Builds 2002 HZJ76 Build (1 Viewer)

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Joined
May 6, 2010
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1,091
Location
Armstrong, Canada
Not "really" a build, but more of a mod... what I like to call, turning my Land Cruiser into a Bruiser.

I have restored a couple of 40 series, and had one 60 series, and this will be my 6th Land Cruiser now that I have owned. I scanned and researched importing a 70 series for over a year, finally deciding to start bidding on them at auction early this year. By early February, I had won the bid on this 2002 HZJ76 ZX:

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I upped my bid on this particular unit, because it had a pretty clean inspection report, and it came with a factory Toyota 12v winch, and factory front and rear diff locks. It had a little more mileage on it than what I was initially wanting (240,000km), but with the pretty clean inspection, and no leaks reported it seemed cleaner than some of the lower mileage vehicles I had bid on earlier (and subsequently lost).

It shipped later in February, and I picked it up later in March from the ports in Vancouver and brought it home.

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I proceeded to do up measurements as with my 40 series I was always able to get away with a 2" lift and 33" tires and always have enough clearance for the backroads, trails and river crossings in BC. The 70 series was another story, with the extended front and rear bumpers and longer wheelbase. Calculations ensued....

I have to admit, I agonized for days/weeks around where to spend my hard earned/saved $$$ on this vehicle, and practicality/functionality always wins for me over what's pretty(tho it's an obvious win/win when it is functional, practical, AND pretty)... I really really wanted to spend $6000 on front and rear bumpers with fancy swing-away tire/fuel can carriers, but that money would be better spent on suspension, tires, maintenance, engine upgrades and sanity checks.

The import inspection at the mechanics shop actually came up clean, needing nothing! In fact they said this was the cleanest nicest JDM they had seen come through their shop. This made me feel pretty good about my purchase, but I took it with a grain of salt as I live in a city of 40,000 ppl, so if this is the cleanest 70 out of 2, that is not saying much.... :frown:

So, after many hours of research, I decided to go up a notch in lift, and tires. There is no 3" lift, so I had to go with 4", and decided I would probably get 35" tires so I would not have to worry about dragging front and rear bumpers every time I am going through a gully or a cross-ditch.... Plus, with the lower tractor gearing on these units (at a 100km/hr the engine was revving at ~2500RPM) I figured the 35's would be a nice match up with what I had planned to get a little more power from the engine.

Now here is where it gets fun, interesting, and a sense of humor is required. Finding parts for 70's can be a challenge. And shipping them during the covid crap required a super-human amount of patience. I ended up reaching out to Dan at 4wheelauto and stretching his poor brain for contacts and help in creating a lift kit for this beast. I also like to support local business where I can, and Dan has helped me out since the days of my first Land Cruiser over 25years ago.

So this is what we came up with:
Front coils: Dobinsons 4" lift
Rear leafs: Old Man EMU 2" Lift, and Extended Shackles for an additional 2.5" Lift
Shocks: Old Man EMU SPORT NITRO's all around
A new HD PanHard Trac bar for a 79 series
SLEE Off Road HD Radius arms (so I would not have to worry about the caster being way out)
3rd party extended sway bar links - can't remember the brand now
Old Man EMU bushings kit

I ordered the above stuff... and waited impatiently now that I had finally made up my mind. Isn't it just like humans to want all the time in the world to make a decision, then want what we decided on, YESTERDAY?
 
While I was (impatiently) waiting for the lift kit to come in, I decided to install an upgrade to the headlights by installing some proper, DOT approved, projection LED headlights. The existing halogens were functioning, but literally disintegrating in their sockets.

I took out the grill, and old lamps - these had to be encouraged as they had been in there for YEARS... then proceeded to clean and POR-15 the sockets to get rid of and halt the surface rust that had started. While I waited for that to dry, I unboxed the new LED's:

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Now, the last time I had a Land Cruiser project, the latest and greatest were HID's with ballasts which were unreliable at best, so I stuck with good quality, bright halogens. So I am not ashamed to admit I literally thought I had a bad batch of lamps when only the low beams would work, both sides, both lamps. It wasn't until when I pulled out my multimeter that I realized I was only getting power from ONE of the plugs from the factory harness. I thought I had a bad switch maybe? But plugging in the original Halogen worked... sooo.... hmmmm....

It was then I turned to almighty google, and found (with a bit more searching than I thought it should take...) that Toyota seems to like using only ONE power, and a grounded switch for HIGH BEAMS! :bang: I think I wasted a day figuring this one out...

