Japanese SUV goodness: 2001 Isuzu Trooper

[Curtis in Texas]

Brian, you are going to appreciate teaching your girls the art of simple mechanics in a few years.

My Daughter, now 36, was in College way back when, and on a date with this Young Man when they had a flat on his pickup. No cell service back then in Mid West Texas and he was talking about walking 5 miles to the next town in the dark. My daughter asked him if he had a good spare and he said yes. She proceded to teach him how to change his tire on the truck in the dark. She called later that night and gave me the full story. She dropped him like a hot potatoe.
Said she would never get serious about a Guy who couldn't even change his own tire.

I was proud!


Trooper is looking good and although I didn't read it all tonight I will later.
Love the 3.5 Troopers. May get me one of the newer ones like yours to put under my 89 Trooper body. They drop about 1000lbs that way.

 

[BIGdaddy]

Ok here's some updated pics:

FINALLY got my fairlead mounted.


Also, here's some updated pics of my rear storage drawers. Still need to paint or carpet them, but they get used every day, so it's hard to find time.

 

[BIGdaddy]

Thanks for sharing, Curtis! Thats a GREAT story and definitely strikes a chord with how i want my girls to be when they're older.

Cheers!

Brian, you are going to appreciate teaching your girls the art of simple mechanics in a few years.

My Daughter, now 36, was in College way back when, and on a date with this Young Man when they had a flat on his pickup. No cell service back then in Mid West Texas and he was talking about walking 5 miles to the next town in the dark. My daughter asked him if he had a good spare and he said yes. She proceded to teach him how to change his tire on the truck in the dark. She called later that night and gave me the full story. She dropped him like a hot potatoe.
Said she would never get serious about a Guy who couldn't even change his own tire.

I was proud!


Trooper is looking good and although I didn't read it all tonight I will later.
Love the 3.5 Troopers. May get me one of the newer ones like yours to put under my 89 Trooper body. They drop about 1000lbs that way.

 

[BIGdaddy]

Just passed the 170,000 mile mark, stick chuggin' away with no major issues. 3.5L is using about 1 quart of oil every 1200-1400 miles.

Just changed my oil yesterday using a Puralator classic filter and good 'ol Castrol GTX 10-30. Having tried Delo 400 and Rotella with no apparent change in oil consumption for the better or worse, I decided to give my old standby a go and see how the motor likes it. Hopefully it'll improve the consumption rate, but as long as it protects my parts, I don't really mind checking my oil at gas stations, and dropping in a quart once a month. My jeep ran up to 250,000 miles with Castrol in it, and as far as I know is still chugging away getting about 15mpg.

While I was under the truck I noticed a few things that need attention:

-Very bottom edge of oil pan is fairly well exposed. I wonder if there is a skid plate, factory or otherwise that can be had?
-Both outer CV boots are now blown. I feel much better having the CV's isolated with manual hubs, but I really am going to need to repair these before they start degrading.
-Passenger lower ball joint is blown. I'm thinking new ball joints might be a good idea while I have the front suspension apart for the CV boot repair.
-Pretty well decided that I'm going with the OME 929 suspension kit, as I've got a few shocks that are weeping now. Just need to wait for some funds to be available...

 

[BigSwede]

No oil pan skid plates commercially available...Kilby used to make a full skid set for the Vehicross that very likely would have worked on Troopers as well, but they have changed hands and no longer make them.

FWIW I have never dinged the oil pan in 15 years or so of wheeling Troopers...which doesn't mean it can't happen. A front diff drop has the side effect of actually helping protect the oil pan a bit, from the front anyway, because the diff and axle are lower in front of the pan.

I don't worry about CV boots too much, I get salvage CV axles for $25-40 from a local place, so it's just not worth it to take the front end apart to replace a boot. You'd be surprised how long they will last with a split boot now that you have manual hubs.

929s are a good call. I wouldn't mind an even stiffer spring than the 929 with all the junk I am hauling now.

 

[BIGdaddy]

I had a moderately heavy load in/on the Trooper yesterday. I realized as we got home, after actively using the bumpstops the whole way, that pics would be good documentation of conditions before OME springs.

Here's the ride height with nothing abnormal being carried:

 

[BIGdaddy]

Here is the truck with 2 of my 3 kids in the back and a full couple hundred $ load from costco. Probably about 200-300lbs extra.

Looking closely, you can see that the ride height has been reduced by around 40-50% at this point.

 

[BIGdaddy]

Last picture. This final shot is with the above mentioned load, as well as our 4x8 trailer with an antique cabinet loaded up. I'm estimating tongue weight to be around 100 or so lbs, but i might be off on that?

Anyways, here's how she sat, with about 80-90% of the unladen ride height gobbled up:

 

[BIGdaddy]

Looks like you are missing part of your bump stops. The 2nd gen Troopers were designed to used the progressive bumpstops as part of the spring compression. I'd say your ready for some Old Man Emu springs and new bumpstops.

Haha, yeah, once I viewed the bigger pics on my iPad(rather than on my phone), I noticed that, too...

 

[BIGdaddy]

At one year+, I'm still enjoying the heck out of my Trooper. I got a few hours to work on some small projects. (Been busy living life and enjoying summer)

1. In the process of installing a 12v outlet in front of the rear seats using the broken stock rear seat cupholder assembly at the rear of the center console. I'll post up some progress pics when i have them.

2. Rigid, damage-magnet mud-flap delete- completed.

 

[BIGdaddy]

Going to need to think about a new set of 16" rims soon. Several of my wheels take waaay too much weight to balance. Once rotated to the back the shaking that WAS in the front is now in the back.

Need to keep it cheap, so i'm scouring CL and google for both trooper-specific wheels as well as wheels from other makes that'll work. The bolt pattern is 6x5.5 and the center bore is 108mm or, i think, about 4.25".

 

[BigSwede]

Stock Chevy wheels won't work because the center bore is too small, but you'll find a lot of Chevy truck guys selling their aftermarket wheels which usually will work. Factory wheels from Toyota and other Japanese makes will often work, too. Another option is new steelies, I am running Unique steelies from Discount Tire, they were pretty cheap.

 

[BIGdaddy]

Stock Chevy wheels won't work because the center bore is too small, but you'll find a lot of Chevy truck guys selling their aftermarket wheels which usually will work. Factory wheels from Toyota and other Japanese makes will often work, too. Another option is new steelies, I am running Unique steelies from Discount Tire, they were pretty cheap.

Cool, yeah, I was thinking about going with some nice, cheap steel rims like rockcrawlers from 4wparts. $55.00 for 15's, but the price jumps to $85.00 per rim for 16's. LAME. I know that's still cheap for a wheel, but I HATE spending money on wheels and tires, haha ($1000.00 on a bullbar - no problem. 350 on wheels? Someone call the whaaaambulance..haha)

I'll have to check out Unique's. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[BIGdaddy]

Oh, and I'll have to check around for toyota rims and see what I find. There's quite a few Japanese wreckers in the area, but none of them ever seem to carry Isuzu's. I was considering grabbing 4 spare tire rims, since they'd probably be fairly cheap and have that cool industrial look, but I'm not sure what size they usually come in. (My tires are 16's and are in great shape. At least a few more years worth of rubber left)

 

[BigSwede]

Be aware that the steelies will probably have substantially less backspacing than the factory wheels. IMO that is a good thing, as having the tires outboard more has saved my sheet metal more than once. But you do get more mud on the side of the truck!