Haters of Mud,
Wanted to introduce y'all to "Kiboko," our 2021 Toyota Land Cruiser in Magnetic Gray Metallic on Black. "Kiboko" is Swahili for hippopotamus, and I thought that was a pretty dead on name for this ~6000lb gray tool/toy which will spend a good part of its life wallowing in water and mud.
I am an avid hunter, my wife is an excellent amateur photographer (IMO), and we both are fairly obsessed w/ fishing, so the "mission statement" of sorts is to build a road-trip truck that can get us, our dog, (occasionally) our cat, and a ton of gear from our Houston home base to remote and spectacular places to enjoy the great outdoors and our favorite hobbies (mostly in S TX and Utah). We have access to more rugged and purpose built trucks to get around the South Texas ranches where we spend quite a bit of our free time, but my wife has made it pretty clear that having her teeth rattled out by a 1977 Jeep Wagoneer on rancher-approved suspension is not going to cut it anymore for cocktail cruises. Fine by me... there was just enough daylight there to pitch this build to her!
Think of the objective here then as getting you to reasonable off-road destinations and letting you explore, but it's not really for long-term off-grid camping or hardcore off-roading (yet?).
We started w/ the idea of a restomod FJ62 (seriously considering a "142"), but the limitations on building a cost-effective long-distance restomod rig to get to Utah from Houston nixed that idea. So we agreed a deal w/ a Houston dealer in November who had an inbound gray truck swapped for his white truck in inventory, but when the vehicle arrived in Houston port in December, it was held up by some COVID related delay (or so we were told, not 100% sure what really happened tbh). Anyway, nearly 2 months later, we have finally taken delivery and are ready to turn her over to Duggy's Garage here in Houston who has been patiently waiting to install the parts they have been stockpiling for us.
A very special thank you to the people who have helped me get here (read fueled this absurd series of decisions): Nolen @wngrog , @radman , Duc and Devin at @duggy , Eric @Eric Sarjeant and @Bullgump. The most important of these shout outs goes to Duggy's Garage who will be doing 95% of the work to this truck. Nice to have the home town team so highly recommended and on the job.
The purpose of this thread is twofold: 1) document the build to solicit feedback or let others replicate what they liked (not like I reinvented the wheel here, and everything learned is from others on Mud) and 2) provide a platform to post pictures of the adventures we take Kiboko on (also available on Instagram @kibokoLC). Not sure what the appetite is for either of these, but we shall see...
Below are the build plans/parts. Phase 1 is basically locked in, but in general almost all feedback is almost always welcome. And even once installed, everything here is subject to change based on my own fickle mind or (hopefully) the valuable input of others.
Enjoy, Peterson
Day One Picture (bought 20210113)
Current Picture (updated 20200304)
Wanted to introduce y'all to "Kiboko," our 2021 Toyota Land Cruiser in Magnetic Gray Metallic on Black. "Kiboko" is Swahili for hippopotamus, and I thought that was a pretty dead on name for this ~6000lb gray tool/toy which will spend a good part of its life wallowing in water and mud.
I am an avid hunter, my wife is an excellent amateur photographer (IMO), and we both are fairly obsessed w/ fishing, so the "mission statement" of sorts is to build a road-trip truck that can get us, our dog, (occasionally) our cat, and a ton of gear from our Houston home base to remote and spectacular places to enjoy the great outdoors and our favorite hobbies (mostly in S TX and Utah). We have access to more rugged and purpose built trucks to get around the South Texas ranches where we spend quite a bit of our free time, but my wife has made it pretty clear that having her teeth rattled out by a 1977 Jeep Wagoneer on rancher-approved suspension is not going to cut it anymore for cocktail cruises. Fine by me... there was just enough daylight there to pitch this build to her!
Think of the objective here then as getting you to reasonable off-road destinations and letting you explore, but it's not really for long-term off-grid camping or hardcore off-roading (yet?).
We started w/ the idea of a restomod FJ62 (seriously considering a "142"), but the limitations on building a cost-effective long-distance restomod rig to get to Utah from Houston nixed that idea. So we agreed a deal w/ a Houston dealer in November who had an inbound gray truck swapped for his white truck in inventory, but when the vehicle arrived in Houston port in December, it was held up by some COVID related delay (or so we were told, not 100% sure what really happened tbh). Anyway, nearly 2 months later, we have finally taken delivery and are ready to turn her over to Duggy's Garage here in Houston who has been patiently waiting to install the parts they have been stockpiling for us.
A very special thank you to the people who have helped me get here (read fueled this absurd series of decisions): Nolen @wngrog , @radman , Duc and Devin at @duggy , Eric @Eric Sarjeant and @Bullgump. The most important of these shout outs goes to Duggy's Garage who will be doing 95% of the work to this truck. Nice to have the home town team so highly recommended and on the job.
The purpose of this thread is twofold: 1) document the build to solicit feedback or let others replicate what they liked (not like I reinvented the wheel here, and everything learned is from others on Mud) and 2) provide a platform to post pictures of the adventures we take Kiboko on (also available on Instagram @kibokoLC). Not sure what the appetite is for either of these, but we shall see...
Below are the build plans/parts. Phase 1 is basically locked in, but in general almost all feedback is almost always welcome. And even once installed, everything here is subject to change based on my own fickle mind or (hopefully) the valuable input of others.
Enjoy, Peterson
- Phase 1 (beginning imminently)
- Front Bumper: ARB Summit
- Winch: Warn VR EVO 12-S
- Front Bumper Fog Lights: Rigid Dually Series Spot LED in GREEN (so we can drive around the ranch and not spook animals)
- Sliders: Slee SliderSteps
- Drawers: ARB w/ 1 fixed, 1 roller, and fit kit
- Suspension: BP-51 w/ SPC UCAs (seems like people argue over this like religion!)
- Springs: 2723 (undecided here, w/ just the 12.5g LRA + drawers and no rear bumper, opinions seem to vary)
- Roof Rack: Prinsu w/ 40" cutout
- Rack Light: Rigid SRpro 40"
- Scene Lights on Rack: Rigid diffused Left/Right/Rear
- Cargo Light: National Luna Red/White
- Wheels: Method Racing 314s (17x8.5 5x150s w/ 0off) in Matte Blk
- Tires: BFG KO2s 285/70R17 116S C1 BSW
- Switches: SwitchPro 9100
- Battery: Slee u/g to group 31, Odyssey ODX-AGM31M (w/o fridge or other big draws and not really camping, assume don't need dual-batteries, open to input here...)
- Fuel Tank: LRA 12.5g (wanted to retain stock spare b/c no rear bumper)
- Phase 2 (when I make up my mind)
- Skids: open to feedback here based on the use case... between ARB or Slee, don't want to pay for aluminum, don't rock crawl
- Awning: open to feedback here... have not made up mind yet on brand, just want something easy to take off completely/quickly
- Phase 3 (call it the idea list, only if am convinced by Mud or use case changes)
- CarPlay: seems like the Naviplus system is a big hit, if everyone likes it w/o issues will prob add
- Air: ARB dual compressor (have access to big industrial air most places I would go so not a priority)
- Snorkel: Fabulous Fabrications w/ Aussie airbox looks the coolest to me but haven't seen one in person
- Diff Breathers: water gets pretty high some of the fishing we do, but doesn't seem consensus on Mud that they're necessary
- 2nd Battery: only if have failures that a NOCO can't fix
- Front/Rear Air Locker: only if we find ourselves really pushing the truck
- Gears: only if the power is underwhelming and/or we have the truck open for lockers anyway
Day One Picture (bought 20210113)
Current Picture (updated 20200304)
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