Brand New Used Truck!!!

OK, I did it. I know nobody knows me here. But I just bought a brand
spanking new used truck!! I used to own a few Landcruisers, a 66 FJ40 a
68 FJ40 and a 87 FJ60. All were good vehicles, all were plagued with
rust. As of lately I owned a Subaru Outback with a safari type roofrack
on the top. It has gotten a little small for me to take the wife, two
teenager, full load of camping gear, kayak, ect...
A friend bought a new Porsche 911, and offered to sell me his barely
used Tacoma, at a really good price. It is a 2002 and has 27K on it. it
is a Doublecab Prerunner with a V6. I bought it. now I have a couple of
questions. Are there any weak points? I know some 3.0's had horrible
headgasket problems. Owning a truck has opened up a whole new world of
possibilities. I plan on putting a set of Yakima racks on the roof for
Kayaks. then loading the bed with camping gear. We have also now
considered a Pop up camper since we figure we can tow with it. Do I
need to put on an aftermarket transmission cooler? Do I have to to with
OD off? What about synthetic oil?
Any help in the car and feeding of this wonderful truck would be most
appreciated.

Jerry

"jerryeveretts" <ifreeley@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1147109258.504476.295170@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> OK, I did it. I know nobody knows me here. But I just bought a brand
> spanking new used truck!! I used to own a few Landcruisers, a 66 FJ40 a
> 68 FJ40 and a 87 FJ60. All were good vehicles, all were plagued with
> rust. As of lately I owned a Subaru Outback with a safari type roofrack
> on the top. It has gotten a little small for me to take the wife, two
> teenager, full load of camping gear, kayak, ect...
> A friend bought a new Porsche 911, and offered to sell me his barely
> used Tacoma, at a really good price. It is a 2002 and has 27K on it. it
> is a Doublecab Prerunner with a V6. I bought it. now I have a couple of
> questions. Are there any weak points? I know some 3.0's had horrible
> headgasket problems. Owning a truck has opened up a whole new world of
> possibilities. I plan on putting a set of Yakima racks on the roof for
> Kayaks. then loading the bed with camping gear. We have also now
> considered a Pop up camper since we figure we can tow with it. Do I
> need to put on an aftermarket transmission cooler? Do I have to to with
> OD off? What about synthetic oil?
> Any help in the car and feeding of this wonderful truck would be most
> appreciated.
>
> Jerry
>[/color]

I am not aware of any major weak points on 2002 Tacomas.

If the truck has the towing package, it may already have a supplemental
transmission cooler beyond the cooling that the radiator normally does for
the ATF.

You should not have to tow a pop-up with the OD off unless you get a lot of
up-and-down shifting.

IMO, synthetic engine oil is not necessary if you are going to change it
every 3,000 to 5,000 miles.
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)

I have a 2000 Pre-runner V-6. That is a 3.4 engine and I have had no issues
with mine and I have not heard of any problems with the truck at all. The
only thing that I would mention is the what they call Drive line wrap-up.
Most pre-runners seem to have it. It happens sometimes as you are coming
to stop, or sometimes just as you take your foot off the brake you will
feel a clunk. There is not a fix for this problem that I know of. Just a
slight annoyance in an otherwise perfect truck.
Scott