"Best Truck I Ever Had"

I've had numerous good old trucks, but the toughest was my 70 F100. I paid 100 bucks for it and pulled it out of a cow pasture, one ignition coil later and my teenaged arse was rolling. No power anything... And I abused it the way only a teenage boy can. It never broke down or gave me any trouble, I sold it years later to a co-worker for 700.00 bucks.... I then used that money to buy a string of Fieros, not my best move

My '87 Toyota. Taken more than its fair lickin and still stinkin tickin

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/my-old-truck-1987-toyota-4x4/101411/page1/

Friends.... meet "the big dawg." Why is this the best truck I ever owned? I bought it for $600 and it lasted me 6 years before I blew up the engine which is what I do with most of my vehicles. I even drove it into a pond and it still survived. It's a shame really, it was really groovy with those 1979 stripes and the 302 ran well till the end. Some guy came from a pretty long distance to buy it when I listed it for sale. He offered me $300 and I said ok but I made sure he realized it needed a new engine and he said no problem. So for 6 years my vehicle costs were $300.

Best looking Chevy truck ever built.

In reply to vwcorvette:

You think you're funny, but I member seeing a pic that someone posted here of a C3 set up with a goose-neck. It was probably in the hot linking thread.

In reply to vwcorvette:

For years, I didn't have a truck, just a trailer like that, pulled by a succession of cars including my Mustang GT, MR2, MX6s, Neons and 944. A simple utility trailer is a handy thing.

I've towed about 5000 lbs with it, no complaints. Somewhere between 350 and 400 hp and a 5 speed manual, so it's got the fun factor, and it handles surprisingly well. 2nd and 3rd row seats fold flat, and 4x8 sheets of whatever will fit with the tailgate up. Plus, dual mode tailgate and the rear window rolls down, so anything that's too long to fit inside is still easy to carry. The only negative is the low roof, but the trailer fixes that.

I've gotten on CL multiple times considering various vehicles to replace it, but somehow nothing else seems interesting enough.

I had an 86 F150 for a few years. 4 speed I6 2wd. It was the definition of a beater pickup. Cheap and just kept going with minimal maintenance. Until it died on me the last day I was moving out of my house a couple months back. With a bed and trailer full of my stuff. An hour and a half away from where we were going to be staying with family.

Would have loved to keep it but we were about to be "homeless" for a month, ALL of my tools and belongings were (and the tools still are) jam packed into storage. I was on a time crunch, money was super tight buying a new place, no place to store it, work on it. None of the odds were in my favor.

After sitting in 100 degree heat for 4 hours waiting for a tow, I sold it for a few hundred bucks to the guy that towed it 2 miles back to our old house. Would have liked to keep it at that time, but honestly we were going to try and sell the truck this fall anyways.

Last I heard they got it running and have it around as a spare truck at their shop.

Gratuitus pic of my Tundra

In college, I bought my sister's old truck once she moved on. It was a light blue Isuzu P'up 1.8 4cyl, 4 speed '86, I think. Being kind of a young jerk, I proceeded to beat on it. Literally, and figuratively. Some crappy seats mounted on 2X4s, spray painted tiger stripes, a wooden bed cover to increase mpgs, and a old trumpet case speaker box for a surprisingly good stereo. I eventually put some Chevy rally wheels on it with hand me down 215/75/15 rubber that refused to wear out, but ruined my gearing. I put a trash bag over my head, and a friend sprayed a white body outline on the front. To say it got the wrong kind of attention would be an understatement. Many adventures, and many miles ensued.

