Toyota

Take your choice and happy bidding: https://www.govplanet.com/jsp/s/auction.ips?msg=97014&sm=0&c=3468

Step Van.

That was awesome!

And oddly satisfying.

Actually, I've been considering some type of ghillie suit type netting to throw over it when it's parked. Can't decide on the pattern. Spray paint is four dollars a can around here, so that's off the table.

In before Taco/Tundra?

Ram Power Wagon?

Something that started life as an ambulance.  

The weight of the armor is going to overwhelm the drive train and suspension of anything not built for that weight.  A moving truck would be a good choice too.

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Something low key… look for an early to mid 2000 Chev Tahoe, check gov surplus site for the up-armor package. Beef up the suspension, and tires, but should be good to go.

I don't have a Hilux, but I do have a Taco.

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Late 90's f150, preferably F250, manual transmission and the bullet proof straight six . My 91 is F250 Custom(farm truck, double springs in rear, manual lockers and granny gears).

A used Loomis truck.

I think that is beyond grey.  
If I saw that, I would assume meth-heads or crack addicts were canvasing the area and I would keep an eye on it!

OP, you want 1 ton running gear... 3/4 ton front end is the same as a 1/2 ton and neither will hold up to the weight of plate..nor will anything lighter....You could buy a 1 ton 4x4 and cut the fenders out, bolt on a set of 35" or bigger tires and then armor it..it would do decent in most conditions although it will likely handle like a pig...Ideally, you would buy a 1 ton or bigger 4x4 and junk the entire body and just build a perimeter cage to support and hang the armor on, that would eliminate all the body weight thats not needed... then build a light weight flatbed, armor and then if needed re-ratio the axles and go with a 44" tire... Or go big, you can buy 2.5 and 5 ton top loader axles, build your own frame/cage/armor and power it with a big block or diesel...(might make a medium duty truck work since they have a much stronger frame than the pickups do..same deal, roll new axles under it, remove body/bed and build a cage and armor body...

This is a 1 ton ford/460 5:13 gears/44" tires....it weighs 8000 pds but the bed is way over built...but it will give you an idea.....This thing will go most anywhere you want to go off road except super deep mud might give it some issues....


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This is a tube chassis on 2.5 top loader axles.. it weighs 5000 pds, but  has no bed....and 56" rice and cane tires...the body is fiberglass, runs about 400 pounds.....

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Your issue is on either a 1 ton or 2..5 ton axle you can only carry so much weight/tire before you start risking drivetrain issues.. A well built 44" tired truck  on 1 tons even with moly axles/drive plates/gears  driven carefully will do decent up to about 11500 total weight..even then if you horse on it you are going to break things....2 and a half ton axles will haul more weight, but the inner axles arn't much if any stronger than a 1 ton with moly axles..add in a taller tire especially a tractor/rice and cane tire is going to limit total weight and reliability...

How about a ford fucking ranger?

Or the cash van.

Someday I want to create an armored kit car. Flat packed armor with instructions, some automotive parts, the balance of things like the dash you’d get from a junkyard. The real money would be when someone called and asked if you could weld it up for them.

The most important thing is managing the amount of armor under volume to keep weight down. Don't be bigger than necessary.

Also the deuce and a half transfer case will leave you stranded. Don’t use it.

An F-550 is the best base.

Uparmored humvee. Easily to find parts, decent gas mileage for an armored vehicle, can mount a 50 cal, street legal so you can enjoy it prior to SHTF. Can hold 5+ easily

For an everyday driver I would do a Jeep with lvl 3A armor inserts in the doors, maybe on the rear of the seats and the firewall and laminated glass windows. Good enough to protect against road rage. Maybe add those run flat tire inserts

WWTTTD?

@TheTyrannyTractor

OP, just incase you haven't thought this thru completely....Biggest issue with armor is weight and cost...both are going to be huge..Major problem in use is going to be not standing out like a sore thumb....One of several huge issues, keeping tires under it..you can bullet proof the body/engine/drivetrain to your hearts content, but simply shooting out the tires will end your escape in short order...Try and enclose the tires so they stay inflated could work, but then its likely only going to be drivable on pavement...You could fill the tires but that would be so heavy the drivetrain would give issues...Another huge issue is if its a bugout vehicle it has to be big enough to get you, your people, your firearms/ammo, clothes/gear food and fuel to where ever it is you think you are bugging out to...That means you need something big, which means slow and heavy...
 A likely better idea is a lightly armored rig that provides basic drivetrain/people protection while still allowing high performance..Speed will likely get you thru more trouble then armor in most situations..Especially if you don't have to pack along a huge pile of stuff to make survival work...

