Ah, yes – the Isuzu Trooper. A vintage 4×4 that I have an ongoing personal investment in, and have decided is one of the more charming vehicles I’ve encountered. More details below on how I’ve now rescued three Troopers, but the one shown here looks like it has always been in the right kind of hands to keep it on the road. This 1986 Isuzu Trooper II is a desirable long wheelbase two-door model and it benefits from significant mechanical investing over the last few years, including a rebuilt transmission and gasoline engine (a turbodiesel was available) among other repairs. It’s listed here on craigslist for $8,750.
My first foray into Trooper ownership was captured right here on Barn Finds when I rescued a near-identical model to the one shown here from a friend’s property in Georgia. The Trooper emerged in mostly rust-free condition but it had a stuck 2.3L gas engine, which has a so-so reputation for reliability. The older engines were known to have headgasket issues, and I’m guessing mine was parked for this exact reason. The seller has already tackled the job of rebuilding the engine, which is what I should have done with mine; instead, I found a running junkyard engine and swapped it in, which may have had problems of its own based on how it ran afterwards.
I then owned a four-door parts truck acquired from a reader of this very website (Hi, Joe!) and while it was exceedingly clean, it simply wasn’t a project I wanted to take on. That truck was sold to a new owner who hopefully rebuilt it. Today, I own a 1989 RS, which is a short wheelbase model and one of just 800 trucks imported that year. It’s a delight, and even though it, too, was rescued from a salvage yard, it actually had only 55,000 original miles and ran shockingly well despite 15 years of dormancy. The seller’s truck features a 2.3L inline-four good for about 96 horsepower and 123 lb.-ft. of torque. With the headgasket done, it should run quite well for many years to come.
The interiors are simple affairs, but the back seat folds down and is easily removed if you want to set this up for camping or hauling. The seller notes that in addition to the engine and transmission being rebuilt, he’s also installed new axles. While the body has 274,000 miles, the rebuilt drivetrain only has around 32,000 miles of actual use, so the mechanical work is still quite fresh. As a truck residing in Washington State, it looks as rust-free as you’d expect, and it’s incredible to see the original “Trooper II” decals still visible below the side glass (which slides, by the way, letting in lots of fresh air). The asking price is very reasonable for the work done and this truck will be a loyal off-road companion for the next owner. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Curvette for the tip.
First off, huge tip of the hat to Curvette for finding this Trooper, and Jeff for writing it up and having his personal experience with them as well. We had a ’90 4 door base model in dark green, bought it used in ’98 and had it for a number of years. I loved that thing. We had the 2.6 and yes, the same head gasket issue many speak of. I remember it had well of 100K miles by that point and couldn’t get over how clean the bottom end of the motor looked. By 200K the frame rotted and we wound up trading it in. This one looks great, if theres no rust thats fantastic. It definitely doesn’t look like it has the miles stated for sure. Thanks Jeff. Great write up.
Boxy & simple like an SUV should be.
I thought that you (Jeff) were selling this,
until I re-read it.
He may not be selling it, but, he sure might want to buy it. I would!!!
I remember an Auto Week program about these. An early critique was that the back doors needed each other to latch.
So if you had long boards or something to haul, you had to bungee the doors to the inside somehow.
Great write up! I’ve owned a couple of these in Alaska and they were great vehicles. Ample camping room for the many fishing trips! I came across one in (of all places) Kabul, Afghanistan in 2005 while stationed there and used it in/around the US Embassy for trips back and forth to the airport and just “blending in” with the natives. It did NOT have any “armor plating” so you were limited on where you could go with it but still a reliable vehicle. There were actually quite a few of them in country at the time. How they got there I have no clue, but they ran well and were affordable ($4000.00/USD) The Afghans at the time loved them.
Rented a trooper in the late 90’s for a week. It had a million more bells and whistles than the company ram 1500 had that was in the shop.
It felt nimble almost after a couple years of driving that dodge.
I always liked that era and these Troopers. They were great vehicles and were the true original SUV’s. I never owned one though as I drove a Toyota pickup of that era. Of course the Toyota never died or was problematic, so I never got the chance to get a Trooper! BTW…. I still have the Toyota!!
the Trooper II was a great SUV but the 2.3 was a terrible engine. Beyond the headgasket, the head itself was badly designed. The 4ZD1 burned valves like popcorn due to the coolant flow. We rebuilt ours twice before we gave up.
Beautiful vehicle. I haven’t seen an Isuzu Trooper since the early 1990s. I remember when they were offered with a choice of gasoline and diesel powered powertrain. If only I was old enough at the time, I would’ve opted for the Turbo Diesel model. I don’t get why it wasn’t popular. Understandably you want a vehicle to be able to go far on a tank of fuel, so why the hell not offer that option? If offered, I would’ve gladly gone for the Diesel/Electric hybrid.
These are very robust vehicles! This one looks pretty darn nice!!
Great ride, nice value. Some one thought so, too, It is gone.
This is a really nice truck.. I had a chance to buy one from a dealer in Cottonwood AZ a decade ago. It had a rebuilt engine and trans and was in right decent shape, and they only wanted $1750 for it because they’d taken it in on trade, but I foolishly passed and bought a Sebring convertible instead for the same amount of money.
I had an ’85 with the 1.9L engine and an ’88 with the 2.6L engine. The ’85 was very underpowered, but I loved the ’88.
My ex got the ’88. :(
This vehicle was clearly designed to look like a Range Rover Classic.
I had both an 86 2door 4 cyl [maroon/champagne] and a 93 V6 [champagne]
Loved them both, but the 86 was rusting on the drivers side cargo area floor, so off it went and the 93 I enjoyed for a while, till my little brother borrowed it to go to high school friends wedding. He decided he wanted to keep it, and convinced my parents to buy it for him after I was adamant he return it.
It too rusted out much later at the rear frame/spring perches.
They were my first 4wd vehicles, freeing me from the winter months of barely getting around, or always going with others on hunting/camping trips
I had BFG mud terrains on both of them, ah the memories