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Principles of Overlanding: 100 Series Land Cruiser · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:10
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
0:13
Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and I'm joined today by Kurt Williams Now.
0:17
Speaker 1: Kurt Williams runs Cruiser Outfitters. He is a legend in
0:21
Speaker 1: the land cruiser community, not only for his knowledge but
0:24
Speaker 1: also his experience traveling in land cruisers around the world.
0:29
Speaker 1: Kurt and I have traveled on numerous continents together, trips
0:33
Speaker 1: with Expedition seven and other journeys like crossing Greenland using Highlux.
0:39
Speaker 1: But Kurt is a real wealth of knowledge around land cruisers.
0:43
Speaker 1: He has owned several one hundred series land cruisers and
0:47
Speaker 1: he's really learned about how best to modify them for
0:51
Speaker 1: overland travel. We also spend some time talking around which
0:54
Speaker 1: models are best to consider, things to look for when
0:57
Speaker 1: you're buying a land Cruiser one hundred series or the
1:00
Speaker 1: lex equivalent from Lexus. We talk about good, better, best
1:04
Speaker 1: around modifying the vehicles for long distance overland travel. So
1:09
Speaker 1: please enjoy my conversation with Kurt Williams.
1:14
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3:07
Speaker 1: All right, Kurt, We're going to talk about the one
3:10
Speaker 1: hundred series land cruiser now, and we are in the
3:13
Speaker 1: land Cruiser Heritage Museum here in Salt Lake, which in
3:18
Speaker 1: my mind is one of the coolest museums on the planet.
3:22
Speaker 4: I don't think there's any better place to talk about
3:24
Speaker 4: land cruisers than surrounded by land cruisers.
3:27
Speaker 1: So anyone who has a love for land cruisers or
3:31
Speaker 1: even a love for overlanding should really take a moment
3:35
Speaker 1: and come and see the land Cruiser Heritage Museum in
3:37
Speaker 1: Salt Lake. So all of the Expedition seven trucks are
3:41
Speaker 1: here that Greg Miller and I took to all seven continents.
3:45
Speaker 1: You were involved with most of those continents.
3:47
Speaker 4: I think five of them.
3:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So we have the VDJ seventy eight that.
3:53
Speaker 1: Actually went to all seven continents, plus we have another
3:56
Speaker 1: VDJ seventy eighth that went to six of the seven,
3:59
Speaker 1: and then we have a seventy nine that went to
4:02
Speaker 1: three of them, I think, And then we have a
4:06
Speaker 1: seventy six it went to two of.
4:07
Speaker 4: Them, right, it was purchased in South Africa.
4:11
Speaker 3: But yeah, so we've got the e seven trucks.
4:14
Speaker 1: We've also have the highlex that was used for crossing
4:18
Speaker 1: Antarctica twice and was used to cross the Greenland ice
4:22
Speaker 1: sheet that's also here in the museum, So a lot
4:25
Speaker 1: of significant overland history as well inside these walls. So
4:31
Speaker 1: it's just one of the most impressive collections and just
4:34
Speaker 1: a real testament to Greg's love not only for land
4:38
Speaker 1: cruisers but for overlanding in general. So I just really
4:41
Speaker 1: recommend that people come and take a look at this place.
4:44
Speaker 3: But right now we're going to talk about one hundred.
4:47
Speaker 1: Series the mighty one, because it's still a great option
4:53
Speaker 1: for people to purchase for overland travel. I believe it's
4:57
Speaker 1: an affordable way to get into a land cruise. Are
5:00
Speaker 1: it's in that sweet spot right now. This is just
5:02
Speaker 1: my take, and I'm curious of your thoughts. It's in
5:05
Speaker 1: that sweet spot right now where the eighty series has
5:08
Speaker 1: become a collector vehicle in a lot of ways. So
5:12
Speaker 1: finding like a clean stock eighty series is going to
5:16
Speaker 1: cost you a ton of money. If you want to
5:19
Speaker 1: get a heritage edition two hundred series land cruiser, it's
5:22
Speaker 1: going to cost you a ton of money. Whereas finding
5:26
Speaker 1: a one hundred series land cruiser with one hundred and
5:29
Speaker 1: fifty thousand miles on it. Eighteen grand, twenty grand, Yeah,
5:34
Speaker 1: sometimes a little less.
5:35
Speaker 4: There's still a lot of these that are not quite
5:38
Speaker 4: collector status. They haven't reached the eighty though. Land Cruiser
5:41
Speaker 4: enthusiasts understand what they are. So if we see any
5:43
Speaker 4: of those real low ones, when I say, might we
5:46
Speaker 4: like the community in general, we're snatching those up. Anything
5:49
Speaker 4: low mile. But yeah, a lot of good hundreds and
5:51
Speaker 4: the Lexus equivalent, the four to seventy that are out there,
5:54
Speaker 4: and they are great platforms, and I totally agree that's
5:56
Speaker 4: where the price is. Eighties of all kind of I'm
5:59
Speaker 4: not saying they've each their plateau, but they've got way
6:02
Speaker 4: up there and they've stayed. There's just they're not making
6:04
Speaker 4: more eighties. There's less and less of them that are
6:06
Speaker 4: in those clean miles out there, so the price kind
6:09
Speaker 4: of keeps creeping up. Two hundreds are staying strong. They
6:12
Speaker 4: settled a little bit as the new land Cruiser came
6:15
Speaker 4: out and as they get a little older, but we're
6:16
Speaker 4: not seeing like any tank off to where they're mightily affordable.
6:20
Speaker 1: Good pricing, And the other thing, as a mic drop
6:23
Speaker 1: is these are twenty five year old cars now, So
6:26
Speaker 1: what happens at twenty five years in the United States
6:30
Speaker 1: is you start to have accessibility to models that will
6:33
Speaker 1: blow your mind. So there there was another variant of
6:36
Speaker 1: the one hundred series that is called a one oh five.
6:40
Speaker 1: So if you've always wanted a solid axle land cruiser,
6:44
Speaker 1: you can get what's called a one oh five, and
6:46
Speaker 1: it was available with a normally aspirated diesel motor called
6:50
Speaker 1: a one ah Z. Yep, what was the first year
6:52
Speaker 1: of that car, ninety eight, So they're importable. So FZJ
6:55
Speaker 1: you could get it as a one EDZ which was
6:57
Speaker 1: the same gas motor that the eighty series had, or
7:00
Speaker 1: you could get it as in the one EZ, which
7:02
Speaker 1: is like the timeless Toileta diesel nineteen eighty nine as
7:05
Speaker 1: a ninety all the way up until last year, that
7:08
Speaker 1: one EZ parts are.
7:10
Speaker 3: Widely available for that.
7:11
Speaker 4: It was available in left hand drive, correct, Yeah, so
7:14
Speaker 4: that left hand drive.
7:15
Speaker 1: If you, if I was to say the best deal
7:20
Speaker 1: going for overlanding today would be to find a left
7:24
Speaker 1: hand drive one oh five one eight Z. Find one
7:28
Speaker 1: of those that was like kept by a church or
7:31
Speaker 1: something like that in Portugal. Find that car and bring
7:34
Speaker 1: that thing into the United States, you'll probably pick it
7:36
Speaker 1: up for less than twenty thousand euros.
7:39
Speaker 3: Buy it in Europe, go drive it around.
7:41
Speaker 4: Europe, make an adventure of a vacation car.
