Diesel to First Gen Tundra

Anyone out there ever go from a diesel to a first gen tundra? I’ve been a 7.3 guy for the last ten years but am looking for a new 4 door truck since I now have to haul a car seat and the current 7.3 f250 is extended cab. I have been seeing several in the range of 7-10k which is about what a decent 4 door 7.3 will run. I don’t tow much, just always ran the 7.3 because I could buy a truck cash and know I will go problem free for a long time. Had 280k on one that got stolen and the current one has 230k. Considering the tundra because the reliability is similar to that of a 7.3 but maintenance is a lot cheaper, fuels cheaper, and the truck is a lot lighter. I do a lot of hunting and get into some rough stuff. Will be doing Colorado elk hunting this year so I will be in some pretty rough terrain.
So the question is has anyone gone from a diesel, even a 7.3, to a first gen tundra? Any regrets or did you like it better? Forgot to mention my wife currently has. 2003 4Runner with the v8 so I’ve done plenty of work including t belt on the 4.7 already. I know being on a tundra forum I will get a biased opinion, but I’m kind of looking for that at this point.

 

Never been a diesel guy so I can’t say much on that point. 1st Gen has a better payload than the Turd Gen newer Tundras. The 4.7L torque is good and she does very well in 4WD off road trials/beach/snow etc. Floats and Stings like Mohamed Ali.

They are very durable and mine has never broken down and left me stranded since buying it in 2002.

The age is starting to get to our trucks in terms of the front suspensions needing rebuilds and wheel bearing going bad which is the phase mine just went through upon deciding to keep her for a few more years. The timing belts are 90k or 9 years and you can do that with a $300 kit. The thing to watch out is rust in the entire under chassis. Look from laying under the truck at the cross members and up into the boxed frame portions up front with a flashlight.

I just put about $7k and many hours doing work on mine over the past 2 years, but she is in top shape for another 10-20 years. The engine is purring better than new. The transmission is holding well with light towing/hauling (F250 payload cap might be more). I’ve read over the years our A340F transmission to be problematic, but thats not the case with 170k miles on mine.

The suicide door Access Cabs are smaller interior or you can opt for the 4 door Double Cab which is what you are coming from.

 

Welcome from NC! We have several members on here who have made the switch. I am sure they will chime in.

 

My uncles f-350 with the 7.3 turbo diesel has been the family’s go to tow vehicle. But now with this tundra I’ve found it suits my needs of towing cars around just fine. Not as good on gas doing it. But much more comfortable and it’s been more reliable.. the f-350 is on trans #5 now... as of last week... if your towing less than 7500 lbs I’d say a tundra is perfectly fine.

 

I went from a Duramax to a tundra.

I love my tundra but sure do miss the Duramax.

Maybe someday I will have both because I'm never selling my truck.

 

I appreciate the input. Since I put a lot of miles on it during hunting season it’s starting to make sense to get out of the diesel and into a gas truck. Cost of fuel and maintenance is so much higher. I’m leaning toward the tundra so long as I can find one. Took us four months to find the wife’s 4Runner because even here in Ok they all had rust holes in the frame.

 

An option for you is to buy a 1st Gen Sequoia. They are usually soccer mom trucks and well maintained except for the interiors. They go for about half the price of the same Tundra truck and have the legendary engine and overall reliability. Same rust issues though.

Remove the two sets of rear seats and you have a camper.

 

I’m definitely moving to a tundra. Might keep the current diesel for a few more months after buying the tundra just to make sure I don’t have any reason to keep it. Is there any advantage to the 07+ with the 4.7? I don’t really care about added hp or more features I’m just looking for rock solid reliability. Since the wife already has the 4.7 in the 4Runner and it’s about as solid as they come I am looking to stay in that engine.

 

I went from a 2003 super duty 4 door 7.3 to my 06 four door tundra. The ford was just getting into some rust issues plus it was more truck than I really needed. Now I have the tundra. You will find the tundra has much better build quality and may be the perfect size.

I miss the 7.3, it's a mans truck. When I first got the tundra I used to joke with the wife that I felt like I was driving a little girly truck.

At this point I wouldn't go back to the 7.3 unless I needed a real truck to do big truck stuff.

The first gen tundra is perfect at what it is.
The 7.3 is perfect at what it is.

 

The 07 with the 4.7 is a bigger truck with the same motor. I wouldn't unless you went with the 5.7.

 

My wife has been giving me a hard time about down sizing trucks but there’s a lot of areas I don’t hunt because the diesel weighs so much. The big kicker was when I did the timing belt on the wife’s 4Runner and it cost the same as it did for me to replace one injector on the diesel.... I think that was the tipping point.

 

You can get all 8 injectors for one TD injector. And don't think of it as downsizing; think of it as......upgrading.

