What would you buy for a decent hunting truck (beater)

[Hilgy]

Originally Posted by Ryanpktaxiderm

As I'm gonna be relocating from Edmonton to Slave lake this fall, I'm looking to get rid of my sedan and upgrade to a truck. Figure now is the time to sell the sedan as I can get more than I paid for it thanks to the used car market.

If yall had a price range of about 4000-5000 for a used half ton with 4x4, under 300k, what would you be looking for? seem to be a decent amount of early 2000s half tons on Kijiji/marketplace around that price range and under 300k.

Wont be looking for anything pretty (some rust and dents are expected in that price range), and I'm already prepped to do maintenance things like brakes/tires/belts/battery etc after buying in that price range. Not a huge fan of ford 5.4 engines have seen those crater way too often. Dodge I know ima be looking at ball joints/tie rods most likely.

What would you be looking for in that situation?

Also have any of y'all noticed folks stop replying as soon as you mention arranging to meet at your shop so your mech can do a pre-purchase inspection? Seems to weed out a lot of lemons lol.

Dont have time to read the whole thread so if already mentioned i apologize. If it were me I would get a reliable decent pavement princess truck and then find yourself a Suzuki Samurai. Set your Sammy up to flat tow and you are good to go. I've been running like this and its great.

Sammy is super easy to work on. cheap to run and fits anywhere a quad will except its got heat and a radio.

Anyways just my 2 cents.

Hilgy

[Dean2]

So, did you manage to find a good truck in your budget and what is it.

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

Originally Posted by Dean2

So, did you manage to find a good truck in your budget and what is it.

found a 1994 ram 1500 5.2 with 225k on it paid 3250 for it. Put in 2750 of work- shocks, brakes, tires, flushed all fluids, changed a couple engine sensors to fix it running rich. fixed 4wd not working- was a vaccum line issue. Shes doing great now took her to cold lake and back on weekend.

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by Ryanpktaxiderm

found a 1994 ram 1500 5.2 with 225k on it paid 3250 for it. Put in 2750 of work- shocks, brakes, tires, flushed all fluids, changed a couple engine sensors to fix it running rich. fixed 4wd not working- was a vaccum line issue. Shes doing great now took her to cold lake and back on weekend.

Sounds like a heck of a deal. Got to post some pictures for us. Glad it worked out so well.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Hilgy

Dont have time to read the whole thread so if already mentioned i apologize. If it were me I would get a reliable decent pavement princess truck and then find yourself a Suzuki Samurai. Set your Sammy up to flat tow and you are good to go. I've been running like this and its great.

Sammy is super easy to work on. cheap to run and fits anywhere a quad will except its got heat and a radio.

That's a dream setup!

Originally Posted by Dean2

Sounds like a heck of a deal. Got to post some pictures for us. Glad it worked out so well.

X2, sounds like he did well!

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

Originally Posted by Dean2

Sounds like a heck of a deal. Got to post some pictures for us. Glad it worked out so well.

Here is the truck day I bought it before doing any work at all.

for its age surprisingly little rust, mainly around the fenders. Im in process of cutting out the rust and patching it in evenings after work atm, also removing old clear coat and touching up paint/reclear coating, one body panel at a time, will update as I do so. once all rust is taken care of Ill be doing box liner, rail caps and fender flares for a bit of added protection.

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

Left box side so far, fender had 2 6 inch long rust holes in it, cut out the rust, patched, bondo-ed, and painted. also was faded to primer along top half of box. so painted whole panel.

[Ryanpktaxiderm]

Same treatment on tailgate, old log0s were about 90% missing and lots of missing clearcoat/primer showing so touched it and and polished the chrome and plastic bits

[Dean2]

For 1994 that was stored outside it is actually in pretty good shape. Will make a great hunting rig, don't have to worry about scratching the paint. My 1996 2500 Extended cab has about 260,000 Klms. Runs and looks like new. Gave it to my nephew when I bought the 2021, he loves it. At least twice a week someone tries to buy it off him. Still has the factory paint, no collisions, about 75% of the miles are not on pavement, no rust but it has been washedd regularly and stored in a heated garage.

[Trochu]

Originally Posted by Ryanpktaxiderm

Here is the truck day I bought it before doing any work at all.

Hope it works out well for you.

[jstubbs]

Originally Posted by Ryanpktaxiderm

Here is the truck day I bought it before doing any work at all.

for its age surprisingly little rust, mainly around the fenders. Im in process of cutting out the rust and patching it in evenings after work atm, also removing old clear coat and touching up paint/reclear coating, one body panel at a time, will update as I do so. once all rust is taken care of Ill be doing box liner, rail caps and fender flares for a bit of added protection.

Looks great! Well done purchase. Truck is cleaning up good. My buddy had a 94 Dakota 4x4 with the 5.2L and it was a killer truck. Had over 300k when he sold it and the engine ran like a swiss watch.

I'm also jealous of the condition of your front fenders LOL. On my 98 Ram, they're really letting go and rusting out.

[outofbounds]

Originally Posted by outofbounds

Here is the Tacoma I picked up a couple of years back.
Looked for a while before finding this one.

The old-timer I had purchased it from had all the maintenance records and receipts for every service and work done to the truck. He insisted on all OEM parts if they didn't smell right, look right, or feel right he replaced them. Hadn't seen much gravel if any until I owned it.
Low mileage for year of truck, reasonable price.
Looked at many while searching that had seen better days and most were north of 200000km with some north of 350000km.
I looked all across the prairies and into the northern states when I did my searching.
In the end, I paid much less for this truck than I did for my new quad.

