Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Principles of Overlanding :: The Toyota Pickup

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Principles of Overlanding :: The Toyota Pickup · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: your host Scott Brady, and my co host for today
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: is Richard Giardano. We're going to talk about the Toyota
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: pickup and Highlux, So this conversation will not include the Tacoma,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: or at least it'll just be some references. We will
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: do the Tacoma in a future podcast. We're excited to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: do that. For today, we're going to really focus on
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: pickups that were imported to the United States in the seventies, eighties,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and nineties before the Tacoma started, and then they were
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: also available in Canada as well. And then we're going
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to continue on into some discussion around the high Lux
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: because it is a really important model for us to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: reference and is available for people to rent or to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: purchase in other countries. And of course, we have listeners
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: from over one hundred countries that anticipate in the podcast
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: as well, so we want to make sure that we're
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: talking about models that are relevant to them as well.
• 1:02
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  Speaker 1: the rugged Australian outback and specifically designed for back country
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  Speaker 1: use where efficiency, durability, and reliability are key to having
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  Speaker 1: an enjoyable and safe overland journey. Well, I think, Richard,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: let's start off with your rich history with Toyota pickups.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, thank you for having me.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Definitely not an expert on Toyota pickups, but I've spent
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: plenty of time behind a wheel of a a few
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: of them.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Years you have spent in that seat.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Now we actually we actually have Richard's pickup behind us,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: which there is a great video on the Expedition Portal
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel where Richard goes through all the things that
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: he's done to this vehicle and it's in kind of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in its final form, which we're going to talk through
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the modifications as well, because I think that's really important. Yeah,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: years you have spent in that seat.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: So in this specific truck gets a nineteen ninety toy
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: To pickup with a twenty two are and a five
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: speed back in twenty thirteen, Ashley and I put together
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: basic plan to get the truck roadworthy and drive it
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: to South America. So within four weekends we put an
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: old men Emu suspension system in it, put a new
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: long block, new clutch flywheel and kind of just cleaned
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: up the interior a little bit, roofed off tent on
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: it and left And if.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I remember, didn't you get wasn't it like in a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: family member's backyard or something like that.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: So it was a work truck that my sister had
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: been driving, and she thought it was absolute trash. It
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: was owned by my mom and her husband for the
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: plumbing business and just abused constantly totally. I don't think
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: any maintenance had been done the entire time they had it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: So once I found it in the backyard, it had
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: three hundred and twenty thousand kilometers on it, I thought
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: it was the perfect foundation for an overland vehicle.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it turns out that it was so far,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: so good. And this is true without the throughout the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: discussion around Toyota pickups, but one of the realities is
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: that it is one of the best vehicles to take
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: overlanding because the fuel economy is always excellent, They always
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: have a great payload, can be very affordable in the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: grand scheme of things, like if you were to compare
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: seventy nine land Cruiser pickup against a Highlux, you know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: it's a thirty to forty percent premium depending upon the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: model configuration. The fact that you had this vehicle available
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: from your family, I just think that that's such a
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: wonderful story. It was about you guys wanted to go
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: see the world. It just so happened that your mom
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: had a Toyota pick up in the backyard. And I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: bet you if it was a Nissan, you probably would
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: have taken that it was available. You really wouldn't have
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: cared what it was.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: I had a lot of confidence in the truck. I
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: actually owned an early two thousand Chevy Silverado at the
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: time that was just a daily driver. I had memories
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: of my first Toyta, which was an eighty eight four
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Runner that never let me down. It was a three
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: leter automatic that I put thirty five's on it, and
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: it's like wellded diff in the back and just went
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: everywhere in Western Canada. Sure, so I had memories of
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: that truck just never being maintained and never letting me down.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: When I saw this another red Toyota from the nineties
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: in the backyard, I was like, that's it, that's perfect.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: What other Toyota trucks you have? You had?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I had an eighty four toy to pick up a
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: little flatbed on it. Twenty two R five speed, eighty
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: eight four runner three Leader automatic. Wow. This nineteen ninety
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: pickup was in Costa Rica for a year while we
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: went home and worked.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I bought a ninety.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Three pickup with a three Leader five speed, so we've
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: had a few of them.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Well, and it's a similar story arc for me. The
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: very first Toyota I ever bought was a nineteen eighty
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: four Toyota pickup. I bought it in Idaho when I
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: was in the military, and it was flawless. Now, it
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: didn't have the twenty two are It was a twenty
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: two R five speed, no air conditioning, which is why
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: it stayed in Idaho after I left the military, But
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it was it was just a perfect little truck. I
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: did just enough lift on it, and I don't even
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: remember how I did that. It was probably whatever the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: cheapest way you could get, probably some spacers in the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: rear axle and some longer shackles in the front. I
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: don't remember. You know, they had a shackle reversal from
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the factory, which made him a lot easier to do
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: that with. But it was just enough lift to fit
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: a thirty three on there open diffs, and I did.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I drove it all over Idaho with no issues, and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: it was just such a capable small truck, you know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: fit thirty threes on it and you were off to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the races. And then I had an eighty nine, so
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a little bit newer than the Forerunner that you had.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So I had an eighty nine four Runner with the
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: three Leader and a five speed, which was a really
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: nice combo. It was actually a really it was a
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: wonderful truck to drive, and we sold it still fairly new,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: so I never ran into any of the kind of
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: long term reliability issues around the three Leader, which we're
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: going to talk about a little bit later. And then
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: lots of time in high lux, which is why I
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: want to talk about it today. I've spent months living
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: out of highlux and freezing conditions and then also just
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: driving them all over the world South Africa and Iceland,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: in Europe, in South America. So I've spent a lot
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: of time driving highlux, and I just I have a
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: real soft spot in my heart for them for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Now that the twenty five year rule is coming into play,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: it's fifteen years for Canada, but for those of us
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: in the United States, it's twenty five years. There's actually
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: kind of the high water market. The Hilux is right
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: in that range right now where you could get a
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: three lt solid front axle diesel little turbo diesel right
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: hand drive high Lux in a four door configuration or
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: in a regular cab long big configuration. And these are
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: very special trucks and they're now available in that timeframe
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  Speaker 1: you know of the mid nineties, and that was the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: last of the solid axle Toyota trucks. I think they
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: went up until the late nineties with solid axles. As
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I recall, they're available now, which is kind of exciting.
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  Speaker 2: They're very cool.
