AHC or Standard Shocks?

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My book covers Aus, GCC, Eur, & General, and the non-AHC hight levels are different for all of these 4, while the AHC levels are the same for all 4 areas. The stnrd lift from N to HI is 40 mm front and 50 mm rear, nominal. Plus the extra inch that the system can throw in "when it feels like it".
 
Yeah, check it out (from my LC owner's manual):

Overall height mm (in)

1875 (73.8)
1850 (72.8) with AHC
 
The standard splurge sheet from Toyota on the Standard, GXL and Sahara in Australia is a bit of a mystery. They all have the same Ground Clearance (210mm), Approach (34)and Departure (26) Breakover (25) angles and wading depth (700mm). This is hardly likely as all of these dimensions will be altered with a raised suspension!

In terms of AHC or not, it does ride beautifully. However there will be issues in terms of GVM if you add any extra weight to the vehicle. This will reduce your carrying capacity by what ever you put on the vehcile because the vehicle knows its weight and will drop to the lower position when it feels that it is carrying enough ie over 530kgs load including any extras you have added to the vehicle.
 
DZ. I beleive you will find the AHC will work well for your applications. The auto height control is great for traveling with a load, braking, towing, etc. The "normal" setting is similar to the standard LC. Low is good for entry/exit or loading/unloading. The high setting is nice for light off roading. In 4-Lo the AHC high goes into an extra high setting for more challenging off road conditions. The AHC will stay in LO until you go over 9 mph and will stay in HI until you exceed 19 mph.

Another benefit, if you do some maintenance under the vehicle you can set it in HI, lock it there, and have lots of clearance. Don't forget the safety step of jack stands though.

An 06 is really nice. I doubt the 07 will have much improvement over 06. I have little interest in a modified Sequoia.
 
JJ_SC said:
[snip] My only complaint so far is that the low setting kicks you back to normal at 9mph - to slow even in a garage - so I find that setting pretty useless.
Click to expand...

Yeah, mine goes to normal at about 9mph since it's before the doors automatically lock (at 13mph). The owners manual says it goes into normal at 30km/hr. I know that's not right from what I experience.

I find the sport is useful on mountain roads. What would also be nice is to be able to put the AHC in low for this type of driving, as 2" down would be noticeable while cornering.

Does anyone have the BBlanks AHC controller installed? It says you can lock it into high or low. I'm assuming one can still choose normal, too?

As far as keeping it simple for reliability, just about everything on the LC/LX has an ECU, so one more system (the AHC) isn't going to make or break it. If one wants bare-bones for reliability, one should get a LC78 w/ 5spd manual, manual windows/seats/dash switches, vinyl seats, no carpet, no A/C, old-fashioned 1HZ diesel.
 
LXPearl said:
An 06 is really nice. I doubt the 07 will have much improvement over 06. I have little interest in a modified Sequoia.
Click to expand...

FYI,
the next gen LX will be a modded Sequoia, but the next Land Cruiser will not. Just the next revision of the similar line.
 
shocker said:
FYI,
the next gen LX will be a modded Sequoia, but the next Land Cruiser will not. Just the next revision of the similar line.
Click to expand...

Makes me suspect that Toyota might discontinue the LC line in the US like it did in Canada (can only get the LX there) rather than have to support a full line of parts for a vehicle with annual sales of around 6,000 units.
 
Jim_Chow said:
Makes me suspect that Toyota might discontinue the LC line in the US like it did in Canada (can only get the LX there) rather than have to support a full line of parts for a vehicle with annual sales of around 6,000 units.
Click to expand...

It's their flagship, they're not going to discontinue it.

I posted more in the "2008 Land Cruiser" thread in the chat section, but they're going to keep it because it's easy to import, sells with almost no advertising calories, and will have little to no extra R&D for the US market as it will be designed around international considerations independent of US marketing research.
 
Jim_Chow said:
Does anyone have the BBlanks AHC controller installed? It says you can lock it into high or low. I'm assuming one can still choose normal, too?

As far as keeping it simple for reliability, just about everything on the LC/LX has an ECU, so one more system (the AHC) isn't going to make or break it. If one wants bare-bones for reliability, one should get a LC78 w/ 5spd manual, manual windows/seats/dash switches, vinyl seats, no carpet, no A/C, old-fashioned 1HZ diesel.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd like to learn more about that controller. It would be nice to over-ride the speed limits some how.

And I tend to agree about the complexity/reliability issue. It's all over my head now-a-days. I'm not gonna rebuild it like I did my '68 mustang when I was 19. It's a toyota, so it's gonna be the most reliable AHC out there, right? :)

So, has the original poster placed an order yet?
 
Thanks again for all of your comments! Very helpful. I have not ordered yet...I guess I'm a little obsessive with the due dilegence. I'm currently workng on price with the area dealers and waiting to hear back from autobytel (online service to get you the best deal...saved me $3,500 when I purchased my wife's Highlander last year). Should place the order in a week or so.

I am going to go with the AHC based on all of your comments. I'm sure I'll be happy with it. Any suggestions on a good 33" tire to fit the 18" rims? Did a quick search, didn't find anything with a tread worth using off-road.
 
D.Z. said:
Thanks again for all of your comments! Very helpful. I have not ordered yet...I guess I'm a little obsessive with the due dilegence. I'm currently workng on price with the area dealers and waiting to hear back from autobytel (online service to get you the best deal...saved me $3,500 when I purchased my wife's Highlander last year). Should place the order in a week or so.

I am going to go with the AHC based on all of your comments. I'm sure I'll be happy with it. Any suggestions on a good 33" tire to fit the 18" rims? Did a quick search, didn't find anything with a tread worth using off-road.
Click to expand...

You can get bridgestone dueller revos in a 32 or 32.6" on 18" wheels. 33" is about 7% up in size from stock. You'll notice a difference in acceleration ...maybe enough to negate any vvti gains. The other problem with larger tires is all the VSC and speed dependent functions (ie, AHC uses velocity and steering info to determine how much resistance to apply for anti-roll) think you're going at a different speed than you really are, so they may not work as designed. I only mention is as a theoretical possibility. 7% probably won't make or break ya since different manufacturers of tires with the same size are actually different in spec (ie, company A's 285's might be slightly larger than company B's.).
 
I've just removed my AHC shocks and replaced them with OME shocks (133s for the front and 101s for the rear).. I'm in the experimentation phase still.. So far I like the AHC better but I still need to do more tweaks to really give a sound judgment..

I've only tried OME shocks for a couple of days now and I'm not that happy.. still need to crank up the Torsion bars.. The anchor arm bolts are stuck and I can't raise the front end so that needs to be fixed.. The rear end is low and the OME863s doesn't seem enough.. After I install OME864s and adjust the t-bars I will be able to compare AHC against OME..

If I were to buy an LC/LX again and keep it stock or near stock I'd buy one with AHC.. If I'm buying to mod, it will be a whole different story now and I'll probably go with an FZJ100 instead or maybe diesel.. :)
 
D.Z. said:
waiting to hear back from autobytel (online service to get you the best deal...saved me $3,500 when I purchased my wife's Highlander last year). Should place the order in a week or so.
Click to expand...

Have you tried carsdirect.com? They have been lower than any other online service each of the last 4 times we've bought a car. They have excellent service and I would highly recommend them. You can also take your quote to the dealer and use it as a bargaining tool. Anyway, good luck! You're gonna love it.
 
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