Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives What is the smallest & most efficient hunting rig you would use?

I think the 2005 and earlier Tundra is a great compromise between a 'full-size' domestic and a crew cab tacoma. Just a whisker bigger than a tacoma, and a whisker smaller than a full-size.

I like a bench seat for function, and a bucket for comfort. 6 of this, half dozen of the other

Going out there is much more important than what you go in.

A 14.2 hand mule.

This '07 Tacoma is the best hunting rig I've ever owned. It just handles off road better than any vehicle I've ever owned. It tows 6500 lbs, more than I'll ever tow. I get 16-17 MPG around town and 20 MPG hwy.



Room inside for 4, gear locks up safe and dry under the shell. Almost 6 years and 118,000 miles with only routine maintenence.

She's carried heavy loads from Georgia over the Rockies twice with ease.

Smallest I would go would be an older Tacoma or 4Runner or maybe a Jeep Cherokee.

What I have now is a 2000 4.7L V8 Dakota 4x4. Haven't taken it on any trips but it has hauled plenty deer and hogs around home.

Ford Ranger

they're great...if you're 5'8" or shorter. We have 2 of them at work. I'm 6' and can hardly fit into either one. The standard cabs are just too short.

How can people arbitrarily decide anything below my vehicle is too small? I would ride an ATV or a bicycle. Compared to not going a VW Beetle or a Subaru would be great.

The extended cab Rangers are a little better, but I know what you mean. Fine for me, but my 6'5" son doesn't fit real well!

I have an '87 Bronco II which is supposed to be the same as the Ranger except in SUV format. However, I can move the Bronco seat back a full 6" farther. It's very comfortable for tall people.

In the 1970s, I had a Chevy Luv with 2wd and took it everywhere. Later I got a Ford Ranger with 4wd and that was really living. Then a company Nissan 4wd pu. I drove them hundreds of thousands of miles in the bush half the time. My first "truck" was a VW bus in the 1960s and it went everywhere too.

People today need to get a grip on what you really need to do a job. Sometimes you have to walk more. You can't take us much. So what? My grandfather used a Model A to hunt with. He would take out the backseat to make room for the old Baker tent and a bale of straw to sleep on. The road over Snoqualmie Pass in WA was dirt then with 39 stream crossings. Now it is an interstate and people have 4wd trucks.

I used to have a '73 Datsun pickup. It was a good pickup except for the atrocious seats. However, it didn't come in 4x4. You could get an aftermarket 4x4 conversion kit that was supposed to be very good except it cost just a bit more than the pickup did new. It was only a couple of years later when Datsun came out with a factory 4x4 and the conversion kit market collapsed (if it really ever existed). You could have bought a pretty good full sized American 4x4 for less than the Datsun + kit cost.

RC,
I paid $3300 cash for the Chevy Luv brand new in around 1975

I have a Suzuki Jimny, probably the smallest 4x4 mentioned on this thread so i feel qualified to comment here.

Your grandfather probably had to walk more and there was probably large swathes of land he simply could not access. Given comparable ground conditions, he also probably spent more time digging or pushing his Model A than the owner of a modern 4x4 does.

The Choice of a hunting vehicle is a compromise down to the individual circumstances.

A Jimny like mine is simply going to be too small for most folks.

A Ford 350 might be too big and lack off road ability due to its size and wheel base.

Somewhere in the middle is a compromise betwen off road ability, relaiablity, cargo capacity and running costs..I contend for the average deer hunter a crewcab pickup around the Tacoma size is probably the best compromise..

Obviously, where hunting conditions vary condsiderably from the average, another more specialist vehicle will be more suitable..

Regards,

Peter

I'd favor an access/extended cab over the crewcab. You can still recline the seats for a nap, you have heated, secure storage, and you also have a 6 ft plus bed that you can sleep in. I don't believe the current Tacoma has anything else close to being its peer. I can assure you the Nissan isn't in the same class. A friend works at a place that bought a fleet of them for teaching off-road driving to deploying GI's and they have been very problematic.

But an extended cab can't carry four hunters or carry the hunters family if the vehicle is also a daily driver..

Not that I am saying you a wrong choosing a extended cab, just that everybody's circumstances and therefore priorities are different.

Re the Nissan/Toyota thing, it is difficult to compare as I don't think we get the same models in our respective countries..

For instance, our Toyota Hi Lux is very similar to your Tacoma, but with different engine options.

The Nissan Nivara has taken the UK by storm, but my gut feeling is that as good as it is, they are not quite as tough as the Toyota Hi-Lux but I'd be pushed to quantify that..

If I wanted a tough as old boots hunting vehicle from Nissan, I'd be looking at their Patrols, but they are a different class of vehicle..

Regards,

Peter

I can assure you it is, at least the 05+. The Frontier actually has a lot more to offer than the Tacoma IMO: a more powerful engine, more interior room, more options (interior wise), fully boxed frame, plus the Frontier doesn't cost nearly as much and has reliability ratings that are damn near as good as the Tacoma.

I have a 2010 Frontier CC Pro-4X. The only real competition was the Tacoma and after I drove both, and did some reading and research on the two the choice was obvious.

The US Nissan Frontiers that a friends' company uses for off-road driver training have GRENADED front diffs more than once. Never, ever heard of this with an IFS Toyota, they will snap a front CV joint, which is field repairable with a spare. You tell me which you'd prefer.

Toyota diffs are pretty much unbreakable with stock tires. You have to really get the tire size way over stock to trash one.

A Tacoma is pretty much "3/4 ton tough" to coin a phrase. They aren't 3/4 ton trucks, but they are similarly overbuilt in the aspects that matter. I don't believe this is the case with any similar truck in this class.

It's something that I've read very little about on the Frontier and Novara forums (or at all for that matter). I really hope it's not a serious issue and that it's just poor luck on your friend's part. I still contend that the Frontier is the only real contender for the Tacoma-the Dakota, Ranger and Colorado don't rival either of them.

Let it be said they were driving it like they stole it, GI's in a "rental", if you will. My point was the Toy is better engineered, not that the Nissan was junk. Hell, the way I baby a truck I'm sure if I wound up with one it would serve me well. I'd rather have a Toy, as a matter of fact, I have two of 'em.