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  Speaker 3: Every time I see one of those in Canada because
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: we've had them there for years because our importation laws
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: fifteen years. Every time I see one, I need that. Yeah,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: I have my pocketbook and bank account don't see the
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: same thing.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: But I should figure that out. Yeah, where you buy
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: it at fifteen years and then I'll hold on to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: it for ten and then I'll buy it from you
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: ten years later or something that that'd be perfect. That's funny.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: So when we look at the Toyota pickups for North America.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: A lot of us remember those late seventies and early
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: eighties trucks. These were solid axles at twenty hours twenty
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  Speaker 1: two hours. In the later years, they were all carbureted,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and they were available in a couple of different configurations.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: There was even some aftermarket coach builders that would turn
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: them into like a pseudo four runner. I don't remember
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the name of it right now, but I actually had
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a friend of mine that had one Trekker Trekkers, that's right,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: they were super cool. In general, we don't see those
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: used a lot for travel now. The one exception to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: that is Chris Collard. So Chris Collard has an early
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: eighties Toyota pickup that he has put through many different
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: configurations and has probably seen more dirt in Baja than
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: most Toyota pickups I can think of. So there are
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: examples of those being used out there, for sure. It's
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: definitely with that kind of Nineteen eighty four to nineteen
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: ninety five would have been the last year of the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Toyota pickup in the United States and probably for Canada.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Was it the same for Canada? And then you guys
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: got the Tacoma after that? Did Yeah? I think that
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the high water mark, and I'd be curious to know
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: your thoughts, but I think that the high water mark
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: really was that kind of ninety three ninety four ninety
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: five truck. For me, I would want a regular cab
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: long bed if you could find it, which they were
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: pretty rare, with a twenty two are five speed that
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: would be kind of magic.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: It kind of depends what you're doing with it.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Because the unicorns for the longest time were the eighty
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: five five solid axle EFI had all the good things.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: To be honest, I've been really, really happy with all
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: the IFS trucks I've had, whether it's been old Menumu
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: or the truck behind us as a total chaos long travel. Sure,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: they just drive. They drive like a modern car, a
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: modern truck. They are slow, but other than that, on
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: road manners are really really good.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think for me, if I was building
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a trail truck, I would probably want the solid axle.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: But there are limitations to that too, So that eight
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: inch front diff was only so durable with large diameter tires,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and that ends up kind of being the challenge with it.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Is that probably better off buying a newer Tacoma and
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: then doing a solid axle swap on it with something
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: that can really take the size of a thirty seven
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and thirty eight forty inch tall tire for rock crawling.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and with that small if I know, with when
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: you gear it properly do a five two nine, you
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: can get into problems with opinion being too small exactly weak.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: And I know I've had thirty five's on a ninety
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: three pickup and ran lockers front and rear with that
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: small opinion on a five to nine and it's been
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: it's held up. But I'm also pretty careful with them,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: just knowing it's totally use.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: It's totally the driver. I've never broken a diff because
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I just tend to employ a lot of mechanical sympathy
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: when I drive, usually because I'm somewhere super remote and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: there's consequences to bust in the front diff if sure,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: if you're someplace really remote. And also understanding are these
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: reverse cut gears, which can make them extremely weak when
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: you're trying to do an extraction of another vehicle in reverse.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: So just making sure that you know kind of the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: limits of that run end, which it is a fairly
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: weak front end when you compare it to a solid axle.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: If I was to look at the highlex, I would
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: definitely be looking at the last of the years the
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: solid axle, because it kind of got the best of both.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: You got the same body style as your truck and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: a lot more modern conveniences in them, just better HVAC,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: better overall ride, you know, noise management, qull of the materials.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: They started to do a lot better with managing rust
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in those vehicles as well, which was a big shift.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: That's why you don't see a lot of those seventy
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: nine to eighty three pickups around anymore, because they just
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: rusted out on you.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: And then I was going to talk about that a
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: little bit on the on the budget side of things,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: which you start off with. Even five years ago, these
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: trucks were pretty inexpensive to buy. Yeah, and when we
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: got ours, we were able to get it from our
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: family for nothing. But it was a thousand dollars truck
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: when we got it. The equivalent truck nowadays is seven
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: eighty nine. Yep, And I've seen a truck. There's an
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: eighty seven toy to pickup that came into the gear
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: shop the other day. Up in Calgary, Alberta Atlas I
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: work when I'm not down here or traveling. It was
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: a clean driver, but you know, it needed break some
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: ball joints and tyrot ends and all these things. Twenty
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: two ur E five speed, a little bit of rust,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: twenty five grand. Prices has been going up, for sure.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: You just can't get those vehicles anymore. And there are
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: limitations with the newer vehicles as well. I mean, a
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: new Tacoma, of course, is an exceptional truck. But what
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I noticed, and I'd be curious of your thoughts of this,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: is that when the Toyota pickup changed to the Tacoma,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: it changed from a vehicle that was purchased to haul
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: things to a vehicle that was purchased to haul people. Yeah,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: for sure, and that is true for most pickups in
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: North America. They are used as daily drivers for great reason.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I drive a full sized truck every day,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and it's a wonderful vehicle to drive around, even with
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: family in it and everything else. It's just very comfortable.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: It's very a lot of utility. But that's what changed,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: because if you look at some of the payload numbers,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: if you were to look at a long bed nineteen
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: eighty four Toyota pickup in the United States, it was
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: available in a one ton variant, and that wasn't just
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: an imperial ton, that was a metric ton yep. So
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it had a two tho two hundred pound payload. Do
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: you know the payload on.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Your trust over seventeen hundred pounds.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: So this little pickup that makes a hundred horse power,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: a little eight inch fIF with little tiny brakes at Yeah,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: the payloads seventeen hundred and forty pounds I think for
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: this one. Our Tundra is just under sixteenth to give you.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and your Tundra is a full size truck. It's
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: it's not the previous generation tunder it's the new full size.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Big disc breaks all around ten and a half inch
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: ring gear for sure. Yeah, it makes four hundred horsepower
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: tons of torque. It can the difference from the Tundras.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: It can tow ten thousand pounds where it's the sink
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: and toe thirty five hundred right take up. Yeah, it's
