Sell me a new truck

1_pointer said:
Titan HD to pull it?
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That would be a good question. Not sure.

Here is part of the problem with using a SxS to transport me, a guest hunter, and one or two camera guys. We have a ton of gear that we are hauling along when we leave the truck. And we carry a spare of most everything that we leave in the truck. If we ruin something while out that day, we only have to trot down to the trailhead to get a replacement, rather than drive all the way back to our base camp.

The SxS option creates some hurdles to that. First is dust. Dust kills cameras/sensors/lenses. Just a fact of the environment we deal in. Not sure a SxS is able to be "dust-free" enough to prevent this problem from being amplified.

Second is security of gear we leave in a SxS/truck when we leave the trailhead. Yeah, someone could easily break into my truck and sound the security alarm. But, that is not nearly inviting as some gear being left in the back bed of the SxS for all the world to see.

Last is roughness of ride and space to protect gear during that ride. The truck allows us to put a lot of stuff in the cab when driving terrible roads to trailheads. And, the seats and cab space allow us to put everything in soft-sided cases or on the seats to protect the equipment.

Again, another unique need that is not applicable to most other people. But, is a big part of why my truck has to serve as a quasi-SxS.
 
A good, lockable storage bin for the back of your SXS will do the trick. I leave a lot of gear in mine when the boots hit the ground, including key in the ignition. Never had a problem (knocking on wooden head).
 
sagebrush said:
A good, lockable storage bin for the back of your SXS will do the trick. I leave a lot of gear in mine when the boots hit the ground, including key in the ignition. Never had a problem (knocking on wooden head).
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Lockable storage on the back would be a requirement, but I doubt it would be big enough. When leave the truck, half of the truck bed and half the back seat are loaded with gear we have locked up. Yeah, we have the much junk with us. I am sure the first time a guest hunter sees what we carry to the trailhead, he probably shakes his head in disbelief.
 
I see you running into storage and towing problems if you start using the SxS plus you have have to eat a whole bunch of unkind words that may have been muttered about them over the last several years. :)
 
I've always been skeptical of side by sides, until I borrowed one this summer.

I took it on a scouting trip to scout out some rough roads that are gated come hunting season. They are so handy, and ride sooooooooo much better than a damn quad on the rocky stuff.

Great for getting around camp, to trailheads etc. They're a little better for moving trailers around camp or at the house as well. Should help you to get some more longevity out of whichever truck you end up with.
 
I've never been in a SXS with a full, hard-sided cab, but my experience with mine is that they are far, far, far from dust-free. In fact, I think they can be worse than an ATV in that regard.
 
Off the top of my head, dragging around a SxS seems like a burden for what you'd get in return. Where can you take it that you can't take a truck? Is it for off road travel in the National forests, fire roads?

I'm no doubt biased by my disdain for vehicles back in the woods. I get it for deer hunting on large private lands, but public elk, not so much. Just one man's opinion, but I don't want to see an elk hunting show with guys riding around on ATVs searching for elk. Maybe I'm misunderstanding their role.
 
PRM said:
Off the top of my head, dragging around a SxS seems like a burden for what you'd get in return. Where can you take it that you can't take a truck? Is it for off road travel in the National forests, fire roads?

I'm no doubt biased by my disdain for vehicles back in the woods. I get it for deer hunting on large private lands, but public elk, not so much. Just one man's opinion, but I don't want to see an elk hunting show with guys riding around on ATVs searching for elk. Maybe I'm misunderstanding their role.
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Here is my take on using ATV/SxS's, take it for what it is, but I've used both on public and private land.

By myself I can haul all my gear in my pickup down a forest road that sucks, at a dismal 4-7 mph unless I want to tear up my pickup. Same gear strapped to the ATV or SxS I can go down the same road much faster. So in part I can move from tail head to trail head in certain parts much quicker, thus allowing my to cover more ground. Granted I don't have tons of camera/production equipment to haul either.

With the cargo areas and different attachment areas/accessories available today, I don't see storage as in issue anymore. You trailer the SxS in an enclosed trailer with all your gear to camp, unload and pack up what you need for the day. Then you get to hustle to the trail head or hunt area. Get out of the SxS and hunt. If you need to get back to camp for additional equipment/charge battery's (most SxS's and ATV's now a days have charging options) then you can just drive back much quicker in the SxS vs a pickup.

Personally if you don't give something a shot and use it how you think it will work for you, then I don't think you can just ultimately dismiss it as an option.
 
Driving a side by side around with 3-4 guys on a November hunt sounds miserable. Awful nice to be able to crank the heater and have a cup of coffee when you get back to the trailhead.

