Troopy or HiLux

hard question what sort of condition is the wife in any rust or suspension sag and the engine is that still going strong lol

Purely from an economic perspective I would think that changing the wife would have an extremely negative impact on your financial well being.
From a purely practical and personal satisfaction point of view I would keep the Troopy and tell her to get use to it. (;0)

Now keep in mind that is just my advice to you and if you tell her I said any of this I will strenuously deny the lot. LOL

Cheers
Pop

Ask ya self, how much of this is "grass being greener" or simply unfounded perceptions.

Remember they are two very different vehicles....both with ride like a dray under the wrong circumstances.

SO..what exactly is this comfort issue.

Perhaps some money spent on some new shockies, some better designed springs and maybe some aftermarket seats, would solve most of the comfort issues.

Add a few meters of heavy automotive underfelt and you could achieve some considerable noise improvements.....with a bonus of improving the efficiency of the aircon.

If ya more or less happy with the troopie.....why not just fix the comfort issues.

cheers

What you have is far better than a Hilux and if you fit seats with suspension to it then the ride will be far more comfortable and cheaper than any vehicle trading.
Are the shocks original? They could be adding to the poor ride quality if RS. Multiple rebound of suspension is very uncomfortable and wearing on driver, passenger and vehicle components.

I used Nissan Skyline suspension rubbers and made 8 mounts for 2 Skyline seats which I fitted to a 60 series. Took the harshness out of the ride.
The engine you have is a good engine and at 125,000km any dealing means you WILL lose on the investment you made in buying a troopy.

Ross M

you wont loose too much money on the troopy if you sell it.
with the last model 2006 and only 125k's its still a pup.
should pull 40 grand easy with those k's..

DONT SELL the TROOPY.
look at parabolic suspension.
they have a dealer in WA, or somewhere.
beautifull ride when empty or full.
expensive but the blokes who go that way would do it again in a heartbeat..
all you will need is 2 leafs for the rear, and get the shocks off them, or get custom set made up, the parabolics require a certain shock to work well with the springs.
once achieved a beautifull ride is achieved.

hilux is a great vehicle, but in no where near to what the cruiser is capable or robust.



even chinaman say....... keep troopy.
get wid of wife..
problem solfed.....

Our Troopy has heavy-duty rear springs and shocks which support the high load well but are a pretty solid ride.
The answer was fitting a pair of Stratos 3000LTSS suspension seats. They made an unbelievable difference to ride comfort......... we simply float along yet still have the robust suspension needed for our areas of travel.
Would be a cheaper option than changing either the vehicle or wife!
I've actually never heard of someone dumping a troopy. LOL

Troopy all day every day suspension , shocker work great model you have stick with it.

Mate I owned 2 troppy's and had the last one for 17 years. The reason I sold it was because it was getting long in the tooth and I just can't be buggered swinging spanners anymore if something goes wrong.

As you say yours is a pup and with the right spring setup it will be as good as the new ones.

The missus has probably enough of the spartan interior. This can be updated by the edition of good buckets and then a center console + somewhere to put your coffee cup.

Our old girl had all that as over the years I just fiddled around until I got it right.

I followed a dual cab BT50 out of Jim Jim falls and boy I hope he had taken sea sick pills. Our old girl was doing it easy and the person pulled over and let us go. This was all with a fully leaf sprung troopy.

Spend $5000 and you have one of the best touring/load carrying vehicles vehicles ever made. I didn't go down this track because I couldn't justify paying out for a new troopy.

Well this "Troopy (long-in-the-tooth) girl" wouldn't be changing away from a Troopy, especially if you aim to travel to anywhere off the bitumen. Since it is alleged that we wimmin seldom say what we really mean perhaps a good heart-to-heart might be useful to find out what the issue really is.

Does your wife drive the Toopy? Does she have a constant commentary on how to change gears etc. Maybe its something along those lines that she means about comfort:-)

But if the troopy is a daily driver she may have a point about comfort - but as others have said, there are a few things you can do to improve the ride.

IMHO Troopys are fun to drive especially off road, and have excellent visibility.

Cheers,

Val

Mate

I was in a similar situation many many years ago when I was heavily involved in motorcycles - both racing and non racing ! We were young, big mortgage and not flushed with money but I priced up a brand spanking new road bike and showed the now ex wife the glossy brochures and she said to me " if you buy that bike I'm leaving ! "

12 good, happy, enjoyable trouble free years I got out that bike !


Choose wisely my friend !!


All the best


Gazz

Thanks to all who responded to my husbands query. Even those who questioned my level of rust and sagginess.
Looks like we will be spending some more money on the Troopy to keep me happy: consols and seats. We do have adjustable tough dog shocks, but he can now set them for a softer ride. It will be cheaper than an apparently new inferior ute. Mind you, we have had 2 troopys before this one, and have done most of the desert tracks. AB, Tanami, Gary Junction, GCR etc plus 5 crossings of the Simpson. But as I get older, I thought more comfort would be nice. The mention of the soft ute coming out of JimJim Falls sold me on keeping the Troopy. Binns Track this year.
There sure seems a lot of loyal Troopy owners out there.

In my case I thing our current troopy has the most comfy ride of most 4x4's we've owned...mostly utes and even a Hiliux, as "the passenger" most of the time I found supsension always too harsh.
The troopy we have now has newish OME suspension (although DH thinks it's a bit too soft so probably will go to Tough Dog nex) it's the old dash new engine type lol.

I think once retirement comes around (some years to go till the kids are old enough to even think about leaving home) then I'll definitely buy a new seat, the stock ones just don't do it after a few hours, and it's a GXL model that has two buckets with a bench in the rear rather than the sideways facing ones.

I wouldn't go for an old design Hilux, had one didn't like it, it felt like it always wanted to drift around gravel corners.
Hubby loved his old 79 series ute but it wasn't practical with the kids, he loves the V8 engine in the troopy more anyway.
We even had an 80 series, which was pretty good but ended up being too porky weight wise after all the goodies were added (draws, wheel carrier etc etc), bit of a safety hazard when your car is too close to GVM.

I would consider a new cruiser ute only if we were dead set on having a tray top camper jobbie or something to that effect. Really though I'd probably rather the troopy and a camper trailer if need be, at least you can leave it behind for day trips.

Hey you could always look at one of the new troopys, v8 engine, more modern dash and probably even an airbag or two lol! Although knowing Toyota you probably still need to replace the seats anwyay!

I think I am in agreement with pretty well everyone else. Had a hi lux and now have a 60 series LC (which is fairly comparable to a Troopy) The Hilux was actually considerably dearer to run. It used a little less fuel but things kept breaking. Your answer might depend on how much you want to use it off road and how much time you spend driving it in the city. If you go in the rough stuff, I'd be keeping the Troopy. If you spend a lot of time city driving, I'd lean to the Hi Lux.
And I agree with everyone about getting better seats. We put some cheap Honda buckets into our 60 series (done with proper engineering approvals). The comfort difference has been huge.