So, I have a 2001 Trooper which is an automatic. The transmission slipped one day and I parked it for a year not having the coin to even look at what’s wrong. After some research, I decided that I don’t want to invest in fixing the trans since the 4L30E trans has a notoriously bad reputation for needing multiple rebuilds. I was keeping my eye out for a donor manual on CL to complete a swap. A few came and went, and I didn’t have the money or time. Then this beautiful white one came up at the same time as I got my tax return deposited. I debated for a few weeks; then it was featured in the “Nice Price or Crack Pipe” daily column on the Jalopnik website. That site comes up in my feed once in a while, but I wonder if it was coincidence or not that this particular truck which I had viewed several times daily just happened to find its way onto my feed… It got an 86% nice price, and I decided it was the universe telling me to pull the trigger. Check out the article here
https://jalopnik.com/for-4-500-is-this-five-speed-1999-isuzu-trooper-super-1825009694
It turns out the seller was a dealer, and there was tax and title, but I was out the door for $4,500; not a penny more. Since then, I have been swapping out the aftermarket parts I had on the 2001 to the new one. I am soooooo much happier with this one than the 01.
So far, I have put the OME springs and raised the front via torsion bar cranking. It still needs an alignment. The biggest pain in the arse was that I lost the lug key for the old one and the new one didn’t come with it, so I sent a few hours banging on a 19mm socket then trying to get the freed lug off again. New lugs are on order.
Here are pics of the truck raised up a full 2 inches.
And here it is on a shakedown run in the Granite Dells in Prescott. I ran Broken Arrow in Sedona with the old trooper once before it broke and was impressed with how well it did bone stock. Can't wait to run that again in this thing.
In the works is an in-dash install of the CB, a DIY full-length slim profile roof rack out of an old rack I had laying around, and a sleeping platform/storage build for the back. All of those in time for me to drive it up and volunteer at Overland Expo West. I will post more pics of those builds as they happen.
Hope to see some of you there.
Chris.
https://jalopnik.com/for-4-500-is-this-five-speed-1999-isuzu-trooper-super-1825009694
It turns out the seller was a dealer, and there was tax and title, but I was out the door for $4,500; not a penny more. Since then, I have been swapping out the aftermarket parts I had on the 2001 to the new one. I am soooooo much happier with this one than the 01.
So far, I have put the OME springs and raised the front via torsion bar cranking. It still needs an alignment. The biggest pain in the arse was that I lost the lug key for the old one and the new one didn’t come with it, so I sent a few hours banging on a 19mm socket then trying to get the freed lug off again. New lugs are on order.
Here are pics of the truck raised up a full 2 inches.
And here it is on a shakedown run in the Granite Dells in Prescott. I ran Broken Arrow in Sedona with the old trooper once before it broke and was impressed with how well it did bone stock. Can't wait to run that again in this thing.
In the works is an in-dash install of the CB, a DIY full-length slim profile roof rack out of an old rack I had laying around, and a sleeping platform/storage build for the back. All of those in time for me to drive it up and volunteer at Overland Expo West. I will post more pics of those builds as they happen.
Hope to see some of you there.
Chris.
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