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I started looking for a small truck with a camper that gets good gas milage for road trips. I saw a posting for a 1976 Toyota with a Chinook. The guy wants 2200.00 for it. it looks a little rough. Im not sure if I need a camper, and now Im hooked on the idea of an older Toyota truck for road trips. I could always use a tent....
Ive seen some nice trucks posted, none are very close to me.
If you had to choose, which one would you pick?
The 82 diesel is in Alberta, and they guy says he is driving it now and it looks clean. $2000.00
The 81 is in BC, original owner, looks pretty clean and the guy is retired. $3500.00
none of them seem to be modified in any way, and the listings are very basic.

I live in Saskatchewan, and it gets very cold, with lots of snow.

thanks for your thoughts

83

Are the 81 or 82 4x4?

I'm pretty partial to Chinooks...

But I'll be the first to admit that they aren't very practical as a daily driver. You can do it, but it's not great. I also wouldn't want to be driving one in the snow.

They also have the potential of being a much larger money sink than other trucks. You have the whole truck with stuff going wrong or that could go wrong, plus a whole house on the back that'll probably need a ton of attention and has stuff that can go wrong.

I would never tell you not to buy a Chinook! But I wouldn't let you do it without knowing the good and the bad.

The diesel will likely be much harder to find parts and mechanics for.

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Thanks for the info. on the diesel. None of the trucks are 4x4 unfortunately.
I think the Chinook will be an ongoing project....but its so cool!

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-image.ht...ationFlag=true

gillesdetrail

iTrader: (1)

Wow that chinook is very cool, also very rare! The 81 diesel is also pretty rare but very underpowered and many parts are discontinued, not much more economical than a gas model. Like 83 says, expect a big project with the chinook though!

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I know its old, but what are the most common problems with the Chinooks? its all fiberglass.....what could go wrong? Im obviously new

83

Well to start with there is the 1976 pickup truck it's sitting on. Obviously there can be any and every problem under the sun with that truck.

Then there's the camper. Fiberglass can have cracks, rot, sag, all kinds of structural integrity problems. The canvas can be rotted. The propane gas lines can be corroded and leaking. The water system can be leaking. The interior walls could be mildewy, moldy, water stained and rotting. The electrical could be all screwy, not working, and in the worst case ready to burn the entire camper down, which can happen in a matter of SECONDS.

The floor could be rotted out. The windows probably leak and need to be removed and resealed.

That's probably not all but it's all I feel like thinking of and typing right now.

I'm on a toyota motorhome forum and a toyota chinook forum, and I have a chinook, so between all those I've seen what kinds of problems are common for 30 year old campers.

It's rare to find one you can just buy and use. But if you're the right kind of person, and the truck itself is in good shape, you can certainly drive the truck around and just use the back to sleep and hang out in, and just not have the convenience of any of the appliances if they don't work or you don't trust them.

With no images or description of the interior (that I could find), there's no way to know what shape it's in.

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83-A Toyota Chinook forum?! Will you send me the link please?

83

Let me see...

It's the old "list serve" type set up, which was a precursor to true internet forums. Which means you sign up to be on the email list, and "posts" and "replies" come through an email. You either decide you want to receive emails as they come in, just get a dump of them once every week or so, or you can just view them in a more forum-like area (which sounds nice but is actually the worst way to view).

So you need to get a Yahoo account if you don't already have one. I think Yahoo mail sucks. But oh well.

So it's an annoying format and totally sub-par compared to a true forum, but you'll find people with more specific Chinook knowledge there than anywhere else.

Let me know if this link gets you there or not.

You'll see a lot of chinook for sale ads from craigslist posted, and the typical silly bickering...some by myself of course...

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83, Ive signed up just waiting. maybe Ill find something in better shape there.

83

You will, but they'll pretty much all be in the US. But there will be some in Washington and a few in Montana, so maybe close enough. There's a nice looking one in Oregon right now...but pricey.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

That ad says the truck has 910k on it....

83

And they also have the annoying "R20" engine

Yeah, with the 5-digit odometer, people get really confused. They probably included the tenths, not really realizing it.

There was a guy on the forum earlier in the week wondering how his new camper went from 227,000 miles to 320,000 just from a trip from California to Portland! Well, 27,000.0 to 32,000.0 I could see...

moroza

The old 1L and 2L diesels are discontinued, but they share a lot of parts with later 2LT2, 2LTE, 3L, and 5L engines, some of which remained in production at least until 2005. The old Ls have a reputation for cracking heads. The good news is that the heads were redesigned in 1989 and can replace the old heads.

I have never driven a Toyota diesel truck. I have driven an 82 Mazda, and an 83 Ford Ranger. Those both had the same 2.2l Perkins non-turbo indirect-injection one-wire diesel engine, putting out a scorching 60hp, about the same as a 1L. They could both cruise comfortably at 65mph, topping out at about 80 if you really wanted them to. Around town in traffic, they're perfectly adequate even with a load. I've also driven a 98 Toyota Hiace AWD van loaded with half a ton of tools. It had a 2LTE making about 100hp, and had no trouble dealing with twisty Norwegian mountain highways. You have to remember that old adage, "horsepower sells cars; torque wins races." Below 3000rpm (how often do you exceed that?), these little diesels make as much power as a gas engine of similar displacement. Unless you're winding the piss out of the motor to win a drag race, it'll do just as well as a 22R while getting significantly better economy.

Have you owned a diesel where you live? They are not as well suited to very cold climates - they're harder to start (thus harder on starters and batteries) and diesel fuel gels at a much higher temperature than gasoline. Having said that, Top Gear made it to the north pole in a new Hilux diesel, so it's certainly not impossible.