Daihatsu Mini-Truck

[AchingBack]

I know some of you guys are into mini-trucks. I have looked at the Suzuki Carry All, with a dump bed, and recently a Daihatsu. I was told the load capacity was only 780 lbs. Can that be correct? In comparison, I have a garden cart that has a 400# weight load. How could this mini-truck be rated so low? If so, is there something one could do to beef up the suspension? My main use would be moving shale to low spots in my 1/4 mile driveway.

 

[Dargo]

I actually bought one and only kept it for a week. The guy I got it from had Suzuki, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi and Honda mini-trucks. The Honda ones were bringing a premium price. I bought a Suzuki, but they all were very similar in almost every aspect. Even with 4 wheel drive I got stuck immediately in about 2" of slick mud in my yard. They need ATV type tires to get any traction. However, to put those tires on it required cutting of a lot of sheet metal and making up your own lift kit. I wasn't keen on cutting out 5 or 6 inches of metal around the wheel wells. It's been a couple years ago, but I think those mini trucks only have 12" wheels on them. I put in about 500 pounds of landscaping rocks in the bed of mine and it was about mashed to the ground in the rear and handled terrible. I took a few hundred loss just to get rid of it. The way I see it, a guy could make one really nice but would have to spend about $5k on it plus a couple hundred hours of work. Needless to say, you can see where I'm going with this. That is when I saw clearly that it was better to buy something made to do what I wanted rather than try to get off cheap and make my own version which, in the long run, wasn't going to be cheap anyway. Besides, where I live none of the mini-trucks can be road legal. That would have been the only thing that may have made it worth the trouble.

 

[AchingBack]

Thanks Dargo, this is just what I needed to hear. I'll keep my dough in my pocket. I agree with you about the Street Legal aspect. That would make a big difference.

 

[dfkrug]

I actually bought one and only kept it for a week. The guy I got it from had Suzuki, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi and Honda mini-trucks. The Honda ones were bringing a premium price. I bought a Suzuki, but they all were very similar in almost every aspect. Even with 4 wheel drive I got stuck immediately in about 2" of slick mud in my yard. They need ATV type tires to get any traction. However, to put those tires on it required cutting of a lot of sheet metal and making up your own lift kit. I wasn't keen on cutting out 5 or 6 inches of metal around the wheel wells. It's been a couple years ago, but I think those mini trucks only have 12" wheels on them. I put in about 500 pounds of landscaping rocks in the bed of mine and it was about mashed to the ground in the rear and handled terrible. I took a few hundred loss just to get rid of it. The way I see it, a guy could make one really nice but would have to spend about $5k on it plus a couple hundred hours of work. Needless to say, you can see where I'm going with this. That is when I saw clearly that it was better to buy something made to do what I wanted rather than try to get off cheap and make my own version which, in the long run, wasn't going to be cheap anyway. Besides, where I live none of the mini-trucks can be road legal. That would have been the only thing that may have made it worth the trouble.

Interesting experience, DARGO. I helped a friend buy a Suzuki Carry and he
loves it. It has 4x4 and an open truck bed with hinged sides, but no dump
feature. You are right the tires are small and have street tread, so better
tires would be nice if taken off-road. It drives great on the road, but is
governed by the importer to only 25mph, I am told. Not street legal, of
course. Oh yeah, lockable rear differential, too. Weather-tight cab
and excellent quality construction.

I did not know that larger loads would overwhelm the suspension, but it
sure looks like it would carry more than a Gator, Mule, or RTV. The owner
used to have a GEM electric mini-truck and that was a disaster in terms of
traction as it was FWD only.

 

[Dargo]

It drives great on the road, but is
governed by the importer to only 25mph, I am told.

Oh, that can be taken off in about 5 minutes. My property is over a mile from the south end to the north end. I'd guess it would run 50 or 60 no problem. I don't recall why they block off the upper gears from being used. I know they had to before they could import them. I can see where the mini-trucks would be great on a huge ranch that is dry and mostly flat, but they just don't do what I needed. I tried to make mine something it wasn't.

 

[dfkrug]

Oh, that can be taken off in about 5 minutes. My property is over a mile from the south end to the north end. I'd guess it would run 50 or 60 no problem. I don't recall why they block off the upper gears from being used. I know they had to before they could import them. I can see where the mini-trucks would be great on a huge ranch that is dry and mostly flat, but they just don't do what I needed. I tried to make mine something it wasn't.

Is that how they do it? Block the shifter from higher gears? I did not check
that and I only drove the Suzuki at lower speeds up to about 25 when I
was trying it out. The cab-over design is very space-efficient. I don't
need one here, but it kills me that farmers and ranchers pay $10K-15K for
new Mules, Gators, Rhinos, LandPrides, and Kubota RTVs, when you can
get these Japanese micro-trucks for $3500-5000.