7:44
Speaker 1: Maybe even take it down to Morocco on a ferry
7:47
Speaker 1: and drive it around Morocco a little bit, and then
7:49
Speaker 1: ship it back home. And in my mind, you've got
7:52
Speaker 1: one of the one of the best possible vehicles ever
7:56
Speaker 1: made for global travel.
7:57
Speaker 3: And there's a couple of reasons for that.
8:00
Speaker 1: On HZ is not sensitive to diesel fuel quality, so
8:05
Speaker 1: it will run on everything from JP four jet fuel
8:09
Speaker 1: all the way up to two thousand parts per million
8:11
Speaker 1: dirty diesel because it was meant to do that. Now,
8:15
Speaker 1: the downside is that it's not going to be fast.
8:17
Speaker 1: But when we're traveling around the world, we shouldn't be
8:19
Speaker 1: in such a hurry.
8:21
Speaker 4: If you can plan to not be, that's right.
8:23
Speaker 3: You can adjust and not be in a hurry.
8:25
Speaker 1: So I just think if you were to buy a
8:28
Speaker 1: low mileage two thousand and five one hundred series, it's
8:33
Speaker 1: going to be an awesome vehicle.
8:34
Speaker 3: If you find that import one.
8:37
Speaker 1: Oh five solid axle, a lot of them had locking differentials,
8:42
Speaker 1: it's possible to get a magic combination.
8:45
Speaker 3: Now, did the the one oh five have a front locker?
8:47
Speaker 3: Were the only lockers?
8:49
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, yeah, because they are the eighty series. Axle
8:52
Speaker 4: parts for them all the same as the eighty series
8:55
Speaker 4: suspension even so widely modifiable because you can get anything
8:58
Speaker 4: since the eighty was such a massive global platform. Suspension
9:02
Speaker 4: axle upgrades components a little different out on the ends
9:05
Speaker 4: of the axles, but really minute differences five lug versus
9:08
Speaker 4: six lug things like that. But as far as parts,
9:11
Speaker 4: blockers aftermarket, widely available after market now. The only downside
9:16
Speaker 4: of particularly left hand drive but even the right hand
9:18
Speaker 4: drive one oh five's is those are still really popular
9:21
Speaker 4: in the countries they originally service. For example, Australia got
9:24
Speaker 4: the one oh five. It's still a popular platform there.
9:27
Speaker 4: Pricing is going to be relative. You're not gonna get
9:29
Speaker 4: them at the same price as you can find like
9:31
Speaker 4: a US spec higher mileage one hundred series. But yeah,
9:34
Speaker 4: an amazing platform to important going to be hard to
9:37
Speaker 4: beat that Diesel is an amazing platform. Now they are
9:41
Speaker 4: a little anemic particular elevation. So if you're thinking of
9:44
Speaker 4: buying an HDJ anything, I would recommend you go drive one.
9:48
Speaker 4: I've got one here in Salt Lake if anyone needs
9:50
Speaker 4: a test drive.
9:51
Speaker 3: I love.
9:52
Speaker 4: It doesn't bother me at all. But for some they
9:54
Speaker 4: get behind the will of that and think, oh, this
9:56
Speaker 4: is going to be scary on American highways or just
10:00
Speaker 4: hanging in the right line of an interstate and just
10:01
Speaker 4: doing your thing. Yeah, let's wave the semis around you.
10:05
Speaker 4: It's you and I have found driving around the world.
10:08
Speaker 4: The United States is a very unique circumstance in the
10:11
Speaker 4: speed of our interstates and just the speed of traffic
10:13
Speaker 4: in general, even not on interstates where it could be
10:17
Speaker 4: unnerving a bit to be in a slower vehicle trying
10:19
Speaker 4: to get places and have people always moving around you.
10:22
Speaker 4: But outside the US that's just not nearly as common
10:25
Speaker 4: speed limits or traditionally or overall significantly slower. So those
10:29
Speaker 4: vehicles do just fine. Just temper your expectations that it's
10:33
Speaker 4: not a ninety mile an hour fast lane land cruiser
10:37
Speaker 4: like a V eight gas powered one hundred or two
10:39
Speaker 4: hundred can be. Not that you should be driving with
10:42
Speaker 4: those speeds, but for passing and other things. They'll do that.
10:45
Speaker 1: Now as I understand it, there is the rarest of
10:48
Speaker 1: all one oh fives, which is going to be one
10:51
Speaker 1: five with solid front axle, but it's going to have
10:53
Speaker 1: a diesel, and it's going to have a turbo diesel.
10:56
Speaker 4: One HD variant diesel, which is very rare, veryesome up.
11:00
Speaker 1: But the biggest problem with those is that everybody knows
11:04
Speaker 1: what that thing is, so that you're going to spend
11:06
Speaker 1: twice as much money as you will on a one
11:08
Speaker 1: AZ car.
11:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there are a lot of those conversions that
11:11
Speaker 4: are popping up because the one AHZ and one HD,
11:14
Speaker 4: which is the factory turbo variant that was available as
11:17
Speaker 4: a one HDT one HGT one is GFT. There's a
11:19
Speaker 4: handfull of variance of that that's all the same block essentially.
11:23
Speaker 4: Now there's differences in bearings and oiling on the motor,
11:26
Speaker 4: but very swappable. So it's very if you find a
11:29
Speaker 4: one AHZ powered one and want to have a factory
11:32
Speaker 4: turbo diesel, you can't swap that in. It'll bolt right
11:34
Speaker 4: to the transmission motor mounts. A lot of the cooling
11:37
Speaker 4: stuff is all in the right place, so that's very popular.
11:39
Speaker 3: I didn't know it was that easy of a swap.
11:41
Speaker 1: That might be something to consider, because then you could
11:43
Speaker 1: get like a factory rebuild or a really low mileage.
11:47
Speaker 4: You actually still buy like a factory block, a long
11:50
Speaker 4: block of that diesel. Now, finding that core motor is
11:52
Speaker 4: not exactly easy because they're sought after out of eighty
11:55
Speaker 4: series and out of the hundreds that had them, Like
11:57
Speaker 4: an HGJ one hundred, however, is a very cool swap
12:01
Speaker 4: you can turbo diesel the one ez. We experienced this
12:04
Speaker 4: with the E seven Chirpa one the downside, yet it
12:07
Speaker 4: gives you a little more punch.
12:09
Speaker 3: But yeah, the poor.
12:10
Speaker 4: Things just yeah, the egts we had to stare at
12:12
Speaker 4: that gauge. Anytime you tried to really get it moving fast,
12:16
Speaker 4: you had to really be care fat.
12:17
Speaker 3: Scott and you were just like having to watch that.
12:20
Speaker 4: So it's a full time job for somebody to drive
12:22
Speaker 4: and keep their eye on the road, and then the
12:23
Speaker 4: other full time job keeping your eye on the egts
12:26
Speaker 4: trying to keep up with the vdjs.
12:28
Speaker 3: It.
12:28
Speaker 4: It would have been fine had we been on our own,
12:30
Speaker 4: but the difference in the way that motor runs, trying
12:33
Speaker 4: to do sixty five versus trying to do seventy five
12:36
Speaker 4: was like completely different. In the temperatures that was developing
12:40
Speaker 4: out of that turbo.
12:41
Speaker 3: Yeah.
12:41
Speaker 4: Absolutely, But because the one ez is so prolific around
12:44
Speaker 4: the world, there are a lot of really good, low boost,
12:47
Speaker 4: very moderate turbo systems, even inner cool turbo systems available
12:50
Speaker 4: for the one oh five and one hundred series, So
12:53
Speaker 4: that's out there.
