Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Alternative 4x4 hunting rig

Hard to beat a tacoma. That said an older Jeep cherokee gets around the woods pretty good

Izzy 1 and Izzy 2 (bought yesterday for $2k)



Izzy 1 is sitting a bit low because she has #800 of fertilizer in her trunk.

1998 and 2001 (both V6 gas manuals)

Looks like a solid score, Cash.

Never found anything that serves this purpose better than a full
Size k 5 blazer
Turns real short v8 power lots of room for two grown men remove the seat and I can sleep on the back
And haul lots of gear
Nice flat dash can lay a rifle across it
A gun case slid between the seat and center console
makes a nice secure place for a rifle to ride
Break down in a small jerk water town and the parts store will hav the parts on hand as it shares everything with 1/2 ton pickups.
I am on my second one. These are getting rediculess expencive now days but beaters can be had and made berry reliable for not that much money
I do have an 02 forerunner nothing wrong with it it’s very capable. But couldn’t hold a candle to a k5 it just to cramped

A '70 K5 Blazer was the worst vehicle that I've ever owned and I vowed to never buy another Chevrolet anything. The thing rode like a short coupled lumber wagon and used gas like it had a hole in the tank.

Exactly this^^^ Doesn't get much better.. However, I'd say early 80's with the straight axle. 85 was the best combination when you could get the 22RE (fuel injection).

Exactly. Calling it a "taco" is funny. Damn sure pre tacoma.

I’ve been curious about Nissan Xterras. Gas mileage is pretty bad, but everything else checks the boxes.

Buddy has one and swears by it. Has had it for a long time and taken it a lot of places. Said when he went to the Ramen dealership and asked if they were ever going to bring them back, that they told him everybody that has one asked the same thing. But that no, they weren't coming back.

Still trying to wear out my 94 Landcruiser. Drive it 80mph to Moab for 10 hrs, bounce it around for a week in 4lo, drive it home at 80mph for 10 hrs.

Drive it 5hrs east to bird hunt. Put hundreds of miles of rough gravel and scoria roads while checking new spots, drive it home again. Up over the two track passes around here chasing grouse and elk, etc, etc.

Fitting two elk in the back is easy with some tarps and knife work, one fits in the round no problem. Two large dog crates fit side by side in the back, a third sideways behind the front seats.

It'd have to be pretty damn bad to beat my 89 S-10 Blazer. By far the biggest piece of shyt I ever owned. Haven't owned another GM since and won't.

If you go the 4Runner / Tacoma route pay attention to frame rot. If it's a 3rd Gen 4Runner plan on spending at least $1k to have someone do a timing belt / water pump kit. The 4.0 engines in the later models are very good and don't have a timing belt to fool with. But nothing wrong with the 3.4 and serviced properly will go 300k +

There is kit with belt, water pump,hoses. Cost me $400, installed, when my 2004 Tacoma hit 100K which is recommended. We sold our first Tacoma with 275K miles on it. Present one has 170K miles on it. So far, the kit, struts, front brake pads, plugs, oil changes, air filers and tires are the only service it has had.

I liked my 83 K5 once I put a 350 in it, the 305 was a dog. Had a 4 speed in it, which I didn't see many of. It was a great hunting rig, and that's what I bought it for. The only issue was you couldn't pass a gas station. Had the typical K5 cancer and eventually developed so many electrical gremlins I parked it. I had less than $2500 in it even replacing the motor and it lasted about 15 years. Sold it a couple years ago for $600.

The one I really miss is my 92 K1500 Blazer, paid $600 for it from the Air Force at a government auction. It was missing the instrument cluster and a battery, that cost another $200 and I had it running. Drove it for a couple of years daily, then let someone with a wad of cash talk me out of it since I still had my K5. The TBI 5.7L was way more reliabe than my K5 and I got about 17 mpg highway average.