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: kind of mind blowing what the payload of these little
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Toyta pickups is.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: And that's because they kept them so simple. If you
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: look at the difference in weight between a twenty two
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: are and a five point seven.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this truck, I think a curb weight when it
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: was stock is thirty three hundred pounds.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: So as an example, I've got a sixty seven Mustang
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: with a V eight and automatic and that is twenty
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: nine hundred pounds.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: So you're looking at a tul drive car that's very
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: basic for what it is. That's almost three thousand pounds,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: and you got a fourbe drive truck that's just slightly
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: more than that.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, that is certainly a great example. And that's
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: what we saw, and that's why I think there's still
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the argument in North America for looking for Toyota pickups
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: is that they had a proper payload so that you
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: could actually, like you've done. I mean, let's walk through
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: your build right now that you've gone through on this truck.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to start off with and I think
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: this build works so so well in Mexico, Latin America,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: like throughout my Latin America, where you don't have eighty
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: mile pour freeways, you know, probably wouldn't work so well
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: in Saudi Arabia where the speed limit one hundred and
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: forty kilometers an hour and you're trying to keep up.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: But in I find in North America it's hard to
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: keep up with modern traffic because it just doesn't have
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: the power and it's heavy.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: It breaks aren't as big and all the rest of it.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: But or long term international travel, it just sets like
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: a nice little sweet spot has enough power, moves around
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: as fine, and just is perfect off road for what
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: we want to do.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, most developing countries, you're dealing with eighty kilometer an
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: hour speed limits, maybe one hundred kilometer an hour speed limit.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, So we just have to choose little slower
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: like highways and byways. And if we can take a
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: dirt road instead, I can go almost as fast on
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: a flat, girt dirt road as I can in a freeway.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: So sure, it's yeah, much better suited to those. It's
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: a nineteen ninety tway to pick up. And I had
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: the twenty two our re rebuilt my friend Ryan up
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: in Abbisford, BC, Disturbed Industries. He thinks, he said, this
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: is three hundred and twenty two our re that he's built.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: So we use a lot of LC Engineering performance products
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: just to try to get a little bit more power
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: out of the truck. I didn't really ever consider an
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: engine swap because trying to just try to keep the
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: drive train as stock as possible solely for ease of maintenance,
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: ease of getting parts and any repairs outside of country.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Just tried to make it reliable, fresh, make sure it didn't
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: burn any oil. It works out great. We added a
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: heavier flywheel to just help get the truck moving a
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: little bit better, which it made a bigger difference than
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: any of the performance parts we added.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Interesting, yeah so, and did you change the clutch out
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: at the same time?
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Did?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So?
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: We did an ace and clutch and the LSE. I
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: think it's a thirty pound flywheel, okay, So that made
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: a big difference in getting a truck moving like now
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: it feels like a stock truck instead of a fifty
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: two hundred pound.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: And you probably really notice it off road and low
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: range as well. It's less probably less likely to stall yep, So.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: It works really well, especially in those situations uphill trying
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: to get the truck moving low range, also just climbing
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: steep grades. It just holds a speed just a little
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: bit easier than did before, so that's a nice touch.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Again, we just worked really hard on making the truck liable.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: So we put a toid or radio in, made sure
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: that we had rebuilt the starter, an alternator, all the
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: things that we could. Recently that while the engines out,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: its easy enough to replace it, it's usually cheaper to
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: replace it than it failing in the middle of nowhere
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: and have sure get a truck towed back or having
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: to fix it. Focused on reliability, I spent all of
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: our budget, time and energy and real money budget on
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the suspension. Did a total cast long travel suspension system
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: only because I saw an article on this that Fred
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Williams did in four Wheeler I think it was a
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: four wheeler or Predusin's four wheeling off road fifteen years ago, sure,
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: and I thought that's super cool. He put it in
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: his truck Clampy jumped it in glam As, I think
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: is what there was, and I was like, I need that.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: So fifteen plus years later, I thought I got an
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: opportunity to.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Try it out.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: So we did and through icon shalks all the way around,
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: and that has made a world of difference in terms
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: of whether we decide that we want to do a
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: little bit of recreational off roading, or take a dirt
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: road instead of a paved road. Sure, we almost always
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: choose the dirt road now it's pretty fun. And then
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: tried to keep the real entire diamond or waiting as
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: low as possible. So we did a twenty five seventy
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: five sixteen Toyo eight three, which I have.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Been really happy with.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Looks like on a steel wheel.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: It looks like it, but it's a fifteen fifteen HD.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Those look great. How much positive offset are they? Fairly there?
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Zero offset?
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but with a long travel in the front it's
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: a three and a half inch long travel, so it's
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: track with the seven inches wider. Overall, we just have
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: been some fiber lass veenders that more or less cover
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: the cover the tread up front, and then in the
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: back we just had a wheel spacers instead of putting
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: a different axle in. I've had decent luck with the
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: G two wheel spacers that we've been using, and.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Just yeah, if you use a high quality so they
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: like two and a quarter or two and a half,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: they're only inch and a half.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: So the track and then rear is narrower and kind
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: of similar to the newer troop beees, I believe.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is which is exciting at times? Yes, it
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: is sandy tracks or the.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Amount of time we spend in those situations, it's not
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: too bad.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: And then it just did.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: I went back to an old trick I did years
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: ago and put it sixty three in chevies and Chevy
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: springs in the rear.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: So they're nice and long and flat.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: They've got the capacity to haul what is an additional
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: almost two thousand pounds in this truck, I think, and
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: it's fully chopped up.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Haven't had a problem.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: So it's been a nice little, nice little combination of
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: all these little parts and ideas that I've had over
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: the last decade or two and kind of threw them
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: all together and seems to seems.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: To work well. And you guys travel a lot solo,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: so looks like you've made some considerations around self recovery
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and animal strike protection. So you've got an AARB bull
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: bar up front. What made you decide on that?