If you're going with a side by side, why not get something like a four door Wrangler or TRD Tacoma? You could still pull a cargo trailer, and go anywhere the side by side legally could. A lot more comfortable than a side by side.
 
Speeddmn said:
......

Personally if you don't give something a shot and use it how you think it will work for you, then I don't think you can just ultimately dismiss it as an option.
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Fair enough. They would not be particularly useful where I hunt as it's 6+ miles to camp from the end of the road. Makes it hard for me to see where they'd help much elk hunting. There is something about getting away during elk season that appeals to me. That is why I don't like the idea of ATVs. Consequently, when I see them on a show riding through the woods hunting I lose interest immediately. Just not for me. Purely a personal thing. Deer hunting on a large property is different. I think it would be quite useful in that case. Can't explain why it appeals to me differently.
 
.
.go anywhere the side by side legally could.
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Not necessarily. The Polaris Rzr is only 50 inches wide and is legal on many trails where a Jeep cannot go.

However, it is dusty in the dry season, uncomfortable for passengers in the cold, has limited space for camera and video equipment, and may not be the best choice for Fin and his crew.

I think his current transportation system seems to work well now ... he just needs a 4x4 truck sponsor to keep him motoring in beefed-up, well-equipped, tough trucks more frequently than he upgrades now .... keeping in mind his willingness to operate machines to the maximum in the most adverse conditions. His operation is the ideal test venue for 4-wheel drives.
 
PRM said:
Fair enough. They would not be particularly useful where I hunt as it's 6+ miles to camp from the end of the road. Makes it hard for me to see where they'd help much elk hunting. There is something about getting away during elk season that appeals to me. That is why I don't like the idea of ATVs. Consequently, when I see them on a show riding through the woods hunting I lose interest immediately. Just not for me. Purely a personal thing. Deer hunting on a large property is different. I think it would be quite useful in that case. Can't explain why it appeals to me differently.
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Precisely, I haven't "hunted" from mine, but I would take it from camp to the trail head/end of road area vs my pickup. A lot of areas I hunt at here in UT are in a no OHV area anyways. But our camp sites are usually 3-8 miles down the road from where it ends. So at 4-7 mph in my pickup it takes awhile to get there, vs 20 mph or more in the SxS. Either way the vehicle would be parked in the same exact spot, and camp would be the same, it is just a tool to help save time.
 
LukeDuke said:
I have been really impressed with my Tundra. The cab is huge and I have the full size back doors. Comfortably fits 4 adults. I did have a leveling kit installed which gave me 3 inches of lift up front ant 1 inch on the rear of the truck. Handles the MN snow and ice and she did pretty good in the MT mud a few weeks ago but as you guys know, some of that stuff requires chains:) The Tundra rides like a car...love it. I was looking into the Raptors a couple of years ago. They are a beefy truck that can handle your off-road needs(gas mileage is terrible)...like 10-11 without towing anything. Maybe the new Raptors will be better in the mileage department. I think they are going to start making them again in 2017, but not 100% sure about that....just what I heard. Good luck
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I will second the vote for Toyota. I currently have a 07 Tacoma, and would be hesitant to buy anything but a Tacoma or Tundra given the performance of my truck. I have 170K hard miles on it and it still runs great. It has been from WV to CO hunting, has driven up and down sandy beaches of the Outer Banks, I drive it up and down goat paths in the mountains of WV, and I commute 180 miles a day.

I got 110K out of the original brakes! The only work ever done on this truck was the replacement of two sets of leaf springs which broke due to harsh treatment by yours truly.

There are good trucks out there...... but I could not in good conscience now purchase anything but a Toyota.
 
My 98Tacoma4x4 has 337 on it.Runs great and goes anywhere I want around here. BF has been on Graveyard Rd...lol.
My 1st 83Toyota4x4 had 565k on it and it ran great and went anywhere.
My 65F-250 4x4 had 500k on it too. My new F-150 only 73k.
A Tacoma would be best for stuff Randy does,but can't tow that trailer.
I think a Tundra TRD with all the bells and whistles ,your bumpers,shocks,leveled,power inverter added,pivoting coffee/latte and DQ holders installed and you will be blown away IMHO
A buddy said he left half his Tundra parts across NM until he did some work on it too.Now he has all his parts,and he now goes places that would pucker up even me .
 
