I have a 95 mitsubishi and love it. Fun little trucks and very useful. Going to use mine to hunt out of this year, and they are cheaper than the utv's plus you have a heater and are out of the rain on a cold rainy day.
tiger truck If it is not a mini truck made in Japan (the tiger truck is not) I wouldn't buy it. Fit and finish, dependability and part procurement can be troublesome.
I've built accessories for Tiger trucks or (ChangAn). They are a Chinese manufactured truck that is very similar to the Japanese mini trucks. They are opening an assembly plant in the U.S. (Oklahoma) So I don't think parts would be too hard to come by. Here is a link to their home page http://www.tigertruck.com/
chinese trucks My experience with chinese trucks comes not on the front end, when the trucks are new, but from after seeing the trucks used. I have gone into industrial settings where the old Daihatsu trucks have been running for almost 20 years and while the sheet metal may be banged up they are still providing service. On the flip side the chinese trucks they have purchased (Wu-ling, Van-Go, etc.) may only be 10 years old, up on blocks (broken or couldn't find a parts source), and rusted. I don't have a lot of experience with Tiger trucks in particular, however, in general the Chinese trucks are not up to par with the Japanese. We have also seen this with tracked and wheel equipment from China. It may look like the Japanese copy, but when it is time to get work done the results are less than stellar.
Sorry for being so BLUNT on this one. Like it or not they are doing this plant not an hour from me. I was approached early on over a year back on these trucks. I looked them over pretty close, enjoyed the dog & pony show, they look good outside & in but that where they ended with me. Best I could desern was &## junk. Way over priced, throw away type vehicles. I expect them to get a fair share of the market though they are NEW 2 spd. vehicles, no way to get any more out of them & a lot of folks are going to buy them over a used Mini Truck. Retail Priceing on a 2wd at that time was around 8K & 4wd over 10K Dealers profit of about 10%. There was to be a Dealership Program with a buyin & a lot of Franchise Issues> I passed, may regret it but The Mini Trucks will Always be King, I'll put a old 550 up against one anyday, all day & for a long time after the Tiger was dead. That being said we will see, Like it or not they have started & look to see them around. *^+!**!??! Mike
Tiger trucks caused a mild disaster locally when farm implement dealers started selling them a few years back. Buyers were so upset with their short life the dealers had to take some back and couldn't supply parts support. In the aftermath I know a guy that bought two brand new for $100 from a dealer just to get them off their lot. The taste was so bad that there is still some local prejudice even against the Japanese mini trucks. Poor fellows don't know apples from oranges. The biggest problem evidenced with the Chinese trucks are that the Chinese manufacturers clone older Japanese Kai designs but do not follow through with material quality and robust details. The biggest achilles heel of Chinese mini trucks have been the fact that most Chinese-produced engines are assembled without line boring the cases. They run fine for a while and then start to tear themselves apart as the crank / cam(s) machine the block and themselves into oblivion. The Japanese products have finely refined detail and use fully line-bored engine cases and exhibit the reliability and longevity the world has come to expect from Japan. China is like Japan was back in the 1950's, quality control wise. Back in the 1950's it was a joke to own a product made in Japan, whose industry was in ruin during post-WWII reconstruction. At the same time there was a nutty American college professor who had been pestering American Industry with crazy quality ideas. The US Government sent him over to Japan to get them out of everybody's hair. His name was Dr. Deming. Japanese manufacturers listened to him like he was the new Messiah. Now Japanese process control and quality assurance methods are the imported standard in domestic US manufacturing. How times have changed. Give China a few more decades to catch up. Just ask Mattel about Chinese-made toys or Simplicity about Chinese-made baby cribs.
These Tiger Trucks seem pretty large - check out their spec sheet. The shortest wheelbase is over a foot longer than that of a kei truck, plus their lightest model is about 300 lbs heavier than my Sambar (...and isn't the Sambar one of the heavier models, at ~1650 curb weight?) The engine is 300cc larger, yet produces similar power to our 660s. What a big, dumb truck. EDIT: The wheelbase is longer because it isn't a cabover - the front wheels are in a more conventional location. Whoops. Colin
From a Japanese exporter point-of-view, I don't worry much about the Tiger. While they are assembled in the US, they are still mostly Chinese. No offense to the Chinese, but they are not up to the same standard as the Japanese when it comes to quality. If I'm not mistaken, the auto manufacturers who assemble in China keep those units for the Chinese market. They may not be suitable, or acceptable, for any other markets?
Well, this forum saved me from buying a mistake, I thought I had found a KEI truck I did not recognize. Then I remembered this little used section of the forum. Decided to look up what block line boring was about. I guess I took it for granted all new engines had their cylinders and crankshafts lined up. https://www.proxibid.com/135959/lotInformation/76460082 No information at all, except I can see it says Tiger Truck on the back and that it is 4x4. Though if it is new and made in the USA, I would have no hope of registering it on road, which is what I want. Plus, I want quality, not quantity.