12:55
Speaker 1: And they're just the one hundred series is a little
12:58
Speaker 1: bit smaller than the two hundred. It's a little more
13:01
Speaker 1: understated than the two hundred. They tend to really go
13:03
Speaker 1: under the radar in a lot of countries because they
13:05
Speaker 1: were so common. They were sold in much higher volumes
13:09
Speaker 1: in the United States, so they're easier to find overall
13:13
Speaker 1: than an eighty series or a two hundred. Now a
13:17
Speaker 1: lot of times people will look for like the nineteen
13:20
Speaker 1: ninety nine and maybe it was two thousand that also,
13:24
Speaker 1: But there was a couple of years where you could
13:26
Speaker 1: get a rear locker.
13:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, ninety eight and so came out in the US
13:29
Speaker 4: as a nineteen ninety eight model that replaced the eighty
13:32
Speaker 4: series outgoing eighty series, and in ninety eight and ninety
13:35
Speaker 4: nine only you could get a factory locking rear differential.
13:38
Speaker 4: In ninety eight ninety nine they had a two pinion
13:41
Speaker 4: front diff and that front diff not like a horrendous
13:44
Speaker 4: weak link, but it can and will be. I wouldn't
13:46
Speaker 4: necessarily say stay away from a ninety eight ninety nine.
13:49
Speaker 4: If you find a clean one, you can always swap
13:51
Speaker 4: the differential from a little bit later one or just
13:53
Speaker 4: beef that one up there an airb or an eaten.
13:56
Speaker 4: There's some great options there, So I wouldn't say run
13:58
Speaker 4: from it, but just no thing.
14:00
Speaker 3: Now.
14:00
Speaker 4: In two thousand they went away from the rear locker
14:03
Speaker 4: but went to a four pinion front dift, and that's
14:05
Speaker 4: when we saw a track come into place, So we
14:07
Speaker 4: started getting a more advanced traction control now compared to
14:10
Speaker 4: what we see on modern vehicles. That was a very
14:12
Speaker 4: rudimentary traction control, but it existed and it worked, not
14:16
Speaker 4: saying it's a replacement for a true locking differential, but.
14:18
Speaker 1: And then what was it in two thousand and six
14:21
Speaker 1: or so that there was a few years where they
14:23
Speaker 1: had a higher output.
14:25
Speaker 4: So a couple of major changes would be in like
14:27
Speaker 4: three model two. As an three, we went from a
14:30
Speaker 4: four speed transmission to the five speed transmission. Made a
14:33
Speaker 4: pretty marked difference in how it drove, just in driveability
14:37
Speaker 4: and kind of power delivery. And then in the final
14:39
Speaker 4: years O six oh seven you could get the VVTIV
14:42
Speaker 4: eight which had an additional power output.
14:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think when people think about reliability, the
14:48
Speaker 1: four point seven V eight is one of the most
14:50
Speaker 1: reliable motors that was ever brought to the US by
14:53
Speaker 1: any measure. They were getting the same mileage out of
14:56
Speaker 1: those things as people were getting out of twenty two
14:58
Speaker 1: are ease. So it's not on common to see a
15:00
Speaker 1: half a million mile one hundred series.
15:02
Speaker 4: There are multiple now documented cases of one million mile
15:06
Speaker 4: two UZ that's called the two uz fie that was
15:09
Speaker 4: shared in the Tundra, the Sequoia, the GX four seventy
15:13
Speaker 4: of course, then the Lex and the one hundred series
15:15
Speaker 4: Lankers are all had that same motor, and even a
15:17
Speaker 4: few years of a fore Runner you could get that
15:19
Speaker 4: the fourth Gen four Runner in the US. That is
15:21
Speaker 4: an amazing motor. It's a timing belt motor. It's a
15:25
Speaker 4: super easy to work on overall compared to like more
15:28
Speaker 4: modern stuff, a lot more room underneath the hood. They
15:30
Speaker 4: had some little caveats. There were a few things that
15:33
Speaker 4: need to be addressed on that. As they got older
15:34
Speaker 4: headers could crack at header leaks on like actually the
15:37
Speaker 4: exhaust manifolds some other minor things. But if you stay
15:41
Speaker 4: up on timing belts and water pumps on them, they
15:43
Speaker 4: last a long time. Many of them still running.
15:46
Speaker 1: They're really smooth driving, they drive really they run really cool.
15:50
Speaker 1: Just don't have overheating issues with them. Yeah, I think
15:52
Speaker 1: they have plenty of power on that later generation one
15:55
Speaker 1: hundred series. What did they get into the two sixties.
15:58
Speaker 4: Two thirty out of the hole like early years. That's
16:00
Speaker 4: a pretty low output V eight and that's kind of
16:03
Speaker 4: part of its reliability. You weren't like throwing tons of
16:06
Speaker 4: other power downstream at the transmission and the axles, but
16:09
Speaker 4: it was enough to move an otherwise heavy vehicle around.
16:12
Speaker 4: And it was a big departure from the eighty series
16:14
Speaker 4: and every land cruiser in the US market before that
16:17
Speaker 4: was an Inline six. So while a lot of consumers
16:20
Speaker 4: and land cruiser community members were maybe upset that it
16:23
Speaker 4: went to the VA, it really changed the driveability that like,
16:26
Speaker 4: now you finally had a land cruiser in the US
16:28
Speaker 4: that you could turn the cruise control on and hold
16:31
Speaker 4: speed or past somebody. Yeah, the one of Z and
16:34
Speaker 4: the FCJAD is a great motor too. They're all great motors,
16:37
Speaker 4: but the V eight was a big departure, but it
16:39
Speaker 4: wasn't huge output. When you got to that VVTI and
16:42
Speaker 4: got that thirty horse power thirty ish horsepower bump, that's
16:44
Speaker 4: a pretty big difference, and those were combined that with
16:48
Speaker 4: the five speed, it's pretty big movement. There were some
16:51
Speaker 4: differential gear changes too. Early models were a four to thirty,
16:54
Speaker 4: those later models went back to a four to ten.
16:57
Speaker 4: A sweet spot for many is swapped the four thirties
17:00
Speaker 4: out of an early one into a later cruiser and
17:03
Speaker 4: get a little more pick up. Of course, aftermarket years
17:05
Speaker 4: of a fort eighty eights are available to now.
17:09
Speaker 1: As I understand it, the front end, like compared to
17:11
Speaker 1: a two hundred series is not as robust, so you've
17:15
Speaker 1: got to be a little bit more mindful of tire diameter.
17:19
Speaker 1: In the front end of a land cruiser, the cvs
17:22
Speaker 1: aren't as strong. It does use a torsion style suspension,
17:27
Speaker 1: so there's less overall travel. So the heavier, more reciprocating
17:31
Speaker 1: and rotating mass that you get from a large diameter tire,
17:35
Speaker 1: the more that front end of the hundred series is
17:38
Speaker 1: just not going to be happy with it. The brakes
17:40
Speaker 1: are also a little undersized when compared to a two hundred.
17:44
Speaker 1: So what I find on one hundred series because you
17:48
Speaker 1: can fit a sixteen inch wheel, you go with a
17:50
Speaker 1: sixteen inch wheel and at two fifty five eighty five
17:54
Speaker 1: R sixteen, so you have a thirty three ish diameter
17:59
Speaker 1: ten and a half inch is wide. You're not over
18:01
Speaker 1: taxing the A arms and the steering rack and all
18:05
Speaker 1: those other things.
