Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Small 4x4 pickup recommendation

Looking to buy a small 4x4 crew cab in coming months to serve as a second vehicle. Will be used for my wildlife control business and general hunting. My off-road needs are gumbo mud in Mississippi River bottoms. My excursion weighs too much so I need something lighter.
I have narrowed it down to the following :
Nissan Frontier crew cab 2000-2004 model. Can be had for 8-10k with 100k miles
Toyota Tacoma crew cab 2000-2004 model. Can be had for 10-12k with 100k miles
Toyota Tundra extended cab 2000-2005 model. Can be had for 10-12 k with 100k mikes

Looking for reliability and mud capability (with mud tires). Never had anything but a full size.
Would keep mostly stock and would buy one with ls rear end.

If you don't need to tow anything with it, I'd look for a 4 cylinder 5 speed Tacoma. Not sure if that was available in crew cab or not?

Never been a fan of Nissan and no reason to buy a bigger truck if it's just for bouncing around the woods.

I have a cherry 2001 Tundra and it would probably be a good candidate for your application. Naturally it is bigger than the Tacoma, and the first gen (2000-2006) Tundras are about the size of a current 3 gen Tacoma. It has a solid automatic transmission and a 4.7 V8. The big issue with older Tundras or Tacomas is frame rust. Sheet metal seems to be pretty robust, so body rust is not an issue. So look for one that has a new frame. Generally with the frame, they got new exhaust, brake lines, and fuel line. Mine also got a new radiator because these "wear out". Anyway with a "rebuilt" one it should be like new. Engines in these tend to last forever, so with a recall frame, it should be pretty reliable. Mine has 160K miles, and the dealer was going to give me 10K on a trade in. I am thinking about just keeping it as a woods beater because it is so reliable and feels like new.

Have you considered a Ford Explorer Sport Trac?

I have an 2002 Sport Trac that just passed 193K, has been 99% reliable, and is mostly used for hauling deer carcasses and smaller/lighter loads.

The 2007 thru 2010 version was available with a 4.6L V8 and is probably peppier than my 4.0L V6. When mine finally reaches the tipping point and needs to be replaced, I'll probably look for one with a V8.

big difference in gas mileage between a taco and a tundra if that is important to you.

Ed

I don't like the turning radius on the Nissan trucks, so for me that would be a no go.

Hard to beat the Tacoma for reliability and aftermarket parts.

Have you looked into the Chevy or GMC midsize. I believe they are the Canyon and Colorado. Sound pretty impressive from everything I've been hearing about it.

Throwing the Tundra in the mix opens the door for me suggest a Ford F150. They get pretty good fuel mileage and are pretty much in the same or slightly less price range. The Toyotas are a crap shoot with frame rust and I wouldn't touch one unless it has a new frame and/or an inspection shows it to be rust free.

The Nissan's are actually pretty good trucks but I don't know if it was available with a crew cab. My friend has an extended cab and it has been rock solid reliable.

Good luck with whatever you decide to get.

Actually, it’s almost exactly the same. My Tacoma with the 3.4 v6 got 17-18 and my Tundra with the 4.7 v8 gets 16-17

I have had several Tacoma double cab long beds v6. great trucks

I’m leaning towards the Nissan Frontier crew cab. Seems to give more for your money in the used market. Will get the auto trans too.
Figure it should cruise through the gumbo with mudgrips.

A co-worker had a Nissan SUV, it got terrible gas mileage and rode like a log wagon. I would go with the Tacoma, the Tundra used to be near that size when Toyota first introduced it now it is a big brute. My BIL has a 2000 Tundra that is his primary hunting 4x4, it has given him great service really trouble free. While he takes good care of the Tundra and doesn't abuse it, it does get driven hard both here in Indiana but also on elk hunts in Colorado. Kinda like a Timex watch it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. I don't recall ever getting stuck and he's taken it into some hellish places.

I had a 2008 Frontier and have a 2014 Tacoma. The Frontier was the Nismo offroad package and the Tacoma is the TRD offroad package, so much in common .. 6 speed manual, electronic locker, 4.0L engines, factory tow package. The biggest difference was the Frontier was a king cab, the Taco a crew cab.

Both are/were good, but I'd go with the Nissan again if I had it to do over.

While the Taco has a slightly higher tow weight rating, the Nissan towed much better. A friend has a 16 foot camp trailer we take to the woods. The Nissan handled it fine. It pushes the Tacoma around a bit on corners and seems to bog it down straight ahead which is weird because the Tacoma is geared better for towing. I suspect the horsepower advantage of the Nissan overcomes the gearing advantage for the Tacoma. With the exact same tires, 265x75-16 Toyo Open Country MTs, the Nissan got 2-3 MPG better, same speed, cruise control, same freeway. Both trucks had the factory bed rail system. Advantage is overwhelmingly toward Nissan there. The Nissan system is hell for stout, the Toyota system is ... cheesy. Also, the Nissan system comes with tracks on the bed floor which were handy, the Tacoma doesn't. The Nissan truck bed was made of metal, the Tacoma truck bed is some kind of fiber / composite material. (Reminds me of the Ford vs Chevy steel vs aluminum commercials.)