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: When we went to South America, we just had a
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: stock bumper on the truck, no wage, just stamp steel,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: flimsy bumper that weighed twelve pounds for sure. Sure, And
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: I felt once we got back to North America and
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: we spent a lot of time in the Rockies afterwards,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: lots of elk, lots of cattle on the back roads.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: I kind of felt we had used up all of
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: our time. I kind of felt like we didn't have
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: an issue for two years, but it could happen any
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: point from now on. Sure, you know, so adding an
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: airb bumper to the front and a worn M eight
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: thousand winch upfront was a big key, just like a
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: peace of mind.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the M eight thousand is one that people tend
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: to overlook because of all these really fancy, modern modern winches.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: But I actually think that it's one of the best
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: winches that you can buy or a vehicle like that.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: They're reasonably priced, they're still made in the United States,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and with synthetic line and an aluminum hause fair lead. Yeah,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you're at early fifty pounds, so the weight is much
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: lower it is.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: And when we didn't have a winch, There'll be plenty
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: of times when we get into a situation and I thought, oh,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: you know what, if we did have a winch, maybe
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: we could just attach to this tree and we wouldn't
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: have to worry so much about sliding down this cliff
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: on the other side.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Sure, whether it was snow or ice or whatever.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: So there have been a couple of times in the
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: in the past when we're just going out to a trailhead,
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: we're going up to hike. Sure, we're not meant to
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: go do anything crazy in the Rockies. Again, when you're
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: going up a path and you don't know there's ice
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: underneath totally you're cruising up. It was one time in particularly,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: we're cruising up and I think there was a waterfall
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: on the left hand side coming down from the cliff,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: and a cliff like straight down on the right side,
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: and we didn't know, we're cruising along, just hit the
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: just hit ice under a couple inches of snow, and
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: the truck just slides off a little bit to the
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: right and eventually stops on some solid ground Like Ashley,
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: you please lock the front hubs please, and the table.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Luckily we had some traction in the front. It was
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: just in the rear that was yeah.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Lost.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Even in a situation like that, I'm like, you know,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: what would would have been really nice being able to
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: take a winch dash to the tree tree savor strap
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: and just be secure. Sure, because we were quite far
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: out and nobody was around.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'm questioning if you're even an Overlander
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: because I don't see a snorkel on your ou.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: No. Yeah, two reasons, never felt like I needed it.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: And also it doesn't fit on the fibers menders.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those Fiberglus fenders are They look so stock that
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't even realize it until you said it is there,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: not overly wide. Who makes those?
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Is there from Toya Fiberglass and Penticed in British Columbia,
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: This guy named Cory up there.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Who Yeah, they look really good.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I really like them.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: They were great because the ones that were originally on
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: the truck were completely rusted.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: And at the time these were the lead time was
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: pretty short. So for four hundred bucks, par offenders and
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: sprayed them with a kind of spray paint, which.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: You really yeah, pretty close match, like you can hardly tell.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Oh exactly, everything's faded now, it's scratched now.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: It doesn't look like there's a lot of rust on there,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: like in the bed in that Like, how is that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: even possible?
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: I think it's magic it's very dust that the frame
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: has been undercoated at some point, and sometimes that's good,
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: something's bad. But in our case, I haven't really found
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: any frame rust pretty incredible. And on the body it's starting.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: The rust is starting.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So I leave it in Arizona more exactly.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Every time it lives in Alberta for a little while,
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: it gets worse.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: We're little angrier.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Sure, So cab corners are starting to get rusty, and
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: just under the windshield right now on there are two
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: spots that and I only noticed because there's some water
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: dripping into the cab. And after hunting it down, I
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: doun some work I have to.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Do well if you can stay on top of it.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: And then I like the configuration with the extra cab.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: What do you guys use for that space behind the seats?
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have one of the seats that's open
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: for either hauling people or Our thought is at some
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: point when this thing will eventually end up overseas, I'm
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: sure again we have a space for a guide.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: If we ever need a guide, you need to have
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a minder or a guide. Sometimes they call it a guide.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: It actually a miner. Yes, whatever it is, it comes
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to mind yeah.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Perfect, So that left opened for him or her. And
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: then we have an allied box behind my seat that
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: I just used as a lock box to put our
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: valuables while we have computer and camp oh icy, Yeah
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: got it.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: And that's where you keep your camera gear and.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it makes it a little bit more difficult
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: for people to grab things. Sure, we had a lock
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: box when we were in South America. We had a
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: lock box that went the entire width of the back
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: seat and the truck was broken into twice throughout time there.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: Both times the punch of door locks, get inside, rifle around,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: they grab whatever's loose. But the lock box had a blanket. Well,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: we always had like a Mexican blanket over top of
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: the lock box.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Sure, so they would open it up, see that they
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: couldn't get in and.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Take off, so they only had so much time.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: Exactly, it's just there to stop you know, those little
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: little breaking enters.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had that in Nicaragua. Door punched the door
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: lock through, opened the door and stole a couple of
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: things out of the front of a forward pick up. Yeah,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: it's pretty quick. Smash and grab kind of stuff is
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: what we tend to find exactly.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: And the two times it happened. Well, first time it
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: happened and we knew it was our problem in our
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: fall because we left some stuff out.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: I was easy to easily see from the road.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: After the second time happened, we like, hint the windows,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: add another log box. Sure, really make sure that the
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: interior spot was every time we leave it right? How
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: it matter if it's ten minutes, five minutes.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Sure, No, you got to do that. Now above the cab,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: it looks like you installed a rail to support some crossbars.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: What did you do up.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: There behind that?
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: We did a we've got a GFC version one camper
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: that we tried to utilize as like an decent amount
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: of inside living space and by well, to keep all
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: the inside space free or as much as possible, we
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: wanted add a box out front with a little roof rack.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Oh that's smart. Are those easy on crossbars? Yeah?
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: So we went to Equipped Expedition Outfitters and Paul May
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: he didn't drill the holes in the roof, but he
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: watched as I did it.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I can't say that I blame him. Hand you the
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: drill this, my man.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: He's like, here are the rails, here's a drill, drill
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: them here. So I drilled here's a holes on either
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: side and rivenetted the rails in. Sure, it's got some
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: easy on crossbars and then a pelican. I think it's
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: a seventeen forty five case across the roof, which is waterproof,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: and it just has all of our hiking and tracking
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: gear in it.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Oh got it. So it's stuff that you need for
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the trip, but you don't access every day exactly, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: it's all pretty lightweight. Sure, so I was okay with
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: putting it up front. Yeah, yeah, not worried about. Yeah,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the Go Fast camper looks great on there. It looks
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: like you've got an airb awning on one side. So
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Max tracks in the front. And then is that solar
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: panels up there?
