Sub $10K used Tundra or F150?

Tired of trailering every time I need to haul the bikes. Looking for a full size truck to haul to moab and various locations. Decent gas mileage is nice but not the main factor. Seating for four adults for extended road trips and reliability are the biggest factors.

Any years/models/engines to stay away from?

4x4 is a must.

Yes, stay away from the F150


Around here, any sub-$10K Tundra will have been ridden hard and put away wet, if you can even find one at that price point.

That said, I'd rather have an abused Tundra than a cream puff F150 any day

If you find a 1/2-way decent Tundra for less than 10K, shoot me a pm, ok?

I have the 4-door (ie, full double cab) w/ extended 6ft bed Tacoma. It'll fit two bikes in the bed w/ the gate down. Tacoma 4.0 liter 6-cylinder....is plenty of power w/ better gas mileage than the Tundra.

OP you're going to run into some of the same problems I've had to struggle with in my quest for "the perfect truck", also known as a unicorn.

I was really close to buying a new-generation Tundra but I now have a double cab short bed Tacoma 4.0 V6. Prior to that I had a 4cyl Access Cab (long bed) Taco. I needed the extra cab space, but not for 2 adults. It would still be pretty cramped back there for adults on long trips. But for two dogs it's great

I went with the short bed for maneuverability (and the locking diff on the TRD OR ). The sacrifice is that with the short bed, bikes only fit with the tailgate down. And there's less room for all the other gear. But with the v6 I can tow more comfortably. So now the long trip rig will be bikes in the trailer, gear in the bed, humans and their owners in the cab. If you really need passenger space for 4 adults on a long trip, the Tacoma is not your best choice unless everyone is under 6' tall.

Basically I think putting bikes in the back of the truck is wishful thinking unless it's just you and one bike. Beyond that you're better off with a trailer.

Get a REAL truck. Stay away from both the toy and the Ford. Go Dodge or go home

There is a very good reason that the f-150 is the best selling truck, ever! Just very hard to beat. Lots of bang for the buck. Finding ANY truck that isn't trashed or very high mileage for under $10k is tuff. I have been looking as well. My 89 F-150 is great and does the job. Economical, drives well dependable, easy on gas, etc. But standard cab. I could really use an extended cab, preferably long bed. Preferably no IFS either, and OD would be nice. Don't need to buy anything with a gazillion miles on it either.

I'm just rolling up to 300k on my 2000 Tundra. Best truck I've owned to date - and I've had a few flavors of trucks over the years.

Don't let the mileage on the Tundras scare you as long as the vehicle was taken care of. I've only had to replace the starter and a few ignition coils besides the ordinary stuff in the time I have had mine.

Keep in mind the 1st gen Tundras have a belt timing drive, which needs to be replaced every 60-100k miles - and it will cost you about +$1k to have a shop do it, or about $400 and a weekend of your time to do it by yourself.

If you find one that has soft steering, the bushings on the steering rack tend to soften up which causes some play after a few years/many miles. With the drivers side door open, you can look under the truck and with it running rock the steering wheel back and forth, and if you see that rack moving a bunch it needs new bushings ($20 kit and a hour or so under the truck) and will take care of that problem.

Other than that, the suspension is a bit "soft" compared to the F-150 - which is good for day to day driving, but not so good for heavy loads. Its easily taken care of with a $250 air lift ride control kit. With the kit, I have a slide in camper and hitch mount bike carrier and it has no problems.


Best of luck on your quest.

That will be my next truck.

It rocks!

The DCLB Tacoma is longer than a Suburban, with an even wider turning radius than the GM :huh.

That's one reason you can't get an off-road package with that configuration. One thing I really like about the short wheelbase Taco is the maneuverability both off road and in a parking lot. I just use a bed extender when I need extra space.

Just spray the whole bike down with Lemon Pledge before you take off.

Or Crisco.

Nice rig Geo. I think I saw that picture over on TacomaWorld.

Are those rock sliders on your rig, or just basic nerf bars? If the former do the steps come off for off-roading?

Be careful if you're considering a short bed and pulling a trailer. My trailer has a short tongue and the bikes won't clear the tailgate if it's down. The options are bikes in the bed or bikes on the trailer, not both.

Even with a longer tongue on the trailer you'll run into clearance issues in sharp turns. It's one or the other.

This looks like a fair deal if you want the TOY.
http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/4817444908.html

What year did they get ride of the expensive 90K mile belt and water pump etc service? I guess some were 90k and some were 120k miles? I'm not really prejudice about brand. Probably prefer Ford, but don't really care. Kinda like saying my DRZ is better than your XR. Just not really true. Just more personal pref. But thought about looking @ this Tundra. Problem with buying something like that, is, in the long run you might be better of buying new. especially if you intend to drive it until the wheel fall off. Trucks just don't depreciate fast enough to make up for the high mileages that people drive them. And people who buy truck, often use them hard, and neglect them.

Trucks are so last century

Mine is a daily driver, its an 89, but still only has ~115k on the clock. But I have only had it about 6 yrs. Wife's GC is a 98 has ~ 96k on it. We also have a 95 GC with about 98k on it. So when somebody says low mileage and it has 150K on it

Leave that thing on the autobahn...

I second that!


My Sprinter is the same length as my 4 door Dodge pickup. The Dodge had 6.5' of bed space and the Sprinter has 14' behind the front seats!

With 4 seats in it now I still have over 10' of interior storage for motorcycles and a place to sleep!

On my second tundra, picked up a 04 double cab with 83000 on it, camper shell, tow hitch for $12000, very happy with every toyota I've ever owned.