I think this might be good consideration for a Prepper truck?

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Rick

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May I suggest this one...
Older design, simple, supremely reliable much stronger frame than the Tacoma... stronger motor too.
Due to older design superior Visibility vs the Ranger, Tacoma etc crowd for better situational awareness.
Nothing beeps at you.
All controls simple
Display simple and easy to read...
Stout enough to carry a whole bunch of preps but slim enough to fit thru tight spots a full size truck will not...

The cheapest 4x4 truck that can be bought new.. (or 1-2 years old for those who like to save money)

Yes the vid is about the top of the line trim... but there are more basic versions and used ones are affordable as well.


Work truck review
 
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I have no experience with them. I went from a Chevy Blazer, to a Chevy Trailblazer, to a Chevy Tahoe, to an Audi Q7 (which I might trade in next summer on another Tahoe). My only concern, specifically to my location, is that 95% or more of the trucks you see around here are Chevy, Dodge, or Ford. And almost always full size pickups. I see a Nissan, Honda, or Toyota pickup so rarely that they stand out to me every time I do. So spare parts could be an issue if SHTF.
 
I have no experience with them. I went from a Chevy Blazer, to a Chevy Trailblazer, to a Chevy Tahoe, to an Audi Q7 (which I might trade in next summer on another Tahoe). My only concern, specifically to my location, is that 95% or more of the trucks you see around here are Chevy, Dodge, or Ford. And almost always full size pickups. I see a Nissan, Honda, or Toyota pickup so rarely that they stand out to me every time I do. So spare parts could be an issue if SHTF.

I think fuel would be the biggest issue.. by the time I worry about spare parts I went through all my stash of fuel.. and my buds stash and whatever fuel I can buy with my silver..
I have several buds that have them.. aside from needing the switch to an improved radiator on the 05s-10s,.. these things are unbreakable.
 
I think fuel would be the biggest issue.. by the time I worry about spare parts I went through all my stash of fuel.. and my buds stash and whatever fuel I can buy with my silver..
I have several buds that have them.. aside from needing the switch to an improved radiator on the 05s-10s,.. these things are unbreakable.
One word on your fuel issues.... moonshine
 
I think there is a reason most 3rd world bad guys use AKs and drive Toyota trucks, but I am partial to Toyota.
Actually in the middle east we have seen Nissan make quite a few inroads.
In Africa also you have some Nissans .. Nigeria has the Nissan frontier and the nissan Xterra as Police vehicles. Brasil has the xterra(the SUV version of the frontier)

I the middle East its the Toyota Hilux not the Tacoma that is a frequent rebel vehicle..

The reason I mention it s because it has better reliability than the Tacoma and a known stronger frame ( off the last gen Titan) with a stronger motor (4.0 vs 3.5) while costing lots less.
To each his own .. just throwing it out there...
 
In the event of an EMP, they all will be rendered useless.
 
If I was going to buy a Japenese vehicle it would be a Toyota. I have no experience with Nissan or Toyota but every Toyota driver raves about theirs and if they sell it they get top dollar and buy another Toyota.
I drive an F150, I had a few Dodge pickups and liked them but I like my twin-turbo Ford better.
Vehicle brand comes down to personal opinion and I can see you love your Nissan.
If I wanted a truck for TEOTWAWKI I would get a 70s model Ford with a straight 6 cylinder 300ci. Those things were simple and you could not tear them up. My son's first vehicle was a 1978 F250 and that thing was bulletproof.
 
but every Toyota driver raves about theirs and if they sell it they get top dollar and buy another Toyota.

Well, I never owned anything Yota until a couple years ago, The wife needed something so we went shopping. We ended up with a Rav4 and I gotta tell ya it's a really nice vehicle. Seems well built, runs great, great mileage, good in the snow (all wheel drive) etc. I fully expect to get a quarter million miles out of it with ease.

I'm Mopar myself so I have a Dodge Ram and a Jeep.
 
