First post, first Tacoma, first truck!

Definitely new to the truck side of things, but definitely not Toyotas(my username applies to another AWD Toyota I've got in my stable, haha).

Basically, I'm getting(somewhat soon; I'm waiting until my dream/project car gets out of surgery for the handoff) a hand me down '95 Tacoma from my stepdad. It's about as base model as it gets, 2WD, 2RZ-FE engine(2.4L), 5-speed manual, absolutely no options. Even has the 100% bench seat(I'd like to swap out for buckets, but that will be some time from now). Mileage unknown; all we know is that the odo broke at 100K.



While this beast is a poverty-spec beater that has seen better days, it's been stone cold reliable for my family the past several years my stepdad's owned it. It's served as a backup vehicle for me when others were getting serviced, it's been a good companion during a few moves, and I wanted to keep it in the family as it's been a great all-around truck. My stepdad just moved on to a mint '97 3RZ 4x4 with 80K miles, so it's high time I took up the ugly truckling's torch. As an added bonus there's no frame rust, though Colorado really isn't a rust-prone state.

For me this truck will be a backup vehicle and a parts hauler; I doubt it'll see more than a few thousand miles a year at most. However, there are a few areas where I think an improvement should be made. First, the ride quality is harsh, especially in the rear. I'm talking about nearly hitting my head on the ceiling riding over a bridge expansion joist(at highway speeds) bad. While I'm sure the suspension is different between the 2WD and 4WD Tacomas, my stepdad's new rig rides much, much smoother. The entire truck rocks like a boat with minimal rocking of the front fender so I'm sure it's shot. Are there any preferred brands for shocks/struts that I should be looking at? I replaced the entire suspension on my '05 Corolla daily so I'm a bit handy with that sort of thing.

The next major question would be tires. I think this is rocking the base-spec 14" 5-lug steelies. Did they make any decent factory alloy 5-lugs that might fit more aggressive tires? I'm looking more towards potentially better bad weather traction and not necessarily off-road performance; I won't be doing any wheeling in this truck and am not really looking to lift it.

Any info, kudos, questions, and tomatoes are welcome. Glad to be here!

 

Welcome to TW! Im not so failiar with the 2wd side of things but sure you'll be able to find whatever info you need on here

 

I want that truck so bad. lowered on a nice set of rims with a supercharger. thats like my dream daily driver

 

Thanks, everyone! It'll be fun tinkering with this rig, and I can't wait to have something capable of actually hauling things, haha.