18:06
Speaker 4: The cvs a thirty three inch, yeah, thirty three ten
18:10
Speaker 4: to fifty thirty three eleven fifty don't like to get
18:12
Speaker 4: two wide because you start really impacting the steering and
18:15
Speaker 4: the stress on that, the mechanical stress on those. But yeah,
18:19
Speaker 4: the thirty three works really well. They are a torsion
18:22
Speaker 4: bar front end, and traditionally, when you look at a
18:25
Speaker 4: lot of vehicles on the market that have torsion bars,
18:27
Speaker 4: are like the least flex the least compliant. And I'm
18:30
Speaker 4: not saying that they're like crazy compliant and flexible suspension,
18:33
Speaker 4: but for being torsion bar, they actually work really well.
18:36
Speaker 4: And that's why I love the one oh five and
18:39
Speaker 4: I really like the solid axle, but the on road
18:41
Speaker 4: performance with a good cross section of off road performance
18:44
Speaker 4: of the IFS does work really well. That holds up.
18:48
Speaker 4: You don't see failures out of like the suspension failures
18:51
Speaker 4: out of the front diff and the CVS. It's a
18:55
Speaker 4: high pinion eight inch IFS center differ in there. It's
18:58
Speaker 4: really the same gears the eighty series and the one
19:01
Speaker 4: oh five have, but just because of the dynamics of
19:04
Speaker 4: the IFS and the CVS, the golden rule is a
19:08
Speaker 4: ton of droup, a really turned tire and a lot
19:10
Speaker 4: of load, and it's going to be a weak link.
19:13
Speaker 4: That did change a lot with the two hundred because
19:14
Speaker 4: things just got beefier. The dift got bigger, the CV's
19:17
Speaker 4: got bigger, everything grew not quite so much.
19:20
Speaker 1: And the two hundred is not that much heavier than
19:22
Speaker 1: a hunt.
19:22
Speaker 4: No no, yeah, wait, wise not a ton, but they
19:24
Speaker 4: did beef up those items. But that is it's a consideration,
19:28
Speaker 4: but not one to run from that. We see broken
19:30
Speaker 4: front difts. That's usually always the same scenario. A tire
19:33
Speaker 4: spinning really fast with no traction, then all of a
19:35
Speaker 4: sudden hits the ground or it gets traction and it
19:38
Speaker 4: blows the differential up. You can solve that through some
19:41
Speaker 4: maybe mechanical sympathy of how you're driving the vehicle driving
19:44
Speaker 4: that week, will that's in the air, or by doing
19:48
Speaker 4: a better carrier such as an air locker or an
19:51
Speaker 4: e locker that are available and just eliminate will spin
19:54
Speaker 4: all together, so you're not having to rely on a
19:56
Speaker 4: whole bunch of spinning momentum.
19:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that's one of the issues with
20:00
Speaker 1: the one hundred series.
20:01
Speaker 3: That's important.
20:02
Speaker 1: It's a little bit more powerful, so you tend to
20:06
Speaker 1: want to apply a little bit more throttle with it
20:08
Speaker 1: than an eighty series would be, and then the front
20:11
Speaker 1: end is a little bit weaker, particularly when, like you said,
20:15
Speaker 1: if you have a full compression or a full droop
20:18
Speaker 1: scenario plus a tight turn, those CV axles just have
20:23
Speaker 1: a fraction of the strength that they would in a
20:25
Speaker 1: straight line if you were on level ground, so that
20:28
Speaker 1: you have to be mindful of that with the hundred series.
20:31
Speaker 1: But there's not really anything else that comes to mind
20:34
Speaker 1: for me that's a real concern. It's really easy to
20:37
Speaker 1: get long range fuel tanks for them because you tend
20:40
Speaker 1: to need it because otherwise you're just dealing with a
20:42
Speaker 1: ninety leader stock tank.
20:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're twenty Yeah, about ninety leaders, twenty four gallons,
20:48
Speaker 4: twenty five and change. There's toyotas always had a nice
20:50
Speaker 4: reserve built into those tanks, but they definitely are thirsty.
20:53
Speaker 4: I'd say one hundred and two hundred both fall into
20:55
Speaker 4: that category. But everything is available tank wise, from like
20:59
Speaker 4: twelve to four gallon box tanks. On the back, there's
21:02
Speaker 4: a lot you can get. Factory subtanks are available, a
21:04
Speaker 4: lot of cool accessories there, and as far as armor bumpers, sliders,
21:09
Speaker 4: skid plates, rear bumpers, a wide variety of offerings from
21:12
Speaker 4: a wide variety of manufacturers. Because that vehicle was used
21:16
Speaker 4: so prolifically around the world, just got about every major
21:19
Speaker 4: manufacturer made hundred series components.
21:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think if you're using it more as
21:23
Speaker 1: a trail vehicle, I think something like the slee components.
21:27
Speaker 3: They're just so.
21:28
Speaker 1: Well thought out as far as trail clearance, fitting as
21:32
Speaker 1: tightly as possible, providing as much protection as possible to
21:36
Speaker 1: the sheet metal. If you're looking for maximizing animal strike protection,
21:40
Speaker 1: then you go the traditional bullbar from somebody like ARB,
21:44
Speaker 1: and you're going to just end up with a lot
21:46
Speaker 1: more protection. In fact, there's one hundred series behind me,
21:49
Speaker 1: one of Greg's early builds, and it's got the ARB
21:52
Speaker 1: front bumper, the brush guards, downside side rails, looking at
21:57
Speaker 1: the shine steps, all those other things. It is easy
22:02
Speaker 1: when you start throwing, like the ARB catalog at one hundred,
22:05
Speaker 1: it's easy to get the thing over payload. Even though
22:09
Speaker 1: one hundred series will have seventeen hundred and nineteen hundred
22:12
Speaker 1: pounds of payload. It's really easy. With an OX tank
22:15
Speaker 1: and some armor and winches and bigger tires and everything
22:18
Speaker 1: else like that, it's really easy to start to exceed.
22:21
Speaker 3: That available payload.
22:23
Speaker 1: And I think that it's actually more sensitive to it
22:25
Speaker 1: than the two hundred is.
22:27
Speaker 4: I would agree in terms of power, like two hundred
22:30
Speaker 4: and thirty horse power is not a huge amount and
22:31
Speaker 4: breaking and so those are two things we don't often
22:34
Speaker 4: think about with payload. It's easy to beef the suspension
22:37
Speaker 4: up to hold all that weight. There's plenty of really
22:39
Speaker 4: heavy duty torsion bar setups and coil setups for the rear,
22:42
Speaker 4: but that doesn't solve the other parts of like vehicle
22:46
Speaker 4: GVW and what the manufacturer suggests. There are break up
22:49
Speaker 4: grades available for the hundred series. There are some other
22:51
Speaker 4: things you can do, but that's a slippery slope, so
22:53
Speaker 4: whenever possible, minimize that weight in your build.
22:56
Speaker 3: Keep it lightweight to begin with.
22:58
Speaker 1: It's a little less tolerant of the roofloads as well,
23:01
Speaker 1: so I think if it's a little bit narrowword track,
23:04
Speaker 1: especially in the one OZHO five it's a narroword track,
23:06
Speaker 1: so you really want to be mindful of your roofloads.
23:11
Speaker 1: On one hundred series, I think that's really important. But
23:13
Speaker 1: they have a lot of space on the inside of them,
23:16
Speaker 1: so I like the idea for international travel, put in
23:20
Speaker 1: a fairly low profile deck system, remove as many of
23:24
Speaker 1: the back seats as you can, depending on the number
23:26
Speaker 1: of occupants. Sleep on the inside of the vehicle because
23:29
Speaker 1: they're actually very comfortable, lots of sound deadening in them.
