Re: New boat! now i gotta pull it tho....
Stay away from the Exploder. There is a reason U-Hual wont allow you to tow any of there trailers with an Exploder. They are not stable.
My personal preference is a S10 Blazer. I curently own two of them, sold the third one last winter to a friend of my sons. They have a 4.3L V6, 4x4, and rated to tow 5,400 pounds. 3,500 pounds on the bumper ball. The 4.3 can be found in the S-Series trucks, Astro vans, Full size 1/2 ton pick-ups, and marine engines. Finding parts any where in the US won't be a problem. CAn't say that for those Nissans, or Toyota's. Your going to have a couple day wait until parts come in even in your local autoparts store. Hell I have a Mitsubishi plant 40 miles from me and it still takes several days to get parts. Plus the 4.3 is the famous Chevy 350 V8 with 2 pistons removed. It is a highly capable engine. 190hp/250foot pounds of torque. Not too mention 18-22mpg city/highway. Towing I average about 19-20mpg.
The 4L60E tranny is the same tranny used in ALL GM 1/2 ton and lighter rear wheel drive vehicles. That list includes, fullsize pick-ups, fullsize SUVS (Tahoes, Suburbans, Escalades), S-Series, Astro Van, Full size vans, and corevettes, plus a hosst of other rear whel drive cars, including the GMC cousins of each listed. There are some minor interior differences, however if you need a salvage unit that too can be found in any junk yard. It has been in production since the early 80's and is one of the best, if not the best automatic transmission produced by any manufacture. It has 4 forward gears, 3.06 first (lowerst first gear of any autos, great to get that load moving without spinning tires, even on wetr pavement), and a 75% overdrive, plus the torque converter locks up saving more fuel. Teh tranny can be built to handle 450 foot pounds of torque, enough to survive a healthy V8 on steriods. In fact you can drop a V8 into the S10-Blazer with few modifications. They even sell a book on the conversion, its taht simple.
If you go for the 2nd generation 4x4, it will either have the NP231 (floor shifted) or NP233 (electronic shifted). Both are GM version of the same t-case found in Jeeps. IT is a strong durable unit in a light weight truck. The 4.3L/4L60E combo is so dependable, strong that it is a common swap into other trucks, Jeeps, Rangers, Toyotas, off-road hard core rigs.
Plus the S10-Blazer has a solid fully boxed frame from teh front back to the rear axle. They are one tough truck, built to handle towing, and all your gear. So tough the first year of introduction Petersons 4x4 rated them teh best off-raod truck. It was the only year in the competition.
Don't be fooled by thinking the Exploder is equal to the S10-Blazer. The Exploder is top heavy, it is taller and has a wider body, however it doesnt have a wider stance to compensate and thus gets unstable at high speeds, especially while towing. Hence why U-Haul wont rent trailers to Exploders. I can rent a car hauler to tow behind my S10-Blazer and they wont een rent a little 4x6 open trailer to teh Exploder.
I could go on. You could say I am partial to teh Blazers.
I know my way around htem pretty well. So much in fact I help people on other forums fix them.
In short, stay away from the Exploders.
If you want a midsized rig, look at the TrailBlazer, Blazer, Colorado, H3 or the GMC versions. Then again the Flex fuel Tahoe isn't a bad option either.
