The number of these gen2 Toyota HiLux pickups on the road is fading, albeit ever so slowly, although they’re far from an uncommon sight here. Well, they are forty-some years old, but they’re Toyotas, so my somewhat paradoxical statement is a bit understandable.
But when I saw this one hauling a big CRT TV, presumably to an electronic recycling facility, I couldn’t resist. Those big tvs were so damn heavy; I’m glad to never have to lift one again. But the old Toyota seems to be holding up to its load of lead-coated glass.
I loved the 2nd gen Toyota (Hilux) Pickup truck. My dad had one when I was growing up. It was fairly basic by today’s standards. It had a 5 spd manual shifting transmission, a 2.2 litre 22R engine. It had an AM/FM radio, and that’s about it. It was roomy for a compact truck of the time, but its seats weren’t very comfortable. They weren’t adjustable, other than moving fore and aft. You couldn’t recline it in any way. And you couldn’t sit on them wearing shorts on a hot summer day. They weren’t made of cloth, they were either vinyl, or leather.
Had to be vinyl, the idea of leather in such a basic vehicle is pretty amusing honestly. As for personal experience, can’t recall anytime I’ve seen any of this generation. Of course, I’m only 18 and have only lived in Michigan and Georgia so far, assuming these must be far more common in the Northwest??
22R == 2.0 liter.
20R == 1.8 liter
Actually 22R is 2400cc and 20R is 2200cc.
I got it backwards. Sorry. Knew it’s off by 200cc
Sigh. My dad had a 1975 SR-5 truck; same color and tailgate (note the latches). Very basic transportation. But I loved driving it–it was quick, maneuverable and fast. I could break rubber in 3rd gear because the back end was so light. This truck is what convinced me to get my own truck in 1984, a 1982 Toyota SR-5 longbed which I had for 14 years until it rusted out from underneath me. This was the last truck my dad got–he then thought minivans were more practical, so gave it away to a friend who was down on his luck and got a 1993 Dodge caravan. The truck was cool; the minivan, not so much.
Those old big screen CRT TVs weighed over a hundred pounds. Try putting that in the back of a newer truck, you’d have to lift it up and over the bumper!
You could glue the tailgate shut on a lot of newer trucks today and the owners would never know it.
Good riddance. I hated the hi-pitched sonic “squeal” that those old cathode ray tubes would make when they were switched on. The Toyota however is always welcome in my driveway, quality vehicles!
Heh, see that’s something I miss. For whatever reason there’s a massive several second delay on most modern TVs when you press “on”, my Vizeo is decent in that the logo at least shifts from amber to white in that blank screen boot-up period, but others it’s sometimes nothing or a teeny tiny light where unless you paid direct attention to could mean on or off or plugged in or whatever. I often find myself waiting for a picture to show for several seconds thinking it’s in the boot-up period only to realize the remote signal didn’t go through, or on the flipside turn off a TV booting up because I thought it didn’t get the remote signal because that particular TV takes so long. I always knew a CRT when it turned on though – PMMF….ZZZZZzzzzz
I just dumped a CRT TV straight into the landfill nobody recycles them here anymore, very heavy it went with a lot of non metal pieces of the Hunter wagon I scrapped on my trailer towed by my Hillman, a Toyota ute is too modern for my purposes.
Just bought a ’90s version last summer – a ’96 Tacoma. the only ‘extras’ over that old one are fuel-injection, power-steering, and a driver’s airbag. Been looking in salvage yards for one with AC, so I can do a transplant, but they’re impossible to find.
Flat panel LCD/LED television is one technology I’ve fully embraced. I don’t ever want to man-handle one of those 25″- 30″+ CRT hernia-inducers again!
Are you in Canada too? When I bought my 1993 back in 2009, I absolutely wanted one with A/C, it seemed very few had it here in Quebec. Finally, I got one that was originally sold in Rhode Island… Not exactly in the south but a/c is certainly more common there than here!
I really like that truck, I added 105,000 miles to it since I got it at 124,000. The a/c still works, even the power antenna does!
I just gave up a Sony Trinitron, circa 1995 during my last move, from Brooklyn, NY to Central Florida. The CRT screen was 35″ diagonally measured. It sat on a smoked glass-front cabinet, had Dolby Surround Sound, and the best picture quality of any home theatre component I’ve ever seen. It had to weigh 200lbs without the base cabinet, and there was just no way it was going to be carried down 3 flights of stairs and trucked 1000 miles. It was a sad moment, but I knocked on every door in my 6 family building to alert each tenant to its orphan status. I can only hope that someone is watching that TV today. It’ll probably outlive me. As for the truck, the last thing I drove that even compared was my father’s 1988 Dodge (Mitsubishi) Ram 50. I’m still baffled by the demise of the Japanese compact pickup. They weren’t powerful or exceptionally comfortable, but for a few decades they really had their place in the automotive pecking order, and they were quite practical for many folks who weren’t towing a 30′ cabin cruiser.
