I'm finding that I am bugging my friends more and more for their time and trucks. Little crap here and there, but it's adding up. Also, I think I want to get a trailer so I can go grab cars and bring them home.

I don't want a big truck, and I don't expect to be hauling cars very long distances. So I want to stay away from anything V8 if possible.

Looking for something cheap. Was checking out the used Ford Rangers on CL last night. The long bed, extra cab models with the V6s might do the trick, but I wanted to see what people thought of them as tow vehicles.

Nothing urgent and this is just an idea at this point.

Let me know what has worked for you.

This thread is relevant to my interests. I have a friend whose sister has a '94 Nissan (4 cylinders) that has been in the family since new (was previously their dad's truck). It will become available in the next few months and I'm thinking about it for use as a general hauler / winter beater.

Local Craigslist shows lots of small Chevys and Fords, but nothing in the way of Toyotas or Nissans. I would guess that means that the Toyota / Nissan owners hold onto them...

I noticed that too. Does that mean I should avoid the Fords or Chebbies?

Good question. Full size Fords and Chevys are as popular as ever, but the smaller ones seem to be on the market more frequently. Granted, I live in an area where the domestic pickups dominate anyway, so it may just be a matter of seeing a reflection of the region's purchasing preferences.

i drive a 2001 ford ranger xlt extended cab 2wd with the 3.0L v6 mated to an auto.

this is my second ranger....the first was a 4 banger with a manual.

i love this truck and will drive it until it falls apart. its comfortable, not too big, but i can fit plenty. You can probably tow a 914 on a light trailer if you have to with the v6. its not a super heavy duty truck..but it fits my lifestyle perfectly.

i know that when this car goes...which should be pretty far down the road...ill be replacing it with a ranger with 4wd and a manual trans..my only regret is not getting a manual trans.

its an american car..and its got a few rattles and squeaks..but i am in no way dissapointed.

22mpg highway aint bad for the v6 either

My guess is the percentage that change hands is about the same but there are a LOT more Fords and Chebbies...
That said, I like my Nissan, and I was looking at Fords, all the GM's, and Dodge, when I was looking.

If you have your own trailer, you can make your own GVWR decisions. If you're trying to rent from UHaul, they'll pretty much refuse if you don't have a tow vehicle in the V8 range. There may be a crossover point between small V8 and big 6 where they'll be OK but you'd want to check.

I'd rather have a small 8 than a big 6, but I wound up with a big 8 anyway.

We'd always known some kind of truck was in the cards so when we had to replace the Outback, it was time. MPG sucks for daily driver use although my commute is not horrible. Still like to get something to replace it with in daily driver service but I don't see replacing it any time soon (and definitely not before I've got my money's worth out of the $1000 brake job...)

I love diesels. Just get a full size ford with a powerstroke or a dodge with a cummings. You'll get close to as good if not better MPG. You can do everything with them towing wise. Your MPG towing the full size diesel will smoke your MPG towing with a 4/6 or v8. I averaged just under 16mpg towing my car to Cali & back for WCR. I get just under 19mpg average when not towing. That is without an exaust upgrade which would help even more.

So as nice as having a smaller rig can be sometimes. I vote for going big. My personal favorite was my 97 Ford f-250 crew cab. It had a short box so it still fit in all the parking spots nice. That truck did absolutely everything. Hauled my bikes & towed many trailers with 914's. Would seat 6 adults pretty comfortably. I miss that truck. Sold it with 260k on the odometer & it has probably another 100k on it now. They go forever My current Ford Excusion is at 165k & going strong

I have a 91 Nissan with Extended cab and a 6. I don't worry about it. It will haul a 914 on a trailer, or on a dolly. I do have the short box,which means I can't close the tailgate after loading up my bike. But, it has 200k on it, I just put about 800 dollars into it and expect it to last another 100k.