23:32
Speaker 1: You're inside the cocoon of the car, so it's weather
23:36
Speaker 1: proof and when it's cold morning, you reach up and
23:39
Speaker 1: you fire up the motor and you get the heater going.
23:41
Speaker 1: So I think it's a good idea to sleep inside
23:43
Speaker 1: of one hundred series. Maybe a lightweight roof tent would
23:46
Speaker 1: be okay, but I think you really want to be
23:48
Speaker 1: careful the weight up.
23:48
Speaker 4: Top minimize that a top weight. The hundred lends itself
23:51
Speaker 4: really well to living inside or sleeping systems inside. Most
23:55
Speaker 4: drawer systems on the market are going to be level
23:58
Speaker 4: with the second row seats when they're folded flat full
24:00
Speaker 4: down the second row, it's level with most drawer systems.
24:03
Speaker 4: A simple air mattress and you've got a nice sleeping
24:05
Speaker 4: platform while keeping weight low and minimizing. Hundreds also have
24:09
Speaker 4: power rear kickout vent windows on the back windows, and
24:13
Speaker 4: that's actually huge. It's something I missed about the two
24:15
Speaker 4: hundred when sleeping inside, just for condensation build up and
24:19
Speaker 4: the ability to kick those vent windows out have a
24:21
Speaker 4: little bit of airflow. They do have an exit handle
24:24
Speaker 4: on the inside, so easy to get in and out
24:25
Speaker 4: of the back hatch, drop the tailgate down, put your
24:28
Speaker 4: shoes on, get set up for the warning. All things
24:31
Speaker 4: that are in my opinion, significantly easier to do then
24:33
Speaker 4: climbing in and out of a roof.
24:34
Speaker 1: Top ten the hundred series is the fact that it
24:37
Speaker 1: does have a tailgate, so it's got this little kind
24:39
Speaker 1: of vestigial tailgate that drops.
24:41
Speaker 3: Down and then the hatch comes up.
24:43
Speaker 1: That's a pretty traditional configuration where you can cook on
24:48
Speaker 1: the back little mini tailgate, and you still got some
24:52
Speaker 1: overhead sun and light rain protection and.
24:55
Speaker 4: A lot of cool solutions for using that tailgate for
24:57
Speaker 4: storage that Nutritionally we just have a carpet molded carpet
25:01
Speaker 4: piece on the top of that, but there's a lot
25:03
Speaker 4: of storage room inside that door. So there's a lot
25:04
Speaker 4: of cool aftermarket companies have made paneling with pop out
25:08
Speaker 4: doors to be able to use that. Of course on
25:10
Speaker 4: the hatchetself too, a lot of cool things you can
25:12
Speaker 4: do for mounting and just having all your gearside so
25:14
Speaker 4: minimize the things you have to bolt to the.
25:16
Speaker 3: X outside of the vehicle.
25:18
Speaker 1: And one of the things about the hundred series, and
25:21
Speaker 1: this is true of most land cruisers in general, but
25:24
Speaker 1: even though the hundred series was sold and popular in
25:26
Speaker 1: the United States, it was also sold pretty much everywhere
25:28
Speaker 1: else in the world, and they've always been very popular
25:32
Speaker 1: in the developing world. So someone maybe a businessman and
25:37
Speaker 1: his family is being driven around the city, if they're
25:40
Speaker 1: almost always going to be driven around the city in
25:43
Speaker 1: a land cruiser, and they're going to be driven around
25:45
Speaker 1: the city in a land cruiser wagon like the hundred
25:48
Speaker 1: series or the two hundred series, so because of that,
25:52
Speaker 1: there's a lot of them sold and the dealer network
25:55
Speaker 1: around the world will have experience with these vehicles. It
25:59
Speaker 1: was sold as one hundred series also in the developing world.
26:03
Speaker 1: It wasn't just as a one oh five, right. The
26:05
Speaker 1: one oh five was popular in commercial applications or NGO applications,
26:09
Speaker 1: military applications, but and it certainly for consumers as well.
26:13
Speaker 1: But most consumers selected the independent front end. So if
26:17
Speaker 1: you needed to get work done to your hundred series
26:20
Speaker 1: land Cruiser, it's really easy to go to a dealership
26:23
Speaker 1: somewhere in the world and they're going to be familiar
26:25
Speaker 1: with the car.
26:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, and many of those had that same carryover one
26:28
Speaker 4: FZ the inline six gas petrol motors, So yeah, a
26:32
Speaker 4: lot of variations, So is your shopping for those. Any
26:34
Speaker 4: of those motors we just talked about are widely supportable
26:37
Speaker 4: around the world. So if this is going to be
26:39
Speaker 4: a vehicle that you plan to take on a trip
26:41
Speaker 4: to do the Pan American Highway or something that you
26:43
Speaker 4: want to export or buy in country, travel for a
26:47
Speaker 4: bit and then ship home parts supports a widely available
26:50
Speaker 4: for all of them, So none of that is a worry.
26:52
Speaker 4: That's One of the benefits of the hundred series, probably
26:54
Speaker 4: as much as any, is that wide support of that
26:57
Speaker 4: and even.
26:58
Speaker 1: Like people will say it's a land cruiser, we're going
27:00
Speaker 1: to break down.
27:01
Speaker 3: You're not going to get a rock chip in your windscreen.
27:03
Speaker 3: They all parts.
27:04
Speaker 1: Somebody hits your side view mirror and knocks the mirror off,
27:08
Speaker 1: the fact that you can get it in that country,
27:10
Speaker 1: it's actually become a little bit of an issue as
27:12
Speaker 1: a item of theft in countries are side view mirrors
27:16
Speaker 1: and the.
27:17
Speaker 3: Motors will cut.
27:18
Speaker 1: Someone on the back of a motorcycle will come up
27:20
Speaker 1: and they rip your side cereal.
27:22
Speaker 4: So like having the fact that you still get them.
27:24
Speaker 1: You can get that side view mirror, or you chip
27:27
Speaker 1: a front headlight assembly, or you need a headlight bulb,
27:31
Speaker 1: or you need windshel wipers, or most common you need
27:34
Speaker 1: a windscreen. Big rock cracks your windscreen.
27:37
Speaker 4: Those parts are available. Drive train wise, they're very similar
27:40
Speaker 4: around the world, so if you did need major components
27:43
Speaker 4: like things like CV axles are the same regardless of
27:45
Speaker 4: whether it was gas or diesel. The only change there
27:48
Speaker 4: is going to be that some of them were available
27:50
Speaker 4: in part time four WORL drive, so everything us starting
27:53
Speaker 4: with the eighty series has gone to full time four
27:55
Speaker 4: WORL drive, so no locking hubs was we basically had
27:58
Speaker 4: four high neutral four globally all the way up to
28:01
Speaker 4: the one hundred series. You could still get a part
28:03
Speaker 4: time fooral drive even in the ifs, so it could
28:06
Speaker 4: still have manual locking hubs and a part time te
28:08
Speaker 4: case two high four high four low. So keep that
28:12
Speaker 4: in mind as if you're shopping for one. For some
28:14
Speaker 4: there's some pros and cons to that, but there's also
28:16
Speaker 4: a little bit of parts variances for your ever tracking
28:19
Speaker 4: down spares, particularly drivetrain stuff can be a little different
28:23
Speaker 4: depending on what the DRYFORL drive system it has, but
28:25
Speaker 4: when it comes like the rear axle, very interchangeable parts.
