reason patrols arent on mines (from the horses mouth of a lead mech on a very large mine)
toyo offers excellent prices for thier trucks, nearly 50% of our purchese price to the mines. and the price of parts for upkeep is high. it comes down to everything being a tax write off, get the vehicle cheap, spend heaps fixing it and ya dont have to worry about absorbing profits. patrol utes were very good on mines, but the purchase price was high, the srvice costs were lower and the money lost on resale was less.
for a while the mines had to start using hiluxs to meet safety standards as passenger vehicles had to have air bag fitted, landcrabs didnt have this option, so toyo worked the prices out for the hilux instead.
the abilities of both patrols vs toyos in leaf spring ute form are almost identicle he says and they are both as tough as each other in different ways. the landcrab has a stronger chassis but the body and driveline let it down, the patrols chassis is lighter but everything else eats the toyo
ya find patrols in the rubbish heaps due to chassis breaks, the cruisers get fixed up and sold on as a loss with just about everything busted up
funny thing is, the mine he works on has allowed him to custom build his site repair truck
it uses a toyo chassis and cab with all nissan running gear, engine g/box drivelines and axles, it has been like this for 14 yrs now and other than cab replacements it has been the cheapest truck in the fleet to maintain