" La rose est sans pourquoi, elle fleurit parce qu’elle fleurit ; Elle n’a souci d’elle-même, ne demande pas si on la voit. » Angelus Silesius
"There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers." Paul Muad'dib
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
My apologies for cluttering up a perfectly good thread-drift with inaccuracies. (grin)
Coffee - it's a sacrament!
To my mind, the problem with so many of these situations is that some of the basic information simply cannot be shared outside of various organizations, and thus cannot be verified.
It must drive folks crazy at times. I would love the skinny on a lot of the underground orgs working mischief up here, but I know I cannot get it from official sources.
"If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john
"Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne
Joe - my experience with the Hiluxes are either Mexican market or Middle East (GCC) market models, and my 70-75 series experience is with 25+ year old Japanese models and GCC market models.
That collective experience is 100% counter to what you're saying here, and I'm really surprised you'd prefer a 40 over a 70 because the 70 does everything better IME, with the exceptions of looking cool and having a short wheelbase.
They're all fantastically reliable and easy to maintain (as are the Toyota Hiace vans that are everywhere in the middle east as well) but the 70 series LC's were just absolutely fantastic for truck/SUV stuff. If one needed a sedan in particularly rugged parts of the world, the Hilux is the better choice. On my 2019-2020 trip to the middle east, I briefly had a quad cab Hilux with the 2.7L dual VVTi gas engine (2TR-FE) before I was told to return it and take a Mitsubishi Pajero instead. Being the gearhead that I am I couldn't help but poke all around underneath it and see what it was like. Having worked on lots of Tacomas, it was basically a smaller and cheaper Tacoma with zero advantages over a Tacoma aside from it still being a true compact pickup in sizing. Unlike the Taco -and every other US market pickup- which all keep getting pointlessly bigger every 5 minutes.
I got some seat time with Kuwaitis I was working with in their various Kuwaiti military spec 75 series LC single cab pickups, which all had 4.0L 1GR-FE V6's with 6MT manual transmissions and were triple-locked. I was told that the gas engines were favored due to performance in the very harsh (135*+F) Kuwaiti summers. Gas engine aside, I was very impressed with those. A Kuwaiti officer I worked with owns a 70 series quad cab with the 4.5L twin turbo diesel V8, manual trans, lockers, etc and that thing was simply everything I've ever wanted in a truck with none of the other BS, and I'm still in love with it to this day. I'd pay pretty stupid money for one if it were possible to bring it over.
Overall impressions/cliffs notes to me was the Hilux was great at beating around town and on pavement where the IFS and smaller size made it more comfortable and easier to deal with in crazy traffic. The Cruiser was much better at being a truck and doing truck stuff and generally being invincible. My overall experience with both is very limited compared to US models, but it was enough time that I'm convinced of the LC's utter dominance, especially the 70 series.
To go back to the topic (yes, Dad) - reports on Gramps was that he first tried to deter folks with a gun that shot hard pellets or something. Was that an airsoft or one of those pepper ball, hard ball 'guns'? That's seems icing on the cake for foolish deterrent tricks? Then he went for a snubbie?
Any info on that?
Similar shenanigans in Plano TX last week.
Leftists Dox Texas Man Who Confronted Gun-Toting BLM Goons Blocking Traffic in Plano
Love the title of the video in that article.
I pray I'm far, far away when this shit inevitably goes hot.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776