best small pickup truck?

[roach]

making a move to a rural homestead soon, and am thinking i'll need to be purchasing a used truck of some sort.  my compact car is great, but it's not going to make the (soon to be longer) commute to work on snowy country roads this winter, and i'm going to need to be able to move stuff for my gardening efforts.

i've heard very good things about Toyotas, especially with the 22RE 4-cylinder engines, in that they tend to run forever.

anybody have any suggestions?

[Six Gun Jim]

The old B-2000 was a solid little junk bucket and Toyota's have always been good. Stay away from rangers and S-10's and you're halfway there!  Also, the Isuzu's, not bad, they run forever too. -James

[cat97628]

I would have to say an old Toyota

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWc_flGRT_o (External Embedding Disabled)

[pamela]

1968  chevy short bed. 
One of the best trucks I ever had.

[Six Gun Jim]

I would have to say an old Toyota

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWc_flGRT_o#noexternalembed

The Aussies are big on little pick ups with turbo diesels, if you can find one you've got a hell of a truck!

[merdic]

The old B-2000 was a solid little junk bucket and Toyota's have always been good. Stay away from rangers and S-10's and you're halfway there!  Also, the Isuzu's, not bad, they run forever too. -James

I have a 1992 Ranger and works great, down here in Mexico, Ford trucks have a good reputation.

If you need a diesel, maybe a Dodge Ram 1996-1998 with the cummins motor with 12 valves, some people using biodiesel have told me that those last longer. Haven´t tried myself as my only diesel vehicle is a 1982 Rabbit. Have you thought of a Diesel Rabbit Pick-up?

[Brian in Seattle]

I like Toyota Land Cruisers. FJ-60 (1981-1987) to be specific. The last of the low tech TLCs. There was a diesel version imported into Canada. It seems to take an arm and a leg to get one. You see plenty of the gas powered ones around here. Just seems like a really capable vehicle.

Brian

[SabreKai]

Of all the pickups I've owned, (6 of them) I would say the best one was my 87 Dodge Ram 50 which in the US was marketed as a Mitsubishi. Probably a few of them still around in parts of the SW US.

otherwise, Toyota or Nissan. Stay right the hell away from US built small pickups.


Sabre
98 days n a wake up.

[Phildo]

jmho, but I would rate None Of The Above, so far.

They are all Oil / Gasoline burners, right?  Or do you figure some sort Ethanol, Bio-diesel or bio-fuel?

Otherwise by the time you get to Dooming . .  there is no fuel, or at best, you cannot afford it?

[pamela]

goat cart. 

[roach]

goat cart made my day. 

this is not my "use as transportation forever, even long after the crash" vehicle.  this is my "city boy moving to the country to renovate an old house and start a mini-farm and a hatchback just ain't gonna cut it" vehicle. 

whether gas is going to completely disappear or just get expensive/scarce, and when, is up for grabs.  but this is kind of a needed tool in the meantime.

so, nothing american (sorry, Big Three).  my buddy who's over in Afghanistan touted old Toyotas, saying they're all over the place over there, being sorely mistreated, on things you can't even accurately call roads, running just fine.

[Brian in Seattle]

Plenty of info about converting an FJ 60 into an HJ 60 (diesel) out on the World Wide Waste of Time.
Just Google "FJ 60 diesel conversion".
All it takes is talent or a bucket of money, more likely both.

This is on Ebay right now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150364589072&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT
For some reason, I couldn't get Tiny URL to work with this.

If only money was not an object.

Brian

[roach]

that'd make a helluva farm truck, for sure. 

the urge to "zombie-proof" said truck may at some point overwhelm me.  oh, how i'd like to drive something like that to work... 

[Brian in Seattle]

Unimogs rule all! There is a hot rod show here in June. There are usually 5 or 6 Unimogs there. The one I like best was an ambulance in its previous life. The current owner turned it into an ultimate camper. I just stood and stared.

Brian

[Phildo]

goat cart made my day. 

this is not my "use as transportation forever, even long after the crash" vehicle.  this is my "city boy moving to the country to renovate an old house and start a mini-farm and a hatchback just ain't gonna cut it" vehicle. 

whether gas is going to completely disappear or just get expensive/scarce, and when, is up for grabs.  but this is kind of a needed tool in the meantime.

so, nothing american (sorry, Big Three).  my buddy who's over in Afghanistan touted old Toyotas, saying they're all over the place over there, being sorely mistreated, on things you can't even accurately call roads, running just fine.

I hear you.  So far have just kept my old truck for a similar purpose to yours.

But consider if you had something directly flex-fuel E85 compatible, most can do E100 (straight ethanol) . . .  (just giving ethanol, as an example, not trying to do the EIEIO mathmagic).  Do an acre of corn (again just an example, so save the knee-jerk food v. fuel dogma), one acre gives somewhere between 70 and 250 bushels -- but lets split on the low side at 100 bushels.  That comes out about 250 gallons of fuel.  At 15 mpg, that would cover you for near 4000 miles a year use.

Seems like that would cover both the short-term and mid-term?   I went shopping last year (and again this year) but no one is making a 3/4 ton E85 truck.  Maybe next year?  But E85 flex-fuel 1/2 ton trucks have been around for a while.