the truck for a couple weeks.
Compared to my ’90 4Runner (4 cylinder, 5 speed, 4×4) this truck is a hot rod. The mileage difference helps it no doubt (my 4Runner has some blow-by now at >300k miles), but this thing will cruise all day at 80+ on 31″ Super Swampers (street-legal bias-ply tractor tires). I haven’t made a top speed run, something about empty truck bed on tractor tires makes me uneasy past 80 or so.
No doubt there’s something great about having a pickup, even (especially?) if it’s an old beater. Like you mentioned, bringing home bulky items is a breeze. I also cruise my neighborhood on trash pick-up days to see what people have thrown out, and the truck makes it super easy to grab Power Wheels, basketball goals, bikes, shelves, etc. It’s a bit of an improvement come deer season too, being able to carry a dead deer in the bed as opposed to in the cabin, or having to use a cargo rack that limits offroading capability. The kids love it, as they get the occasional ride in the bed on a logging road or around the neighborhood…..I just wish it had more seats inside.
These are excellent trucks. A very good friend learned to drive stick in one like this, and then later bought a new one when he got out of the Marines. They were both solidly built trucks. I recall his earlier one had these useless jump seats which no human adult could sit in.
I have been reading up a bit on 4-wheeling sites as I get my old Jeep squared away after sitting for 30 years. I kept hearing the terms “taco” and “taco truck”, and came to realize that these were what they were speaking of. Then there is “TRD”, which I read as “turd”. So I guess what you had there was a “turd taco”. But it never did crap out on you, high mileage, salvage title, and all.
The pricing of old Toyota trucks seems insane to me, but if that is what they go for, then that is what they go for. IMO there are are options that are very comparable for half the price (or less).
Looks like those may be 32 or 33″ tall tires. I think factory was closer to 29-30″ but 31″ fit with out modification. My 1987 extcab had a 22R and a 5 speed it was plenty quick when I had the 255/70 r 15 tires the previous owner had put on . When those wore out I got a deal on some 33×12.5 r15 BFG All terrains, so a 2″ lift later that what I ran. Honestly it was better then I thought it would be with those, but loaded down on hills was a 4th or 3rd gear depending on speed kind of thing.
I offroaded mine a fair amount these things are really good for clearance one of the advantages to the odd seating position.
Mine was pretty rotted and had a mismatched bed after the first rotted out, and some cross members were welded in structural steel after the first ones rotted. In the end the engine bent a valve (but kept running on 3 cylinders for another week until I sold it). Resale is crazy on these. Mine had 235k miles rotted mismatched bed and a bent valve and I still got a grand for it (and this was back when it was easy to get good running cars for 1500 bucks)
The other day on social media someone was saying that people who buy these are delusional. That they are awful to drive. I responded that it was the only vehiicle I have ever owned I would buy again in heart beat. Do they have quirks and rough edges? Sure, but that’s part of the charm. Sitting on the floor 3′ in the air feels weird at first but it adds to the fun factor once you get used to it.
Where I live they are unlikely to ever start doing emissions testing, I should look for a vehicle that has failed or can’t be licensed…but the logical part of me says that emissions sensors and parts are all part of the whole, and an emissions failure that can’t be cheaply and easily fixed by the previous owner can be indicative of an impending larger failure.
Depends on what it is. Mine will fail because of the Evap test pump being dead. Nothing else wrong with it, but its a $300 part and you need to drop the tank so it stays unfixed, but in general yeah not ideal.
It all depends on the cause of the failure. As Mopar noted EVAP code is nothing that will keep the vehicle from driving, nor will it cause and damage to the engine. Since there are so many areas where a leak could occur, some of them being difficult to access it can take a long time to find and fix the problem in some cases. So yeah some shops will quote a high price because it could take a couple of hours until they find the leak or they may find it needs that $300-$400 part.
A fun article. I can’t help but walk away wondering how much a re-gear of the front and rear differentials would have helped your ability to maintain speed in a challenging environment as well as efficiency, especially if you wanted to maintain large tires and cost was less of an issue due to planned long term ownership. I agree that the lack of power from the 2.7L doesn’t help. In my 1994 Toyota Pickup (which I need to write a COAL update on) I re-geared from 4.10 to 4.88 as I maintain 32″ tires (no rub on these older trucks) based on this web site https://www.roundforge.com/articles/410-456-488-529-what-gears-should-you-get-your-toyota/ and it definitely helped, especially with making my speedometer accurate again.
The second thing I take away from this is the mileage. There’s countless testaments of the longevity and hundreds of thousands of miles that these trucks can rack up with basic maintenance. Of course, each truck is different and results may vary.
Overall a cool story and it sounds like you got a great deal on the truck, both buying nd selling!
How do you like the 4.88’s at highway speed?
I’ve got a junk v6 4Runner with good 4.56 front and rear, and I’m thinking about swapping those into my ’90 22re, which currently sports 4.10s. Catch is, since I’ve got a truck for heavy offroading, my 4Runner is mostly a road warrior for beach/camping trips.
I am definitely driving slower, which is probably a good thing. I stick to the 65 to 70 MPH range in the far right now. Faster of course results in higher RPM and lower gas mileage. I don’t know what my RPMs are as my Pickup isn’t equipped with a tachometer. With the 4.10’s the speedometer would indicate 72 but I was actually doing 80 or so. It was great having that top end speed but a higher risk of a ticket because she needed that higher RPM to keep up speed. I think a lot of old Toyota truck guys can vouch that you have to rev these engines to get anything out of them. I was running a 3.0 V6 in mine until recently (more on that later), I have no experience with the 22R/RE.
As for your truck, it is my understanding that a 2nd gen T4R with a 5 speed stick and 31″ tire package came with 4.56 gearing and a ln automatic with 31″ tire package came with 4.88. Be advised that if you are looking for these factory 4.88’s out of an old Toyota you have to swap the entire third member, not just the ring and pinion. 4.56 you can just swap the ring and pinion. So, if your T4R is a stick on 31″ tires, I would imagine a 4.56 would do you well, Toyota engineers though so. This entire paragraph is based on what I have read, not personal experience. I chose my gears based on the web site above and I wanted flexibility to upgrade to a 33″ tire on a small Old Man Emu suspension in the future.
The thing to keep in mind about the chart on that web site or how these trucks were equipped out of the factory was they were designed for the 55 MPH limits that were in place back them. Speeds are obviously higher now.
I hope that guides you to an answer. My intent here is to give you information for you to choose based on your driving style.
The 4th calculator down on this webpage is really slick and will instantly generate a big spread sheet of vehicle MPH vs every 100 RPMs vs every tranny gear after you input your current or desired tire size, rear end ratio, tranny type or gear ratios:
https://www.andysautosport.com/learning_center/calculators
Outside magazine recently had an article talking about the costs and effects of “overlanding” gear on a Tacoma, Between big heavy bumpers and roof racks and the additional weight and taller gearing of big tires those poor little Tacomas are struggling at highway speeds. I think they may even be marginal off road. Apparently the two best options are “unpimp ze auto” or buy a Tundra.
After 18 years between pickups our F150 has seen a lot of actual truck stuff between dump runs, moving our son’s stuff, hauling a rented camper and random furniture pickups between Facebook and free at the curb.