Small truck that can handle?

I'm looking for a small pickup that can be made to handle reasonably well. I know all about S10s, I've owned a first gen and a second gen. I hate the second gen interior. I like first gen Tacomas, but they come with Tacoma asking prices... Plus regular cab short beds with a stick don't pop very often in my area. A Nissan Frontier with the VQ40 and a manual trans sounds awesome, but most aftermarket stuff for them seems off-road oriented. I know I don't want a twin i beam Ranger, but I don't know whats available for the SLA setup either. How terrible is the torsion bar front end on Nissan Harbodies?

I feel like at this point I should be researching more into Colorados and 99+ Rangers, but am I overlooking anything else? My only requirements are EFI and something that cranks out more than 98hp.

4.0 2wd Ranger with a manual (is that possible?). Here's a 4/5 drop from the internet:

 2/3 drop for cheap. I'm sure a lower COG will help with cornering:

https://djmsuspension.com/product/djm3098-23/

I stand by this answer

The real answer is ranger with a light drop.

Dakota.....

Get a V8 stick and you have something that can handle pretty good with a not large amount of $$$

https://denver.craigslist.org/ctd/d/denver-2001-dodge-dakota-regular-cab/7018659467.html

In reply to bmw88rider :

Wow. a regular cab shortbed V8 for $2500! I never see anything like that in southern AZ. 99% of all Dakotas I see for sale are 4x4 V6 and extended cabs.

In reply to ebonyandivory :

I do actually like the look of that Ranger. I don't know if i've seen any 4.0 with a standard, pleny of 4 bangers with standards though. The duratec 2.3 made around 140hp I think in the later models, still almost 150% the power of my old 2.2 S10.

Does anyone know how heavy the first gen Colorados are?

Nothing wrong with torsion bars, they're the exact same thing as a coil spring, just straight. They can be very, very adjustable.

I wouldn't use anything twin-I beam just because of the nightmares involved when changing ride height.

Plenty with the 4.0L and an M5OD manual.  I own one.

As can be expected, they get less and less common the newer you go.  Mine is a 94, and someone on the ranger forums said that sometime in the early 90s was when Rangers actually started selling more automatics than manuals.  So, chances are, the older you go, the more likely you are to find a manual.

I got lucky with my 94 and it was a super-low-mile FL truck, so no rust.

If you really want easy handling, find the nicest S-truck you can.  GM suspension parts bin shopping means you can likely out-handle a camaro with junkyard parts.  I had a Sonoma ZQ8 (the lowered version.  It was the S10 "splash" without the plastic ground effects and other junk).  Even in stock form it handled quite well.  You would be surprised at how many F and B body parts swap into those trucks.

I've heard that with the earlier boxy S-trucks, AWD is a wrecked Astrovan away.

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Ranger's never came in 4.0 and 2WD, that's engine and transmission swap territory. 

JesseWolfe said:

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Ranger's never came in 4.0 and 2WD, that's engine and transmission swap territory. 

Sure they did. Most 4.0's came with automatics and extended cab bodies, so finding a 4.0, manual, RWD truck won't be easy, but they do exist. A coworker even had the 4.0/manual/RWD combo in a regular cab/short bed truck. I think it had torsion bars instead of SLA though.

I've got a 2000 Ranger with the DJM 4/5 drop, Roush front and rear sway bars, big sticky tires, 04 Cobra disc brakes and a whipple supercharged flex-fuel 3.0. It's a fun truck for what it is:

 

 

 

Around here (rust belt) it really seems like I see a lot more Rangers on the road than S10s, and the 98+ trucks had rack and pinion steering which is nicer than the recirculating ball steering that the GMs had. There are some junkyard upgrades for sway bars and steering racks from older Explorers of that era, but that's about it. Nobody even sells drop spindles for these things.

That being said, S10s seem to have far more options for factory and aftermarket stuff, and those parts are usually cheaper too.

JesseWolfe said:

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Ranger's never came in 4.0 and 2WD, that's engine and transmission swap territory. 

Curtis above seems to disagree but he may be referring to 4wd. 

I will second the s10 argument, mine handles far better than it has any right too...

In reply to STM317 :

Dude, that thing is HAWT! Those wheels are perfect.

What do the mini truck guys do about the leaf springs in the rear to make it handle?  Is there a watts link kit or something for these trucks?

I used to have a 2nd Gen Tacoma (4x4 V6, so not really the ones we're talking about here) and the thing I hated the most about it was the rear end, I could feel it "wind up" if you tried to push it at all while cornering.  That was with a set of MS2's, I can't even imagine how bad it would be with actual sticky tires.  I always wondered how it would do with some sort of lateral locating device like a panhard or watts link, since the front end was actually really good with nice steering feedback.  I never did anything with it because it was a $30,000, 30,000 mile truck and welding to the frame didn't seem like a good idea, but I was always curious.  

I also own an 04 4.0 2wd 5spd Ranger. Took a bit of looking and a flyn'buy but it was well worth it.

https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/modern-history-lesson-toyota-tacoma-x-runner-281474979823425

x runner had a close ratio 6 speed, lots of chassis bracing and an LSD from the factory..  It's my choice.

they look odd with all the plastic bits glued to them, but they are proper factory hot roded truck.

In reply to rothwem :

There are multi link kits if you want to double the cost of the truck. Spring sliders and an lsd go a long way though. And adding a rear bar. 

I should point out the 4.0 is still pretty slow but it can haul when needed. 70 mph no problem.

In reply to Hasbro :

I stand corrected.  I'd never seen one for sale or even listed as an available option when they were new.  All my internet research told me 4.0, 8.8 and 4WD went hand in hand, and the 4.0 wasn't available any other way.

I would go with the X-Runner in this case. It's what Toyota designed for your purpose in mind

One of the best handling vehicles that ever came to the GRM $2000 Challenge was a Jeep Cherokee with solid axles front and rear and leaf springs. 

Just saying...

Left field suggestions: Subaru Baja (optionally lowered),  and depending on how old you want to go, Dodge Rampage. 

Just to add a data point, the X Runner weighs over 3800lbs.

The Ranger I posted above is 3300-ish with a heavy cast iron V6.

A duratec/5 spd Ranger is much closer to 3000lbs flat

Stock for stock, I've always preferred the handling of ford trucks to gm trucks. But for projects, IMO the s10 wins every time since it's just a gm metric chassis. I've been batting around this idea in my head recently also, so I priced out some suspension bits for a S-dime and it came to like $1500 for basically reconfiguring the entire front suspension and making sure the rear end could keep up. Add another 800-1000 for rear coil overs and you basically transformed the entire chassis for less than 3k. 

In reply to STM317 :

Ooh. Details on 3.0 whipplecharger?