What's more expensive than a free puppy?

Downeaster

Downeaster

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With my luck, a "free" plow truck...

Daughter was gifted a 2005 Toyota Tundra with a plow on it. V6, 4wd, looks decent enough from a walk-around. Hasn't been used in 5 years, so fully expect to do some work on it. I've arranged to have it delivered on a rollback sometime this week.

Her regular plow guy "retired" and paying per plow gets pretty expensive some Winters, so I figure if we can make a driveable yard truck out of it (no intention of trying to register it or make it road-worthy) for $500 or less, it'll save her some money in the long run.

If I get into it and find it needs more repairs than it's worth, I can scrap it and get my towing fee back.
 

What's more expensive than a free puppy?​

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This guy "appeared" at the ranch Friday.
:cautious:
But he was "free".....
 
Downeaster said:
2005 Toyota Tundra with a plow on it
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Hows your frame patching welding ability?
I'm sure you know but frame from about the rear of the front seat to the front of the rear spring mounts is the common suspect, even more on snow plows.
It kind of ends up being the fulcrum of the bending loads when pushing into plow banks. Was "down south" on a trip saw a nice "rust free" Toyota truck for sale, took 5 seconds on the ground at about the back of the cab to have me running away. Holes a cat could crawl through in the [ of the frame.
Even Kentucky was too far north..............
There's a lot out there, including frame repair weld kits. A place to start?
https://www.tundras.com/threads/2004-toyota-tundra-frame-rust.36378/
 
In all fairness it isn't just Toyota. We all get hosed by "throw away" vehicle building practices.
 
gggGary said:

What's more expensive than a free puppy?​

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This guy "appeared" at the ranch Friday.
:cautious:
But he was "free".....
Click to expand...
Yep. Was "gifted" a tennessee walker when the daughter was in middle school. The daughter finished college, was married off and is living elsewhere. The horse is still here...:rolleyes:
 
Jim said:
You're kiddin' right? :sneaky:
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Well, I wouldn't want to get a reputation as an attention whore. Or, more so than already...:lmao:

mouse.jpg


First order of business, seeing as it sat for several years, was to evict various squatters. The obligatory mousehouse in the air box, ferinstance.

engine.jpg


Having done that, checked the oil and freed up the throttle linkage, I popped a battery in it to see if it would turn over. It did, and even started and ran for a couple of seconds. I think once I purge the 5+ year old dead gas out of it, it will run decently. The radiator was dry, I'm assuming (hoping...) he drained it vice it having frozen and dumped all the coolant. We'll find out when I get ready to start it for reals.

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The bed had one of those wretched plastic liners in it, full of leaves, trash and garbage. Those liners are REALLY good at two things: Rubbing the paint off and trapping water. Multiple fist-sized holes in the floor, plus beaucoup rot over the wheel arches. Seeing as we wanted to get a better look at the frame AND siphon the gas out of the tank (we being neighbor Dan, who, like me, is too stupid to pass up anything free...) I cut the heads off the bed bolts (no way they were unscrewing...) and we popped the bed off.

frame.jpg


The frame is actually quite solid. Some surface scale. Only real issue is that the driver's side rear upper shock mount is trashed. Relatively easy fix.

bumper.jpg


The back bumper is mostly a memory, so what's left will get torched off and a farmer-bilt replacement fabricated.

The only other major issue is brakes. No pedal, drivers front wheel locked up, seriously sketchy lines. Assuming we can get the engine to start and run decently, we'll investigate fixing the brakes.
 
On a tip from someone, I put the air box back together (filter was fine) so the MAF sensor was getting a signal, siphoned out the old dead gas, put some fresh in and it started right up and ran fine.

Put it in 4 lo and bumped the clutch and the frozen front wheel popped loose, so that's another worry off my mind. Of course it will still need a 4 corner brake job, but at least I have a chance of getting it apart. I did add fluid to the reservoir and the brakes went from nothing at all to spongy.

Radiator wasn't empty, it was just a half-gallon or so low. After running it up and down the driveway once, it had pressure against the cap. I'll replace the thermostat just because.

Next bit of semi-bad news is that the alternator is seized up. I loosened it enough to keep the belt from burning up and ordered a replacement from Rock Auto. When I get it off I might see if I can replace the bearings just for the hell of it.

In the process of ordering the replacement alternator something wasn't adding up as it only listed a 4.0 V6 for that year and this one has a 3.4 Ran the VIN and turns out it's a 2001 not a 2005.
 
My wife has an 06 4.0 litre V6, 245k miles on it and runs fine, oil tight, probably live longer than me.
As "free" things go, you could have done worse with the puppy and most anything else.
Replaced the alternator last summer, my fault, blew the diode block jumping someone else's vehicle.
Replaced the starter replaced for the first time last week, had the tranny and differential serviced while the guy was at it just because
 
Hmmmmmm...

Neighbor Dan made a cash offer for the truck as is. I'd get back what I have spent and about $150 for my time. Not a killer deal, but worth considering.

If it weren't for the brake issues (which I haven't investigated yet) I'd for sure keep it, but I'm a little scared of how much money fixing the brakes could suck out of my pocket.
 
Downeaster said:
Hmmmmmm...

Neighbor Dan made a cash offer for the truck as is. I'd get back what I have spent and about $150 for my time. Not a killer deal, but worth considering.

If it weren't for the brake issues (which I haven't investigated yet) I'd for sure keep it, but I'm a little scared of how much money fixing the brakes could suck out of my pocket.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but you still need a snowplow.
 
Dammit. Another problem.

I was crawling around under the truck looking at the brake lines and noticed a lot of big chunks of rust scale laying on the inside flange of the frame at the rear cab mount on the driver's side. Wasn't visible from the outside of the frame at a casual inspection but as soon as I hit it with the needle gun it disintegrated. Hole all the way from the top flange to the bottom flange and about 4-5 inches wide.

Also found a wet spot at the line fitting for the driver's side rear brake wheel cylinder. That's not a biggie as I expected to have to replace rotted lines, but the entire lower half of the backing plate has rotted away.

This is beginning to look a lot like Bulldozer, Part Deux...
 
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