Tricked-Out Toy

Dean Jahnz’s ’83 Toyota shortbox.

Dean was nice enough to roll his truck onto its side so we didn’t have to get our shirts dirty crawling under. If you look closely you can see his diff-mounted traction bar to prevent axlewrap.

Don’t complain about burying your tires ever again. Check out the cool 4x6-inch box tubing bumper that doubles as an air tank. It also firmly holds in place a receiver-mounted Warn 9500i winch for when the Swampers just can’t cut it.

Dean fabricated a pretty slick emergency brake on the T-case yoke from the rotor of a Honda 650 Nighthawk. We don’t usually see Honda street bike parts on trail trucks.

The interior was kept functional with strategically placed Auto Meter gauges, no carpet, and R.C.I. highback seats.

The bed, from which Dean chopped 17 inches, is loaded with a fullsize spare and a Chevy four-core radiator thatholds dual Pontiac electric fans. In back of the radiator sit a slew of extra parts and a full tool set including air tools.

Under the hood sits an on-board air compressor fashioned from an old York air conditioner piece. It’s driven directly by the crank via the A/C’s clutch. It has a standard pressure switch set for 90-120 psi that automatically fills the air tank/rear bumper.

Using DOM tubing and 3/4-inch rod ends, Dean fabbed his own heavy-duty tie rod.

Dean did the axle meshing very cleanly. Without examining closely, you can barely tell that this is a Toyota hybrid/Ford 9-inch rear axle. Even the disc brakes are stock Toyota.

Driving sideways at the Ma & Pa Rockers event in Wisconsin.

It’s always nice to see people really beat their rigs. They were given four-wheel drive for a reason, right? Right. Well, half right. In today’s age of 4x4 grocery getters, they just don’t seem to have all the grunt and stoutness that vintage four-bys possess. That’s why rigs like Dean Jahnz’s ’83 Toyota short box make such great platforms to build an ultimate toy. “Vintage?” you ask. Yes, vintage!

Believe it or not, we’ve entered the 21st century (look outside your garage) and an 18-year-old rig is certainly vintage in our book. Dean has been building and off-roading his since before some of us were out of elementary school. In 1989, he bought his ’Yota, brought it home, and started modifying it the same day. A machinist by trade, Dean did all the work himself, keeping costs way down. In fact he estimates that to date he’s only dumped about $16,000, including the purchase of the truck!

Take one look at the Ford 9-inch/Toyota rear axle and you will know that Dean carefully planned his buildup from day one. “It’s absolutely bombproof,” Dean claims. After dumping the original rear axle, a 31-splined Ford 9-inch stuffed with an Auburn spool and 4.86:1 gears was cut and narrowed to fit the width of the truck. Dean machined his own spindles to fit stock Toyota bearings, hubs, rotors, calipers, and lockouts to the flanges. This way, it’s possible for him to carry only one spare hub assembly since the front axle remains stock with the exception of 4.88:1 gears and a Downey limited slip differential. The slight difference in gear size is due to his mix of 35x14.50 Boggers in the rear and 36x12.50 Swampers in the front.

To be able to stuff the meats without doing custom crunch work to his fenders, Dean slapped on a set of Skyjacker 5-inch lift springs all the way around. Just to be sure, a 2-inch body lift was thrown into the mix. Old-school Rugged Trail shocks take care of the ride up front, while Ranchos handle the rear.

The stock transfer case was deemed stout enough (at least for now) and hooks up to a TH350 via a Downey adapter kit. The trans was improved with a B&M shifter kit, an extra set of clutch plates, and a Hayden air-to-oil trans cooler. Powering the Toy is a mostly stock Chevy 4.3L V-6 with an Edelbrock Performer manifold sitting atop. The V-6 exhales out of custom tubing bent by Dean himself, just like almost everything else on his truck.

Any bodywork on the truck, with the exception of the shortened bed, was done by either Blaha’s Collision, or the closest tree or rock. Overall this Rudolph, Minnesota–based Toy is pretty clean-looking, and just like something that we’d want to build, except for the air horns on top of the rollbar—sorry, Dean.