I'll stay with my mid'60s to mid '70s vehicles - preferably Ford V-8 with auto transmissions.
No electronics other than the alternator to keep the vehicle running and maintenance is a breeze.
With minor mods the engines can get improved mileage and power, transmission can last for longer than you will live and you can repair 90% of the breakdowns on the side of the road. (if any occur)
In the event of an EMP you simply replace the diodes in the alternator with parts in storage and keep going. If you have a diesel in that time period once started it will continue running as long as it has fuel.
The gas engines can easily be converted to run on alcohol (ethanol) so you can "grow your own" fuel and even trade it as drinking liquor.
 
In the event of an EMP, they all will be rendered useless.
No sir.
This is an urban legend popularized by One second after.
99% of ECUs even resist by Lightning striking the car which is about 1000 times more powerful than EMP.
A study has been made with 37 (if i remember correctly) cars and an strong EMP generator..
All but 2 of the cars (which were all running) were completely unaffected.. the other two could be restarted on the first try.

The lack of fuel is what is the threat with EMP because it will bring down the grid and therefore the fuel supply.

So dont spend money on buying 1950 trucks but spend money on fuel storage...
 
BlueZ,
Go back and review those test parameters and the results. The EMP generator was limited to about half what is expected by a nuclear high altitude EMP and the effects were limited to prevent damage to the vehicles. It was a sham that made people feel good about the results. The generator used could only produce an EMP that had a rise time of 400 milliseconds compared to the HEMP rise time of .1 nanosecond.
It is unlikely that ALL cars will be completely disabled but considering the results of the tests it is apparent that most cars will suffer complete failure of the ECM while others may still "run" in "limp mode"
In the test one of the cars had to be cycled to reset the ECM before it would start and the other had to have the electronics replaced before it would run. The testing was stopped when failures began because the team had to pay for any repairs necessary due to the testing. There is no way to test at the speed and levels of an HEMP without actually setting of a nuke in space. We simply don't have the technology to produce such high power so quickly in any other way.
Note: even the military tests are conducted "to limit the failure" of the components and hardware being tested. There is an assumption that hardening can avoid catastrophic failure but no testing is provided to prove this assumption.
 
No sir.
This is an urban legend popularized by One second after.
99% of ECUs even resist by Lightning striking the car which is about 1000 times more powerful than EMP.
A study has been made with 37 (if i remember correctly) cars and an strong EMP generator..
All but 2 of the cars (which were all running) were completely unaffected.. the other two could be restarted on the first try.

The lack of fuel is what is the threat with EMP because it will bring down the grid and therefore the fuel supply.

So dont spend money on buying 1950 trucks but spend money on fuel storage...


Interesting. I have always heard and EMP will take out electronics.
 
Interesting. I have always heard and EMP will take out electronics.

It does.

But not a cars ECU.
The ECU is shielded by both the body of the car and the steel sleeve its in.
 
BlueZ,
Go back and review those test parameters and the results. The EMP generator was limited to about half what is expected by a nuclear high altitude EMP and the effects were limited to prevent damage to the vehicles. It was a sham that made people feel good about the results. The generator used could only produce an EMP that had a rise time of 400 milliseconds compared to the HEMP rise time of .1 nanosecond.
It is unlikely that ALL cars will be completely disabled but considering the results of the tests it is apparent that most cars will suffer complete failure of the ECM while others may still "run" in "limp mode"
In the test one of the cars had to be cycled to reset the ECM before it would start and the other had to have the electronics replaced before it would run. The testing was stopped when failures began because the team had to pay for any repairs necessary due to the testing. There is no way to test at the speed and levels of an HEMP without actually setting of a nuke in space. We simply don't have the technology to produce such high power so quickly in any other way.
Note: even the military tests are conducted "to limit the failure" of the components and hardware being tested. There is an assumption that hardening can avoid catastrophic failure but no testing is provided to prove this assumption.

It was not a sham. I cannot say more about this subject w/o making doxing too easy.
 
I will go back and find the test and show the parameters and the actual results and how they were limited.
 
