if you dont like holdens have you thought about a triton, i have had experience with them and they go quite well and have an awesome towing capacity and have a heap of grunt

have you thought about one of those rtv utes????

cheers bear

what about the bounty or courier

Ash I have had 2 RA's for work. They were both 4x4 but for the sake of this exercise that doesnt matter. I have had the space cab 4x4 3.0 TD manual and a dual cab 3.0 V6 Auto.
First things first. Yep they are not too bad to drive for a commercial vehicle.
DO NOT even think about getting one of the earlier 3.0 V6 ones. They do not like LPG and the fuel bill is crippling to say the least. My Maverick gets better fuel economy on petrol.
Parts for the V6 are bloody expensive too , they dont go all that well and they sound worse then a wet f@rt under acceleration. We ditched the V6's at work as the fuel and repair bills were a joke and resale value was worse then an E series.
The sort of stuff you do you will miss the tray size as well. The tray on a twin cab is pretty small.
The diesels are heaps better on fuel , go about as well as the V6 and run forever. They do sound like a tractor but.
The front ends do need a camber correction kit from factory. They do scrub out front tyres and kill front shocks. They are pretty good but once they have had some bucks spent on them.
Gemoetry wise there is no real difference between 2WD and 4WD believe it or not.
The turning circle on them is no good. A 3 point turn in a Falcon is about a 7 point turn in a Rodeo.
I honestly do believe you could do better but the choice is yours. One of the apprentices at work has bought a Rodeo with the alloytec V6 in it and he reckons they go heaps better and use less fuel.
My sister in law bought a RA with the 3.0 V6 in it (Isuzu Motor) against my loud protests and sold it within 3 months as the fuel bill was killing her. She did 5K on the deal but just had to offload it.
I hated my petrol twin cab but didnt mind the Diesel extra cab , but they were vehicles I didnt have to pay for. I would never have one if the dollars were coming out of my own pocket in either 2 or 4 wd drive. By the way the 4x4 ability on them is somewhat less then a joke.

hey ash

just remebered a mates parents has a early tritton 2wd unregistered ute its up on a property passed maitland its nothing flash but it could be something

its manual 2.6L

pm me if your interested

cheers bear

to easy ash

good luck with finding a new play toy

cheers bear

Yeah the 3.6 Alloytec would be the go but still up there in dollars.
The diesel is good not the quickestthing out there but does the job. They go as well as the early V6 I dont know about the later ones as I havent driven one. I haven driven a few of the new common rail Turbo Diesels and they hammer. But thats dearer again.
Yeah all the ones I have had have been given a good work out............. Havent bent a chassis yet , but have snapped springs. But in all fairness getting any vehicle 3 foot of air at 60kms with 5 hundred kilos of body and tools on it is going to have bad effects................
If you get one , get a set of polyairs fitted. You can back off the spring rate for comfort when unloaded but pump them up to get load carrying capacity back.
Also remember that the torsion bar front ends are pretty harsh as well if you wind them up for a bit of extra height.
Definately look at the 3.6 onwards but. Otherwise you would be better off getting a lux from the auctions with a stuffed motor and chucking a V6 commodore in it. Very easy conversion , pretty cheap and heaps of grunt and reliability.

The go would be to pick the model you would be interested in , get one on a test drive from a yard and have the car trailer ready to go for a little run around to see if it could do it happily enough.

4.0L hilux, plenty of power

can get in extra cab or in dual cab.

extra cab has very large tub or tray

2 of the same cars is actually far from weird mate.
It works really well for us.
No getting used to driving different cars all the time , its so easy for the missus and yourself to grab whichever car is in the driveway at the time to run down the shops or what not if its a quick trip.
Also if a car is playing funny buggers you can very easily swap suspect parts between the car with issues and the running car to nut out a problem without spending loads of cash for no result.
If you were going to be happy with another Tezza and a good box trailer I personallythink you would be happier in the long run in one of them instead of a Rodeo.
Whats the rear space like with the back seat down for picking up timber and courier drop offs etc?
It will never be as easy or convienient as the ute but I have found the positives in sedan ownership outweigh the negatives since I started using the lane and the trailer.
I would of used the ute for ute purposes about 10% of the time. It was awesome for that and I did love it. The other 90% of the time I had to live with its restrictions (lack of room , couldnt all pile in for a unplanned cruise etc).
I would still love another ute as once you have had a V8 ute they are in your blood bad (I have had an XY and a XD 351 ute in the past) but I am more then happy now days with the path I ended up on.
No dispute but V8 utes ROCK!

I think you just gave yourself your answer above mate. Another Tezza is the go.
Get a turbo one and give Jules an upgrade and you take the one you have at the moment.
That way you both have toys.............
I have learnt a wife with car toys as well makes life very very easy for my exploits!

Yeah it is great to have her support.
I have no dramas with getting mine back now she has the XR8.
I was actually banned from the XR for a short stint after going to a mates in Windsor one night. It was about 10.30 when I left here and I was at his front door before 10.45. It should of taken me about half an hour not under 15mins................... It is a bit of a handful on the crap road between here and Windsor at 180 odd but somewhat fun..
I have had access returned to the girl after giving it a wash and a wax and apologising to her. The car that is got the apology.
I reckon you will be happier then a dog with 2 d**k but with another Tezza. You could even fit a set of all terrain style tyres to it in standard size for a bit more rough stuff ability. I reckon it wouldnt be too hard to get an extra inch lift in it too.
Get a white one that you can polish the marks out of , then you have the work vehicle that you can load the family into and head off down the river or a bit of camping and not be too worried if it gets a couple of marks on it unlike the main family car.