The car companies need to start offering turbo diesels in their small trucks. The compact trucks over here all have TD's. We have had several at work and they will all pull what ever you want. My favorite and the one with the smallest engine was the Mitsubishi with a 2.5 TD.

All of my friends had trucks back in Missouri. I didn't notice too much difference between Toyota, Nissan, or Ford in terms of quality over the long term. My friends Ranger with a V6 was probably the best option just because the parts were a little cheaper. It ran great for over 200K miles and had plenty of power. He only moved up to a full size because of his construction job.

I have a 4wd Toyota Tacoma with a V6. It tows the boat just fine. The gas mileage isn't that great (21mpg). I had a 2wd Silverado with a standard cab and bed with the small V8. It towed better and got 6 more miles to the gallon. It sucks in the snow though. If you go with the newer Chevys stay away from the 5 cylinder. Get the older 4.3 V6. The 5 cylinder doesn't have the power of a 6 or the gas mileage of a 4. IMHO it's a lose/lose. If I did it again I'd get a fullsize ford or chevy with a small V8. You can do more and you save money at the pump. IMHO the Dodges weight too much for the smaller engine. You need a big engine to haul it around and then you pay at the pump.

I have and use (Was daily driver for the last 4 years) a 1999 Chevy S10 truck. It has been a great commute car, and I use it for hauling trash, picking up parts and engines, and other truck type things. It has about 130k miles on it, and I bought it used with 80k miles about 4 years ago. In that time, I have replaced the water pump (About 1/2 hour to do.), the alternator, and had to rebuild the driveshaft. All told, I paid about 6k for the truck, and spent under 1.5k for repairs the last four years including tires. Overall one of the cheaper used cars to own.

There are pictures on my webpage.

-- brett

I have a 2001 grand cherokee with the inline 6. Not a truck, but i thought I'd share my towing notes since it's about the same size as a small pickup.
With our Reinell 191 boat it does just fine. Nothing funny at all. The Jeep is rated for 5000lbs. Boat is 19 ft long.

With my friends car trailler, tandem axle, 24 ft long....SPOOKY. It was trying to push the back of the car around something fierce. So bad that I actually had my friend go pick up his Dodge Diesel to haul the 914 back. Now i'm a little chicken, I've seen first hand what damage trailers can do when things go wrong. I'm not saying you can't do it, and maybe even safely. My feeling is if the trailer and cargo weigh more than the tow vehicle, don't do it.

Just IMO.

My 05 Saturn VUE with 250hp V6 engine gets about 20-22mpg and tows cars just fine

I learned long ago that you will always want your tow vehicle to outweigh the towed vehicle for the most safety. If you go the other way for savings, be prepared to get scared. Sure all of the smalled/lighter trucks/SUV may have the power to pull, but will they have the weight to control and the brakes to slow the rig down?
I have a 76 half ton Dodge with a very strong 318, but this is not a tow rig. Plenty of power, but with only standard brakes and with too many pounds of gravel in the bed it gets iffy for more than 45 mph. That's why I only use it for short distances for heavy loads in the bed and never towing.
Tom

My father has owned a 2000 Toyota Tacoma V6 Pre-Runner (it looks like a 4WD but is actually a 2WD w/ an electric locking diff) and has nothing but praise for it. 8+ years of ownership with nothing but gas and oil at regular intervals (just like his other Toyotas of the past). It tows his boat and you don't even know it's back there. On the hwy he gets around 25-26MPG. Hard to beat. . .

My last 3 trucks were full size silverados. All of them had thier annoying quirks (some were expensive annoying quirks) but I am sure they were no different than any other manufacturer. I decided to downsize and got this (see pic). Tows 5000 lbs and has been great so far. My only real complaint is not the length of the bed, but the depth. The in bed trunk is very cool however. It's road manners remind me of and audi or volvo - very quiet. It handles very well. I am somwhere around 25 MPG on the highway, it holds the whole damn family and you can whip it around in parking lots!!

