Well today my dad and I went furniture shopping with the 4runner and my little open trailer in tow. We picked out a nice entertainment unit for the bedroom at the flea market. We spent a good half hour in the parking lot tying it down securely with rachet straps. "it's secure as hell, won't budge" were my dads exact words.

I turn out of the parking lot nice and slow, and take it easy going down the road because it's such a tall load, about 6 feet x 8 feet. I get to a T intersection and the lights green for me, I make a nice and slow left turn because I don't want the load to sway. Off to my left I notice a car stopped at the light inching forward, but at this point I don't think much of it as I've already gone past.

Well at this point the car pulls out and I'm thinking, that's really not right, but it's OK because he's well behind me. Next thing I know, BANG, and the truck swings hard as I'll still turning left. I try to correct but as the trailer comes around I know there's no way in hell I'm going to save this one. I manage a quick glance in my mirror as we are spinning and I hear an engine pinned wide open, and to my disbelief, a car flying up into the air.

An 86 yo man was driving a new ford fusion, and basically did an illegal U-turn, at which point came up hard on the left rear of my trailer. He basically did a police pit maneuver on the trailer, which swung me around. Then in mistaking the gas pedal for the brake, he pinned it to the ground, climbing the curb onto the median, and then launching his car off the ramp up section of the center concrete divider. He took out his oil pan on the divider, and came to rest some 5-6 car lengths in the opposing lane of traffic, narrowly missing a woman stopped at the light by a few inches.

The trailer flipped itself. My new entertainment unit lay across 2 lanes of freeway. Damage count was totalled trailer, crushed rear bumper, and body damage on the rear quarter. I was pretty pissed upon seeing the body damage, I knew this truck was only worth about $4000 and thought for sure it was going to be totalled.

Well lo and behold the insurance company actually wants to fix it. I'm not entirely sure this is a good thing, because this truck has been used and abused and we were basically gonna drive it till the wheels fell off and buy a new taco. They offered us $2700 for the damages.

So now I need some advice on exactly what to do with this thing. It's got 115k miles on it. Never had any of the fluids changed..ATF, Diff, chassis grease, etc. The rad fluid was changed a couple years ago just cause we put in a new rad. It's my dad's truck and he's too lazy to change the oil more than once a year, it burns a lot of oil too so I just top it up every month with the cheapest 10-30 I can find at walmart. The body doesn't have too much rust cause I cut out part of the wheel arches and bondo'd a couple years ago. Undercarriage is a different story. Front wheel bearing is start to sound like it wants to let go soon. The tranny slips on full throttle when it shifts. Exhaust is rusted out. Rear shocks/springs are shot cause it was used to truck concrete slabs for a couple years.

As for the body damage, crumpled the rear bumper and wrecked the bumper mounts. Other than that it doesn't look too bad.. I bent it back with my jack so I could at least drive it. By the way, did I mention this truck has been in 5 accidents now? Rear ended 5 different occasions over the last 20 years!!

So what do you think? Should I drop the money into doing all the maintenance like fluids/plugs and wires/new bumper. Or should I just keep driving her till she dies and save that money for the taco downpayment?

Here she sits:

 

dam old people just need there license taken away

 

dude, that sucks!!!! I would say keep it and put the money into repairs, but if it's blowing a lot of oil by then I don't know. If it wasn't for that I would say totally fix her up and keep going, cuz u can get a LOT more out of her. I have 385k on my '91, and have very few problems. One thing tho, are you going to be driving it primarily or is your dad? I would say base your decision on that, and see what the deal is. If you love the 4Runner, I would say baby it for a long time. I'm not sure how far $2700 will go towards fixing EVERYTHING, but if you pick your battles, I imagine you can fix most of the major problems with that. If you have a Haynes Manual or a FSM and a little bit of time, you can do quite a bit with just basic tools and very little experience. I have learned a lot by reading those manuals. Either way, good luck, and I hope it all works out for you.

 

its my dad's truck but he doesn't really use it much, we've had it since new. He was mostly using it to drive to work out of town, but now that it's getting old and has all these problems he doesn't want to take it on the highway anymore. I use it a lot on the other hand, its the tow vehicle for my trailer/dirtbike, camping, driving my buddies and our mountain bikes to the mountains, occasional hooning around offroad, etc. I think he would probably consider selling it to me for $2000 or so at which point I could do whatever the hell I wanted to with it.

 

WOw that sucks, but sounds lucky that is all the damage that was done. Does that insurance payment include the damaged furniture and trailer? I know that stuff isn't cheap.

Keep the truck, take the cash, buy some front and rear TG bumpers or something similar, fix your tail light. NO worries on rear end collisions anymore. And still have money left over to do your maintenance.

115K on it is nothing.

 

In that case I totally agree with xxxtreme. Keep the cash and the truck, fix some stuff, get some heavy-duty bumpers, and keep on trucking. you can get so much more out of this rig, its crazy. definitely be ready to exercise your patience, but keep the rig. I always hate seeing a yota die before it's time. (Yota's don't have times, they are for eternity, LOL) and again, I wish you the best of luck. If you don't mind my asking, what area do you live in?

 

thanks guys, I am in Canada actually. No the settlement didn't include trailer money and furniture money but I got $900 for a trailer which I'm going to be putting back into another trailer (must have)

I'm just at a bit of a loss on where to start since the truck needs so many things done from lack of maintenance. What do you think is the best order to start tackling things since I have limited funds at the moment? I don't know much about trucks but I do know my way around a wrench, have rebuilt two motorcycles from the frame up and also do all my own work on my car. I just get a puzzled look on my face when you start talking about transfer cases and locking hubs and things like that. Plus I am not too good with old 90's technology... I do have a cylmer service manual and a fully stocked tool chest!

 

Personally I would do my best to get that money out of that driver for the damage to the trailer and furniture.

 

I think you should make sure this thing has functioning brake lights

 

haha trust me it does (did at least)

teenage girl texting
senior citizen
drunk driver
moron who couldn't couldn't see an ambulance with full siren/lights moving through the intersection

it's been hit by them all. Maybe I do need a big aggressive bush bumper with some spikes welded on the back?

 

^I vote spikes lol

 

I would also go after the old man for the destroyed trailer and furniture, that should be worth another 1000 dollars or maybe more.

 

i think my neck hurts? gizzards lordy!

 

yep I got 900 for the trailer and my dad got $250 for the cabinet. As much as I would like to put that money towards the truck I NEED a new trailer to haul my dirtbike.

 

so you got 900 for the trailer, 250 for the cabinet and 2700 for the truck or 1550 for the truck, 900 for the trailer and 250 for the cabinet?

 

no no, the trailer and furniture money is completely separate and a different settlement than the truck.