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#13526504
Guerrilla Trucks
Why rebels and insurgent groups the world over love the Toyota Hilux pickup as much as their AK-47s.
by Ravi Somaiya
Newsweek
Oct. 14, 2010
....“The Toyota Hilux is everywhere,” says Andrew Exum, a former Army Ranger and now a fellow of the Center for a New American Security. “It’s the vehicular equivalent of the AK-47. It’s ubiquitous to insurgent warfare. And actually, recently, also counterinsurgent warfare. It kicks the hell out of the Humvee.” Anecdotally, a scan of pictures from the last four decades of guerrilla and insurgent warfare around the world—the first iteration of the Hilux appeared in the late ’60s—reveals the Toyota’s wide-ranging influence. Somali pirates bristling with guns hang out of them on the streets of Mogadishu. The New York Times has reported that the Hilux is the pirates’ “ride of choice.” A ragtag bunch of 20 or so Sudanese fighters raise their arms aloft in the back of a Hilux in 2004. Pakistani militants drive through a crowd, guns high, in 2000. It goes on. Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq—U.S. Special Forces even drive Toyota Tacomas (the chunkier, U.S. version of the Hilux) on some of their deployments. (Click here for a gallery of Toyota trucks in conflict-torn regions.)

While Taliban leader Mullah Omar reportedly likes to roll in a Chevy Suburban and Osama Bin Laden is said to have preferred the Hilux’s bigger brother, the Landcruiser, when he was able to move freely, most Al Qaeda lieutenants drive Hiluxes, according to a New York Times report from the early 2000s. Even today, says Kilcullen, “It’s a bit of a sign you’re dealing with Al Qaeda when you come across them in Pakistan. They use the twin-cab version, because you can carry people and stuff in the back, and also mount a heavy weapon in the pickup.”

The truck even has a war named after it: the so-called “Toyota War” between Libya and Chad in the 1980s was dominated by fighters using the light, mobile Hilux. Indeed, Africa, says Kilcullen, is where the truck got its nickname as a fighting vehicle, “the technical.” “When [nongovernmental organizations] and the U.N. first went into Somalia,” he says, referring to a period in the 1990s, “they were not able to bring their own guards. So they got so-called ‘technical assistance grants’ to hire guards and drivers on the ground. Over time, a ‘technical’ came to mean a vehicle owned by a guard company, and then eventually to mean a Hilux with a heavy weapon mounted on the back.”

The Toyota is such a widespread and powerful weapon for insurgents, says Dr. Alastair Finlan, who specializes in strategic studies at Britain’s Aberystwyth University, because it acts as a “force multiplier.” It is “fast, maneuverable, and packs a big punch [when it’s mounted with] a 50-caliber [machine gun] that easily defeats body armor on soldiers and penetrates lightly armored vehicles as well.” It is particularly dangerous, he adds, against lightly armed special-forces operatives.

An experiment conducted by British TV show Top Gear in 2006 offers one explanation. The show’s producers bought an 18-year-old Hilux diesel with 190,000 miles on the odometer for $1,500. They then crashed it into a tree, submerged it in the ocean for five hours, dropped it from about 10 feet, tried to crush it under an RV, drove it through a portable building, hit it with a wrecking ball, and set it on fire. Finally they placed it on top of a 240-foot tower block that was then destroyed in a controlled demolition. When they dug it out of the rubble, all it took to get it running again was hammers, wrenches, and WD-40. They didn’t even need spare parts.

No problems with failing brakes then?
But seriously, I didn't know of any civilian pickup that could take that kind of punishment with relative ease.
"The vehicular equivalent of the AK-47" indeed!

I wonder though if the newer models are as tough.
User avatar
By Suska
#13526535
One of my neighbors has such a truck, actually a US sold tohoma or sonoma or something but it's basically the same truck, it's all bashed up by hitting deer, I always kid her she should mark her kills on her door like a fighter pilot. At this point she keeps the hood closed with a padlock. Someone told her it has something to do with the height of the headlights. It's pretty tough, yeah, I helped her replace the battery yesterday and I can tell you engine access is brilliant. Climbs hills like a goat too.
User avatar
By Suska
#13526581
gas, not really old, 03, 04?
User avatar
By Gletkin
#13526620
If you look at the ads for the latest models though, they seem....I dunno, kinda "sleek" (and not as rugged).
Almost as if they're trying to give every damn type of automotive vehicle a "luxury car" look....which also makes them look not as strong.

