Let me get this straight....I'm supposed to follow Land Cruiser guru's solid-axle swapped 100-series with my timid-by-comparison '98 ????? This could be ugly.
When I graduated from high school, my folks bought me an'89 Toyota Celica which I drove all through college. Typical Toyota...reliable, good car...no complaints. After college, I wanted to take a long-ish trip before...you know....working for the next fifty years, so I did something completely out of character. I bought a truck, shipped it to Africa, and spent about seven months zigzagging my way from South Africa all the way to Kenya where I sold the truck and pretty much paid for my trip.
While in South Africa, I met the co-inventor of an alternator actuated welding product. We got on well and he asked if I would market this product in the US. Well, it's tough to weld from a Toyota Celica so I sold that and bought the family '91 80-series. It was sweet! No sunroof. No third row seats. Cloth seats. No power. Crappy gas mileage. Very cool. I drove that until 1999 and by then, it had 185,000 miles on it, and the new V8 was beckoning me.
I bought my '98 with 18,000 miles on the clock over the internet, and it's one hell of a good truck. I'm on my second Land Cruiser, and I can't see myself without an LC in the garage. I'm kind of bummed to see the LC go upmarket...I'm really much more fond of a more utilitarian version of the truck, however Toyota sells to the masses, and the masses want leather, sunroofs, and LCD screens that control every frick'n aspect of the truck.
This is the business end. I installed extra lights that are triggered when the truck is placed in reverse. They make a world of difference with the dark tinting, especially at night.
Tucked behind the towbar is an auxiliary fuel tank. I got in on a group buy with a handful of guys on mud and with a little extra container space (Seth's PV Cruisers), about 10 of us brought in Australian fuel tanks. I need an aux. fuel tank like a need a third nut, but it's pretty cool filling up at Costco once a month. Despite copious amounts of bitching, my mechanic installed this monster.
It's set up like a big jerry-can. When I want to transfer fuel from the aux. to the main tank, I press the "sub-tank" switch (thanks Christo).
It triggers a timer relay which activates the transfer pump for 10 minutes. As fuel is transferring, a red LED indicator light (installed on the gauge bezel) blinks to alert the drive of the transfer. If it gets activated accidentally, or I want to kill the transfer, I've installed a button that turns off the relay which turns off the transfer pump.
Dual filler butterfly actuator. If pulled out, fuel is sent to the aux. tank.
A couple years ago, I started exploring ham radio. I started with a handheld, then installed a mobile unit in the truck, ultimately followed by an HF setup at home. I installed the Kenwood dual band unit which is powered from the auxiliary battery (sits in a Slee dual battery tray [shameless plug]) which is electronically isolated from the primary battery by a POWER-GATE battery isolator. This allows me to leave the ham radio on for days on end without worrying about having to call AAA for a jump.
The ham is wires to a Radial Larson on-glass antenna which works nicely.
The GPS is a Garmin Streetpilot 2610. I started with a Garmin V, but the screen was so small, it was hard to use. I installed the Garmin on a long screw which anchors in the sunvisor mount. It's rigid and has held up nicely for a couple years now. It's hard-wired to the power in the overhead console where I also installed the Garmin speaker. The Valentine-One radar detector is also hard-wired to power overhead, however I'm not in danger of breaking any speed records in this brick.
I bought a Homelink Garage Door Opener module on ebay, took the guts out, and wired it to micro-buttons and LEDS. Then I stashed it in the remote control pocket in the overhead console and hardwired it.
I have a five year old and we try to get out to national parks, camping, etc.....so I installed the requisite DVD player. This, by the way, is the greatest single technological breakthrough since the diaper! Long trips are soooo much easier when the child can watch a movie or two.
I have a buddy at Hella who had a set of HID's. They're so big, they cut off airflow to his radiator so he sold them to me. I installed them on a TJM T16 which I'd actually like to replace with a T15, or perhaps a Slee unit when he gets off his lazy ass and finishes the front bumper. I painted the HID's the same color as the truck as the originals have a bright red bezel which screams "please steal me!"
I ran a cable from my auxiliary battery to the rear of the truck. This powers the aux. fuel tank transfer pump, the backup lights, and the aux. power circuit which I terminated with a 50 amp Anderson/SMH connector. My fridge, compressor, worklight, and any other power accessories are also terminated in mating connectors.
This is my paper towel holder. It comes in real handy when your sheepdog has explosive diarrhea in the back seat.
After a few conversations with Spressomon, I bought a Waeco fridge. It's a big sucker (80), but it's so nice to have on trips. It's powered by the POWER-GATE protected aux. battery so I can run it for days without fear of the truck not starting. As you can imagine, it's heavy and tough to access with lots of gear in the back, so I built a slide out of some aluminum rectangular tubing, brackets, etc.... With the heavy duty slides, it's pretty heavy, but I anchor it to the floor of the truck, then strap the fridge to the base. Smooth as silk! Shortly after I bought the truck, I installed a product called Rear Gear which completely covers the entire back end of the truck from scrapes and cuts. It's good stuff. I also installed GT Cover's rear seat covers to protect the rear leather from kid and dog...again, money well spent.
Of course, truck is naked without an on-board welder! It's tucked between the airbox (POWER-GATE on top) and aux. battery.
We're real happy with the truck and with only 144,000 miles, we hope to create many more vacation memories. I need to install a Slee rear bumper and tire carrier, as I lost my spare when the aux. fuel tank went in. The TJM T16 and front Tupperware bumper needs to be changed to a T15 or a Slee front, and I'd like to lose the Smitty bars, but with a short kid, short Wife, and 80 year old short Grandmother, I need the steps.....be kind!
Last edited:
.
:
