The Official Mini-Truck Thread...

[Range Motorsport]

As mini as they should be

[ADK]

bumpitage

[JNRobert]

I have a '97 Frontier XE. Four banger with 5 speed stick. Bought it from a buddy in April last year with about 140K on the odo. Sold the camper shell that was on it which must have halved the weight

Absolutely love the truck: light and zippy although its not going to win any stop light drags. Fast enough everywhere else though. I'm tempted to tear it apart and do a restore with a decent front end (it's all squeaking bushes and has a nasty clonk on full left lock). It also gets airborne on freeway rollers at about 80mph on account of the zero damping

I'll post photos in a day or two.

[dirtydeeds]

I looked at those little Suzuki Carry All and Mitsu type trucks. Very cool. I ended up going with a very large Toyota Cabover instead. (Hino)
They're very cool little units. If I didn't have as much highway to drive, I'd have one. The Subaru Sambar was on the top of my list. They have a 4 cyl/5 Spd that is capable of 100 km/h.


I'm considering a 4cyl Ranger/B2300 at the moment. If they get near the 28/29 mpg as stated I'll probably get serious about getting one.

[davethegoat]

In '92 I was 17 and bought my first new vehicle. I was not a rich kid so instead of the Mustang 5.0's that all the money kids were driving I was the proud new owner of a base(read no a/c) Mitsubishi Mighty Max. I loved that truck.

It was promptly lowered by a kid I gave a few bucks to because he had a VW Bus that was slammed to the ground. He took a few coils off the springs and cut the bump stops down then added 4-in blocks under the rear and away I went bouncing down the road feeling like the coolest kid in the town.

I then added a fiberglass topper with no windows and cut the back out of the cab to make a walk through. Then I added 4 15" Kicker subwoofers in a diamond shaped box. A couple Hi-fonics Zues 900-watt amps and it would literally shake your eyeballs.

It got 15x10 Eagle 5-stars with 225/50 series stretched to their limit. The wheels would stick out from the fenders about 3 inches. Later, I went with 80-spoke triple chrome wire wheels with reversed off-set when those were in style.

It was a beautiful truck. All black with chrome rocker panels, fender trim, and the wheels.

I owned it for over six years and regretably sold it to get something I could do courier work in....a Ford Ranger(another mini truck) that had a/c and was left stock.

Sadly, I don't have any pics of it.

I now drive another mini truck although it is nowhere near as customized......hey, at least I have a few pics.......









I get 20 mpg hauling my bikes around. I will never sell it

[madeouttaglass]

Originally Posted by Michael_in_SC

I had one of these..........



Mine was a sort of yellowish beige.

I think most were that color. Mine was:



I've also had three of these. This one was recently sold. I still have a woods beater though.



I recently sold our POS Tundra and bought this little beauty:

[Purcell69]

This is the last mini truck I own, a 1991 Mazda B2600i.



This is the third pre-Ford Mazda my family has owned, starting with a B2000 Sundowner. That was followed by a 1991 B2200 that had nearly 300k miles on it when it was totaled in my parking lot at work.

I got this one a few years back for the wife to drive to college. It had a broken transfer case when I bought it (for a great price ). I replaced the trans and t-case, as well as upper and lower ball joints and everything was great.

Then I got it stuck in a snow drift and found the vacuum actuated front end wasn't engaging. I got myself unstuck, but cracked the head in the process. I replaced the head, added manual locking hubs and overrode the vacuum front axle. Everything works like a champ now and I figured the daughter would want to drive it, but alas she is no fan of the 5 speed. So I have it up for sale now.

-Joe

[discochris]

The best 4-wheeled vehicle I've ever owned was my 1991 Mazda B2600i super cab.