Interested in a Nissan Hardbody D21 Pickup, school me on them.
- Thread starter Dwood1466
- Start date
D
Deleted member 9101
Guest
I can only vouch for the frontier, I had a 2002 Desert runner.. awesome little truck. Got 22-24 MPG and pulled 4k trailer very well. The little V6 makes a ton of TQ down low and will run for ever. As for the hard bodies, I have never owned one but have friends who love them and claim they are indestructible.
I had an 86 1/2 KA24 4wd KC, bought new, that I gave to my son-in-law a couple years ago. He wrecked it but it was running great. Nearly 300k miles. Over the years, I replaced the alternator, carrier bearing, clutch a couple of times, and normal maintenance - great truck. Off road was pretty much going hunting in Alabama - did great
i had a 96 D21 for a few months before i decided it wouldn't work for what i wanted to do with it. don't bother looking at regular cabs unless he's under 6' tall. most of the king cabs will be v6/auto, but the autos are not bad so long as they've been maintained and not beaten on. if you find a reg cab/5spd/4cyl, it will have manual hubs, v6 got a bit beefier front axle and auto hubs. ARB makes a locker for the rear h223 and front r200a(v6 only). you can do some googling to find out how to identify which axle and ratio it has.
Xterror04
New member
I used to have one
I absolutley loved the truck... the weak spot is the steering... but adding a idler arm brace from either www.calmini.com or www.4x4parts.com will save the steering alot of stress... Im 6'1 and i fit in mine fine.... the 4 cylinders sometimes wear out the timing chain guides... just depends on how well maintained it was... but those ka24 motors are also easy to work on and easy to come by.... Mine towed a 20' pontoon easy...
I absolutley loved the truck... the weak spot is the steering... but adding a idler arm brace from either www.calmini.com or www.4x4parts.com will save the steering alot of stress... Im 6'1 and i fit in mine fine.... the 4 cylinders sometimes wear out the timing chain guides... just depends on how well maintained it was... but those ka24 motors are also easy to work on and easy to come by.... Mine towed a 20' pontoon easy...
jpvm
Explorer
Well I also had a D21 for over 12 years, mine was a King Cab , that took me everywhere , it never left me down although I made so many changes on it (turbocharged engine, tires of every size , lifts, body lifts, solid axle swap, V6 engine swap, etc.), Its a great little truck with a high level of dependability. A desing ahead of its age (it came out in 1990), I still miss mine.
I even made it in the 4Wheel & Off Road mag, and the 4Wheeler Mag ....
I even made it in the 4Wheel & Off Road mag, and the 4Wheeler Mag ....
NissanD21/720
New member
My opinion and experience
Well I have the 1984 720 single cab 4 cylinder 5speed(look on my profile for specifications) and in my opinion it is a great LITTLE truck. In the older models they beds were poorly welded so try have a tendency to rust. No major repairs needed other then that. It's about to hit 200k and it's still running. Up until 1993 all the Nissan hoods were non crumple so if u hit anything it wont be ruined. It has plenty of power for it's size. I also have a 1993 D21 v6 5 speed extended cab 4x4(it's the successor to the 720 both are known as Nissan hardbodies) and other then replacing a rear main seal and a carrier bearing it's been great. Even though it has a bigger motor it feels slightly sluggish in comparison to the 4 cylinder models. My buddy has the Toyota version of my truck and his problem was the timing belt broke and sense the pistons and values can collide it ruined the motor. Our old buddy mr d21 does not have that issue because they left a slight gap so if it did come out of timing they pistol could not hit the values... Yes the gap means slightly lower performance but it is far better in the long run. Oh and I almost forgot to mention if you keep stock suspension and just jack the tortion bars it is very difficult to keep the tires in alignment. They don't go out of alignment much but it does come out enough to do some extra tire wearing.
Well I have the 1984 720 single cab 4 cylinder 5speed(look on my profile for specifications) and in my opinion it is a great LITTLE truck. In the older models they beds were poorly welded so try have a tendency to rust. No major repairs needed other then that. It's about to hit 200k and it's still running. Up until 1993 all the Nissan hoods were non crumple so if u hit anything it wont be ruined. It has plenty of power for it's size. I also have a 1993 D21 v6 5 speed extended cab 4x4(it's the successor to the 720 both are known as Nissan hardbodies) and other then replacing a rear main seal and a carrier bearing it's been great. Even though it has a bigger motor it feels slightly sluggish in comparison to the 4 cylinder models. My buddy has the Toyota version of my truck and his problem was the timing belt broke and sense the pistons and values can collide it ruined the motor. Our old buddy mr d21 does not have that issue because they left a slight gap so if it did come out of timing they pistol could not hit the values... Yes the gap means slightly lower performance but it is far better in the long run. Oh and I almost forgot to mention if you keep stock suspension and just jack the tortion bars it is very difficult to keep the tires in alignment. They don't go out of alignment much but it does come out enough to do some extra tire wearing.