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have a couple of one hundred Samdlex
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: solar panels using Go Fast Camper's solar panel trays. So
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: they're just held on with some three M adhesive. Oh interesting,
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: and just the way they're designed, they kind of it's
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: attached with a three M but also it's angled in
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: so it holds in the solar panel when it's once
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: it's bolted in trying to keep it pretty you know,
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: it looks like to me, it seems like there's tons
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: of stuff bolted on the truck, but trying to keep
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: it clean and out out of sight most of the time.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: No, it looks like it would just be really useful
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to live out of. And then how do you have
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the inside of the go fast camper set up to
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: allow you to do work and kind of have some
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: inside sleeping space.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: So we use a bunch of I think it was
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: two goose giar foor modules and then connected it with
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: an infill panel, so it's like a little L shaped
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: bench on one side. And then I built a cabinet
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: on the left hand side that's a kitchen, has a
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: nice little little countertop, little Dometic sink using a shurflow
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: pump and a scepter twenty gallon water tank. So it's
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: got lots of stuff in there that makes it feel
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: like home, but also it's all pretty pretty simple. And
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: then a Dometic CFX three thirty five fridge. It's not
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: too big, not too small. We can have fresh food
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: for three or four or five days before we have
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: to start diving into any of the dry goods.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Well, the truck looks great. You even got some rocker
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: panel protection. And what do you have for in the diffs?
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: What do you get for lockers?
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have some G two axle forty eight's
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: in front rear front is open and in the rear
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: used the nitro torsion limited slip. Okay, yeah, so kind
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: of set it forget it. It has made a world
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: of difference up north. I never worried about it. When
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: we went to South America there was open diffs. But
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: when we got back home and we were spending a
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: lot of time in the snow, it was it was
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: a mess, just like no traction whatsoever. Adding that reartraction
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: made all the difference just getting around town.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember one time I was I was on
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the Air Force base in that eighty four pickup and
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I come up to a stop sign and I let
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: out the clutch and the car's not going anywhere. And
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I grew up in so the California, so please forgive
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: me a little bit. But I'm like revving the engine
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and the car's not going anywhere, and I'm like, oh,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: it's like something broke in the clutch. So I just
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: like I just left it idling. But I forgot that
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I left it in gear and I get out. I
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: hop out of the truck and one of the front
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: tires and one of the rear tires is just sitting
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: there spinning. I had kind of put one of the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: front tires right on a manhole cover, just tall enough
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: where it wasn't going anywhere, and it made me realize, like, oh,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I actually really only have a tool drive truck at
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: this point.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Is it gear driven limited slip or is it? Yeah?
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Oh that's nice.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've had a super limited slip in a in
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: a truck before, so that's a clutch clutch type yeah,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: but yeah, this is gear driven and it's silent and
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: it always works. Yeah, even if the tire comes off
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: the ground, it's still's still traction.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: So I've been really happy with it.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Mostly. We ever put a little pre load into the
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: parking brake to help give it a little bit more effectiveness, and.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Certain I definitely did that in the past, but I
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: haven't had to do that so far with.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Because you got so much tire and yeah, travel and
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: everything else.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's tons and tons of down travel right now
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: with those rear springs, so there's always always a tire
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: on the almost always.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: There on the ground, which perfect well, it looks great.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: And when it comes to talking about the Toyota to pickup,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I think this is a great example of what's possible
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: with these trucks, where let's say even today, you could
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: find a vehicle like that for eight to twelve thousand
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: dollars and a whole build without the long travel. But
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: if you did old man Emu and you did a
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: go fast camper and everything else, you could be under
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: twenty five thousand bucks all in on a vehicle that's
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: been well proven to travel around the world. The other
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: upside to that is this particular platform was sold almost
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: everywhere in the world. So to find even an arm
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a steering knuckle clutch, a clutch.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: In Colombia, we are I'll blame Panama traffic at forty
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: five degrees celsius and stop and go with a heavy
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: truck that wasn't really geared at the time or destroying
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: the clutch in the truck at one point. So we
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: had it replaced in Baron, Kia in Colombia. Had to
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: go on a flour by four. Oh. Yeah, we rolled up, yeah,
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: and we rolled up. Okay, here's the thing clutches going out. Also,
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: clutch master needs to be rebuilt and wheel bearings need
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: to be done. As it possible that you guys could
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: do this sometime in the next few weeks. Hould the
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: truck apart, grab the clutch, grab the clutch friction disk.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Run to Toyota. There was one on the shelf.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: They grab rebuilt kit for the clutch master, and they
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: grabbed wheel bearings and it's all done within a day.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: Everything was on the shelf, no worries. When we were
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: in Lima, we did tyrot ends. I usually have to
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: grab idler arms every I don't know, thirty forty thousand
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: kilometers on this truck. He seems to eat through them
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: pretty quickly, gotcha, so finding idler arms was no problem
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: everywhere he went.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: I think that was like by far the biggest benefit
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: is every mechanic we went to or anybody who helped
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: in any way to get us can help us keep
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: moving through Latin America. Had seen these trucks, they'd worked
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: on these trucks. Parts are always available for these trucks. Sure,
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: so it.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Was it was no surprise to anyone, including you. I mean,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: you go and the mechanics sees that vehicle pull in
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: or even at the Toyota dealership. It's not going to
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: be like you just rolled in in some Tacoma where
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: there are some components of the front suspension of the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Tacoma that were shared with the Hilux, but very few
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the engine is I think that engine is only available
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: in a couple of countries outside of North America, like
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia probably, I think still gets the three point
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: four into four row.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: And yeah, they still put two sevens at three rz.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: They still put in new trucks in theooner.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: And that was actually the two seven, to the Tacoma's credit,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: was actually a fairly common motor around the world. The
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: two seven was, for sure, but the three four wasn't.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: It just wasn't that common of an engine.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: It was available in some I remember seeing them in
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Pratos in Latin America.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: I'm not too sure about other worse.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not super common, especially when compared to the twenty
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: two are which was available everywhere. And that transmission is
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the same as most of the other Toyota trucks as well.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: So you just have the opportunity for serviceability if you
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: need it. And that's another thing about this version of
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the truck is that when I think about the three Leader,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: I'm less inclined to think that that's a good idea
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: for two reasons. First of all, that wasn't very ubiquitous
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: or around the world, So the three Leader E six
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: was just really not that available in other countries. It
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: was available in some, but most it wasn't. The premium
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: engine would have been the diesel, but twenty two ares available.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: And the other side is of it is that the
