When did you truely learn to appriciate you truck for what it was made for? Lets here some stories...

 

I learned to appreciate my truck when I pulled outta the dealership and floored it!

On the other hand, I learned to appreciate my 4.8liter one time when I went to drop off a trailer load of some tree chunks/landscaping timbers and checked my total weight. 12,800+lbs!!! WOW! Who would have expected that little "baby" motor to haul all of that? All these braggarts with their Hemis and Tundras with the 5.7's can keep em.

 

i've had several in the last two years... when it pulled our 27 foot rv, when i made it through a mud hole with water up to the molding (hunting, not on purpose), before i cut the cats off when i was getting 22 mpg cruising down the interstate at 70... its a great all around truck... it's not the best at anything but its not the worst...

random detail about pulling a 27 foot camper though... trailer brakes are definitely a must. i dont have them and my dad's 02 did. theres definitely a difference... i was going downhill at 5 and had the brakes on the floor. it barely stopped in like 40 or 50 feet. no good.

 

i learned to appreciate my truck.. the day i got it... but a story that made me the most proud i have ever been was one may long weekend last year!

it was great weather all weekend... even though the forcast called for snow and rain all weekend everysingle one of my best friends showed up.. and then some.. there was about 30 people there all weekend.
however on the sunday night it decided to snow... and it came down hard! really really hard.
by morning there was 2+ feet of snow on the ground and still coming down,.

now my little toyota is no monster machine by any standards. just 4X4 thats it.. and an engine that will never ever give up!

when the miserable morning arose and we all climbed out of our campers and tents... it was hell.
i had a trailer at the time.. but lo and behold some tough guy thinks hes hot **** with his big bad jacked up dodge with 33's on it and a hemi, wont start.. its too cold... finally we get it started and the thing is a friggen pig.. just spins and spins and spins.

so stuck its ridiculous.
so my buddy gets his ford out and trys to pull him.. no luck

i fire up the blue monster and hook the tow rope up... i have my quad in the back... and just a little better than stock tires and i pull myself through 2+ feet of snow and a big dodge up a hill with a quad in the back!
i was so happy! the cheering from all my friends was all the thanks a guy could ask for!

never ever knock toyota!
the chev has the same reliability but... its a bigger truck.. bigger expectations!
best moment ever!

 

My story was the weekend afterI bought my truck. It snowed a crap load and just bout everyone in my sub was snowed in. No one around us had a snow blower big enough to handle the snow we got except us (no way you were going to shovel it). So I was the only one that could get out and go get gas as well as pull all of the crazies out in the their cars and minivans. That was a proud day! Needless to say I was thrilled I bought the truck when I did.

Also many hunting trips through mud and just tooling around in the mud and dirt.

 

I guess i have had 2 incidents where i was very "Proud" of the ole gal. 1st time was this winter, my buddy has an older Chevy 2500 with the 6.5L (I believe) Turbo Diesel. He also has an 8' plow on it as well. Well, it had snowed quite a bit earlier, and he was plowing our park, and next thing i know, my cell phone rings, "Hey Jim, Wanna come down here, i got my truck stuck, see what ya can do.". Well, i went down to scope out the situation, and he was plowing a deadend street, and there was a dropoff at the end. Well, when he plowed, he dropped the front end over the bank and was sitting square on his frame w/ the plow. This truck is heavy. I told him, i had a tuggem strap, and would give it a shot. He hooked the strap to his frame, and i hooked to my trailer hitch, put about 3' of slack in it, put my truck in low range 4X4 and gave er some, all that happened was it swung my frontend around sideways, being on packed snow/ice. So i backed up and put about 6' of slack in the strap, and give er some again. This time i budged him a lil bit, but still hung pretty tight. So i back up again, this time about 10' of slack, and give er some, and yep, out he came. He was very impressed as were all the spectators there. He had called a wrecker just prior to calling me, but ended up calling him back and tell him he didn't need it after all. I was a happy camper and so was he.

The 2nd time was just recently when my brother, my neice and myself went 4Xing down a snowy road. Me in my Silverado, my brother in his '06 Hummer H3, and my neice in her '03 Jeep Wrangler with an 8,000 Lb warn winch on front and 33's. Well to make a long story short, we all got stuck once, BUT, i was LAST in line to go. I got stuck like 100' from the end of the round trip, and had i stopped before the snow stopped me, and backed up, i would not have gotten stuck but i was getting greedy, and trying to go all the way w/o getting stuck but........................ There she sat, on the frame, but everyone was VERY IMPRESSED with how well the Chevy did............ Jim