A Hunting Truck

Below; my old hunting truck, a compact 1997 Nissan pickup.
No dream ride, but adequate and completely dependable for ten years.

When I finally got serious about trading trucks back in 2007 gas prices were on the rise. Some full sized pickups were/are advertised to get 20 mpg. but that is highway mileage.

In town or mixed driving my compact 4 cylinder truck only got around 20 mpg. I thought a full size V8 pickup would do well to get 15 mpg.

I spent an uncommon amount of time researching vehicles before I made a decision on what to buy. The real truth is I'm interested in cars and trucks and enjoy the research.

I thought about buying a hybrid truck or a diesel? I quickly learned that they cost thousands extra, and only get slightly better mileage.

Using a calculator led me to some surprises: Gas mileage was not as big a factor in saving money as I'd thought.

There is a big savings in getting 20 mpg. compared to getting only 10 mpg. Not so much savings difference between higher mileage vehicles.

This simple example is based on 50,000 miles @ $3.00 per. gallon.

50,000 mi. / 10 mpg.= 5,000 gallons x $3.00 = $15,000
50,000 mi. / 20 mpg.= 2,500 gallons x $3.00 = $7,500
50,000 mi. / 30 mpg.= 1,667 gallons x $3.00 = $5,000(rounded)
50,000 mi. / 40 mpg.= 1,250 gallons x $3.00 = $3,750
50,000 mi. / 50 mpg.= 1,000 gallons x $3.00 = $3,000

I knew gas prices would likely continue to rise. I wanted reasonably good mileage, but I calculated the price of the vehicle to be a bigger money saving factor than fuel economy.

Note: The car companies are working hard to improve fuel mileage on all vehicles, big and small. They profit more from the sales of big loaded vehicles.

Some are using turbochargers which help smaller engines produce power similar to that of larger engines. They're using transmissions with as many as eight speeds/ratios to keep the big engines turning slower and burning less fuel. They're streamlining to reduce air resistance and using lighter weight materials where they can.

This is fine, but we may pay more for this technology. Even at today's higher gasoline prices we will need to drive a vehicle a lot of miles to reap enough gas savings and come out ahead.

Don't believe everything you read. I read many individual reviews, some were humorous: One lady was upset that her car had an overdrive button on it. She didn't understand it's function, and thought she had to push it each time she drove. Another review sounded great until the guy admitted that his experience with the car was a twenty minute test drive.

One midsized pickup was ranked at or near the top in all the professional reviews and I already had considerable experience with the brand.

My old compact truck had been easy to park, great for running around in, and had pulled an occasional heavy load better than expected. It had done everything I'd asked, and about 90% of what a full size truck could do.

When I started looking for a new hunting truck I'd wanted something different. After all my research, I ended up buying a ten year newer version of my old truck. A 2007 Nissan Frontier.

Now that I've had this hunting truck a few years, I know it well.

It is considerably larger, and especially longer than my old truck, but not too big. I'm 6'1", and I can barely reach into the bed of some trucks.

This hunting truck is quieter than the old one; it rides better, drives better, is more fun (stick shift), has more power (stick shift), and gets slightly better gas mileage (stick shift) if driven carefully.

With mixed driving I most often get 20-23 mpg. My worst mileage was about 18 when pulling a trailer, and the best was almost 27 on the highway. I love the extended cab for some extra inside storage. It is over-all a better, more refined truck.

Surprisingly, I miss the old truck's smaller size; a little. I can't as easily zip around in parking areas, or slip down narrow lanes on the farm without the brush scraping the sides...

The old truck's automatic transmission was boring, sapped much of the power, but I sometimes miss it for creeping slowly over rough terrain, or backing up a trailer. This 2007 truck's low gear needs to be a little lower.

As I said above I wanted 4WD and off road capability, but not that extra cost, or the required V6. The V6 and 4WD add weight and friction so they also reduce gas mileage a little. I often go off-highway, but seldom really off-road. See my pages on a Stuck Truck! or Emergency Car Kit!

I'd wanted a locking rear axle, and a 6 speed manual transmission. That would have made a good truck into a great hunting truck. But! I didn't want to spend that extra $6000 for the package, or again get the required V6 engine.

Why not the V6 hunting truck: My wife had a flower shop and we owned five Dodge minivans over a period of several years. They were used for delivery and everyday transportation. Two had V6s, and three had 4 cylinder engines.

The V6s were nicer vehicles and cost considerably more. The window stickers estimated the gas mileage for the V6s to be close to that of the 4 cylinder models. The V6s had 4 speed automatics with overdrives, while the 4 cylinder models only had three speed automatic transmissions.

For our everyday, mostly "stop and go driving" in town, the 4 cylinders were great. They were very drivable, they seemed better balanced over-all to me, even the tires and brakes lasted a little longer.

With the 4s our actual gas mileage was not far from the window sticker rating. The V6s gas mileage was not as good as their window sticker rating. Over-all the 4s saved us thousands. They beat the V6s at everything except a drag race.

Hunting Vehicles!

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