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: three Leaders not particularly reliable. They have head gasket issues
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and other problems that creep up with some mileage on
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: those trucks, And certainly there are people that have gone
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: three hundred thousand miles and a three Leader without any trouble.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: As far as Toyota engines go, it was the least
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: reliable of the ones that we got here in North America.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: One thing that's really really nice about that four cylinder
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: twenty two are, or in the newer ones with a
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: two point seven three r Z is that when there's
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: so much room in an engine bay, you can service
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: it very easily. So whether you're doing alternator road order
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: or just like a valve adjustment. Whatever it is, there's
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: plenty of room to do it yourself in a campground.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or add a second battery and at an air compressor.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: All those things are really easy to put into the
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: engine bay of between are ye man.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: Even when adding the winch, bumper and the winch to
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: this thing, I still had to go to a five
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: hundred pound per inch spring because the six hundred pound
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: that originally came with the shocks.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Was just too stiff. Interesting, so light, so light and special.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Equipped for supporting today's podcast. More than fifteen
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: years ago, Equipped Expedition Outfitters became the first American company
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: to import the best in breed vehicle expedition equipment from
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: across the globe. Since they're humble beginnings, they have risen
• 31:30
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• 31:38
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• 31:46
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• 31:54
  Speaker 1: during any adventure. Is it Equipped One dot com to
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: gear up. Oh that's amazing. Well, when we get to
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: the year nineteen ninety five, now, was this the same
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: for Canada? This was the end of the Toyota pickup
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: LUs Yeah, all right, so that was the end of
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: the Toyota pickup. Tacoma comes onto the scene, which we're
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: not going to talk about much today, so we kind
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: of need to shift our thinking towards the Highlux. And
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: there's a reason why this kind of nineteen ninety five
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six year is also very relevant to this conversation.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: In Canada at fifteen years old, you can import vehicles
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: from Japan and other countries. The Highlux was sold throughout Europe.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: It was also sold extensively in Japan. The real upside
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of buying a JDM vehicle is that owners tend to
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: take really good care of them. They have a bunch
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: of regulations that require them to be well cared for
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: if they're still on the road, and they also tend
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: to have very low mileage, and they just really don't
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: tend to be abused very much. They have a lot
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: of upside with that. The downside is that you have
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: a right hand drive. I've owned a bunch of right
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: hand drive vehicles and they're just really not that fast,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: and it just really doesn't matter, and it's kind of a.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we had a ninety three Delica, so yeah, it
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: just does just putting along the right side accidentally hitting
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: the Wincha wipers when you want.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a guarantee for sure. Yeah, but it's really
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: not that big of a deal to drive or right
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: hand drive. And we talked about this a little bit
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: in the South America conversation, But there are countries where
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: you can't bring a right hand drive into it, like
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: El Salvador is one. Maybe Nicaragua was a problem now,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: so there's there are countries where you can't either ship
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: the right hand drive into it or it's very difficult
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: to move it through those various countries. So that's it's
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: important to note that there are problems with the right
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: hand drives in left hand drive countries. If you come
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: to the border you try to import it through a port.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Just be aware of that. But as far as daily
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: driving a right hand drive, it's never really bothered me.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I kind of like it. You know, you talk about
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: the bank teller line or the fast food restaurant. Fortunately,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I don't use I don't go to fast food that often,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: but I have definitely backed through a fast food line.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: This is the part that I loved about it the
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: most is that the person at the at the window
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: didn't even notice the fact that I mean, my body
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: was where it was supposed to be. They didn't notice
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the fact that I was facing rather direction. It's just
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: like it just shows how rote their processes throughout the day.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: They just like, hand me up the bag of food.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Have one thing to worry about.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So for Canada, you're able to get right now.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: It would be like a two thousand and seven highlux
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: into the country, which would be an amazing vehicle. You're
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: into D four D territory by then.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Ashley and I spent a lot of time in
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: a couple of those trucks in Costa Rica a couple
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: of years ago, when now she was running Women Overlanding
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: the World tours. Down there, it was more like Women
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: Overlining the World with Richard taking photos for everyone. So
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: it was another girl's trip plus Richard. But we were
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: in They always had four or five highlexes that they
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: would rent, so we spent tons and tons of time
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: in those whether it was something would you think. I
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: loved it to the point where I've definitely looked into
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: importing one, mostly from Panama. The process is pretty easy,
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: left hand drive, truck, double cab.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: You have to drive you back exactly. Would be amazing.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: The price point for a two thousand and five six
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: is about half the price of what an equivalent to
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: come is right now, So you can have a highlex
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: D fer D diesel.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: And probably going to have air conditioning.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: Probably can have air conditioning, yeah, something I'm not used
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: to with the ninety pickup.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Definitely thought about it, Yeah, And I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: think that for those of us in North America, this
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: is a very strong argument to get a D four
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: D Hilux. Manual transmission is easy to find. They're typically
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: going to be manual. There will be some service vehicles
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: that won't be, but for the most part you're going
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: to be able to find manual transmission D four D Hilux.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: It's going to make for an incredible around the world vehicle.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: For those of us in the United States, it's still
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a great option at twenty five years because this is
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the very last of the solid axle diesel highlux, so
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: they were available in a quad cab with a really
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: short bed I think it's around four and a half
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: five foot bed on the back of it. You can
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: get manual transmission. It's a three LTE. I had a
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: two LTE in an LJ seventy eight land Cruiser, and
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: those you have to be very very careful around engine
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: temperatures and exhaust because they do have head gasket and
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: head cracking and other issues that can occur. They resolved
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of that with the three LTE and they
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: tend to be fairly reliable. So you're kind of in
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: this option of getting a fairly modern, really easy to
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: drive on the road, small displacement turbo diesel solid axle
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: leaf sprung high loucks, and you can bring it into
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: the United States and if you find one in Portugal,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: it's not going to have any rust. It's going to
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: be left hand drive. Maybe you find one in Panama
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: if you're lucky, and make it an adventure driving it
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: back from the Darien Gap to wherever you live in
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: the United States exactly.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: And I think for me, after having an extended cab
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: pick up, the biggest benefit of those trucks is that
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: quad cab. Yeah, and you can call all your friends,
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: all your gear, whatever you need. You do lose the
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: bed length for sure. So if you're building a truck
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: that you want to live in, it's pretty much not
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: going to happen.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: But I wonder if you could still do something like
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: a go fast just really lever it out over the cab.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, it is a shorter bed than the Tacoma,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: so maybe you'd have to twist somebody's arm or find