To me, the Tacoma cab is more confined. I'm only 5'9" ... I just climbed into the Nissan, but with the Tacoma I have to sort of fold myself into the cab. I think the A/C on the Tacoma is not quite up to the job. It would probably be ok with a smaller (less than crew) cab, but it doesn't really cool as many cubic feet of cab / square inches of surface as the crew cab has very well. The Nissan did pretty well.

The final bad thing is the Tacoma has a body roll sensor which is twitchy. If I'm pushing it through corners fairly hard, sometimes it will think it's rolling over and lock the brakes. This has thrown me off the road into the ditch twice at highway speed and almost threw me into a concrete barrier at 85 mph another time. The guy in the lane next to me had very large eyes and might have [bleep] himself. This is a known problem with both Tacoma and Tundra. Dealership says there's no fix. One of the managers there has the same problem and replacing the part didn't help. This may not be an issue for anyone else, it only happens at fairly high speed / high lateral G force but it is a thing to know about especially if you have kids learning to drive 'cause ... kids will be kids.

Both trucks benefited greatly from switching from factory tires to "store brand" mud tires, and even more when I switched to the Toyos. Both trucks were helpless in even a little snow with factory tires. With the Toyos they'd go places in 2WD high that they wouldn't go in 4-Lo with the diff locked with the stock tires.

If you can, if you're serious about being in mud, a manual - shift 4WD system engages a lot faster than the electronic systems. I've had surprise situations where the need to be in 4WD appeared very very quickly and the damned electronic system didn't want to shift quick enough to address the problem.

Tom

I agree on the Tacoma AC thing. The system is not powerful enough in my 2011 double cab. It's like there should be one more notch on the fan speed switch, as it just is not pushing enough air to cool down the cab quickly when you first climb in the hot truck.

For 10k you should be able to find a newer Frontier (2nd Gen, 2005+) which will be vastly better than the 1st Gen. I owned a 2010 and still think it's is the most under-rated mid-sized truck. I've ridden/driven Tacomas of the same vintage and a few of the newer Colorados and still think my Frontier was a lot better truck. It rode like a truck, had a seating position of a truck and was great off pavement and on. Over the 10000+ miles that I actually logged I was averaging 19 mpg with the 4.0 v6 and 5sp auto. The only reason I got rid of it was to move into a bigger, half-ton truck. In the ~85k miles I put on the Frontier I didn't spend a dime on repairs. Oil/filter changes, brakes, tires was pretty much it.

Tacoma...........just sold this one.....last month

98 V6 5 speed TRD w/rear diff loc........4x4

22 mpg everyday of the week.......233K miles..4th owner

bought a '14 Taco DCSB.........6 speed

I also vote for the Taco. I recently found an 04 Tacoma double cab TRD that I have been searching for, for the last 2 years... Damn glad I finally found it too!!!

I owned an 05 4.0 4x2 6spd Frontier for 10 years and 200,000 miles. I had a few minor problems I repaired myself included the last around 190,000 miles that was timing chains and tensioners I replaced myself. I got 19+ mpg in town with some highway and 21-23 on the highway. It towed good for a mid-size truck, about 4,300 pounds on a tow dolly without problems although the brakes were inadequate for the situation, but power and handling no sweat.

I wanted to get back in a full size pickup and bought a used GM half as old with half the miles, it gets 11-12 mpg vs the Fronty 19.

I would buy another Frontier but white instead of black, auto instead of manual and 4x4 rather than. 4x2.

If you are talking about muddy roads it should be fine with some MT's, bottomless pit I would find a mud buggy...I don't like to get stuck.

Toyota's would be great too but the used prices are stupid expensive.

Tacomas have plenty of room for my taller-than-average self. Love those trucks.

The true beauty in the Tacoma, is its dependability. They are damn near as bullet proof as you can get. I've had buddies that have owned Nissan's/datsun's of different generations and they just aren't built as well as the Toyota's. They have broken parts on their trucks when the Toyota just keeps on going.Nissan's are built weird too. Harder to work on than Toyota's: Their engineers put fasteners in strange places almost like they have their heads so far up their azzes they can't see straight. For those of you that have worked on Nissan's vs. Toyota's, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Toyota's are very straight forward in a mechanical standpoint, where the Nissan will sometimes throw you a curve ball. Trust me, if you ever work on a Nissan, you'll be asking yourself why the fu ck those little bastards put a bolt way back there where you can't even see it, let alone get to it... BTDT. Just sayin..