Please excuse me if this has all been answered, but I have found a LOT of conflicting info on some of these (IFS for example.)

First off, I love the truck, It's got the base 22R and as far as I can tell no options other than A/C and Chrome. I have done some light off-roading, but my knowledge is mostly from racing hondas and chevys. The truck has some mild 31"s on it and I have not had any issues yet, even after getting stuck in mud, locking the hubs and managing to get myself out! In on-road applications I can see the benefit of independent suspension, but I have seen many people suggesting that I ditch it in favor of a front solid axle setup. I don't plan on rock crawling, but I will be using the truck often on public and private trails and rutted, muddy dirt roads in the backwoods of rural mississippi and want reliable performance. I don't plan on ever going bigger than 33" and maybe not even that big as the truck is pretty damn slow as-is. Is there a compelling reason to swap?

Secondly, being the base model, there is no tach. Since my first car (a '67 bug) all my cars have had tachs and while it drives fine without one, I'd like to add one or perhaps swap the guage cluster from a sr5/dlx that has one. Is this difficult? Any other guages (temp/pressure/etc) that I should consider?

Third, my bench seat has seen better days (over 333k on the odo) and would love to replace it with a pair of seats. Are the seats from the sr5 any good? are there other seats that I could swap in? Will I need to drill new holes or are there unused mounting holes? This is a daily driver and some back support would be nice. Harshness of ride is not a big deal as i'm used to lowered cars on race springs.

Forth, Towing. I have a small boat, and would also like to be able to pull a trailer to move random items. Is the 22r capable of moving larger loads? What hitch options are available for my old truck? Is it even worth doing with what is probably a small tow rating? Am I better off just buying a modified offroad bumper with integrated hitch?

Finally, any tips for preventative maint? The previous owner was OCD and took it to the dealership at least once a month, but I'm more of a diy'er and want to make sure it sees another 300k or so.

Thanks in advance for any and all input!


p.s. yes, i have scoured the net first, but have found conflicting info and wanted to get the pulse of the board.

 

Well I'd still tell you to search...search this site, or Pirate4x4. But, IFS is fine. I did most of my offroading in an IFS truck and it was great. It really seems to me it's only when you get into hardcore stuff that it really matters. You can beef up the IFS if you want.

There is a thread in the '84-85 truck section on SR5 cluster swaps. Should be the same for your '87. Easy.

There are seat swap threads all over the place. This site, Marlin Crawler, probably Pirate. Search. It depends on what seats you get. Some may bolt right up, others may require one or two new holes or some custom brackets. Basically if it fits inside the truck, there's a way to make it work, but SR5 Toyota buckets, especially out of 4Runners, would probably be the best fit and are comfy. A lot of people use '90s Acura seats. Hit the junkyard & craigslist & see what you find. Maybe you'll score some leather sporty heated pimp seats, who knows.

Modified bumpers with hitch receiver are nice, but you could get away with even a U-haul hitch. A small boat or trailer is just fine for these trucks. Just don't expect to go up hills fast. Somebody may have a better idea than me as far as weights that are too much. I've seen pickups like yours pulling some BIG loads. Doesn't mean it won't wear the truck down fast, but they can do it. If you go real big, just upgrade the brakes and expect the engine/tranny/clutch to wear out faster. Little boats & trailers are no big deal at all though.

Change your oil, lube your chassis, regular tune ups (spark plugs/wires/distributer cap/rotor/check timing/valve adjustment) and drive it nice and it'll last a long time.

Pretty much all of your questions (except maybe towing) have been pretty much beat to death, so SEARCH. I realize you did search a bit, but trust me, the same debates and conflicting info you saw wherever else you looked is the same info you'll get here. People's opinions vary. Unless you've got a related but new issue that wasn't gone over where you've already looked, you likely won't hear anything new here.

Anyways, Welcome! An '87 was my first Toyota. I love that body style.

 

I would say from what you have told us, IFS will work fine for you and your 'light offroading'. I do the same with my truck and I have not had problems with the IFS. If you do get more into it down the road I would think you might want to think of potentially getting some sort of locker in the rear end or a LSD setup. I might go with an Aussie Locker at some point, but only because my rig is not a daily driver, only going to be used in the woods/trails and is a fairly cheap and somewhat easy to install. This would give you alot better traction then just 4x4 with no locker or LSD - 2x.

 

I've swapped instrument cluster on my '87 to get the tach. Be ready to install a new oil sender on the engine at the same time. The current one is a switch (for dummy light), the new one is a "sending unit" for gauge. The two are incompat and the manuals have warnings about installing oil-gauge cluster on a oil switch. Other than that, the instrument cluster is drop-in.

 

if you want it to have a little more low end get up with the 31s, if i were you , i would say go with some 4.88 gears. so might arue saying to go with 4.56, but 4.88s is just my opinion. plus if you had the 4.88s, you would be setup fo r33s when ever you wanted them. ive pulled a small, maybe 6x4 trailer with two motorcycles on it before when i had 31s. it was slow, but it did just fine for me. dont know if thatll help you out any, but atleast i tried lol. and i would say keep your IFS for now unutil you find yourself wanting to do the hardcore stuff

 

Thanks for all the help guys! I know some of these topics have been beaten to death so the responses to help sort it all out are much appreciated.

Looks like keeping IFS is the way to go for now. I suppose the next project is seats, dash, then I'll try to tackle the diff issue. I mught take pics and do a writeup of the dash swap since it seems somewhat common but haven't seen a tech article yet.

As far as diffs, what will a lsd give me? should I just get a locker? and i would imagine if i do some gears it might be a good idea to do the locker/lsd at the same time. Will 4.88's kill my highway speed? I'd rather a sluggish accelerating car than one that can't break 60.

On a side note, someone in my area (memphis) is selling some 22re headers, and i was considering grabbing them, is 75 (used i think) a good price for some aftermarket headers and will 22re headers work on the 22r? I would assume they do but wanted the piece of mind that some who knows more agrees.

 

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f115...ictures-51800/

.....Have you looked around on our nice site at all yet? Lots of info. Unless you actually mean a dash swap, not SR5 cluster swap.

Can't help with the other questions.