Toyota Surf - indoor pickup for real off-road adventures

What car can boast that it was chosen for its needs by the rebels of equatorial Africa and the conquerors of the North Pole of the Earth? James May and Jeremy Clarkson reached the North Magnetic Pole on Toyota HiLux series cars.

This unit started to be manufactured in 1968, but in America, where pickup trucks are so popular since the 1930s, Toyota HiLux only got in the 70s. In 1984, the trunk was closed with a superstructure, and such an extended SUV was launched under the name Toyota 4Runner in the US and Australia, and Toyota Surf in the rest of the world.

The dimensions of the Toyota Surf in the standard off-road body are 4770 mm in length, 1875 mm in width, 1790 mm in height and 205 mm in standard clearance. This is an impressive means of transportation, which Chad insurgents in the amount of 400 pieces were used as "Makhnovski tachanok" in 1987 during the Chadian-Lebanese war.

At the present shots of television news about the military operations in Mali, such cars again flash with mounted on them large-caliber machine guns. On those first models in the 80's used gasoline engines in 2 and 2.4 liters, a manual transmission, Part Time transmission, fully dependent front and rear suspension.

Subsequently, the car Toyota Surf has changed many times, it survived five modification generations. In Russia and CIS republics such machines are purchased by amateurs to plow forest, steppe and taiga open spaces. The most popular among them is the 3-liter diesel Toyota HiLux Surf, whose fuel consumption is 15 liters in the city and off-road in the summer, 18 in winter, and on the road - 11.5 liters. This is an acceptable compromise between the sufficient power for off-road driving and the costly expense of getting to that impassable road.

However, lovers of traveling comfortably in such a car, especially in the rear seats, to put it mildly, will be disappointed. The latest modifications struggle with this, but the more comfort the design solutions provide, the less passability or much more expensive the car, which then the hand does not rise to use in the mud.

With respect to the reliability and maintainability of Toyota HiLux Surf, feedback from owners from Russia and CIS countries converges with the opinion of the rebels from Chad and Mali: the car is rarely brought up. Subtared in battles with off-road and lack of normal service, owners of Toyota Surf do not like diesel engines 2L-T and 2L-TE for their weak aluminum heads, damaged by overheating at high loads. To avoid this, it is advised to monitor the temperature of the engine and the condition of the viscous coupling of the radiator cooling fan.

The heart of gasoline engines is also the most reliable three-liter six-cylinder 3VZ-E, but its operation will result in a 20-liter gasoline consumption in the city and off-road. Automatic transmissions on such cars are found, and these Aisin boxes among other machines are distinguished by phenomenal reliability and maintainability, but do not forget that off-road driving and automatic transmission are like a saddle suitable for riding a cow. The only weakness in the suspension bracket of Toyota Surf is the upper ball bearings and silent blocks. The remaining elements serve for a long time and reliably.

Toyota Surf - from Japan with love!