OP, since you've already got the truck - should also work on a van as well, stealthier in a van, easier to install in a van, but will work in most vehicles w/ two sets of doors.

1) Tear out seats, carpet, etc.  Save the front seats, much of the carpet you can reuse.  Remove the doors on one side.  Remove steering wheel & levers from the column.

2) Weld (or bolt, but welding is preferable) a somewhat form fitting box for the front of the cab.  Install your windows.  If you want a driver side opening window, you'll need a track so it can slide backwards while the OEM window goes up & down electrically.  Relocate the radio, passenger air bag & side air bags if desired.  Slide the forward portion of your armor box sideways into the cabin & slide it forward.  Enclose the steering column with bolt on panels.  Enclose around the pedals with bolt on panels.  Reinstall steering wheel & column stalks/levers.

3) Tint all the rear windows as dark as legal, then cover with black sunshades.  Weld or bolt your rear armor box together with two doors so you can get in & out of at least one rear door and a secondary emergency exit - whether other rear door, rear window, or roof hatch.  Slide in rear armor box sideways, slide up to front armor box, bolt together.

4) Install front seats & carpet, run wiring through the front panel to control any accessories you can't reach the switches to from inside the armor - power windows, power locks, A/C, etc.  Reinstall doors.

You're probably over GVWR, particularly in the front, particularly if you used steel instead of pure aluminum, or aluminum w/ ceramic or fabric armor.  Steel's easier to weld.

80 Series LC/LX with a 100 Series 4.72uz shoved under the hood.

This was my ride for getting around Kabul. Something like 4000 pounds of extra armor and bullet proof glass.
It still hauled ass. 4k pounds aint shit for a pickup that can tow 20k. Had the 6.oh-no diesel.
No armor in the rear so it would make it a tire burning machine. Say if you stopped before a speed bump, you'd have to get a little running start or you wouldn't make it over, just do a drag car burnout.
Defrost didn't work in the winter, glass too thick.
I've always thought if I were to do it for my own, it would be a 1980 - pre-OBDII (1997?) F250 and engine choice wouldn't matter too much unless towing. Armor isn't going to slow you down that much. 351 would be my preference.

We had mostly normal looking uparmored SUVs in OEF/OIF on base for low profile things outside the wire.  They looked like 100% normal full size Toyota SUVs until you got real close realized the windows were THICC and didn't/couldn't go up/down, the tires (beefy ass runflats) were definitely not standard to support the weight of all the armor, and when you watch it ride over bumps the thing wouldn't bounce over bumps like normal... you could tell it was heavy AF.   I always wanted a surplus one.
 
We personally only ever dealt with armoring things (not like passenger vehicles), but if I were making an armored truck, I'd probably pick a short-bed 4-door body-on-frame NA Diesel pickup ... like an import Hilux.  Gut the doors of all the window mechanism to open up space and stuff it full of cheap III+ AR500 flat plate with a IIIa ballistic blanket inside that to stop spall or help with any passthroughs.  You can buy large flat 1/4" sheets of AR500 pretty cheap and then have it water cut to whatever shapes to jigsaw together then rubber spray coat them... we did it at work for stuff going to OEF/OIF.  If you simply must plasma cut it'll have like a 1/2" a HAZ at the edge that compromises armor rating... so you have to overlap the edges and weld points.  Same with weld points.  I wanna say our full flat 3.5'x2'-ish panels with light rhino coating was like 90LBS .  Put panels behind the rear seat in the cab for rear protection. Everywhere in between the body panels and frame at the front quarter panels and under the hood to protect the motor and behind the grille I'd stick III+ AR500 panels.  Same thing inside the roof.  Not sure I'd worry about floor panels... not many shots are going to come from "below" and a home-armored flat-bottomed vehicle isn't going to stop any IED or anything substantial... so don't waste the weight.  I would leave the bed largely unarmored (save weight).

