Up for sale on Ebay is a 1981 Toyota Trekker. Don’t bring a trailer for this one, you’ll need a boat since it’s on an island- Hawaii. Figure another $1200 minimum to bring it back to the states. There’s not much info provided in the listing but the truck looks to be modified. So if you’re looking for a nice original piece this may not be the one for you.
This is my 1981 Toyota Trekker the day I bought it. I found this one at a garage sale, if you can believe that. I had no idea what it was at the time, but had to have it. I was able to drive it only a block before the carburetor died. I haggled with the owner for a few days on the price before coming to an agreement. Cash and tow strap in hand I towed it the 1/2 mile to my house. As bad as it looked, I knew it had potential. I started working on the clean up that day. My intention was to make wheeler out of it until I started doing some research on the Trekkers. I found out how uncommon they are and I decided to stay stock. A few weeks later the previous owner brought me a folder that contained all the maintenance receipts back to at least 1985.
This is how my Trekker looks today. I am still in the process of restoring it. How far I will go into the restoration process is still a question for me, but I am very detailed. I have done a lot of Trekker research in the last few years which has given me some great stock restoration ideas for my Trekker.
I found this former show truck for sale here. The 1981 Toyota Trekker sits on 35″ BFG Mud Terrains with 15×10 American Racing rims. Powered by a 350 Chevrolet engine, turbo 350 automatic and np 205 transfer case. There is chrome everywhere with triple shocks front and rear, Rhino axle trusses, and drive lines. There is a 6000 lb Warn winch up front and out back is a matching custom built trailer made from a pickup box.
There is a claim that this truck was hand built by John Safro (Jack?) but I’m not sure what that means. There are definitely more than two Toyota Trekkers in the United States, so I wonder if this truck is titled as a pickup? In any case it’s a very cool Toyota and well worth the asking price which is a fraction of the original cost of $50,000.
So now here is this Trekker that was owned by one of the original designers Jack Safro and its made an appearance on Ebay. I originally saw this truck last spring for sale through Mecum auction service at a state fair. I had serious thoughts of going to bid on it, but not knowing the price range I decided against the two day road trip. At that time this truck was advertised as driven barely more than 18,000 miles. Now the truck is in very good condition for sure. The more I read the more I begin to have issues; and now I can see it was a good decision to pass on the sale.
Now that the vin has been revealed: JT4RN38D4B0011149 we can see that the truck in fact has over 200,000 miles. Since the 81 Toyota trucks only had 5 digits we can assume the actual mileage is close to 218,700 miles; although it could as easily be 318,700 miles too. Here lies the issue- this truck has been restored- not an original collector’s piece. Again don’t get me wrong it is in great shape for a 1981 trekker. But again with my pet peeve on some of these “original” trucks- the vin reveals that the base truck was a deluxe model and there are SR5 stripes on the outside and an SR5 interior. Yes it does have an SR5 package, but its not original as the vin indicates. There also has been some modification of the drive train that is not original to the truck. Again it is a nice restoration, but not an original SR5 Toyota.
Now to add to it, the seller claims distress and will be selling the truck for “half” of what was paid. I saw it for sale on Craigslist a few weeks back and the asking price was $15,000.
Update:I just found the original auction site for this truck and it did sell for $22,500 then- wow! Now the bid is at $9100 and the reserve is not met. With the issues revealed I don’t see the value but considering what it sold for at auction that would be a bargain 
The Toyota 4Runner
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