 

[atgreene]

Our Fire Dept bought one instead of an atv. We had the lift kit and atv tires put on it.

Thus far, I have taken it to two fires and I'm not impressed. We tried to climb a mountain with it and ended up winching it up each time up the hill (very steep, but an atv with weight on the front could make it unaided) and coming down the hill, I did the Joey Chitwood Stunt Show. The vehicle literally stood on the two front wheels and rode on the front bumper with the rear tires off the ground. I had to make 4 trips up the mtn to haul equipment and no matter how we tried it, it was a hairy ride. No one would ride with me, not sure why?

My Polaris Big Boss 6x6 is much better and hauls more weight, but has less space. Of course the Suzuki has a/c and a cab.

 

[Dargo]

I believe ya. That's why I said they'd be best suited for "a mostly flat" dry place. Although I gave up on mine before I spent more on it than a good side by side would cost, I figured out right away that they aren't the most agile or capable machines off road.

 

[dfkrug]

Our Fire Dept bought one instead of an atv. We had the lift kit and atv tires put on it.

Thus far, I have taken it to two fires and I'm not impressed. We tried to climb a mountain with it and ended up winching it up each time up the hill (very steep, but an atv with weight on the front could make it unaided) and coming down the hill, I did the Joey Chitwood Stunt Show. The vehicle literally stood on the two front wheels and rode on the front bumper with the rear tires off the ground. I had to make 4 trips up the mtn to haul equipment and no matter how we tried it, it was a hairy ride. No one would ride with me, not sure why?

My Polaris Big Boss 6x6 is much better and hauls more weight, but has less space. Of course the Suzuki has a/c and a cab.

To what do you attribute the limitations? Not a low enough 1st gear? Too
much front weight bias? What?

You and DARGO have experience with these micro-trucks off road...I do not.
Do tell.

(BTW, I had to Google Joey--Joie Chitwood.)

 

[AchingBack]

This link will take you to All Terrain Mini Trucks, and a specification chart comparing the following: Mini Trucks, JD Gator, Cub Cadet, Kawasaki Mule, Kubota RTV900
Compare - Japanese Kei Mini Trucks To Standard Utility Vehicles

I'm glad I found this because I was confused, and thought the payload capacity of these mini - trucks was only 600 lbs., which is puny, but that is the cab capacity. Whereas the payload is actually 1200 - 1500 lbs.

Now, I just may reconsider, as I see it will be more feasible to move larger loads of shale, and soils with one of these rigs. The beds are approximately 4 yards.

 

[atgreene]

Here's what I found:

Ours is a Suzuki 5 speed manual 4 wd with locking rear, right hand drive.

The truck will do about 45 mph with a stiff tailwind. Not enough hp or torque to climb hills on-road as it quickly looses momentum and you have to downshift to 3rd to climb any hills. Not sure what it would do loaded, as we leave the bed empty and load what we need from other fire apparatus when we get there.

The truck is so nose heavy that if you try to come downhill on a steep slope it lifts the rear wheels. We had ff's ride in the back to hold it down, but I was concerned for their safety as we were on a skidder road and the ground was very rough. I opted to have them climb out and do the ride-the-front-bumper thing.

As far as climbing, it spun out very easy. I tried it in L gear (ours has a creeper, but no low range) and locked in the hubs. Even with 2 guys in the cab there is no way it would make it. As soon as the ground got uneven it spun and as soon as that happened all forward momentum stopped. I've done a lot of wheeling on and off road, driven everything with wheels, and really was disapointed with it's climbing ability.

Load carrying is limited. When we did load it down with stuff (Indian tanks, hose, pumps, gear, drinking water totaling maybe 6-800 lbs) it wanted to burn the clutch on the steep parts. May have been a clutch issue, as I sent it out and they put a new one in it, but didn't seem to be able to pull or haul much when loaded.

Stability is better than I expected. Even when on its nose it really did ok. I was impressed with that. It felt like it was going to go over numerous times, and only a couple times we had to have fire fighters grab it and hold it from rolling over. Admitedly, we were in a very rough, very steep area. Certainly nothing a pick-up would go in. I suspect, and my father likewise agreed, a Willeys Jeep would have been much better suited for what we were doing.

Ground clearance was an issue. The pan under the tranny hooked up on a couple stumps (we were in ferns and weeds, so objects in the trail were hard to spot). The tranny plate was slightly bent when we finished and the underside had dragged across numerous rocks, but nothing was badly damaged. The antenae did get broken off from low hanging branches.

The other times I have used it, it worked great for minor off road stuff where a decent trail is present. It's not an atv and not a jeep, but for an enclosed vehicle to run bales of hay around for feed or to fix fence, probably would be handy. I will say, I'm 5 11 and 250 and the cab is tight. Not easy to get in and out of.

