I have a test for that truck.
I work at a surface coal mine. You should see the use and abuse our fleet gets. That truck looked way too clean. Mud and winter will tear a vehicle apart. Sure they had rough roads to drive over, but that truck looked like it never got in any real mud or other adverse weather, those are variables that would have changed the outcome of that vehicle. I also can't believe the tailgate was in such good shape. I've never seen a ranch truck that didn't have a big ding in the top cause they backed into the goose neck, or they had to fix something and used the tailgate as a work table and beat a wheel bearing out of a spindle or something in the field. I also didn't see a mountain pass for hundreds of miles around that place. Take that stock trailer over Eisenhower Pass and see how she feels then. My 40 has towed alot too on flat ground.
To compare, we use Fords here, have for 35 years. We have tried Dodge and Chevy. The Dodges did poorly in all aspects. The Chevys have weak front ends, really bad clearance and if you even once touch dry ground in 4WD, they will grenade the transfer case. We still have two Chevy crew cabs, they have both been through multiple transfer cases in only a 4-5 year period. The Fords seem to be doing the best right now, but by no means are they great, but I still think they have the best chassis of the big three.
I have a 2001 F250 that is mine to use here. I started driving it as a summer employee for two summers when it was brand new. I then returned here and I still drive it. The truck has 43,000 miles on it. It does not get used on a daily basis except in the summer. Winter time I use it about 8 hours a week. This truck sees severs duty conditions. Lots of cross country driving through reclamation, rills gulches, contour ditiches, cab high grass, shrubs, and hidden rocks. In the winter it is not uncommon to push snow with the bumpers and fight mud as deep as the rims. The truck is usually coated in heavy Mag Chloride laden mud.
Early on the front flaps and such under the radiator tore off, skid plate underneath is a pretzel. Within weeks the steering stabilizer that was mounted on the bottom of the axle was toast. We lost all the radiators a few summers ago by hitting a large rock that went under the front bumper and hit the radiators cause they hang below the front frame. Fuel pump has failed, tranny was low on fluid from the factory. Brakes only last about 5000 miles here, all U-joints up front have been replaced several times. Front driveshaft was a failure from the beginning, we use custom shafts in these trucks up front now. Rear drive shaft pucked a U-joint last summer. I also had a broken rear spring, half the helper leaves were gone, only the main and overload were left.
Tranny shifter is loose and junky. It freezes in the winter with mud around it and can't be shifted. Park brakes are a nightmare for the same reason. It is extended cab with the third doors, they rattle to no end, you can see light all around them. Paint is peeling off the rockers, and the top of the hood. Rear door latches don't work very well, door hinges are worn and heater blower has been acting up. Don't get too much water inside, it shorts out the fuse panel, and this just from rinsing the floor off or lots of snow and mud. Too much moisture under the hood also shorts stuff out. Alternator died last year. And the thing is burning a quart or two between services, blues blue smoke on startup. We service every 3-4 months, and you can tell by the miles and age, it does not go 3000 miles between changes.
Yes my work truck is somewhat abused, but at the same time I do try to take care of it. Alot of the failures on it and the overall wear is just crappy parts in an extreme environment. I don't think a Tundra would take any of the abuses of the mine site any better, I think it would fair worse. The mud and cap eats up all the rubber components in the suspension for one, along with u-joints.
I would like to test a Tundra here though, give it to us for 100K and see what it looks like, but we are not average users, so they shy away.
