Why Only Toyota Tacoma For Rock Crawling Pickup?

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humvee4us

Loves Light Bars
Feb 26, 2021
4
California
I've been looking at small pickups for rock crawling and I see that other than the new Jeep Gladiator all of the other ones are Toyota Tacomas. I'm wondering if there is a particular reason for this? It appears that the Ford Ranger and Chevrolet Colorado are almost identical to the Toyota Tacoma, why not use these instead? AEV even has an excellent build for the Chevrolet Colorado:
 
Simple: crawler gears for transfer cases. Marlin and others have been making them for the Toyota market for years. SO easy to drop in a set of 4.7's and turn your "normal" rig into a slow-speed crawler. The others don't have that easy ability.

Plus, the easy switch to solid axle using common/available Toyota parts. Familiarity plays a big role when you start to truggy-out a rig.
 
Simple: crawler gears for transfer cases. Marlin and others have been making them for the Toyota market for years. SO easy to drop in a set of 4.7's and turn your "normal" rig into a slow-speed crawler. The others don't have that easy ability.

Plus, the easy switch to solid axle using common/available Toyota parts. Familiarity plays a big role when you start to truggy-out a rig.
I looked at Marlin's 4.7 gears and it appears tha they're only made for older gen Tacomas and not for the newer models?
The SAS, absolutely, I've heard that it's a big olus of the Tacoma.
Besides these two examples, are there other accessories or parts that are made for the Tacoma but not for the other brands that I mentioned that are needed to mod a pickup for offroad?

Thanks
 
The Tacoma's are nice too since they don't need as many mods. Rear axle shafts can handle 37's and even 40's (if you drive smart). Marlins team is running 37's and 40's on their IFS system. Engines are going strong at 300k miles. Toyota overbuilt their drivetrains, GM/Ford barely met the minimum.

I almost never see S10's or older Rangers/BroncoII's....
 
Toyota reliability and a huge aftermarket support plain and simple= you can build a Toyota pickup for pennies on the dollar compared to the others.
Plus the early model Toyota pickups had a solid front axle that the S10s and rangers/Bronco lls didn't get. everything's a one-off custom to build them.
 

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