I like the Ridgeline, but it's out of the budget right now.

Im with Jamie on this one ...Small trucks pulling car and trailer is a bad thing when you get in a panick situation...I drive a 1ton diesel pull my 24ft car trailer to Cali and got 14+ mpg at 65+ pretty much the whole way down and back ..empty on the hiway i can get 24mpg easy in a 1ton 4x4 4 door long box ..and i have room for my whole family of 5 and two dogs .......In this case bigger is better

This is why you make sure the electric trailer brakes are in excellent condition and do not skimp on a brake controller (a good one is only about $100...) I brought my double-axle trailer from Long Island to SEPA (empty...) behind the '97 Outback with an Odessey brake controller and had zero issues, even with one flat tire about halfway.

The Titan is a half-ton and I've hauled a full 1000-lbs of mulch and compost a few times. The Titan has the rep of being underbraked so I put on Porterfield R4S pads (from the recent group buy) and slotted cryo'd Frozen Rotors. Stops fine. And the trailer has its own brakes...

I think you should just take your friends out to dinner more often. How about some passes to the movies. Bet it would be a lot cheeper than owning another set of wheels and if your treating your friends right, they will look foward to you calling to use the truck.

i just got my first p/u after 30 years of driving.

99 ranger v6 ext. cab 4x4 auto. i dig it immensely,
and it tows 914's just fine.
shitty mileage though.

i'll always have a truck for the next 30-

I towed my 914 with a dual axled Uhaul trailer with my Tacoma once. I don't want to do it again. Starting was no problem. Stopping distance was more than tripled. Brake fade scared the crap outa me. I would be tempted to try and tow the 914 with the Toyota again if it was on an aluminum trailer set up with electric brakes. For the price it might be cheaper to just buy a bigger used truck.

I towed that same trailer with my fathers F250 diesel and didn't know it was back there.

Most of my errands are not car hauling. Since a trailer will be yet another expense, I am not sure I want to go there just yet.

And I thought that this would be more simple. Oh well.

4 cyl 5 spd toyotas almost never break. I did an engine swap on my friend's '94 tacoma, it had 749000 miles on the engine, ran fine except emissions. We put in one with 250000 so it would smog.

All toyota tacomas in the $2000 range:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/1386308715.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/1386097846.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/1385882565.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/1380156301.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/1385392868.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/1383719234.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/1382849148.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/1382718612.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/1381516531.html
(it's got fuchs on!!!)

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ant/cto/1380261143.html

Click to view attachment2005 up Tacoma....one of the best vehicles in our fleet. Problem is they hold their value -when you are looking to buy.

Me either, which is why I politely ignored all the suggestions to go 'big diesel' when I was looking for my truck. I wanted a daily-drive commuter I could tow with, not a tow vehicle I could drive every day.

(This crowd can over-complexify anything...)

So then you approach it in the standard manner - You've bought a used vehicle before so you know it's all about condition vs budget, expecting to replace all the standard stuff right away (brakes, dampers, battery). Then you can start dividing your requirements.

Do you need 4WD or will 2WD work for you?
Do you need a 4-door crew cab, a 2-door 'king cab' or only 2 seats?
Automatic or manual?
Factory tow package (usually wiring harness, bigger battery and alternator, and bigger radiator) or does it increase the cost more than its value?

I found it hard working with the various online search engines because they all seem to want brand first. I wanted to rank by equipment and didn't care what brand fell out - but they don't work that way. Lots of individual searches...

So there you go - most of the responses in this thread were from guys who said 'yes, good idea, BTDT liked it.' Some good towing advice that is not relevant to your needs now. And a bunch of preference, which is also not bad, but possibly not relevant.

What sealed the deal for me and the Nissan was that I was worried about availability of parts. Some searches there showed me that there are many sources for most of what I was thinking about (and there will -always- be 'Dealer Only' items, so having access to a local dealer you can work with can be a good thing).