I had a roommate who was a bit jealous of some of my nocturnal activities, and ( I later surmised ), got back at me by dumping gravel down the oil hole in the valve cover (what do you call that, anyway-oil hole?). As near as I can tell, I drove it like that for some 5k miles, adding oil when it got low, but not changing it. Like I said, I was kind of a jerk at the time. Anywhoo, I eventually blew it up, dragged it home, and did a tear down. I found maybe a quart+ of gravel was in the oil pan-at first, I thought it was metal, but darned if all that gravel hadn't scrubbed everything pretty clean in there. So, a dingle-ball hone, new rings, new bearings-stock size, cheap header and supertrapp, my first porting job (gasket match, exhaust only), and skim a little off the head for a compression bump, and the thing ran STRONG-at least in comparison. Many more miles, doors rusting off, lending it to friends, and other debauchery ensued. I llent it to a friend who was driving it, and it just sort of disappeared. I don't know if it was tower, and scrapped, stolen, and joy ridden off a cliff, or what. It just sort of disappeared, but was still running strong the last time I saw it. I still love Isuzus.

1999 Range Rover P38 that I bought for $3,500, drove up from Manhattan to Rochester, couldn't get started for two weeks straight, and is now an unkillable death machine that scares housewives and people with heart problems.

Haven't owned as many trucks as some on this board but have had no complaints about any of the 3 trucks I've owned. The new Taco I own now I haven't really owned long enough to rate it. Haven't really put it through hard tests but no complaints so far. The one I liked the most was my first truck, an 81 K5 Blazer I bought used in Fairbanks, Alaska. Did some heavy off-roading with it. Was underpowered with a 250cid inline-6 in it but could really pull from a stop. The 95 F-150 XLT Extended cab that replaced it was nice although it ate front tires. We'll see how this Taco holds up.

My 89 hilux (toyota 4x4), has been awesome for the 27 years ive owned it. Beaten senselessly the whole time, learned to drive in it, now deep in a long travel suspension with irs and an ls swap build mode now. King Motorsports remote reservoir coilovers and irs and 13" of travel will be a big upgrade in the suspension dept, and a 6.0l ls will be a bit peppier than that 22re. Fiberwerx body is a bit lighter too

I've only owned two trucks in my life and both were/are outstanding for what they were and what I paid for them and what I have to put into them. The first was a 1989 Ford Ranger PU. It was the STX model with the extra cab and 6ft bed. It had a 2.9 V6 and 5sp. The only option I regret not getting was power windows. It would tow my race car (Ford Fiesta) fine. I flat towed it, used a dolly, and then with a 2 axle trailer. Even with the trailer it got 16 mpg! I traded it to my nephew who beat on it but could not kill it before he traded it in with 170K on it.

My second truck is a 1988 Ford E250 extended van. With a 5.8L 3sp auto it hauls my present race car and anything I want to take with me and I can still sleep inside at the track. It has never left me on the side of the road but I have had to fix a couple of things, like a cracked coolant fitting and replace a voltage regular. Even when one of the 11 year old tires failed it did so only 10 miles from home so I didn't have to stress the even older spare tire far! It has new tires now. It's running as well as it ever has and still gets 10 mpg towing. And since it's not driven in the snow it's almost rust free despite the fact that it has spend it's entire "life" in the Chicago area.

sesto elemento wrote: My 89 hilux (toyota 4x4), has been awesome for the 27 years ive owned it. Beaten senselessly the whole time, learned to drive in it, now deep in a long travel suspension with irs and an ls swap build mode now. King Motorsports remote reservoir coilovers and irs and 13" of travel will be a big upgrade in the suspension dept, and a 6.0l ls will be a bit peppier than that 22re. Fiberwerx body is a bit lighter too

IRS?! Do you have a build thread on it?

In reply to HappyAndy:

Actually very serious. Used the Vette to haul all kinds of waste to the transfer station. The looks I get from the dump workers is worth it.

Well since it is the latest truck of mine and it was free it is the best one I have ever had.

<img src="" />

Can "best" equal only?