All in all, if I had my way I'd sell it and get a Big Boss 6x6 or a Polaris Ranger (we had both at the fire and they all made it where the Suzuki had to winch itself). I'm only second in command, so I can't get rid of it. JMHO

Here's a few pics, of course only one has a glimpse of the truck. I was more interested in the chopper than the truck, sorry.

 

[Dargo]

To what do you attribute the limitations? Not a low enough 1st gear? Too
much front weight bias? What?

You and DARGO have experience with these micro-trucks off road...I do not.
Do tell.

(BTW, I had to Google Joey--Joie Chitwood.)

I think the previous post sums it up well. It fits with what I experienced. That is why I said they'd be okay on a flat dry ranch for light duties. It wouldn't handle even close to half the weight my Kubota RTV900 would and it did poorly off road. I think mine would run a little faster on the road, but it too really suffered from low power when going up hills on the road and I had to downshift even when empty. If they won't do what you want with no modifications, it would be cheaper (believe it or not) to just buy a Gator or RTV to start with. Even with numerous and expensive modifications it will still fall far short of the others if used much. Remember that taller more aggressive tires will gear it up and make it feel like it has even less power. I was happy to only lose $500 when I dumped mine. They are really hard to sell. A lot of people looked at it but it seemed nobody wanted it.

 

[Dargo]

This link will take you to All Terrain Mini Trucks, and a specification chart comparing the following: Mini Trucks, JD Gator, Cub Cadet, Kawasaki Mule, Kubota RTV900
Compare - Japanese Kei Mini Trucks To Standard Utility Vehicles

I'm glad I found this because I was confused, and thought the payload capacity of these mini - trucks was only 600 lbs., which is puny, but that is the cab capacity. Whereas the payload is actually 1200 - 1500 lbs.

Now, I just may reconsider, as I see it will be more feasible to move larger loads of shale, and soils with one of these rigs. The beds are approximately 4 yards.

Um, that "comparison" will mislead you at best. I had a direct comparison to the RTV myself. That "comparison" takes a very, very generous view of the mini-truck. I assure you that if you go by that for a buying decision, you'll regret it. If I put 4 yards of dirt on a mini-truck, it will be ready for the scrap heap. That amount of my wet heavy clay soil would weigh well over 10,000 pounds. My RTV hauled and dumped hundreds of 2000+ pound loads. I have pictures of that on here. The mini-truck really can't handle half that and wouldn't even dump what it did haul.

As I said before, they are okay for what they are. They just really won't compete well with a work designed side by side. I'd really suggest avoiding any dealer who claims they will. They don't seem too honest based on my actual experience with the trucks.

 

[farmboy12]

This link will take you to All Terrain Mini Trucks, and a specification chart comparing the following: Mini Trucks, JD Gator, Cub Cadet, Kawasaki Mule, Kubota RTV900
Compare - Japanese Kei Mini Trucks To Standard Utility Vehicles

I'm glad I found this because I was confused, and thought the payload capacity of these mini - trucks was only 600 lbs., which is puny, but that is the cab capacity. Whereas the payload is actually 1200 - 1500 lbs.

Now, I just may reconsider, as I see it will be more feasible to move larger loads of shale, and soils with one of these rigs. The beds are approximately 4 yards.

As Dargo said, it puts alot of favor to the mini-truck. Also, the comparison isn't the most accurate, it lists the RTV as a gas utv. Gotta look at and know your opponents to truly compare.


Kyle

 

[nathan812]

I have had a mitsubushi truck for about 8 months. I love it! It has gone anywhere I wanted it to go. I have a 2 inch lift with atv tires on it. I have really enjoyed it the last couple of months when the temps have been cold the heater is really nice. As far as speed it will run up to 60-65 mph and gets between 35-40 mpg. I have even loaded my welder (miller bobcat) cutting torch, and all of the assc. items for welding and used it to weld around the place. In Oklahoma they just made them legal on certain roads but don't know the details yet. I think for the money you can't beat them on the farm they even make a little cake feeder for the back of them to feed cattle out of.

 

[leebbb]

I've had a Diahatsu hi-jet for 2 years now. It'll do 75 wound out on the highway, gets 40 miles to the gallon if you keep it at 55mph. In 2 years I've put 22000 miles on it and the only repair has been to replace the alternator belt. I use it on the farm alongside a '07 gator hpx. I've had over a ton of feed on it and it did squat a little, but has toted that much many times. It's not quite as good in a mudhole as the gator, but will go further than most full size 4x4 trucks. It cost half as much as the gator and will do 99% as much and doesn't use as much gas to do it. They are great little trucks.

 

[grumpy64]

I have a daihatsu hijet and I usually carry 2000lbs .it has a3inch lift with Afco 275lb springs. I also run14inch mudders. The top speed is 86mph and it will go anywhere.