6. '96 Nissan Hardbody 4X4
On a whim I bought this truck during a snowstorm because you really need four-wheel drive on the East Coast. I paid too much for it and got boned on my trade-in. During college, I jumped the hell out of this black beauty because I didn't know any better. Six months later, I was upside down on my loan, the truck was trashed, and I was itching to have another lowered truck, so I traded it in at my local Toyota dealer for a new Tacoma and took it in the shorts on my next truck.
7. '83 Ford F-150/250
You have to have a winter beater truck in New York when your other transportation is a body-dropped mini with low-profile tires. I bought this truck for 300 bucks from a farmer. It had fenders from two different-model trucks, rust holes everywhere, and the straight-six engine wouldn't idle. I never once lifted the hood to change the oil or fix the carburetor. I just slid it into snowbanks all winter and then gave it to a friend who left it in the woods to die a slow death when spring arrived.
8. '97 Toyota Tacoma
This truck got me into truck shows and the magazine business, and I learned a lot about fabricating at home with it. In the end, it had a turbocharged four-banger and five-speed manual trans. It was shaved, body-dropped, airbagged, and it also had a 72-color paintjob and a custom interior. After getting a ton of fix-it tickets from the same cop while commuting to work in it every day, I was forced to get rid of it. I traded it for a customized Chevy Crew Cab dualie that I thought was a bit less conspicuous.
9.'91 Chevy Crew Cab Dualie
This truck looked great, and I loved it until the airbag mounts broke off the rear axle on the freeway one night and I almost put it into a guardrail. I really didn't check the truck out before trading my Taco' for it because I got it from a friend. All I knew was that it had a big-block, airbags, and a sweet paintjob. I put a massive Street Beat sliding ragtop in the roof that was big enough for every passenger to stand straight up in the cab. It was great for cruising on summer nights. A few months after fixing the airbags, some bonehead ran a red light and plowed into it. My friends took most of the good parts off the truck before the insurance company totaled it out.
10. '01 Chevy Crew Cab Longbed 2500hd
This was a huge truck. It was lifted 9 inches, and because of its length and crappy turning radius it was a bitch to park anywhere. I traded it in on something smaller after jumping it a few times in the desert and putting a ton of miles on it.
11. '03 Toyota Tundra Access Cab
This truck was perfect. It had a supercharged 4.7L V-8 and a nice long-travel suspension that I broke a bunch of times, and it was a fun ride. Although, the rollcage and lack of a bed floor made it a bit impractical, so after strapping my toolbox to the bed cage a few times to go racing, I sold it to buy another dualie because I needed a truck I could haul stuff in.
12. '83 Suncrest Motorhome
My folks gave me this old pile to transport my junk in when I moved back to California from New York. It had a C6 trans and a 460 big-block that got about 3 miles to the gallon with a car trailer behind it. Once I got here, I had nowhere to park the thing so I moved it from one grocery store parking lot to another every night after work. Eventually I traded it for another dualie.