Hey, folks, I have been toying with possibly adding a winch bumper, with a winch to the Tacoma.
Do any folks on here have a similar 1st Gen Tacoma that they did similar installs on? Pros,cons?
If so what brand bumper did you use? I was looking at possibly doing a fabrication myself.

The main reason for the winch bumper is added wildlife protection as the factory bumper does not have much for radiator and AC component protection and the versatility of added recovery means for the pick-up.

Have been searching based on the listed here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/...w-pics.292292/

Thanks in advance...

[W921]

Bumpers and guards heavy enough to actually work add alot of weight.
I dont know about a Toyota front suspension but on one ton front ends with solid axle and leaf springs over time the weight will bag out your suspension.
I dont run winches but I have looked at a receiver trailer hitch style. You could have a trailer receiver hitch on front and back of your truck and have winch option on either end of your truck.
The winch could also work for game recovery in certain situations. Example with a lot of rope and if elk was shot down in a coulee bottom and you only have access from the top. One of the last elk I shot was recovered this way by a friend of mine. Saved a lot of work instead of packing it out on horses. Rope is way cheaper if you buy it by the full spool. Spool is best way to keep a large amount untangled in your truck

[Hoppy]

Check out - country mile offroad in Calgary - he builds a bunch of bumpers for all models of tacoma. I had him build a custom bush bar for my Landrover defender and he was great to work with and very reasonable priced.

https://www.countrymileoffroad.com/

Brian

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by W921

Bumpers and guards heavy enough to actually work add alot of weight.
I dont know about a Toyota front suspension but on one ton front ends with solid axle and leaf springs over time the weight will bag out your suspension.
I dont run winches but I have looked at a receiver trailer hitch style. You could have a trailer receiver hitch on front and back of your truck and have winch option on either end of your truck.
The winch could also work for game recovery in certain situations. Example with a lot of rope and if elk was shot down in a coulee bottom and you only have access from the top. One of the last elk I shot was recovered this way by a friend of mine. Saved a lot of work instead of packing it out on horses. Rope is way cheaper if you buy it by the full spool. Spool is best way to keep a large amount untangled in your truck

This is the route I took. For the month or two I want the winch, I have it and I don't have to carry it around the rest of the year.

ARG

[Big Grey Wolf]

Sold my 2001 Dodge Ram Cummins 5 speed for $5000 to nice young fellow from Calgary. Never touched the drive train and had almost new duratracs.

[urban rednek]

Originally Posted by outofbounds

Hey, folks, I have been toying with possibly adding a winch bumper, with a winch to the Tacoma.
Do any folks on here have a similar 1st Gen Tacoma that they did similar installs on? Pros,cons?
If so what brand bumper did you use? I was looking at possibly doing a fabrication myself.

The main reason for the winch bumper is added wildlife protection as the factory bumper does not have much for radiator and AC component protection and the versatility of added recovery means for the pick-up.

Thanks in advance...

If you are serious about fabricating it yourself, take a look at the DIY bumper kits from Coastal Offroad.
https://www.coastaloffroad.com/produ...toyota-tacoma/

Coastal Offroad had some good reviews from Tacoma owners when this thread was started by a previous member. There is a link to a Tacomaworld thread on Post #4.
http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=393712

[outofbounds]

Thanks for the input fellas, I did consider the receiver method and mocked up a bush bar to sit in its place to protect the rad and ac components. not much for protection otherwise with the stock bumper.

[lmtada]

Chevy 2500. Crew cab, 6.0l gas, 4x4, long box, or short box. Easy to fix, cheap to insure, plentiful. Carry full load. Find some cheap from 1999-2010. These trucks with 6.0 little heavier on fuel than half ton, but everything is beefier……..looks like old post. Lol. Congrats on the purchase

[88thunderbird]

My friend saw a want ad on this forum for a marlin 336y on here last Dec , I ended up horse trading for their 95 c1500 2wd . fairly basic cheyanne trim , a/c compressor was making a grinding noise , I put on a delete pulley for now. rusty rockers but not horrible . driven about 1500 km so far . had it out in water valley , around town , moved my kid into her condo in Calgary , so far great deal .

[BuckCuller]

An old Chevy G20 4X4 camper van.

[Jack fish hunter]

Can’t go wrong with a hardbody nissan

[JohnB]

Here you go

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...cab/1691250804

[W921]

Originally Posted by JohnB

Here you go

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...cab/1691250804

That looks really, really good. Ads can be deceiving.
Not that long ago my daughter was looking for something and in this price range you could forget about Toyota and most of the other stuff I looked at was basically parts trucks.
Makes me wonder if used trucks came down in price or if ad is a scam.
I would call about this one if I was in the market

[Fradaburidi]

Originally Posted by JohnB

Here you go

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...cab/1691250804

27 years old and 330K Kms it's going to show no matter what the make or model.

I have a 17 years old Toyota small car with 210K Kms. I didn't have to do any repairs. It will probably last more but it was noisy and underpowered from the beginning and now is even more noisy and underpowered.

As I said, time and Kms will make a difference no matter what car it is even if they last.

[boone052]

I think with what you want to spend, it's a a bit of a crapshoot. I bought a $3k Toyota truck that gave me constant grief and later purchased an F-150 with the 4.6l V8 that never gave me a bit of trouble. The good news is that you can afford the occasional repair at that price point!

Have you considered an older Jeep Cherokee or Grand Cherokee with the 4.0l? My friend had one and they are an absolute breeze to work on.

Oops, I realize I'm late with this comment!