For others... when you order LED's, remember to grab one of these as well:
Toyota H4 Harness

Once I wired in the solenoid's, and daytime/running light wire, they worked like a charm!

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I like the look to them as well once they are in:

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With the running lights on:

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More to come... stay tuned!!

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My pallet of lift parts finally arrived!! Minus the shocks, but that is OK, shocks are always the last to go in anyways and I was excited/dreading getting after the work on this project...

I decided to not allow fear and common sense enter in to my plans, so I chose to begin with the rears... I placed the frame on jack stands, chocked the front wheels, and kept the floor jack on standby for moving/manipulating the axle. Copious amounts of WD40 on all bolts. I gave thanks that I was doing this in the cool of the spring as I quickly broke out in a sweat from the effort of removing the ubolts (only one nut snapped, so all the rest had to be strong armed off!). I removed the shackle nuts, and front pin nut. The front pin needed some torching and a 3lb sledge to coax it out. I used one of the ubolt nuts on the end of it to pound on.

The rear shackle is another story... I am not sure what they put in the roads in Japan, but the shackles were literally welded to the bushings... no wonder my butt left the seat on some bigger bumps in this with my couple of test drives prior to digging into this. I finally threw a 2-ton hand winch on the shackle using the other leaf as an anchor and pounded away with my 3lb sledge...

After an hour of talking to myself with some choice verbage, a selection of appropriate adjectives, and even a few made up words, the shackle finally broke free... VICTORY!! Now the fun part can begin! I proceeded to install the new OME leaf in place - in reverse order, so I connected the front first, then hung the shackle after greasing the pins and lifted the leaf into place. Then an uh-oh moment ensued:

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The upper hanger for the shackle on these newer 70's are WIDER... hmmm. A quick look online and I could see that indeed there is a dual width shackle out there, just not with the 2.5" lift I need...

So I did up some measurements, took some pics and sent them to my friend Dan in Edmonton and he got a shop to start fabricating some shackles for me. Not one to sit around idly, I borrowed more jack stands from my neighbor and went to town on the front end... I started with the standard WD40 bath on every bolt and nut I could reach, then jacked it up and set the front frame on stands as well. I was sure to make little adjustments on each corner to make sure each stand was nice and flat and solid, no leaning in any direction. Last thing I wanted was to be in the news - death by Land Crusher...

I will not go into EVERY detail and step of replacing all the pieces and parts of the front end lift, as there is a prolifera of poignant intel for installing these lifts online. Just search up 80 series lift install for the front end instructions.

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised with how well everything came out, no stripping, snapping bolts, everything came out nicely, with the exception of the steering stabilizer, that required more 3lb sledge lovin... The install was actually fun and turned out nicely:

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The dead pan was an easy install, and much more HD than OEM. The OME steering stabilizer was also much larger than OEM:
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The SLEE Off-Road Radius arms were fairly easy as well, I installed them in the order of: rear hanger pin, front pin, then floor jack the axle to rotate it to connect up the middle pin. You can also see the stabilizer extensions in this shot:
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The new shackles came in and they went in without a hitch!

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I DO recommend that everyone install a greasable shackle to their leaf suspension systems to avoid that "bushing weld" and the need for a kidney belt to drive their cruisers. The new suspension was a dream luxury ride in comparison to the stock suspension in its current condition. The front dobinson's I ordered were for an extra 100lb static load (for the winch) and they are still a little on the stiff side, but they will soften a bit over time with use.
 
While the lift install was taking place, and while waiting for the custom shackles, I was on a mission to find a deal on new boots for this up and coming Bruiser. I have a love/hate relationship with the Goodyear Dura-Trac's. They are the best all around all season tire I have used, but they wear out fast. I shopped around and ended up finding an incredible deal on 5 duratracs 35x12.5 for $1750 so that kind of decided it for me. I was not planning on going that WIDE, as many of you know that WIDE tires on these solid axle platforms tend to cause the cruisers to wander a bit...

For example, on my last landcruiser, I had 33x9.5 tires on it!!!

