CUCV or Sonoma

[Darky]

Here's what the truck needs to do: haul the occasional piece of furniture or appliance, hay/animal feed, go out into the desert and pick up trash, be an effective DD, and play in the dirt on occasion. I would like it to tow the Jeep, but I have no trailer yet and the Jeep is still streetable.

CUCV has 14 bolt rear w/Detroit and D60 front with LSD, 4.56 gears. Coupled with the 3 speed auto and 6.2 diesel, this equates to about a 65mph top speed. Meaning more like a 45-50 cruising speed. To combat this, I would be adding HMMWV tires on recentered HMMWV wheels which should add 4-5 mph on. It would also get a 2-4" boost to fit the tires. Down the road would be a 700R4 swap to gain an overdrive.

Sonoma is much nicer inside, has a hidden winch, a roll bar, stick shift (bonus!), the ZR2 package, extended cab, A/C, 4.3 Vortec, and is ready to go right now. It of course, has lower payload and towing capacity, but payload will still handle what I need it to, and will still everything I need, except the Jeep. But like I said, the Jeep is still fully streetable and likely will be for a while. It'd make a more comfortable DD, and I wouldn't be tempted to start fiddling with it, leaving more time and money for the Jeep and other, less important things, like bills.

Up front, I'd probably pay similar prices out the door, but the CUCV becomes more expensive as I continue to do stuff to it (turbo, transmission swap, and etc), but it's capable of growing with me as my demands for towing grow. But again, the biggest thing I'd want to tow is the XJ, and that won't be needed for a while. Any emergencies for now, can be handled through friends and family.

Your thoughts?

 

[casm]

Up front, I'd probably pay similar prices out the door, but the CUCV becomes more expensive as I continue to do stuff to it (turbo, transmission swap, and etc), but it's capable of growing with me as my demands for towing grow. But again, the biggest thing I'd want to tow is the XJ, and that won't be needed for a while. Any emergencies for now, can be handled through friends and family.

Your thoughts?

CUCV and do the 700R4 swap ahead of everything else; do that and you've got one that's pretty much usable as a DD. Besides, there's always a Sonoma in the classifieds, but CUCVs aren't anywhere near as common - and like you said, it'll give you a platform to grow into, so a couple of years from now you won't be hunting for a replacement for the Sonoma.

 

[RichP]

Why not just find a nice 5 ton or 2 1/2 ton and call it good...
I never liked the cucv's or the blazers, they were nothing but trouble...

 

[tbburg]

Has the cucv been converted to 12V, or is it still in military config.?(just something else to think about) It'll have a lot more beef, but, from experience, the mil. guys don't exactly baby their rigs. probably a lot of power train work ahead of you there(even if you don't swap everything out)

For a reliable DD, I'd have to go with the Sonoma, although the CUCV would have a lot heavier-duty parts if you wanted to build a toy.

 

[Darky]

The CUCV would be from 100dollarman. He gets them in pretty regular. It'd actually be harder to find a 4.3, 4x4, stick Sonoma than another CUCV. It's still military, no conversions are made. That was one other thing that worried me, I know even less about the 24 volt system than I do the 12 volt system in my XJ, plus the horror stories I read about people and their CUCVs. Not all ad issues, but many did.

Much to the irritation of my wife (she hates changes, and I had convinced her of the CUCv's beneficiality), I'm leaning towards the Sonoma on account of its superiority as a DD.