28:29
Speaker 4: For many years. The one hundred series ran from nineteen
28:31
Speaker 4: ninety eight all the way up till two thousand and seven,
28:34
Speaker 4: not as long of a run as we saw the
28:36
Speaker 4: two hundred, but during that run not a whole giant
28:38
Speaker 4: delta in the parts, particularly like in the US market,
28:42
Speaker 4: things like cvs are the same the whole range rear
28:44
Speaker 4: axle parts. Now there's some gear ratio differences, but parts
28:47
Speaker 4: are very interchangeable.
28:48
Speaker 1: About one hundred series is it's really easy for owners
28:51
Speaker 1: to work on. So putting in front tors and bars
28:54
Speaker 1: takes a little bit of work. You got to be
28:57
Speaker 1: mindful of that. But for a light load up front,
29:00
Speaker 1: you don't need to.
29:00
Speaker 3: Change that out. Rear springs are really.
29:02
Speaker 1: Easy to swap out on these vehicles. Doing your own
29:05
Speaker 1: service to the four seven is really easy to do.
29:08
Speaker 1: They have traditional dipsticks most modern vehicles. Now you got
29:11
Speaker 1: to go into some menu to find out what the.
29:12
Speaker 4: Oil sales systems.
29:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
29:14
Speaker 1: So you can change your transmission fluid, you can change
29:17
Speaker 1: your engine oil. You can do most of the service.
29:21
Speaker 1: The one thing that's really important on the four point seven,
29:25
Speaker 1: despite the vehicle that it's put in, is make sure
29:28
Speaker 1: you hit that one hundred thousand mile swap out of
29:31
Speaker 1: the timing belt. And I tend to recommend, I don't
29:34
Speaker 1: know if this is your preference as well, but I recommend,
29:37
Speaker 1: since you got everything off the front, change the water pump.
29:39
Speaker 3: Out at the same time.
29:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, most timing belt kits for the two UZ for
29:42
Speaker 4: that four to seven are get include a water pump tensioner.
29:45
Speaker 4: Not a bad idea to do the fan bracket, I agree,
29:47
Speaker 4: that's it's the We're starting to see more and more
29:50
Speaker 4: DIY work on the two hundred series, but there's just
29:53
Speaker 4: not as much room in there. There's a lot more
29:55
Speaker 4: going on, a lot more computer controlled the one hundred series.
29:58
Speaker 4: You pop the hood and it is a very serviceable motor.
30:01
Speaker 4: So timing belt swaps are done by DIY customers in
30:05
Speaker 4: their driveway. These aren't shop owners, These aren't enthusiasts that
30:08
Speaker 4: have their own vehicle lift. They're doing suspensions in their driveway,
30:11
Speaker 4: timing belts and water pumps in their driveway because there's
30:13
Speaker 4: so much community support YouTube and forum videos on how
30:17
Speaker 4: to do that. It's a very serviceable vehicle. There's very
30:20
Speaker 4: few items on the one hundred series that like traditionally
30:23
Speaker 4: get sent out to a shop to have done the search.
30:25
Speaker 1: On IMUD for servicing anything on this car, and you're
30:29
Speaker 1: gonna find you find it all a great thread with
30:31
Speaker 1: a thousand different opinions.
30:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, MUD is an amazing resource and it's probably one
30:36
Speaker 4: of the most robust sections on MUD. Eighties big too,
30:38
Speaker 4: But yeah, you're to that point, you'll find anything you
30:40
Speaker 4: need to do. Parts are widely available throughout the US
30:43
Speaker 4: and internationally. More importantly if you're going to be traveling outside. Yeah,
30:47
Speaker 4: great platform.
30:48
Speaker 1: How many parts do you keep here in the US
30:51
Speaker 1: at Cruiser Outfitters for a one oh five A lot?
30:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, so everything axle wise, including those items that are
30:56
Speaker 4: different from the eighty series, So like the will hubs
30:58
Speaker 4: themselves because they're five lug versus six. Look, we keep
31:01
Speaker 4: those around. Some of the other specific sway bar components
31:04
Speaker 4: can be a little different. We keep all that here,
31:06
Speaker 4: especially as we see more one o fives. But more importantly,
31:09
Speaker 4: we just have a lot of travelers that come through Utah,
31:11
Speaker 4: come through the West and stop buy and need those parts,
31:14
Speaker 4: So yeah, keep a wide variety of them.
31:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're seeing more and more support for these rest
31:19
Speaker 1: of the world vehicles in the US.
31:21
Speaker 3: And I remember the last.
31:22
Speaker 1: Time I went into your facility the number of pre
31:25
Speaker 1: set kits that you had on the shelf for like, oh, yeah,
31:29
Speaker 1: this is a full service kit for a one oh five.
31:31
Speaker 4: We do, yeah for the one hundred and one oh
31:32
Speaker 4: five axle a little few different seal and gasket, very
31:35
Speaker 4: minor changes, but we keep axle kits for the one
31:37
Speaker 4: oh five in stock or the non US seventy series
31:40
Speaker 4: solid axle things. We even stocked the steering boxes in town.
31:43
Speaker 4: Now for a non US one oh five, they can
31:45
Speaker 4: be interchanged back to the eighty series. But also there's
31:48
Speaker 4: just there are one oh fives coming over, and like
31:50
Speaker 4: any vehicle that sees high mileage and lots of severe
31:53
Speaker 4: off road use, they'll need some parts. So we're ye
31:56
Speaker 4: figuring out what those items are and keeping them in
31:58
Speaker 4: the US so they're available.
32:00
Speaker 1: The one thing that it seems like a lot of
32:02
Speaker 1: people do on the hundred series is they'll change out
32:05
Speaker 1: the rear bumper, and that's because of the limited space
32:08
Speaker 1: for the spare.
32:10
Speaker 3: So you do see a.
32:10
Speaker 1: Lot of rear bumper modifications to the one oh five
32:14
Speaker 1: swingouts to put the tire on the back. That can
32:17
Speaker 1: be useful, but just be mindful of making sure you
32:20
Speaker 1: have the spring to support that leverage. You'll see a
32:24
Speaker 1: swing out open up and the whole hundred series will
32:27
Speaker 1: lean to the side, so making sure that you've got
32:29
Speaker 1: the right spring rate in the rear. You don't want
32:32
Speaker 1: to overlift one hundred series. One oh fives are a
32:34
Speaker 1: little more tolerant a lift, but you really don't want
32:36
Speaker 1: to overlift that hundred series because of those CV angles.
32:40
Speaker 1: The more that you lift an independent front suspension vehicle,
32:43
Speaker 1: the more of an operating angle that those cvs are in,
32:47
Speaker 1: and that makes them more prone to failure in the field.
32:51
Speaker 4: Handling failure is a huge deal with any of those
32:54
Speaker 4: raked out too tall, putting that front end up too high.
32:56
Speaker 4: The other big one is because of the limited travel
32:59
Speaker 4: that torsion bile bar style setup, you'll also lift tires
33:02
Speaker 4: off the ground if you lift it too much. While
33:04
Speaker 4: it may be very aesthetic to one to lift it
33:07
Speaker 4: as high as they can and squeeze a thirty five
33:09
Speaker 4: underneath there, there's not always adequate down travel. So even
33:12
Speaker 4: slight transitions in the road or high speed around corners
33:16
Speaker 4: and you can start hard topping lifting that tire off
33:18
Speaker 4: the ground, Which is one horrible for handling, horrible for
33:20
Speaker 4: a lot of things, but it's also very hard on
33:22
Speaker 4: all that suspension to be using your shock as the
33:24
Speaker 4: limiting factor of your suspension on the front end all
33:28
Speaker 4: the time on and off road.
33:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, what you want to be looking at is maintaining
33:33
Speaker 1: seventy millimeters down travel. Yeah, So when you go to
33:36
Speaker 1: measure your suspension under extension, you can just take a
33:41
Speaker 1: tape measure. If you don't have seventy milimeters of down travel,
33:44
Speaker 1: then you're really affecting the proper cycling of the suspension.
33:48
Speaker 1: Rebound control is something that's really important in a suspension
33:52
Speaker 1: overall handling and reliability. So we don't want to overlift
33:56
Speaker 1: these hundred series. What's your thought on the diff drop?
34:01
Speaker 3: I like it.
34:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a few other ones on the market that
34:03
Speaker 4: are great as well. Super pro trail tailors pick your poison.
34:06
Speaker 4: Anything over a little bit. It relieves CV angle, only
34:09
Speaker 4: it does not help with in and out of tyrod
34:11
Speaker 4: angle clears, and it doesn't help with that overall droop
34:15
Speaker 4: of the suspension. So one may think I could just
34:17
Speaker 4: put a longer shock in there. Well, no, because you
34:19
Speaker 4: start to limit the bushings. They are a bonded bushing
34:23
Speaker 4: mount on front and rear, so it's it's hard on
34:25
Speaker 4: a lot of components, and there's not a great way
34:27
Speaker 4: to build like a quote unquote long travel hundred series.
34:31
Speaker 4: You're just better off leaving it at closer to that
34:33
Speaker 4: stock range minimum of sixty to seventy millimeters of down travels.
34:37
Speaker 4: Lift it in the air and see how much droop
34:39
Speaker 4: you have and if you don't have that, you're likely
34:41
Speaker 4: get to experience that topping and hear that popping and
34:44
Speaker 4: pulling a tire off the ground even on the road,
34:46
Speaker 4: let alone off road. But a diff drop helps relieve
34:49
Speaker 4: the CV angles. There's other vehicles with diff drops that
34:52
Speaker 4: I don't recommend because it actually then is a detriment
34:55
Speaker 4: to your opinion angle can start causing some vibrations there.
34:58
Speaker 4: We don't see that out of THEE hundred series, and
35:00
Speaker 4: that's because the way the diff is mounted, the diff
35:02
Speaker 4: drop actually does rotate it nicely, maintains a good pinion angle,
35:06
Speaker 4: but at the same time does drop the CV angle
35:08
Speaker 4: a minor bit. And plus side is it works with
35:11
Speaker 4: most skid plate setup, so don't lose a lot of clearance.
35:14
Speaker 4: Works with skid plates, does buy you a little bit
35:17
Speaker 4: on the cvs.
35:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we in.
35:19
Speaker 1: General, we don't want to lift these more than about
35:22
Speaker 1: fifty millimeters. It's just not necessary because you can still
35:25
Speaker 1: fit a thirty three in there with a fifty milimeter
35:28
Speaker 1: lift and it's going.
35:28
Speaker 3: To look great.
35:29
Speaker 1: It's very tempting to push these vehicles, but there's just
35:33
Speaker 1: a better There's other vehicles that are a better option.
35:36
Speaker 1: If you want really big tires by an eighty series
35:38
Speaker 1: or one oh five or a Jeep. It's like, yeah,
35:40
Speaker 1: if you want really big tires by the right car force.
35:43
Speaker 4: If your use cases building one hundred series just to
35:45
Speaker 4: play in the rocks, slower speed trails, so sure cut trains,
35:48
Speaker 4: your will was out go thirty sevens drastically change the suspension.
35:51
Speaker 4: But for the ninety nine percent tile of those using
35:54
Speaker 4: one hundred series or a four to seventy, they want
35:56
Speaker 4: it to have nice road characteristics yet be very compliant
35:59
Speaker 4: off road, capable off road, but most importantly reliable off road.
36:03
Speaker 4: That's you're gonna be asking a lot of that, trying
36:05
Speaker 4: to push thirty fives and thirty seven a thirty three
36:08
Speaker 4: measured OD tire up to a thirty five even in
36:12
Speaker 4: the stock with only two inches a lift work, keep
36:15
Speaker 4: it low slung, keep the center gravity low. That's a
36:17
Speaker 4: good set up without having to get into changing too
36:20
Speaker 4: much else down the line.
36:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm a huge fan of one hundred series.
36:24
Speaker 1: I like the fact that they're affordable for a lot
36:26
Speaker 1: of people. It's a great way for people to get
36:28
Speaker 1: into a land cruiser and into the reliability of that
36:32
Speaker 1: platform tailored to your load and you've got a slightly
36:37
Speaker 1: taller tire, not necessarily wider, slightly taller tire to keep
36:41
Speaker 1: the tire weight down.
36:42
Speaker 3: A sixteen inch wheel.
36:43
Speaker 1: It opens your availability for tire sizes internationally, and it
36:47
Speaker 1: gives you good floatation because you've got a sixteen inch
36:50
Speaker 1: diameter wheel, so you even if you don't go as tall,
36:53
Speaker 1: you can still have a lot of section, a lot
36:54
Speaker 1: of sidewall the side option to gain that floatation. These
36:58
Speaker 1: vehicles are heavy, so you do want to air them
37:01
Speaker 1: down off road, and you do want to be mindful
37:03
Speaker 1: of self recovery because they are heavy, so they're difficult
37:08
Speaker 1: to get out.
37:09
Speaker 3: Out four wheeling.
37:10
Speaker 1: And your buddy's got a two door wrangler, they're gonna
37:12
Speaker 1: have a hard time getting a stuck land cruiser out
37:15
Speaker 1: because they a vehicle like this, the one even behind us,
37:19
Speaker 1: with all the farkol and stuff on it, it's probably
37:21
Speaker 1: pushing seven pounds, so that's a very heavy vehicle to
37:25
Speaker 1: try to extract. You want to have a shovel, gloves,
37:28
Speaker 1: eye protection, and traction boards. If you live in the Southwest,
37:33
Speaker 1: if you're living in any area where there's a lot
37:35
Speaker 1: of mud, you should seriously consider a twelve olt mounted
37:39
Speaker 1: vehicle recovery Winch. I just think it's a good idea
37:43
Speaker 1: on land cruisers because they're so heavy to have some
37:45
Speaker 1: reliable way, consistent way that you're well trained on to
37:49
Speaker 1: get out YEP.
37:50
Speaker 4: I would totally agree that often traveling with smaller vehicles,
37:53
Speaker 4: so that becomes a big issue that if you're in
37:55
Speaker 4: a big, heavy hundred series and all your friends are
37:57
Speaker 4: in lighter tacomas or four runners or jeeps, have to
38:00
Speaker 4: get creative with recovery solutions. But with the proper gear
38:02
Speaker 4: and the proper functionality, the proper rigging, you can definitely
38:05
Speaker 4: take care of it. But keep that in mind.
38:07
Speaker 1: And a lot of people drive one hundred series solo
38:10
Speaker 1: because they're just they are reliable. So I just see
38:12
Speaker 1: a lot of people out cruising around in hundreds and
38:14
Speaker 1: two hundreds by them some celsa, So self recovery I
38:18
Speaker 1: think is really an important thing to consider around land cruisers.
38:22
Speaker 1: Find the newest, lowest mileage one hundred series you can afford,
38:27
Speaker 1: and that's going to and then maybe even hold off
38:30
Speaker 1: on the modifications, buy a nicer vehicle to start off
38:34
Speaker 1: with lower miles and better condition, better service history, and
38:37
Speaker 1: then hold off on the modifications because these cars are
38:40
Speaker 1: so good even from the factory.