It’s funny, I did the opposite recently. I carried a 1973 RCA TV in my 1993 Toyota pickup!
I had a Sony Trintron from the 2000s that just gave up the ghost. The place where we bought it’s flat screen replacement took it off our hands. As for the Toyota pickup, my brother has are recent one that he likes, but the frame rusted out prematurely & he had to wait 6 months for a replacement, which necessitated two loaners, one of which was actually sold from under him!
Unlike previous commentors, this generation of Toyota pickup has always struck me as ugly. It almost seemed as though Datsun and Toyota agreed to alternate “The Ugliest Truck” award as the generation after this Toyota looked much better and it’s Datsun/Nissan contemporary went from handsome to bland.
Just recently received one of these CRT Sony tvs from my barber as he had changed to a digital/flat screen tv for his shop. The 2 of us were barely able to lift that tv into my Crown Vic. Aside from being very heavy, that tube and it’s housing make it a very clumsy package to lift. But it seems to have a very good picture. I have my DVD player connected to it.
The Datsun trucks of that era were much nicer looking and had the King Cab option, but the Toyota had more power to do real work.
I worked part time for a while for a company that did electronic restoration after fires, floods, etc… I HATED moving those big flat screen CRT TV’s, and Sony’s were about as twice as heavy as competitors models for same screen size. As a side note, I also hated the old free standing projection TV’s. Not heavy, just awkward. But the projector lenses make killer magnifying glasses for us medium-old farts.
I still think the non-HD picture my basic cable provider puts out looked better on my 27 year old GE CRT than my new Vizeo. Only complaint I have with CRT is the glossy screen glare(although many brands and styles of flatscreens are that way as well), and the weight/cumbersome footprint of it. I “upgraded” for two reasons and two reasons only – 1: My Playstation 4, to my horror, only had an HDMI output, and 2: The large entertainment center I had housing the big cumbersome tube TV was even more big and more cumbersome and was dated, worn out, and ugly to boot. So with the flatscreen came a whole room remodel.
Poor Toyota, this is the second time I’ve had more to say about a TV in a post containing one lol. In my defense however this generation HiLux is one that either rusted to an early grave well before I was born or was just plain shunned by midwesterners from the start. I’m not even sure I could describe what the front end of this example would look like off the top of my head.
I still think the non-HD picture my basic cable provider puts out looked better on my 27 year old GE CRT than my new Vizeo.
Exactly as one would expect, given that your Vizio is undoubtedly a fair amount bigger. So if you’re sitting at the same distance, your just seeing the lack of resolution of the non-HD signal. it’s like looking at a picture blown up; one can see the grain. If you were to walk back so that the Vizio picture is the same size as the CRT was, it should like the same, resolution-wise.
Obviously it’s not the Vizio’s ability to show higher resolution, as it does so when fed an HD signal, right? So it’s the non-HD signal, which often have terrible quality, because cable companies compress the hell out of them to use the bandwidth for their more glamorous offerings, as well as internet.
It’s the reason many folks have gone back to antennas for their local broadcast tv; the digital signal from their transmitters is super sharp HD, while most cable companies degrade the broadcast station’s signals very badly.
It’s actually a hair smaller, the GE was an odd 27″ while the Vizio is 26″. The resolution is about the same as you said, I should have been more specific but I’m not up on technical terms, but what I notice with the picture quality on the flatscreen is a subtle distortion in close viewing, like a subtle waviness. The CRTs lack of definition I think has a rose tinted glasses effect on the not great cable signal, effectively masking out those distortions, while still looking substantially better than the old analog signal it got fed up until a few years ago. They(the signal and my big ol TV) seemed better matched.
But yeah the HD signal is night and day crisper than the Cable signal and a big step up from the old CRT.
BTW sorry for my incessant mispelling of Vizio. You’d think I’d have it memorized by now with that constantly lit logo in view lol
27 inch CRT was not an odd size, but the biggest common size in the curved screen era. I still have a working 27 inch Magnavox made in 1990 and it does look better than our 26 inch Sanyo LCD when both are fed a low def signal.
The Magnavox is not very heavy compared to the 24 inch glass flat screen Toshiba we used to have. Making a completely flat CRT strong enough required very thick, heavy glass in front.
I bought a brand new 1978 Toyota SR 5. I was looking at a used truck when the Toyota salesman said for $200 more I could have brand new. For each 1978 they sold got a redesigned 1979 which they hoped to sell at sticker plus.
My buddy’s Toyota pickup was brown, Mine was White. Mine showed the rust more. The bed was made by Long Beach Metal Fabricators. The truck was imported without a bed to avoid the Chicken Tax.
I sold mine a 4 or 5 years old when the A pillars began to rust.
Just last week my 24″ Sony Trinitron finally died after 13 years of flawless service. Interestingly, even though it’s a CRT-type the screen is in fact flat.
Right now it’s sitting on my living room floor until I find the stamina to haul that damn thing down the stairs.