Put a front locker in it, that will take you all the places you should take a bodied truck. Yeah it is a new bodied one, but taking an 85 is going to cost you at least as much but you are going to have a bunch of down time getting it there.

Front locker and 35's then you will still have a rig you can load up and wheel light, you aren't obligated to hardcore. Not to mention you can drive it in bad weather or just because and not get beat up.

Returning that to stock would be a pain. Selling as is, I doubt it is more than a 16-18k truck.

 

i thought you had a front arb in it already? or did that not quite make it in yet..? anyway if youre wanting to build up your 85, you could use alot of the parts off your current runner for it..no? tough call though, since your 99 is pretty much builts as it can get and would be difficult to get half that back on a resale as stated already.

but if your 85 has already been decided as your wheeling rig, then unless you just like to have lots of toys (no pun intended ) the 99 should go. question though... why buy the 85 when you've got a more than capable wheeling rig? im guessing something to build up slightly and take a lil more hardcore trails with and not worry about denting up? makes sense since its not your DD.

your truck would probably fetch a decent amt of G's up here, somewhat low K's and good condition considering its been wheeled pretty hard. id say at least CDN $18.5-20K up here easy...

 

i think you could get $15k on ebay, and honestly, i think that ebay would be your best venture for a highly-modified truck. if you can get rear links, i would at least take them off and put the OEM ones back on. that's an easy couple-hundred right there that the new owner wouldn't miss at all.

 

i'd keep the 3rd gen...or at least wait until you've got the 85 built. That way, if you decide the 85 is a huge money pit and whatever, you've still got the new truck to go places in. If you decide that the 85 is where it's at, then you can always sell the new truck later...but i'd wait for a while at least.

 

Now, that's good advice and exactly what I've been thinking today. I think when I get the '85 I'm going to wheel it as is for a couple of trips and see how I like it before doing anything with the third gen.

Another reason for thinking about a different rig '85 vs '99 is that I'm going to be towing it on a trailer behind a gas motorhome (1991 with 454 throttle body injection). The '85 is going to be 800 to 1000 pounds less than the '99.

 

If you know the 99 is only a trail/offroad rig, I would be disappointed in you not being able to get it under 5k.

If you are serious about making the 85 a rock crawler, I would be impressed if you could get much south of 4k to 4200.

If what you are saying is you have the delusion that you need a pure rock crawler after wheeling a single locked IFS truck, I am sorry.

If you really want to wheel, buy a tube car. You are going to be into the 99 or the 85 for about 20-25k to make it a real work horse and you can get a year or two old comp rig/tube car for that pretty easily.

 

tube cars aren't a bad idea either.

The way i see it is that if you want to keep glass in the 85, might as well just wheel the 99. The only reason to wheel the 85 is to destroy it. Tube car is going to perform a ton better than the 85, and yeah, to build the 85 into a truck that will out perfrom the 99 is gonna take some serious cash...

pros and cons to both...but as i said, i'd hang on to the 99 for a while.

 

[U]DON'T SELL IT![U]

YOU WILL REGRET IT WITHIN A YEAR OR TWO...[/

 

Someone please come buy me a beer on my birthday-I just ran out!!!!!

:pat:

 

My .02...

Without a front locker and a crawler (since you have a 5 speed) you have no idea what the '99 is capable of. I went a lot of places in my '00 with a rear locker. I followed guys with front lockers and tried lines where only a crawler equipped rig would go. Sometimes it wasn't pretty.

I added both a crawler and a front locker in the last year and I still have no idea what this rig is capable of. I do know that I can go pretty much where I want to and still keep the sheet metal straight on my rig. Some day the sheet metal will be less important. When that day comes I will still have a reliable, double locked, low geared, very capable paid for vehicle. I also know that I can replace a lot of CV's for the cost of a SAS or another trail rig.

 

 

The dilemna I keep coming to after selling my 3rd gen is that now I have a new truck that is too nice or too big to wheel seriously at Tellico. That being said, since I sold my 3rd gen I have gone through one samurai, an 82 truck, and currently have a 86 4runner sitting in the drive way and can't justify actually putting the money into something that will get used only a handful of times a year.

Hindsight is 20/20 i should have kept my 3rd gen and put the parts on it that were sitting in the garage when I sold it (fr/rr ARB's w/5.29's and 315's) called it a day and bought a car to drive back and forth to work. Then I would have had a rig that got me everywhere I needed/really wanted to get and something to drive on the street. Problem was, at the time I wanted something to beat on.

 

The problem is saying what you mean.

If what you want is something to kick the crap out of, buy a tube car. Less to tow, more capable, easier to beat.

If you think you can do it cheap, then you are going to try and build a nice 85 rock crawler. After 3 years of being off the trail, you will have an expensive, half done mess.

If you really want to wheel in something that still has glass and AC and requires being careful, throw a locker and crawler at the 99 and call it good. You can wheel hard, keep glass and not roll every weekend.