38:42
Speaker 4: Go use it and see what those identify, those use
38:45
Speaker 4: cases of the items that you truly need, not just
38:48
Speaker 4: because they're like what you were told on a form
38:49
Speaker 4: or what you saw other one hundred series owners had
38:52
Speaker 4: totally agree with that. Get out there and use it.
38:54
Speaker 4: They are very capable in stock form. While they have
38:57
Speaker 4: like kind of plastic bumpers, those all so can take
39:00
Speaker 4: a lot of little rubs and scrapes without any problems.
39:03
Speaker 4: They pop right back to shape. So don't get instantly
39:05
Speaker 4: into the mindset that you've got to put big heavy armor.
39:08
Speaker 4: Those things are great if you need them, and as
39:09
Speaker 4: you start to build it out. And I'd also say
39:12
Speaker 4: with the hundred series, just like the eighty series and
39:14
Speaker 4: the X four to fifty, don't ignore that there was
39:16
Speaker 4: a Lexus version of this platform. It's a great vehicle.
39:20
Speaker 4: They made a lot of those as well, some of
39:22
Speaker 4: those one owner ones out there on the market, and
39:24
Speaker 4: they while they definitely have some different components underneath, particularly
39:28
Speaker 4: suspension wised, they can be easily modified just the same
39:31
Speaker 4: as the hundred series.
39:31
Speaker 3: Some self leveling in the rear on those movie.
39:34
Speaker 4: Front and rear on the Lex four to seventies had
39:36
Speaker 4: auto height control, and that was new for the US market.
39:39
Speaker 4: We didn't ever see that on the Lex four to fifty,
39:41
Speaker 4: which was the eighty series platform. But that stuff can
39:45
Speaker 4: all come off, so that is actually hydraulicy controlled shocks
39:48
Speaker 4: with the compressor pump underneath the hood. If it's a
39:51
Speaker 4: great system, and actually when it works really well, ride
39:54
Speaker 4: quality is nice. The ability to lift it for off roads,
39:56
Speaker 4: so don't immediately think, hey, I got to yank all
39:58
Speaker 4: that off. If it works, go try and start using it.
40:01
Speaker 4: It works really well for transient loads. Hey I daily
40:04
Speaker 4: drive this today, but this weekend I'm going to have
40:07
Speaker 4: four family members and all of our gear for a
40:09
Speaker 4: week of travel out on the trails. It handles out
40:12
Speaker 4: or hooking a trailer out. Yeah, but if that system
40:16
Speaker 4: isn't what you're looking for and you do want to
40:18
Speaker 4: change that out, you can remove all of that without
40:21
Speaker 4: any issues within reason, can all be pulled off and
40:23
Speaker 4: put a traditional suspension underneath. There, even a stock suspension.
40:27
Speaker 4: There are customers that just prefer the stock Toyota suspension,
40:30
Speaker 4: so they put torsion bars and coils off of a
40:32
Speaker 4: stock hundred series shocks are still available new from Toyota
40:35
Speaker 4: and they bolt those on and just have a non
40:38
Speaker 4: AHC LX. But with the LX for seventy there's a
40:41
Speaker 4: little different headlights and different grill trim. There were definitely
40:44
Speaker 4: aesthetic changes, but drive train wise, it's that same exact
40:47
Speaker 4: bullet proof to u Z, great transmission, great transfer case,
40:51
Speaker 4: full time here in the United States, full time drive train,
40:55
Speaker 4: and then the same axles, so it's the same components.
40:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have seen a few little iss shoes with
41:01
Speaker 1: centertiff lock not engaging and disengaging with a lot of
41:05
Speaker 1: water crossings, so.
41:06
Speaker 3: You want to be mindful of that.
41:08
Speaker 1: If you're in a super remote area, just keep that
41:11
Speaker 1: centertiff locked, don't cycle it on and off until you're
41:15
Speaker 1: closer to.
41:16
Speaker 3: Getting there, getting or whatever.
41:18
Speaker 4: The other part of that I see a lot is
41:20
Speaker 4: just exercise that from time to time, particularly if you
41:23
Speaker 4: buy one that's probably never been off road, which is
41:26
Speaker 4: a lot of them, to be fair here in the
41:27
Speaker 4: US market, that's the eighty series, one hundred series, or
41:30
Speaker 4: the two hundred and their ALEX equivalents. So that actuator
41:33
Speaker 4: is an electronic electric motor mount on the top of
41:36
Speaker 4: the transfer case in all those and then on the
41:38
Speaker 4: back on the two hundred and the five to seventy.
41:40
Speaker 4: But many times those haven't been used. They're not damaged,
41:43
Speaker 4: they're not ruined. They're just like seized because they're dirty,
41:45
Speaker 4: and some exercising of them, turning them on and off,
41:48
Speaker 4: maybe even taking them off and cleaning them can make
41:51
Speaker 4: them so they work very reliably. But we see a
41:54
Speaker 4: lot of that on vehicles that just don't get driven
41:57
Speaker 4: a lot or don't get used a lot. That CDL
41:59
Speaker 4: never So if you're test driving one looking at it
42:03
Speaker 4: to purchase, go find a dirt parking lot and lock
42:06
Speaker 4: that centertive button. They all have that button on the
42:08
Speaker 4: one hundred series and four seventies, and verify it actually
42:11
Speaker 4: works rather than just blinks. And if it doesn't lock
42:14
Speaker 4: and it just stays blinking, not saying, run away from
42:17
Speaker 4: the vehicle, just use that at a negotiating point or
42:19
Speaker 4: get that see if they're willing to get that looked at,
42:20
Speaker 4: get that service, or just know that there's nothing that
42:23
Speaker 4: can be too catastrophically bad about that can't be fixed.
42:26
Speaker 4: It's usually a pretty easy fix.
42:28
Speaker 3: Good.
42:31
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42:34
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42:38
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43:02
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43:24
Speaker 3: Any other parting thoughts on the mighty hundred series.
43:28
Speaker 4: No great machines, nothing too major. Keep up on maintenance.
43:31
Speaker 4: They are getting older, right these are nineteen ninety eight
43:34
Speaker 4: is the first year, So don't just think you're going
43:36
Speaker 4: to buy a nineteen ninety eight regardless of what miles
43:38
Speaker 4: it has and start taking it on a trip around
43:41
Speaker 4: the world. Belts, hoses, rubber items, do the service work,
43:44
Speaker 4: do the preventive maintenance. Make sure to have those timing
43:47
Speaker 4: belts and water pumps and fluids and these things will
43:50
Speaker 4: not leave you a stranded. They're great machines. It's always
43:53
Speaker 4: a user neglect usually that leaves them with any issues
43:56
Speaker 4: on the trail side.
43:57
Speaker 1: Well, and if there's anyone that picks up one hundred
44:00
Speaker 1: and one oh five, let us know.
44:02
Speaker 3: We'd love to.
44:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely talk about it in a future podcast.
44:06
Speaker 1: But Kurt, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
44:09
Speaker 1: You can find out more about Kurt at Cruiser out
44:12
Speaker 1: for It Fitters. You do a lot of work with Toyota.
44:14
Speaker 1: You and I have been around the world together. You're
44:16
Speaker 1: one of the foremost experts on these subjects. I really
44:18
Speaker 1: appreciate your time today.
44:19
Speaker 4: Thank you. Appreciate you coming by and visiting the museum.
44:22
Speaker 3: Absolutely, we thank you all for listening.