Buying a troopy

As far as rust goes, the troopies were very good - had a friend with a 73model - did a bit of beach work, and when he sold it 8 years later, no rust.

If its been well serviced (5k oil changes) then the engine should be fine.
The gearbox was probably the weakest part, so check for any rumbles in any gear, or neutral. An inspection by a 4wd workshop is usually worth the money.

Diesel costs the same as unleaded outside the city. A diesel troopie is a lot more economical than a petrol troopie. I own a diesel because of its exceptional range when 4wding and out in the desert, and its safer to carry extra in jerries. And I like the smell and the greasy feeling through my fingers :-))

Cheers
Phil

If you buy it the first thing you should do is go to your toyota dealer and buy a 20ltr drum of toyota coolant and flush out the old coolant . If i had of done this when i bought mine i would have saved myself $600 for a new radiator .

I concur with the comments made by the other replies. You could also have a good look around the output driveshaft seals on the transferbox & diffs. If they are leaking it is usually a sign of internal wear of components breaking down & contaminating the oil which causes the seals to wear. Also as mentioned in previous posts in this forum-to check the 5th.gear spline wear by removing the power take-off cover on the transfer box & see if there is any movement on the gear.(i.e if they will allow you to do this). There should be no backlash!! The 1HZ motor is a good economical diesel for its capacity & turbo fitting will also improve the economy. On average you should get around 7.0 km/ltr depending on the load carried & how much lead is on the throttle. Hope this helps. Cheers.

engines are good but can crack heads if overheated. always pays to get them up to operating temp and remove the radiator cap (carefully ) and look for bubbles. get it up to highway speed then take tour foot of the load pedal and let it coast down to 40kph - make sure it doesnt jump out of fith. Look for overdone detailing it could be covering up an ex miner. poke your fingers in the chassis holes and see if the chasis is full of mud. taste the mud/dust if it tastes salty it is a miner. prob will use around 13l per100k where a petrol will use around 5l per100k more - do the math (if you can find one) I have just bought an 80 with 200k and it goes just fine. Other thing is just drive it no 2 1hz seem to go the same make sure this one has plenty of go (for a 1hz anyway) Turboeing a 1hz is not recomended as they are not built for it (toyota make significant mods to their turbo motors they are not just the same motor with a turbo attached). Give it a flat out run - anything above 1/2 on the temp gauge spells a problem somewhere. Get the brakes checked they can be chewed out if run in muddy conditions and are often are an unexpected cost at 1st sevice (if they need work it is a good tool to bargain the price down). After the flat out run leave it idling for 5 min then crawl under liooking for leaks that were steam cleaned (transfer case is a good place to look as are diffs). Take it onto dirt make sure it engages low range easily then do 2 circles on full lock each way listen for the cv joints clicking and any other untoward noises. Check accesories (where fitted work) check springs and hangers for cracks. check shockers after your drive making sure they dont leak (further testing is hard on leaf sprung vehicles) jack up front wheels one at a time checking for play in steering/bearings. check behind the wheels the "ball" the wheel ataches to should be dry or just a light film of grease leaking oil from here is expensive.
I have driven plenty of utes of this vintage (same driveline etc) they are very tough and reliable but can break in the suspension/brakes front end areas when used for mining rest is rock solid even when used for mining
I have driven

Thanks everyone for your replies - much appreciated.
Regards,

Olie

Check the 'A' pillars carefully for cracks, at the top of the windscreen and open the front doors and check at the join between the roof and the lower part of the body shell.
Check for a roof rack being fitted previously.
If it is cracked, get a quote for a proper fix. I'd leave it if it was cracked.
The body has no diagonal strength apart from the windscreen so any heavy load on the roof an/or a bad roof rack will crack the 'A' pillars. Toyota deny it is a design fault however they stock a repair kit and the later models have extra bracing in the 'A' pillars. I would expect the 95 model to have this.
They are heavy on rear brakes, usually requireing new shoes every 20,000k's.

Would I buy another, you bet. Loved it.
Replace the seats with aftermarket ones. you'll never regret it.