(Not mine but might as well be, add a black bug deflector and it's what I had)

My dad's 1967 Ford F-100. It came stock with a 352 2bbl engine. When I was a teenager, mid-70's, we put in a 390 short block, 4 barrel manifold, 650 holly, headers, dual exhaust. My grandpa owned an Armstrong Tire dealership so we didn't skimp on the tires. We put Armstrong's 10-15 front tires and 31.5x10.5-15 rear mud grip tires. Dick Cepek made them famous but Armstrong did it first. We put heavy duty shock absorbers all around as well.
We did a lot of deer hunting with dogs in South Louisiana so that meant driving on lots of dirt and gravel roads. This meant keeping up with the red necks or getting teased at the campfire that night. You really learn to control a sliding vehicle when a mistake means you hit a pine tree or go into a 6 foot deep ditch filled with cold water.
This truck had twin-I beam front suspension and worked really well on rough roads. (I can say the same for my '97 Ranger with Twin I Beam - that thing wants to bounce off any road with the slightest bit of washboard about it.)

thatsnowinnebago wrote:

sesto elemento wrote: My 89 hilux (toyota 4x4), has been awesome for the 27 years ive owned it. Beaten senselessly the whole time, learned to drive in it, now deep in a long travel suspension with irs and an ls swap build mode now. King Motorsports remote reservoir coilovers and irs and 13" of travel will be a big upgrade in the suspension dept, and a 6.0l ls will be a bit peppier than that 22re. Fiberwerx body is a bit lighter too

IRS?! Do you have a build thread on it?

It's coming, keep watching

'63 Chevy 10. 2WD short bed. The original engine and the 3 on the tree transmission replaced with a 250 with 4 speed with stump puller on the floor. It was the best handling, best running truck I ever drove. My Brother bought it for a project in the '80s

It could haul anything, even hay wagons. When it was too rough for the road it became a farm truck for another 20 years.

I'd have to say I've had 2 best trucks...

First was a 1990 Nissan Hardbody 4x4. It was just a 4 cyl, but I put a Rancho 3" lift and 31 x 10.50's. When they were building one of the local interstates, I had a friend who had never been "off-road" so we took off down the gravelled/mud interstate (because we had to get back to work and it was close). There was about a 3' drain pipe set up with gravel "ramps" to go over...I hit them going about 55 mph and launched into about a 4-6' high x 20' long (roughly..I didn't measure) jump. We landed and pretty much bottomed the suspension out, but nice and level. It bounced about 3' off the ground again, then landed softly and we speed off like we'd hit nothing more than a speed bump. It had some sort of pin-stripping on it and had a little "cartoon" of a 4x4 on the back and had the text "Mud Buster"...we all called it "Butt Mustard" as a joke, but I had lots of fun and surprised people where it would get into and out of and even took it to the local "mud bogs" a couple times. Oddly enough, it didn't even have limited slip (so momentum was my friend). I got rid of it when I quit my job and "needed" a bigger truck so I could buy junk cars and fix them up while unemployed (I failed miserably at it...). I still think about getting another someday.

Second was my 1992 Dodge 3/4 ton pickup that my brother (wheelsmitthy) has now. It never looked good, but was always willing to work hard/stupid and never left me stranded. The man I bought it bought it from said he used it to haul helicopters back and forth between Tennessee and Texas...and apparently had a cow ranch because I found lots of cow hair and a few animal syringes in the cab when I cleaned it up. Always got 18-21 mpg no matter how I drove or how it was loaded. On more than one occasion, I had over 4000# in the bed and still easy to drive up to about 60-70 mph (but careful with the brakes). Heaviest load, I never weighed, but we had the bed mounded full of gravel plus a heavy 18' utility trailer with a bobcat and a couple more scoops of gravel on, If I'd gotten pulled over, I know I'd be overloaded...it was the only time I heard the transmission cooler "kick in". During the last few years, my busy work schedule meant that it didn't get a lot of the maintenance/upgrades it deserved and my brother needed a truck...so it's his now.

1974 F-100 I have owned this since 1998. It is a great off road beast, 390 ci V-8, 4 speed manual, Detroit locker, 3.55 gears, 4 inch lift, 33x12.50 General AT2 tires and tire chains for deep snow