Pondering a Pickup...

[Art Eatman]

I bought an '09 Tacoma; 4WD V-6.  I like it, but it only gets about 18 mpg on the highway at 70 mph.  IOW, the Tundra is worse, so I'd recommend against considering it.

My full-size '00 V-8 Jimmy get 18 to 19 mpg at 70 mph, and it's a lot heavier than the Toy...

[Balog]

Hi Art, nice to see you round these parts again. 

For older diesel full size, what make/model would you all recommend? Thinking no older than 80-90's vintage.

[Bigjake]

The only thing worth bothering prior to the mid 90's would be a Cummins powered dodge,  IMHO. 

Some folks like the 6.5 GM diesel, as well as the pre turbo 7.3/ 6.9 Fords, but they do nothing for me.

97-03 Fords are good,  Any Dodge with a 5.9 (ideally a manual, they EAT automatics.), and I don't know enough about the later GM diesels to say one way or another.

[doczinn]

A bit of thread drift:

My '98 Frontier will be driven until it can't be driven no more. Then, I plan to put in a diesel engine. Is is possible to find a diesel engine that can be put into a '98 Frontier? Pretty much only street use, rare light hauling and very light off-road use.

[Bigjake]

Had another thought,  ever considered one of those milsurp CUCV pickups? Mid 80's chevy 5/4 ton with a 6.2 Detroit diesel.  Damned near indestructable

[roo_ster]

The 6.2L diesel in turbo & non-turbo guise was a very good engine when stuffed in a GM product.  A friend of the family used to haul horses and started off with a 1985 2500HD 3/4 ton with a 6.2L non-turbo diesel.  He kept it longer (385K miles) than his follow-on 1-ton with the 6.5L diesel (100k+ miles), which he thought was crap (engine, the rest of the truck he liked).

He liked the Ford 7.3L diesel OK, but thought it sucked way too much gas.  His favorite of all time was the Dodge with the Cummins.

[zombienerd]

Heh.. Buy a 92 Hyundai Excel (35+mpg) cost you about $1500 in perfect condition...

Add one of these:
http://ioinc.us/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=IO&Product_Code=MOTO0001&Category_Code=

and you're set for life for 6 grand.

Nothing like Milsurp :D

[41magsnub]

Had another thought,  ever considered one of those milsurp CUCV pickups? Mid 80's chevy 5/4 ton with a 6.2 Detroit diesel.  Damned near indestructable

We had a bunch of those in my unit in the 90s, they were in fact quite destructible!

[doczinn]

Just when you make a thing grunt-proof, there's a new type of grunt....