Effing mystery dash noise! New owner impression.

B-series trucks were re-badged rangers.

 

A buddy of mine just got rid of his 2002 Ranger. Too many aches and pain. He loved that truck, never let him down but had to put it down and mourned it for months. He just finally replaced it a couple weeks ago with a Frontier .

 

Nah. Got a Ridgeline. Up/down volume sealed the deal for me.

 

Cool, enjoy the Honda.

 

I already am. Put 37” k-bros on it. Guess what? No rubbing.

 

Yep!

History of the Ford Ranger Generations: 1983-2019 | CJ Off-Road (cjponyparts.com)

 

I had a rattle in mine for a little while. Turned out to be the headrest on my kid’s car seat in the back, haha. I pretty much love everything about my Taco... It’s comfy, it drives smooth, it has good power, it’s capable off road and in the snow, it’s super useful, it looks great. I just wish it had memory presets for the power seat. That’s my only stupid complaint. It always seems to take me like 2 or 3 drives to get my seat back just right where I like it after my wife drives it. So now I just use that as an excuse for her to not drive it. I guess maybe it’s a good thing then? She’s has a nice 4runner Limited so I don’t feel bad for her. Her’s does have seat memory presets though, and it is nice to just push a button and I’m comfy. No weird shifting in mine either. I have about 1800 miles on it and have never felt it hunt for gears. Toyota finally fixed that on the new tacos.

 

I too replaced my 2006 Nissan Xterra OR with 6MT. I was the original owner and drove it 305,000 miles on the original drivetrain, not even replacing the clutch or timing chain. I moved to a TRD OR DCSB 6MT Tacoma because the Frontier no longer offers a manual transmission. I am enjoying the Tacoma and have no regrets.

 

As Ed told Clark - if you hate it now, just wait until you drive it!

Seriosuly, though, I am at 80,000 miles and 6'3" and love the Tacoma. I'm a sports-sedan guy, so moving to this was a lot of new things to get used to ... like holy crap it handles poorly! That is compared to a sports-sedan. You will find the transmission annoying eventually, like when you are doing 75MPH on the highway and a slight wind hits making it drop out of 6th down to 4th. The power seems fine until you get in a truck like a newer F150 with Ecoboost. Or drive a Tacoma with OVTune. Get OVTune. Go for the 91 octane build. Whole new truck. The ride is also good, but once you start hitting trails you will want to take it up a notch. Good aftermarket coils and new leaf pack makes a huge difference on and off road. Make your truck yours and enjoy it - I love mine and have only changed things after hitting a limitation offroad (ground clearance on gnarly trails in deep snow, no factory Warn winch to get pulled out when you overestimate your abilities).

 

2021 Tacoma DCLB Off Road.

It's a truck, rides like a truck, feels like a truck.

Tundra - too large

Tacoma - just right, but need to duck my head getting in. No sunroof (they leak after 15 years, I need the headroom)

Ford Ranger - I was impressed. A ton of power, that 10-speed transmission is smooth. Better ride/less noise than a Tacoma. Nice job Ford. 6' bed is access cab only, all double cabs are 5' bed. Ecoboost does carbon up intakes. 60K miles, pop off intake and walnut blast. $400 service. Super easy to work on (lots of room). A long bed was a requirement.

Local deals (Austin, TX) are a pain to deal with.

Phil Long Colorado is 700 miles from the house. They can deliver for $1000, but I love Colorado! Road Trip.

Traded in a very clean 2019 Highlander SE. Yep, etune sucks. I had navigation, but it sucked too! The most up to date map were 2.5 years old so none of the new Texas roads were on it. It would call out the wrong street names. Handy on the interstate, but new areas google maps or Waze. So no surprise with the 2021 Tacoma.

Reading the manual last night was a clue about 4LO and locker. I suspect that damn computer needs to sense wheel spin to engage. It kept beeping at me when I went into 4LO. It was happy in 4HI, but without the wheel spin, it will beep. 4" of snow for Austin, TX in the forecast. From my FJ40 days, 4x4 helps get started by not stopping on ice! I had a Detroit locker in that thing, wet icy roads and spool would engage and you spun 90 degrees! Kept you on your toes. The Tacoma just cruises and has a top speed of over 60 mph.

 

4low engages a reduction gear in your transfer case. Sometimes things need to be lined up just right for it to go in. Start fully in 4 hi, get a slow roll going, shift your t case to 4low, then put the trans in neutral and coast. It will usually fall right in. A bit of back and forth rocking can also help things line up.

you get zero extra traction from 4low. All it does is give you extra control and torque from the gearing reduction. It puts significantly less strain on your engine and transmission and more on your axles from the multiplied power.

 

No complaints, no issues or problems with our 2021 Pro. Really like driving it compared to the Tundra we traded in. Much easier to park and it handles much better on 2-lane roads. Have only taken it off-road once so far, but we're going to Moab in a couple of weeks. Hopefully there will be minimal snow to deal with.

Re: Honda Ridgelines. We owned two--a 2008 and a 2011. Very comfortable on the highway, but noisy and bad gas mileage (12-13 mpg). Not a bad vehicle (hard to call it a truck) as long as you don't wish to go 4-wheeling since there's just no ground clearance. Just stick to well-maintained dirt or gravel roads--no trails.

 

That's amazing. My Xterra currently sits on 35's, and is prettyuch a trail rig that I drive daily. So to me, the Tacoma feels like a limo.

 

2002s had a lot of issues with plastic cassettes that held the tension of 3(!) timing chains. That 4.0 was an afterthought of an old school 4.0 pushrod engine, they added 3 timing chains for better fuel economy and power, making it SOHC. They did change the materials of cassettes in 2004 though.

What issues did he have?

 

OP is complaining about people complaining!