Beef up the springs/shocks because you just added like 1300LBS.  It's going to ride like shit because a half-ton or even 3/4-ton ain't made to drive around all day every day with that kind of weight.  Affix little flat panels on vulnerable undercarriage  things like behind the exposed rear diff,  transfer case, tranny front/sides... Relocate the fuel tank (or just put an aux fuel tank) to armored job-box in the bed.  Ditch the A/C evaporator thing so you have space to put louvred armor slats in front of the radiator and get a better radiator/fans (don't skimp on the fans to the cooling/radiator... that was killdozer's downfall).  Get run flat tires.

No idea what to do about the windows or where you'd buy proper looking windows.  we never had any armor any windows work.

Of course, if you don't care about being "low observable" you could score a surplus humvee and just track down an up armor kit to bolt to it for probably half the time/cost/headache and end up with a more capable vehicle in the end.

I would probably start with a dump truck, gotta lot of frame weight that it should be able to handle.

Those old Air Force “peacekeepers” they used for runway security were just 1 ton Dodges with an automatic transmission.  4wd too.  Literally just the Dodge wiring harness and dash with a plate steel body.  I think they were rated to 7.62.

Or just wander on down to the local NG base and grab one during the chaos in Minecraft.

A dealer in Angleton, TX has a truck almost ready to go that has been there for years.  I'm sure they'll deal.

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It’s outrageous that surplus M-ATVs aren’t cheaply available.

Call me crazy but i have hesco 3810s behind both of my kids car seats hung off the head rest in my f250....

My work truck also has a extra plate carrier with l210s hanging on my rear center seat.

I work in ATL...

I really wish i had a 3' x5' foot piece of UHMWPE to just fit behind the rear seats or mount a fit piece into the front of the bed.

Ignition? Why not just go with something that has a mechanical diesel in it?

Buy a Ferret, by the time you get the truck, time and materials it’s going to cost the same.

Plus you would have a turret.

Ya early Dodge with a 12valve Cummins. Put a good filter setup on it and you could run the damn thing on battlefield used oil pickups. I would recommend rebuilding the whole front suspension with heavy duty components.

A dump truck. Already made to carry the weight.

@fadedsun
@m35Ben

Early to mid 2000's Suburban 2500 with a 502 or 6.0l

AKA the Cadillac Gage Ranger. I worked on some at my first duty station. The suffered from all the ills of a late '70s/early '80s Dodge smog choked engine but that's fixable. Most have been snagged up by police departments under LESO/1033 but they do come up for auction once and a great while.

They were rated for 7.62 maybe, but would likely be better than any Bubba/A-Team cobbled together truck.

I think the Rhodesians did most of their stuff on the Unimog.

Lots to look in to there.




Or something like this.  Seems there would be a bunch of dead drivers and shot up trucks after a serious fire fight.  I think the goal is just to make the bad guys look for an easier target.

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I have spare carriers and plats to do that with, even tested fit.

M1010 CUCV.

You could turn the box into your armory/living quarters.

The old NA 6.2 might need a couple power upgrades after you put all the armor on, though.

I've been searching of a similar material to put in the same area. On the plus side I have a vehicle armoring company maybe 3 miles from my house BUT I have the poor!!

Years ago I got some cheap surplus British flack jackets off Sportsman’s Guide. I wanted to shoot them but never got around to it. Could work as improvised emergency protection I guess. Certainly not as effective as hard armor but safer from becoming missiles inside the cab if unsecured.

That vest between the seats is clever. Some police cars have armor in the seat backs. Anti stab plates mostly I think. Storage drawers in the bed full of tools could help and not even be noticed.

There are several videos online of cheap armor made with welding blankets and resin. Seems like you could remove doors and pour something like that in for an exact fit. I had to pull the doors off a Suburban anyway to replace the crappy bushings and put in larger wire for the window motor. Wouldn’t have been that difficult. Only problem is they are barely up to the job of working well without any extra weight.

Ford Excursion w/ the 7.3 PSD.  Or a lates 90s Ram w/ the 12v 5.9.  The latter is more EMP proof, but the Excursion has tons of room.  An F450 would also be a good choice.

TL:DR

Unless you’re way out in the sticks, any running vehicle during any SHTF will be a target. Especially one that looks like it escaped the set of Mad Max.

You will soon be overwhelmed by the walkers.

Hi cap bicycle would be a better option. You’ll still have to fight to keep it.

Only real answers are lightweight and speedy 4wd or tracked heavy equipment because the tires aren’t going to survive any contact.

https://www.dupont.com/life-protection/ballistic-protection.html

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/c/advanced-materials/i/manufacturing/defense/

And learn
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lay-up_process

easy peasy......