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Pickup with minimum ground pressure

mbavers

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
280
Location
homer alaska
I live on a gravel and dirt road and want to get a small pickup with large tires, to be used during breakup season when roads are soft. Currently have a '74 chevy, single cab, full time 4wd with 31" tires. I want a lighter truck, 4wd, that can also be used on main road for going to town (32 miles on blacktop, 3 miles on dirt). Would like to put large tires on it without the hassle of lift kits and such. Does anyone have ideas on which truck/tire combination would give me the lowest ground pressure? Small, compact truck would be fine. Thinking about S10, Ranger, SR5, etc.
 

Junkyard

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2016
Messages
3,636
Location
Claremore, OK
Occupation
Field Mechanic
If you want an easy to work on dead reliable truck an older ford ranger with the 2300 4 cylinder is hard to beat. If you look up specs on the truck you can find curb weight, research tires and you can find info that probably gives an idea of the contact patch then it's math from there. If you had an air compressor you could carry them you could air them down for the soft road and air them back up to venture to town. It's amazing how much of a difference that makes in how they get around. I'm not sure which is easier to find up there or get parts for, I think any of the compact 4x4 trucks will be similar in weight. I know when you go a little later model they have some sportier versions that were a little taller and came with a pretty good size tire from the factory. My dad had a 93 Ranger that had 31's on it factory. It had a 4.0 V6 which is a solid motor too. Tons of options really, I don't think you can go wrong Chevy, Ford or Toyota. A mini truck would work too.....

Junkyard
 

Scrub Puller

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
3,481
Location
Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair . . .
Okay . . . moderators or anyone. This is site is still acting weird.

This thread by mbavers has been up for a while, I read his first post yesterday.

This morning I opened the site, scrolled to "trucks" and it showed two replies, opened "trucks" and nothing but the original post.

This happens all the time. I have a fairly active thread on Cat road trucks and often when I go there to have a look posts don't show or are missing . . . several times my own posts were not showing, close site and reopen and then they'd all appear.

This really is getting old . . . or is it just me with that affliction? (grins)

Cheers.
 

Scrub Puller

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
3,481
Location
Gladstone Queensland Australia
Okay . . . freakin hell !!!@!.

When I posted my grumpy #4 post Junkyard's post and Mbavers "Thanks for reply" popped up, that's what happens.

I have added a post to the Cat trucks thread and two or three extra posts appear as soon as I upload. Grrr. Is it me, my computer or the site . . . anyone please?

Cheers
 

mbavers

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
280
Location
homer alaska
From my end all looks OK. Posted my query yesterday (4/14/17) and got 1 reply so far, today, from Junkyard.
 
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