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: somebody that can make one for your custom.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: Even if you do a flatbed, maybe it's a five
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: foot flatbed.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Sure, a little pop up erfects on the back be awesome,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: that would be awesome.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: Otherwise, I've seen a lot of flatbeds and canopies, so
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: trasing canopies like the Australian style builds, and those are awesome.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: If you want to have a truck that you live
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: out of rather than live in, it's a good option
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: for sure.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: It's important to remember too that the aftermarket support for
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: those that truck is prolific because they were sold in Australia,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: they were sold in South Africa, they were sold all
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the way throughout Europe. There's tons of aftermarket support. The
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Australians had those trucks completely figured out.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, AIRB, Dobinson's TJM, all of those call up getting
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: a suspension sent over and.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it would be really easy to do that, and
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I think AIRB tends to be fairly friendly to that.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: And they even have a lot of that in stock
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: here in North America because they service South America and
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Central America as well. So when someone's buying a suspension
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: for a high lux in South America, it's going to
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: be delivered out of the containers that come in from
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Australia to the US. So there's quite a bit of inventory.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Even an ARB front bumper is not going to be
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: too difficult to get for that truck. We're starting to
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: see this very exciting time. It's literally the mid nineties.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: For whatever reason, it was the pinnacle of overland vehicles. Now,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: that was what I always said. Now I'm starting to
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: retract that a little bit because arguably the vehicles that
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: are available right now are better. Right I would have
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: never imagined. But you can get a Diesel Gladiator solid
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: axle diff locked Turbodiesel Gladiator in twenty twenty two, and
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: that's kind of hard to make an argument against a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: vehicle like that, And.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: Any new vehicle is going to have the reliability that
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: you need to travel around the world.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: That's right. Years Yeah, there's a lot of argument to
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the fact that any new vehicle you get is going
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: to be more reliable than a forty year old land Cruiser,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: unless the land Cruiser has been completely rebuilt. But then
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: as soon as you get it out of that kind
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: of new processes and assembly line, it just you're going
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: to have little things crop up.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: Anytime you touch something, you're going to make it worse
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: than the factory that's right. Oh, reliability is going to
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: go down for sure, and you just have to know that.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: But I think the nineties are so great right now,
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: and I know this is happening in the car world
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: as well, that you get this classic that you can
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: still drive on the street or total still drive around
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: the world because it has air conditioning, usually because it
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: has EFI, because it has a deeper rest.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: It breaks all these things.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: Usually as most of the modern convenience is that you
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: have in a newer car all the ones you really
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: need at least, sure, but in the classic body style.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: So I think that the high Lux is going to
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: be interesting. I was starting to have some conversations with
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Steve with from land Cruisers Direct, who I purchased a
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: seventy four series land Cruiser from years ago. He's like,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: they're out there and there's some really incredible one. There's
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: some very low mileage right hand drive, you know, the
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: white podcap solid axle Toyota high Lux that you can
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: get for the low twenties, which is extremely exciting.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: They're very cool.
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: They're still very rare, so when you see them, it
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: is especially here on the road in North America, it's
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: it's exciting. Makes me want one every single time.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. What I have seen in my experience
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: most recently around the high Lux, what we've used them
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: for is for polar conditions, and that is because the
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Highlight has a very efficient motor in the D four
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: D even more so in the newest Hilux so twenty
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: sixteen and newer they had. I think it's a one
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: point seven. I could be off on that a little bit,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: but it was a smaller engine that was available. I
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: should double check that, and maybe it's a two point two.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: There's a smaller displacement a turbodiesel than what came in
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: the previous model. I think the Highlux before that was
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: a three leader D four D turbo diesel. The newer
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: one is even smaller displacement, gets even better fuel economy.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: We would build them up like for Expedition seven, for example,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: we used high Lux to cross Antarctica. And the reason
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: why they're so useful is because they have a metric
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: ton of payload. You can easily modify them to take
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: up to a forty four inch tall tire, and there's
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: ways that they do that that is actually a little
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: bit easier even than on like let's say a seventy
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: series land Cruiser. So they just cut out a lot
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: of the body and they put on these giant fender flares,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and they only add a little bit of suspension lift,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: a little bit of body lift. They add some massive
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: fuel tanks to them, and then you have a relatively
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: light weight vehicle with a gigantic tire on it that
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: gives for an incredible amount of footprint. In fact, the
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: weight distribution of the tire is less than the human footprint. Interesting,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: so you could actually drive over not just a foot,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: you could drive over a person with those trucks at
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: three psi and it wouldn't injure them at all.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: That's an interesting fact.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So this content is brought to you by Overland Journal,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: our premium quality print publication. The magazine was founded in
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: two thousand and six with the goal of providing independent
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: equipment and vehicle reviews, along with the most stunning adventures
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: and photography. We care deeply about the countries and cultures
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: we visit and share our experiences freely with our readers.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: We also have zero averatorial policy and do not accept
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: any advertiser compensation for our reviews. By subscribing to Overland Journal,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: you're helping to support our employee owned, owned, and veteran
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: owned publication. Your support also provides resources and funding for
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: content like you are watching or listening to right now.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: You can subscribe directly on our website at Overland Journal
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: dot com. The Highlux is extremely popular for polar travel,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: so it's the only vehicle that's regularly used in Ountarctica
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: for big expeditions is the Highlux. Some of them are
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: converted into a six by six so that they can
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: take more fuel capacity with them, and then as they
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: add weight, now they've added an extra set of tires,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: which again now distributes that additional weight over that large footprint,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: so they're incredibly capable. There are a few things that
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: they have to do to them to endure that kind
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: of use, and it all comes from the two hundred series.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: So if you're ever wondering what the strongest land cruiser
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: ever made was, it was the two hundred. So they
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: take the rear axle out of a two hundred, they
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: make the high Lux a five link, and then that
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: gives that rear axle a ton of hoarding weight for
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: all of that additional fuel load. And then the other
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: thing that they found in very difficult and challenging conditions
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: was the transfer case on the Highlux would also suffer
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: and they would actually overheat in Antarctica, which is unbelievable
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: to consider, but ice and stuff will collect underneath and
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: snow will collect underneath the vehicle, and it will reduce
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: the airflow across the transfer case. So they would actually
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: swap out the transfer case to a two hundred series
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: as well. So, but the high Lux is definitely the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: polar vehicle of choice for a lot of reasons, and
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: it's also used for a bunch of other stuff people
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: travel around the world in them.
