Subaru vs Midsize Truck for mountain roads

[elkhunter505]

For everyone in this thread thank you for the input. I stumbled into a unicorn randomly and immediately went and bought it. 2000 Tacoma Xtra Cab with a manual transmission and manual hubs. The unicorn part is it’s a one owner with 108000 miles. Paid the Tacoma tax but I’m pretty sure this thing is gonna be the best investment I could have made.

 

[Ross]

@Steve300xcw funny you mention this.

“That era of rigs. When the lower ball joints fails...the front tire pretty much falls off the truck It is sooo much cheaper to change them before that happens! There's a few toyota dealers on ebay that sell OEM parts for fairly reasonable prices...”

Early October was scouting for my elk hunt. Had a 2000s Tundra bear hunter with dogs in the back break down in front of me on a single lane road. Wheel came off from ball joint failure. I waited behind them for an hour. Finally had to change my plan to go a different direction. They had CB contact and had to call for a wrecker to come way up the mountain to get them out. Crazy thing was, where it failed was not a bad section of road, just simply decided to break down way back in.

 

[Ross]

Replaced all mine on my 06 last yr, never want to see that happen back in. Was not really something I thought about breaking with no apparent bad action by the driver. Simply old and worn out messed their day up for sure.

 

[Scoutfan]

Congratulations on your new to you truck! Hope it serves you well.

 

[kcm2]

An older Grand Cherokee with Quadra-Trac or Quadra Drive would be better. It'll have low range, better ground clearance and will be hard to get stuck unless high centered. My 99 Grand has the 4.7 liter V8, and only 134k. I've had it 14 years and could take it to West Virginia tomorrow without concern. The 4.0 liter six is known for long life. The V8, not as much, in part because of the aluminum head. Overheat it and you can nuke the engine.

 

[rootacres]

The midsize trucks are so handy and do great on mountain roads. Tacoma’s have earned the reputation for being extremely reliable. That said, I put 240k miles on my 2019 Colorado with the 2.8L diesel. There’s so much torque you do most your 4wd work just above idle. I did a 3600 mile loop through Colorado and Wyoming with the setup in the picture. I averaged 22 MPG on the trip.

 

[elkhunter505]

The midsize trucks are so handy and do great on mountain roads. Tacoma’s have earned the reputation for being extremely reliable. That said, I put 240k miles on my 2019 Colorado with the 2.8L diesel. There’s so much torque you do most your 4wd work just above idle. I did a 3600 mile loop through Colorado and Wyoming with the setup in the picture. I averaged 22 MPG on the trip.
View attachment 991876

That’s a sweet rig. If I had the money I would have looked at one of the diesels. Ending up with the 1st gen Tacoma I found was about the best scenario I could have hoped for.

 

[elkhunter505]

You got one of the last simple rigs . Just enough doodads to make it decent and yet stay reliable.

Can always regear/locker it through eastcoast gear for a pretty fair price IMO. Simple easy to work on rig will never be a bad thing.

Yeah I’m excited to have a vehicle I feel like I can work on. My 07 F150 was very similar and I did a lot of the front end work on it myself. Just now gotta think about whether or not to do the Bilstein 5100s for a 1.5” later or just leave it stock fully. I already bought a shell for it and am excited to put it on it when I get back to town.

 

[elkhunter505]

I'm full lockers and 35's now.... Honestly some decent 31's and a bit of talent will get you farther in than you want to

Yeah I’m pretty sure I will be trying to keep it as close to stock as possible since I only have one area that I hunt that’s a bad drive. The tire size that is stock is a hell of a lot cheaper than my previous truck so that’s a plus.