What would you get?

Use the $6,000 as down payment a NEW truck, WBMA ;)

mike hunt

I would not buy a $1,000-$2,000 truck and put $4,000 in to it, especially if you are not a mechanic.

Your best bet is to find a $6,000 truck in good condition or use the money as a down payment on a new truck.

Do you thing your used truck will not cost you any money in the future?

mike hunt

I guess I'd try to network with some guys that have actually customized their own trucks and find out what cheap and plentiful mods are available for which trucks. Then buy one of those.

If you happen to see a customized truck on the street, I can't see any downside to telling the owner you like the way he fixed up his truck and then seeing if he'll give you a little useful information about how he did it and where he got the parts.

Is J.C.Whitney still around? Start there?

I got the impression from your posts that you do not usually have $4,000 to $6,000 extra to spend, and you mentioned that you cannot afford the payment on a new truck.

You do not have to spend $4,000 to make a truck capable of going off-road. My friends and I used to go off-roading in completely stock Toyota trucks. The guys in the Chevy trucks and Jeeps with oversided tires, off-road shock absorbers, lift kits, posi-traction, locking differentials, winches, etc. would sneer at our stock Toyota trucks until we got tired of waiting for them to get through some moderately difficult sections and just went around them in areas that they thought were impassable.

Keep in mind that a lot of the modifications you see to off-road vehicles not only make them ill-suited for normal road conditions, the do not enhance its off-road capabilities. For example, a body lift kit raises the vehicle's center of gravity, and combine that with large tires, and you have made the vehicle more susceptible to rollover in both on and off road conditions. If you lift the body in order to accomodate oversized tires but cannot afford to replace the oversized tires when they wear out, you will have a high truck riding on little tires.

If you are you using the truck just to go off-roading and do not need it for transportation or to haul cargo or a trailer, then buy a cheap truck and spend a lot of money on stuff that is unlikely to help you become more skilled at driving off road. On the other hand, if you are going to use the truck for transportation, I'd get a better quality used truck

Thanks for your response Ray. You've made some good points.

I used to own a brand new 2001 X-cab Tacoma with the rear locker and the TRD package so I understand what you say when you talk about how capable Toyota trucks are for off-roading. When I had my new one I constantly wanted to do things to it that I just couldn't bring myself to do because it wasn't completely paid for. That's another reason that I'm thinking of getting an older one.

One of the reasons that I'm thinking of building up an old truck is for the experience of doing just that. I truly wish I could afford to get a newer one and put a few upgrades on it such as new bumpers, rock guards, winch, etc. There are some decent 85-95 trucks out there that are under $4,000. With $2,000 - $4,000 to put into an already decent truck, I could come out with an amazing truck. That's why I'm having such a hard time deciding what to do.

Thanks again for your input...

Anybody out there who's done what I'm suggesting?

Ray O wrote:

If this will be your only vehicle I wouldn't do it. Nice pastime though.