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Marlin died.

I love all the stories about him.

Anybody got more pics of his 1st gen? Has been my 2nd favorite truck ever.
 
Wheelerfreak said:
I first met Marlin at EJS in the early 90's and had him show his Toy crawling in low lowX while he walked alongside it and talked about his T-cases. I met Marlin in person again and worked with him at the Las Cruces fairgrounds at the Chile Challenge. I had ordered a 4.7:1 t case and he met me there and helped me install it there and then we went wheeling. Dude had that Toy truck the entire time I knew of him and had met him. I still have the '85 Toy Xtra cab 4x4 that he installed that T-case and another 2:28 case in. RIP Marlin
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90supra said:
Sad news. I wish I would have swung by the booth at KOH this year when he was there. RIP.

Does anyone remember or have the story saved of him taking his truck down the backside of Lions Back before it was closed? I have a vague memory of reading about him walking next to the truck down the backside.
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That was his favorite party trick. With 3 xfer cases it was like 1500:1 so it could idle at less than walking speed, and while he was talking, and man he could talk, he'd reach into the cab now and then for a little steering wheel jab.

Look how many people remember that, it was a marketing piece of genius.
 
Penetrode Offroad said:
I love all the stories about him.

Anybody got more pics of his 1st gen? Has been my 2nd favorite truck ever.
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They aren’t all good stories. They lied to me about a $3300 order and made me wait a month and a half for my shit when it was “in stock”.
 
This Angelo ? and his wife, who were camped right next to us at the TB Jambo. He quit a fairly high paying heavy equipment job to work for Marlin building transmissions. Good dude. I always wondered what happened to him.

new friends.jpg
 
Aisin said:
They aren’t all good stories. They lied to me about a $3300 order and made me wait a month and a half for my shit when it was “in stock”.
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Yeah yeah. I get it. Everyone has a complaint about some company that screwed them over.
 
Roc Doc said:
That was his favorite party trick. With 3 xfer cases it was like 1500:1 so it could idle at less than walking speed, and while he was talking, and man he could talk, he'd reach into the cab now and then for a little steering wheel jab.

Look how many people remember that, it was a marketing piece of genius.
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Met him only once around 95 on Deer Valley Trail. I pulled over to let him pass coming the other way. he got out and we talked for a while the whole time his rig is crawling at a snail's pace down the trail. truely seems like such a noice guy.
the only Toyota item I even owed was the flyer he gave me that day. :laughing:
 
Mr Stubs said:
I always thought it was cool as shit that I received a hand signed Xmas card from him at one time.

Back when the business was small and customer service was paramount.
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I loved dealing with Marlin Crawler when Marlin ran the show.

He made a huge positive impact and will be missed by many.


Rest in peace Marlin.
 
I had forgotten about the Christmas cards(late 90s early 2000?) , I thought that was awesome. I got them a couple years in a row, but only made one purchase the prior year. I think they were numbered too ,cause 899 rings a bell. I remember telling my wife when have you ever ordered anything from a company and got a hand written card.
 
WLDWUN said:
Met him only once around 95 on Deer Valley Trail. I pulled over to let him pass coming the other way. he got out and we talked for a while the whole time his rig is crawling at a snail's pace down the trail. truely seems like such a noice guy.
the only Toyota item I even owed was the flyer he gave me that day. :laughing:
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LOL! I came into this thread to tell that story.

I remember you said something like, "Uh....your truck is rolling" as Marlin was grabbing a beer out of the bed and started walking towards us, and he replied, "No worries! It will just hit a tree or something and stop."

I am not a Toyota guy at all, but Marlin and I both had a favorite 4x4 in common: Slinky (who was owned by Slinky Sam) Slinky was one of the 1st extreme rigs, pretty sure it was one of the 1st full hydro steering rigs, and really belongs in a 4x4 museum. All Toyota running gear. Since Sam is a buddy of mine, every single time I saw Marlin at an event, he would ask me how Sam was doing and if Slinky was running. Marlin also loved that my oldest boy's 41 Willys has Toyota running gear.... and we would always ask me how my boy was doing.

I can't remember someone I just met 5 minutes ago. I thought it was cool Marlin would remember me and my kid.

I should have nominated him for the ORMHOF. ☹️

This is us at a Cal4 convention back in 2015:

Marlin.jpg
 
Kurtuleas said:
LOL! I came into this thread to tell that story.

I remember you said something like, "Uh....your truck is rolling" as Marlin was grabbing a beer out of the bed and started walking towards us, and he replied, "No worries! It will just hit a tree or something and stop."

I am not a Toyota guy at all, but Marlin and I both had a favorite 4x4 in common: Slinky (who was owned by Slinky Sam) Slinky was one of the 1st extreme rigs, pretty sure it was one of the 1st full hydro steering rigs, and really belongs in a 4x4 museum. All Toyota running gear. Since Sam is a buddy of mine, every single time I saw Marlin at an event, he would ask me how Sam was doing and if Slinky was running. Marlin also loved that my oldest boy's 41 Willys has Toyota running gear.... and we would always ask me how my boy was doing.

