up date
thanks for all the comments. This is how this shook out, at least for now. Not too long after I let this thread die, the long suffering girl friend had a freak accadent in her Accura MDX. She is ok but the car was totaled. Front control arm broke in half and she lost control, ended up taking out a few fence posts, one the size of a rail road tie. Car was totaled. Insurance company was very fair. So, I took her to just look at a 4 runner. She loved it in every way and we bought the first and only one we looked at or drove. Dark gray, trail, premimum, 2016. I am selling the jeep so in a weird way we really ended up with a brand new 4 runner for not much out of pocket, got rid of two cars, one I hated and one that was getting long in the tooth.
Right now I cant see that it really needs anything in the way of mods or up grades. We are going to stick some sliders from Slee on it as their new design makes a little step that will be helpful and serve some purpose other than being a step. The Toyota running boards are kind of cheap looking and I'm sure would get damaged right out of the gate.
After much thought I am going to revise my hunting and fishing truck deal to a used half ton pick. With the 4 runner in the drive I am in no hurry to get out looking for that. I will use the 4 runner and if it works out I may never get a truck, if not there are about a million, half ton trucks in the used market on any given day.
One of the things that long suffering girl friend has brought to my attention is that we are two people, and we have 4 cars. She is kind of sick of having them around and she pointed out they all need insurance, tags, taxes, service, etc. She has a point there, I think I can trim that down to just two in the next year or two. I am kind of sick of always having a car "isssue". Seems like one of the 4 needs something at any given time and that means money and I'm tired of that endless loop. I really like cars and I have had some of the great ones, still have a great one or two, but at some point they are just a pain in the *** and cost too much money.
So, I am happy that she wasnt hurt, happy that she has some steel around her in what feels like a very safe rig to me, I have a very nice truck to take hunting and fishing. I am kind of bummed I will have to wash and clean this truck at the end of my trips, give it back to her in reasonable condition but I take care of my cars and gear so thats no big deal. If she gets sick of it, I'll take it and we can get her something else. The real fear is that she is in love with the 4 runner and tells me to keep my mitts off it.
I can work on plan B if that happens, but she's not like that so its all good.
Thanks guys. Mark