PART 2 - How Many FJ55s still on the road in USA ? (1 Viewer)

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Gentlemen,

Roughly 8 years ago, (March of 2013) I asked the question "how many FJ55s are still on the road (United States) - registered and drivable..."

Some replies indicated 1000+ while others felt like 300 was more accurate.

I have had the good fortune of living and working all over the country and my unscientific observation is less than 300 (drivable).

I agree with several who said more FJ55s on the west coast and very few on east coast.

Your thoughts?
 
3 in my possession, only 2 I would say meant for the future. Another poor 55 rotting in a pasture south of me.

Agree when I was looking all over the US for one on Facebook, the west coast especially OR seems to have a bunch!
 
3 in my possession, only 2 I would say meant for the future. Another poor 55 rotting in a pasture south of me.

Agree when I was looking all over the US for one on Facebook, the west coast especially OR seems to have a bunch!
I’d say 10 in AZ. I know of 4 but there are stragglers I’ve heard about.
 
7 in saint george utah , that i know where are
How many are at the Land Cruiser museum in SLC? They’ve probably got 10 in there.
 
Best current guesstimation is that roughly ** roughly ** 10,000 55’s were sold in the US between 1967 and 1979.
I’ve yet to find the actual data sources that I’ve seen in the past, but I unmistakable recall that the ratio of FJ40’s to FJ55’s was 10:1.

The FJ40 registry as well as the CCOT website shows combined sales totals of 40’s and 55’s from 1973 - 1979 as being 62,206 which leaves the probability of 30 - 40 thousand units sold between 1967 and 1973.
Still searching for the correct data and will update when I find it.

Apologies for the earlier exaggerated misnumeration.

 
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And they are all losers!!

Imagine owning a Land Cruiser and not being on mud?

@RUSH55 those are some daunting numbers that there are possibly that many still out there? Sadly most are likely in disrepair..
 
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Where did you get those numbers?
It’s around here somewhere. It was also quoted in a Hemings article that came out a year or so ago. There were 10 times as many FJ40’s sold in the same time period.

Now I’m second guessing myself that it wasn’t 10,000 FJ55’s sold and 100,000 FJ40’s.
I’ll find it…
 
These guys combine 40's and 55's and their numbers are lower for the years they list.

 
I have been surprised many times ( as I’m sure most of us have) to see running pigs that just show up out of the blue (or green as some of our kin believe they haveo_O)

about 3 months ago I was driving by a high end mechanics shop near by and saw the tail of a pig in one of his bays.

I got his attention (his gate are always closed) and he was kind enough to bring it out for me to view (from out side the fence) and chat it up. It belongs to a gent on a large ranch. This pig was custom restored and from what I could see from 20’ the body looked absolutely amazing (it looked f#$&ing green), not just the color but the cash that went into it. The mechanic mention the v8 engine, fancy transmission, bucket seats an on and on. I know a good paint can be deceiving but this just had that look that is was dripping with craftsmanship. This mechanic has a 5 star rating.

The kicker to this story is that the rancher has a twin to the one I saw. Just as well done.

Next time I drive by the shop with my mistress I hope to have him ask the rancher if I could visit his stable. I took a picture ( through the fence) put felt that privacy was in order at this point in time.

Point being 24 were listed here plus 3 I know in SB county plus my 2 makes 29 plus the sty stash that run (20) makes 50 not including the museum. That covers about 5 or 6 states. 44 states that haven’t been accounted for. I‘m guessing min 500 driving pigs and maybe 1/2 that many more on the verge saving.

Just babbling gents just babbling.
 
We can speculate about the overall numbers but I think we can agree there's more out west.

Another way of viewing this:

If each state had 10 (500)
If each state had 5 (250)....
Again, these are registered and drivers not parts vehicles.

Agree that there are owners who do not know about the Mud / Iron Pig website and thus numbers are lower.

Bottom line, IMHO, we have few of these rigs left. You consider the importance of this...
 
When we had the East Coast Pig Run at Rausch Creek, in 2006 we had 14 FJ55's in attendance. I would guess most are still on the road.

I knew of several in CT but have not seen any on the road in several years.

Mine gets out regularly until the salt is on the road.

Would like to make the Southern Swine Soiree. Maybe next year.
 
If these rigs get too rare, do we need to stop wheeling them (from a preservation perspective)? I really enjoy wheeling them. That’s the whole point, for me anyways.
 
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Agree that there are owners who do not know about the Mud / Iron Pig website and thus numbers are lower.
I believe if you own a pig and work on it you know about MUD. If you use the internet to find a part this site comes up on the first page every time. I would guess the number of people choosing to become a member and join in on all this nonsense are probably much lower than actual pig owners.

If these rigs get too rare, do we need to stop wheeling them (from a preservation perspective)?
NO!
 

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