I can't remember someone I just met 5 minutes ago. I thought it was cool Marlin would remember me and my kid.

I should have nominated him for the ORMHOF. ☹️

This is us at a Cal4 convention back in 2015:

Marlin.jpg
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Slinky is hands down my favorite rig. I'm remember just stareing at those photos of it crawling through little sluice with the sharks mouth canoe on its roof back on the old PBB days wanting to make the trip out to run the Rubicon!!!

Marlins red truck is my second favorite!
 
Aisin said:
They aren’t all good stories. They lied to me about a $3300 order and made me wait a month and a half for my shit when it was “in stock”.
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My 4.7 case was months late for assorted reasons. Marlin himself was a good kindhearted guy, arguably to a fault. He was a "good-enough" businessman, I don't think he ever deliberately wronged anybody, but he struggled enough at the "running a business" side of the business that things often went sideways. IIRC, that was where Geiger initially came into the mix, to help with the business of business and free up Marlin to be Marlin.
I've seen Marlin elbow deep or more into some random dude's truck, for nothing but goodwill in return, multiple times. A genuinely good guy, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody more generous with their time. He'll be missed by many.
 
ScottRS said:
My 4.7 case was months late for assorted reasons. Marlin himself was a good kindhearted guy, arguably to a fault. He was a "good-enough" businessman, I don't think he ever deliberately wronged anybody, but he struggled enough at the "running a business" side of the business that things often went sideways. IIRC, that was where Geiger initially came into the mix, to help with the business of business and free up Marlin to be Marlin.
I've seen Marlin elbow deep or more into some random dude's truck, for nothing but goodwill in return, multiple times. A genuinely good guy, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody more generous with their time. He'll be missed by many.
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I personally have nothing against Marlin. My beef is with his kid. He flat out fucking lied to me over the telephone. When I called him out online over it he sent me a hoodie to make up for it. I know it’s petty but it still chaps my ass to this day. I won’t fuck this thread up anymore. I don’t want to take anything away from him. I know Marlin fixed lots of broken rigs that weren’t his.
 
Roc Doc said:
More later.

I always said if it wasn't for Marlin and Bobby Long, we'd all have to drive Jeeps.
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RCV might not exist, or at the least not be the same without Bobby…. He was on his way to cracking into many things other than Toyota stuff!!!!
Gone to soon for sure!!!!



RIP Marlin.
 
ScottRS said:
My 4.7 case was months late for assorted reasons. Marlin himself was a good kindhearted guy, arguably to a fault. He was a "good-enough" businessman, I don't think he ever deliberately wronged anybody, but he struggled enough at the "running a business" side of the business that things often went sideways. IIRC, that was where Geiger initially came into the mix, to help with the business of business and free up Marlin to be Marlin.
I've seen Marlin elbow deep or more into some random dude's truck, for nothing but goodwill in return, multiple times. A genuinely good guy, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody more generous with their time. He'll be missed by many.
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Yup, they brought Geiger in as a shop manager type roll and he had marlin in the back building transmissions except for Friday, he could be on the phone that day only rather than on the phone 80% of the time doing transmissions the other 20%.

Geiger did a good job in that role but needs to die in a fire otherwise.
 
I've met Marlin a few times over the years, the best was when he loaned me a locking hub after mine sheared off at the only Roundup I've been to.

He autographed my shirt and sweatshirt at KOH this year and I thought at the time he didn't look too good.

Listening to him talk you could tell his intelligence was on a whole other level. Above me anyway... I think he was somewhat of a genius.

He certainly will be missed. RIP Marlin.
 
my foundest memory was in farmington when dave cole blew up a tcase, we were starting to tear it down marlin in the mix of course and he says "ok, be careful gear oil will start pouring out when you pull that apart" ... not a drop of gear oil comes out, he looks at dave and for at least a minute straight just over and over in only his tone '"dave, dave, dave"
 
Wow. Just wow. He will be missed!
 
90supra said:
Sad news. I wish I would have swung by the booth at KOH this year when he was there. RIP.

Does anyone remember or have the story saved of him taking his truck down the backside of Lions Back before it was closed? I have a vague memory of reading about him walking next to the truck down the backside.
Click to expand...
FB_IMG_1678502350359.jpg


I know it's not lions back, but it's all I could find
 
These memories are awesome. And all the pics and stories of him ghost riding his truck make it even better. On that MCR trip I mentioned on the first page, where we stuck was near the bottom of Cadillac, a couple hundred yards up from the graves where there's an optional slab you can have fun and throw some throttle at. He was perfectly lined up while we had nowhere to go, so he put it in triple low and just let it hump that slab for like 15 minutes while we sat with him at the top and just chatted. It was hilarious. Good times :beer:
 
Always admired Marlin, first met him about 25 years ago when he traded me a dual case unit for a turbo tranny I had. Pretty much a salt of the earth kind of guy for sure. I would say not a business man at all but that is why we all loved him. I really feel for his wife and daughter. What a loss this must be. CRAWL ON Brother!!!
 
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