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Randy,
Just reading this leads me to believe you could work some form of sponsorship to use one of the trucks you like (if you haven't already). You put trucks through real world challenges, the type each manufacturer wants to present their truck doing well. If a small portion, say 30 seconds, of your show covered getting to hunting locations it would give the manufacturer great press. Just a very small segment on off roading, towing, mud, snow drifts, fording rivers, packing gear, use of chains, proper underbody protection, tire selection, and so on. I would find that interesting! It's a legitimate part of the challenge of public land hunting in the west. Vehicles are integral to hunting and how they can be used is something we can all likely learn something. I know I've learned a few things reading through this.
 
PRM said:
Randy,
Just reading this leads me to believe you could work some form of sponsorship to use one of the trucks you like (if you haven't already). You put trucks through real world challenges, the type each manufacturer wants to present their truck doing well. If a small portion, say 30 seconds, of your show covered getting to hunting locations it would give the manufacturer great press. Just a very small segment on off roading, towing, mud, snow drifts, fording rivers, packing gear, use of chains, proper underbody protection, tire selection, and so on. I would find that interesting! It's a legitimate part of the challenge of public land hunting in the west. Vehicles are integral to hunting and how they can be used is something we can all likely learn something. I know I've learned a few things reading through this.
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I would definitly purchase a Randy Edition vs the Pavement Princess Edition they show in advertisements!
 
Big Fin said:
From all I have determined, you are correct. It comes with something called ALSD, Automatic Limited Slip Differential. I asked the sales guy about it and he said it was the same as a locking differential, but from all of my research it is not. Probably one of the biggest hits against the Tundra. I have found a company that can install a true locking differential in a Tundra.

Which begs the questions, "Why would Toyota not do that from the start?" My opinion is what I mentioned prior; most off-road testing and design is based on rock and sand, not snow and ice. I suspect the ALSD works great in sand. Most the truck review sites claim it works good, but none of them tested it on a snow-drifted frozen 12% Wyoming slope with 1,500# of people and gear. That is when you need a locking differential. Or when you break through a iced-over creek like happened last week and you find yourself in ice, water, and mud up to the door panels. You want all of it pulling you out of there, not whatever the computer thinks you need. Most of us are experienced enough to know more of what we need and when we need it than the computer that is probably programmed by some dude who thinks off-road demand is driving your truck from the parking lot down to the surf to pick up your board.

I made that mistake once. I was in a hurry to buy a new Titan before year-end, for tax purposes. They told me they could trick it out the same as the Pro4X package, except for the locking differential. Big mistake. It cost us a day of hunting in Nevada. Thanks to NVLongbow, the day was rescued. If I had a locking rear differential, I could have backed out of this hole. Rather, the rear end was sitting on decent tracking, but without the locking rear differential, it did not have the ability to pull the front end out of this spring that looked like a small mud hole from the driver's seat.

I don't have a "before" pic, but here is a "in the thick of it" pic. Good thing photos do not have audio, or this would be adult-rated.
View attachment 50969

Here it is, with all kinds of brush and rocks under the jack so we could lift and fill underneath. It would sink into the soup as soon as we dropped the jack, even with filling debris under the tires.
View attachment 50970

Here is the "after" pic. Finally, we cobbled together enough straps, wire, and rope that NVLongbow could pull me out with his little 4-banger Jeep. Note the foreground where you see rocks sunk into the mud. Not sure how many yards of softball sized rocks we hauled to find a bottom to that hole, but it was a lot.
View attachment 50971

Needless to say, that was the last season for that Titan without the locking rear differential. It had 56K miles on it when I traded it and it was running great. I still see it cruising the street of Bozeman, six years later. But, I vowed to never again be caught without a locking rear differential on a truck.

It is that issue that is going to be a challenge for me to get comfortable with buying a Tundra; is the Tundra's ALSD as good as a locking differential in times like that?
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Awfully liberal with the use of the word "abuse". Looks like actual use of a truck to me. It's no surprise you're stuck in these pictures running those street tires. A locked rear diff may or not have pulled you out. And the guy you winched out should have known better then to run mud tires in snow, hence he ended up in the ditch in a skiff of snow.

If the Engineers at Nissan see this use as "abuse", I'd steer clear of a Titan.

And LSD's and locked diff's in ice/snow in most cases, is the WORST. Posi-traction in the rear is a great way to make tracking extremely difficult in snow and going in circles in ice extremely easy.
 
A Tundra with an ARB locker in the rear along with the onboard air compressor would be the ticket I believe. I have a Tacoma with 186k maintenance free miles on it now, only thing I wish it had would be more cab room. Never underestimate how nice having your own air compressor is, but I certainly wouldn't let that ALSD hold me back from a Tundra....but then again, hard to argue against your luck with the Titans either.
 
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