I decided I would like to find an older SUV type vehicle, and as a Toyota pickup owner I have realized this is the perfect time to diversify my Japanese 4x4 experiences. So I decided to purchase a 1984 Isuzu Trooper from a buddy of mine, it's got all the normal stuff like a 1.9 and a 4 speed but, it's spec'd quite nicely, AC, AM-FM-Cassette radio, chrome roof rack, Trooper II stickers, and an RPM gauge which is a welcome addition. I'm still in high school so having seating for 5 is nice for my buddies and the massive trunk space for all the random crap and tools that find their way into my truck is cool. It was used to haul a 15 foot sail boat so it has this gnarly c channel rear bumper that is welded to the frame and then has a tow hitch receiver welded to the bumper it self. The truck needs a set of keys, a battery, and a starter or flywheel. My buddy was told that it has a couple teeth broken off the ring gear but he says when he tinkered with it he thinks it might just be the start not engaging properly. Of course he lost the keys shortly after purchasing it and hasn't touched it since. There is also documentation showing that it had a new engine installed by Jasper as of 125,000-ish miles, and it's only up to 178,000 now so it's got a decently new engine (I can't vouch for the quality of the swapped in engine though).

My purpose of writing this is I want anyone's experiences and opinions of daily driving a Trooper. Any specific things I can do to make this truck last as long as humanly possible because I know that parts are somewhat hard to come by for these things here in the States and I also know these trucks are, at least where I live in south western Virginia, super rare. I'm an avid bear hunter and the spots me and my buddies hunt are pretty far into the national forest so if anyone has any inputs on tires they run, any sort of lifts they use or just other random offroad related Trooper information that would be nice.