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't seem as common as a line cruiser
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: is sure, but when you see them, it just makes sense.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I'm thinking about the euro campers when they're converting vehicles
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: to a live in camper. It's always a highlex chop
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: off the back, all the big build blocks on the back,
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: and then you have a camper with that way, you
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: have a truck with the payload that can handle the
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: camper camper to live in, and there's still a capable
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: vehicle to get around the world.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: I settle four by four motor home.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: I wonder why that is. I wonder why we still
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: see more seventy series. Is it just the romance of
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the seventy I think that's part of it. It's gotta
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: because they're so charming, they really are, and the new
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: ones are so so fantastic. Yeah, the old ones are
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: always beat on and worn out and slow. It's the
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: same thing, same, I guarantee. It's the same reason we
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: still drive our ninety pick up around all the time.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: It's the romance.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: It's the truck you look back at when you part,
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: when you take a photo of it. Yeah, it just
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: it inspires you to to share that photo, to post
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: on Instagram, to do all of those normal things we
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: want to want to do nowadays, So you just don't
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: get that same feeling when it's not the classic.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: It's true. Look, it's true, And I would recommend those
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: that are listening check out Lisa and Jason from two
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Ride the World. And I think they changed because they
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: were on motorcycles. Did they change the name?
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so they were they were two wheel No Mad too,
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: will know believe there will know?
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Or will no Mad now or will no Mad there?
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: We go?
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: So we met them when they're two wheel and we've
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: yet to see their high looks in person.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: But yeah, they've got a white high lux that they
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: put all the cool stuff on. And Jason Spafford's photography
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: is exceptional. Lisa has written regularly for Overland Journal and
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Expedition Portal as well, so check out their Instagram handle for.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: Sure, And I think usually Jason's photography is feeling Overland
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: Journal nowadays.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty cool.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: And they've traveled to Iceland in their high lucks and
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: they've traveled to the Faroe Islands and throughout the UK
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: and they were getting it ready to go down Africa
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: right when the pandemic hits. So yeah, I think that
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: waylaid their plans a little bit, but.
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: They were able to travel closer to home and share
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: with us what they're seeing there and kind of inspired
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: definitely inspired Ash and I had to go spend some
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: more time and that was that region of the world.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, that's a great account to follow, And for
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: those that are listening, if there's others that you'd like
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: to recommend, we can we can share those out to
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the audience so that people can check out and follow
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: other Toyota trucks going around the world. Do you have
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: any more thoughts on the high Lux from your perspective.
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: I'd like to spend more time in them. I think
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: I'd also like to get one. I love the idea
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: of the mid nineties squad cab trucks totally solid axel.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I don't really have a use for one, but I
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: have a.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Want for one. Yeah. No, yeah, that's you're right. It
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: would be a little bit redund than for you. Yeah,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: I don't need another. You have a mid nineties pickup
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: right behind you.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: Part of the reason why we sold our MITCHBC in Delica.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: That was a ninety three little L three hundred was
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: that I didn't need another antiquated Japanese four by four
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: that you can't go propper speeds on highway.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Well, you took care of that with the Tundra. I
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: sure five seven has no trouble with that. Yeah.
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: I think after you you're stuck going up hills in
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: third gear at five thousand dour pm and half the
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: speed of everybody else for long enough that you know what,
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: I think, we just need a little bit more power.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was really impressed with the new high Lux.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: The last time I was in South Africa, I had
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to drive a brand new high Lux that
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: had the full complement of easy on components on it
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: and a canopy over the back and just drove it
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: all over South Africa and it was just such a
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: pleasure to drive. It was so easy to drive, it
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: was effortless, got really excellent fuel economy. You know, you
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: can get even with a roof tent and everything on
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the top, you're in the like seven eight liters per
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: hundred k, which is really good. Yeah. Now, of course,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: where these are lower speeds, so like if you were
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: on like the equivalent of an interstate in South Africa,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: you'd start to see that drop off fairly quickly. But
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: if you were just kind of putting along at eighty
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: to one hundred kilometers an hour, it was really good.
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: You look, that's great, And I think the D four
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: D is about the same, but also not a lot
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: of power in those things.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: You're you're not going anywhere fast.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this one had plenty of power. They squeezed a
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: whole lot of technology and as additional gears and the
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: transmission as well. And this one was an automatic that
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: I was driving, but and also very capable off road.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: We're locking differential available in the new high Lux. It
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: was a long way it does, it goes a long way,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: so yeah, really fun to drive off road.
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, lost ort to spend some more time in highlexes
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: in far away places one of these days.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And we'll drop a bunch of additional media into
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: the YouTube video for this one if you'd like to
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: find out more about Richard's trip with his nineteen ninety
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: three Toyota pickupineteen ninety Oh, yeah, did you have something that.
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: I did have an Idea three as well, so that
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: was almost exactly the same.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've covered every year in the nineties trying. So
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: you can check out destaglory dot com and we've got
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: a great video on YouTube of Richard's truck on the
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Expedition Portal YouTube channel, and there's a lot more content
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: available on expedition Portal dot com as well about the
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: truck and their travels, and there's some stuff coming out
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: with their new vehicle build of a Toyota Tundra, which
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about here in one of the
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: upcoming podcasts.
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is the best thing about this little
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: pickup behind us is that gave us the opportunity to
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: go and travel on pretty limited budget and learn. And
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: that's learning from different types of suspension and different types
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: of breaks, and things we like and things we don't
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: like about the antiquated vehicles, and we're taking all of
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: that and putting our knowledge base that we have now
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: into our two thousand and eight Tundra.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I would personally love to see anyone who has built
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: these Toyota pickups and high lucks and then listening to
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: this podcast, I would love it if you could send
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: me a couple photos into Instagram. We can share those
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: out to our audience. You can reach me at Scott
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: dot a dot Brady on Instagram, Richard. If you wanted
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: to get in touch with Richard to ask him about
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: what ball joints he used on his front suspension.
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: You sure cam reach me at Deska Glory. So just
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: at Deskta Glory on Instagram and I'll tell you to
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: get it in genuine Toyota or Triple five.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Most points, you just saved yourself so many dms right there, exactly. Well,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: that was really fun to talk about Toyota trucks. They
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: are literally the Swiss Army Knife of overland vehicles. They're
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: very affordable, shockingly reliable, on par with the Land Cruiser
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: in our experience, certainly within the highlux range. Very exciting
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: vehicles to see people using around the world, and we
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: just encourage everybody to take a look at him. We
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: thank you all for listening and we will talk to
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: you next time.