I'm not sold on the Nissans. Pretty much everyone I've known who has had one got rid of theirs. Trans problems, rust problems including frames, and generally inferior build quality. Plus for me, the seating position is one of the worst of any vehicle I've ever tried. The Toyotas have their own problems, namely overpriced for buying pre-owned, overly complicated computer controlled systems, and lesser reliability than previous generations of Toyotas...
 
To each their own. I have no doubt each manufacture has thier own areas they are better in than others. However with nearly 40 years experience with them I'll take a toyota over nearly any other brand out there for pure reliablility. I've owned 15+ from 76 celicas to 2019 camry's, with many of them being pu's from pre tacomas to newer tundras. Never really had any maintenance issues with any of them. A few required 100,000 mile timing belt replacements, but the newer ones have went back to chains. Otherwise, brakes, oil changes, and an ocassional starter or alternator, there has been almost zero expense for maintenance. Almost everyone of them have had around 200,000+ miles on them.
I'd be hard pressed to choose anything else, unless I needed a heavy duty truck with a diesel.
 
I will go back and find the test and show the parameters and the actual results and how they were limited.
I am very familiar with this test .

If you dont like the test than look at the fact that vehicles withstand lighting strikes with no damage to ECU
I know this one looks very unscientific but there are other this one is what I found quickly:


Convertibles do not protect either the occupant or the electronics much of the time.
 
This one is sensationalized but same outcome:
 
E1,E2,E3 much has been made of the "unique characteristsics of them... but its still just electron pulses.. again the sleeve that syurrounds the ECU serves as faraday cage ( it needs to be protected against billions of EMI pulses during its lifetime) and the car itself serves as another shield.

Now electrical vehicles may be something else altogether.
The security chips in your keys I am also not 100% on and I keep a spare in a old microwave in basement
 
The unique characteristics of the E1 pulse is that it is not a series of pulses over a pan of time. It is one very fast pulse of positive voltage of 50,000 volts that cannot be grounded because the ground is charged at the same time. Faraday cages work by providing a path around a space to ground. The E1 is in the space - the environment carries the charge and it has a rise time from zero volts to 50,000 in one half of one millionth of a second. It is over with in a millisecond - one thousandth of a second. Capacitive reactance carries the charge through metal boxes to the inside. even good insulators and magnetic dampeners don't work fast enough to stop the charge.
The car body is exposed to the environment on both the inside and out. The ECU case has ports for wires (which act as antenna) that allow the pulse to get in just as quickly as the capacitive reactance transfers the pulse inside. Lightning is a polarized charge jumping from negative to positive. It is easy to redirect to ground. It is also a slow rise time and dissipates slowly too. It is nothing like the E1 pulse. As a matter of fact we have nothing short of a cosmic gamma ray burst that is equal to the E1 pulse of an HEMP.
 
I was considering a Frontier as a new-to-me vehicle, specifically the crew cab long bed variant. I was shopping new and used.
I changed my mind b/c it turned into a "get what you pay for" situation. A few highlights are...it's basically a 15 year old design now, and has the worst crash-test rating of its competitors.
You can buy a 2005 or a 2019, and get basically the same thing. The 2019 will have more electronic features, but they'll have the same mechanical bits.
The development and fixed manufacturing expenses were recouped long ago. It's kind of insulting they still charge $30k for the CCLB configuration, when competitors with MUCH newer designs are only slightly more expensive.

I shifted my focus to used full-size trucks. The capability/dollar of a full size is just so much higher. Unless you absolutely need the smaller size of the "mid-size" truck, they just aren't practical.
 
Problem is that the body & frame in most vehicles serves as half the circuit. Effectively negates Faraday protection. So the EMP effect will allow current built up. Might burn out some wires, might burn out ECM. Some vehicle may recover. We just don' t know for sure which ones, those w/o computer managers will likely not be affected or will very likely recover.
 
In the event of an EMP, they all will be rendered useless.
That is an urban legend popularized by Forstchen's famous One Second After novel but there is little or no actual basis for this expectation.
 
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