But by the time I'll be able to afford a new set of wheels, today's latest models will be the old models. By then perhaps I'll know.

I wish I could test these latest models...Top Gear style...to see if they still measure up (not likely I'd get the chance...but damn it'd be fun!).
User avatar
By Suska
#13526689
Yeah I know what you mean. I don't have any real information but it seems to me that's just a matter of applying wind tunnel testing to body panels, pop a roll bar on it and a deer catcher on front maybe that helps. I would, hell I'd even go for some fog lights. Mind you they aren't meant to pull big ass rigs, but they pull a lot for their weight and the bigger part of the matter is how well engineered the engine and transmission is. Make sure it's not an automatic for one thing, no power windows either. I'd say then the only danger in modernizing the design would be too much electronics under the hood, or trying to pack too much engine into a small frame.

My folks have a diesel dodge monstrosity made for pulling a 5th wheel without acting tired. It's louder than the school bus that drives by my window every day at 5am (glad im a sound sleeper). Thing is the durability doesn't scale up really well, you end up with a much heavier and thirstier truck - though you could probably drag a car sideways with it.

The other design I like is the subaru 4wd, it's small and sure footed, well engineered and still feels like a nice car. That was the first car I drove when I was like 17 and I tested that thing pretty damn hard. It kept on going.
User avatar
By QatzelOk
#13526728
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By Jarlaxle
#13526738
Suska wrote:One of my neighbors has such a truck, actually a US sold tohoma or sonoma or something but it's basically the same truck, it's all bashed up by hitting deer, I always kid her she should mark her kills on her door like a fighter pilot. At this point she keeps the hood closed with a padlock. Someone told her it has something to do with the height of the headlights. It's pretty tough, yeah, I helped her replace the battery yesterday and I can tell you engine access is brilliant. Climbs hills like a goat too.


Sounds like a Toyota Tacoma...which is, IIRC, sold in the US & Canada only. The Hilux is NOT sold in the US or Canada, and the Hilux & Tacoma are VERY different trucks. (Offhand, the Tacoma is considerably larger.) IIRC, the US-market Toyotas were different from the trucks sold in the rest of the world in 1986 (the first year the 4x4's did not have a solid front axle). The US-market Land Cruiser is also very different from the LC sold in the rest of the world.
User avatar
By Suska
#13526758
yeh it could be a tacoma but it went on getting bigger over the years
could be one of these, ill have to ask

Image

it's not a big truck. And btw i have first hand experience with 3rd world toyotas.

thing that always gets me about lift kits, you still only have as much clearance as your wheels give you and now your center of gravity is ridiculous... what we need is independent axles, yet another reason to believe car companies are pulling our leg
By Jarlaxle
#13526867
That's a first-generation Tacoma...the later ones are much larger.

The US-market Toyotas have independent front suspension, as do most new 4WD vehicles (all except Ford F-250 thru 550, Dodge Ram 2500 thru 5500, and Jeep Wrangler)...and for actual serious orr-road use, a solid front axle works better, proven by the fact that many people replace the IFS with a solid axle, including on Tacomas. My wife's truck is a K-5 Blazer with a Tatonka Products Bummer (fibreglass Hummvee-looking thing) body; it has a 2.5" lift (which actually raised it about 3.5", because the stock springs were pretty shot)...she runs 33" tires (could run 35's easily or even 37's, but we need to regear the axles first) and the handling is fine. It handles well enough with the lift she's considering a 4000-mile road trip in it naxt summer. Once we regear and/or replace the well-worn 6.2 diesel with a 6.5 turbodiesel, it will probably get 37x12.50R17 tires (same size as a Hummvee).

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