 

My mom has the dura Allison combo, that thing is soooooooo stupid fun!!! Sometimes she tells me to take it for a spin, since it’s mainly a tow rig, I do the @Darkness Italian tune up every time!!
I’ve tried to yank something out way to big, along with a 1500 rebel; poor strap location lead to a fail, I bet it we hooked onto the axel we could have popped it out(I’ll look for pix)

 

I’m vehicle poor at this point but I added a 06 double cab as my dd. My Cummins sucks as a dd but was only bought to pull a 5th wheels anyways. My wife swiped the tundra from me after our little one was born. She finally decided she wanted another suv, so we added an 07 sequoia. The 1st gen tundra platform is hard to beat

 

As much as I love my wife’s platinum sequoia 5.7 I don’t think I’ll be “upgrading” if that’s what you want to call it from my first gens. They hold a special place in my ❤️. Owned my 2000 limited since 03 and a stupid kid pulled out in front of me a I’m pretty sure they’ll say it’s totaled. My custom winch bumper made the frame buckle at 55 mph impact. Didn’t hurt a body panel at all. The bumper I made saved everything pretty much. If I can’t get it fixed I’ll keep it for sentimental reasons and use all my modded parts on another first gen.

 

I’ve got an 86 f250 with a 6.9, and my dad went from a first gen tundra to a 99 7.3. The 7.3 is a beast. Great truck for heavy towing, but the tundra has been much more reliable. And it’s night and day more comfortable. Hard to resolve the feel of those turbos though.

many a time we’ve hauled heavy stuff with my first gen instead of his 7.3 because it was broken down, or had some issue that rendered it useless. Hell, we hauled his 7.3 parts truck home with my Turdna!

 

my f-350 trans rebuild grenaded... again... i should of taken a photo of the tundra towing the SOB. I'm about ready to tell my uncle give up on the auto and find a manual to throw behind it. Again, it failed the same exact way even with upgraded parts and me putting it together with a really good trans guy. always happens towing the bobcat too its not even straining it!

 

My dad’s trans went so he put a built trans in. So far, so good. Thing shifts like a 15 year old kid is at the wheel of a 5-speed though. Really rough.

your tundra towed it? Nice! How’d it do? What was your setup? We’re you able to comfortably drive over 50MPH

 

buddies car trailer just barely fit the f-350 (reg cab.) i was doing 55 for 10 minutes or so. wouldnt do over that. and having working trailer brakes was a must. she was damn near riding the bumps lol


proper trailer would of allowed better towing. but it was a tight fit. tongue weight was likely way over what it should be. but it was on country roads and i had to get it moved...

 

That’s exactly what it was like pulling my dads truck. That was a ccsb though. 16ft car trailer, and it BARELY fit. I didn’t have bump drops at the time, but if I did, they probably would’ve been riding on them.

 

My parents live in rural AL and their neighbor goes to auto auctions regularly for the dealership he works for. He mentioned the last couple of years they've been paying 5-15% more for locally sourced trucks because people from the rust belt are traveling down to hit our southern auctions and snatch up our rust-free trucks. Dealers up north pay what we would consider a premium price on things so they can bring it up north and sell at a premium. It really screws people down here by driving up our auction prices and it's part of the reason I jumped on my truck when I found it, knowing it was marked at 10-15% more than I would have going private sale, but it was a low-mile trade-in, and it was totally rust-free. I'd had at least 3-4 other deals fall through in the few months prior because someone else beat me to it.

To that point, though, you may want to do what I did when hunting: Setup a radius search using a few of the car finding services out there. TrueCar proved to be the winner for me on that one, but CarGurus came up with some great stuff too. You can pre-set the year range and mileage limits on a search, then subscribe to it. You don't need to be a member or sign up necessarily to setup the searches. I had a text document on one of my computers with the searches I'd saved, if I can find it, I'll come back here and post those links for you.

 

Ok, I found it. That was faster than I thought. If you happen to have ex-mil benefits and have access to USAA like me, they link into TrueCar for their car-buying service but they'll give you direct financing if you need it and they also have a buy-in bonus for using USAA's version, I think it was $250 way back when I got my truck.

Here are the searches I was using, but I replaced Atlanta with my zip for Eufaula OK, I have family from there and southern OK, so I know the zip. All of these searches are for a 2004-2006 (2nd half of Gen1) you may want to expand that if you like the 1st half of Gen1 body more. I bought mine before frame disintegration was really being seen in the 04-06, so I thought buying 04-06 was gonna save me some heartache and headache.

Cars.com search (250 mile radius, 04-06, under 250k miles)
USAA/TrueCar search (nationwide radius, 04-06, under 200k miles)
CarGurus search (200 mile radius, 04-06, any mileage, any price)

If you adjust down to your specs of what you're looking for, then save the search you can potentially hit on some stuff. My Tundra landed in my lap when I wasn't actively looking, I'd all but given up for the months prior. Then suddenly a dealership 100 miles away hit on the truck I have today and I told the boss, "sorry bud, I'm taking the rest of the day" then drove over to buy it.

It's been quite a while since I got my truck, but I checked all the links I just posted - they're still valid for each of those websites.