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Still, when a deal like this comes along, it is hard to decline. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I realized that the stock rims would not be suitable for this tire, and I would need to get rims for it as well. I was thinking of keeping the stock rims and tires that came with the vehicle anyways and use them in the winter because it shipped to me with brand new winter tires. I just have to reconcile the fact it will look a little silly having a 4" lift and stock sized teeny little 31" tires.... :confused:

I learned a long time ago not to mess around with inexpensive aluminum wheels, as with the first pothole you hit will leave you with a shimmy, shake and wobble no amount of balancing and wishing will fix... so I ordered a set of Method Race Wheels that I liked the look of, designed to take a beating off road and, well, ... stay ROUND.

The one down side to wheel companies (at least in North America), is they are not catering to vehicles with manual hubs and free floating rear axles so no-one seems to have hub caps to accommodate. I decided to POR-15 the rear hubs so to have it match up a little better until a better solution presents itself:

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The fronts do not look too bad as is, and I did not want to coat in POR-15 as I suspect I will be in there replacing bearings and greasing them up at some point, perhaps when I need to do brakes, if not sooner.
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All in all, they look pretty cute on the truck and every Land Cruiser needs a good set of hiking boots! 👍

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I forgot to mention that the place I ended up getting such a good deal on the tires, I was going to have them do the final wheel alignment at the same time as they mount and balance the tires on the new rims. Well... when they realized this was a RHD cruiser they told me, oh... we can't do the wheel alignment on that vehicle because it is a RHD. When I realized he was not joking, I was a little speechless. I mean, I am not sure, but this seemed like racism! :oops:

He assured me his mechanic said that if he could not look it up in the computer then he can't do it. I said, look up the LHD one and use the same measurements, the only difference is the steering box is on the other side. The mechanic would not do it. At that point I asked for the tires, mounted and balanced, and that I would be taking them. I did not want these people touching my Land Cruiser if they cannot think for themselves.

I put the tires on myself, and took it to an old neighbor friend of mine that owns his own shop, and had him do the alignment. He just laughed when I told him the story. 🙄
 
Throughout the process of searching and purchasing this beastly bruiser, I had been researching the pro's, the con's, and the myths around turboing the 1HZ

I have owned and driven diesels now for over 30 years, and a decade of that was also in my own business with trucking and crane work. I owned and drove several International, Freightliner and Kenworth commercial trucks and VW, Dodge, Chevrolet/GMC and Toyota diesels. I am one of the few people that like the smell of diesel exhaust. I know, wierd, right???

All that to say, in my opinion, it is perfectly acceptable to turbo the 1HZ. Just use common sense. Get a good EGT gauge and be sensible with the right foot, keeping the EGT's below 1100F for extended pulls...

So, with that in mind, I did a LOT of research and decided on the Garrett CT26 turbo because of its long proven history, its smaller size creates less turbo lag, and it puts out more than enough boost to significantly improve the performance. I had fully intended to do the Turbo install myself, as I had done one before (going back several years though) but in conversations with my friend Dan @ 4wheelauto in Edmonton, he convinced me that his tech could have this machine fine-tuned in about 2hrs once the Turbo was in. I knew I would likely take a week or more installing, then several weeks fine tuning it with my schedule. His promise of 2 days was appealing to me, and I had a brother in Edmonton I could visit in the meantime.... so....

All the parts were ordered in, and there are a LOT of parts to change out... luckily, we can obtain a lot of the parts from wrecked 80 series 1HD's to get the proper intake piping, air cleaner cover and exhaust manifold(s) etc....

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We decided to clean up the top of the motor as well and remove all the EGR junk, it shoor duz look more purdier:
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Since there is a bit of work to do mating the exhaust to the new turbo, I wisely decided to put in the 3" mandrel exhaust with a magnaflow silencer:
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The results are beyond exceptional... Let's take the roger's pass for example. I had to gear down to 3rd and a max speed of around 70km/hr with the pedal pinned and black smoke spewing forth like a rising dark cloud from the underworld... (which tells me the injectors are likely original and in need of a rebuild or replacement).

Post turbo - the unburnt fuel causing the smoke screens for possible getaways (the only way a Land Cruiser could be considered a getaway vehicle) was no longer an issue... with the forced air into the engine, there was enough air/fuel ratio to properly consume the fuel being delivered. I could not detect any smoke out the back end any longer.

Rogers pass could now be conquered in 4th gear at around 95-100km/hr @ 1100F EGT sustained.

Amazing....

I still plan to look into rebuilding the injectors, and possibly look at options to obtain better atomization of the fuel to further increase performance and economy. The only option I know of currently, is putting in a slightly stronger spring to have a more sudden and stronger jet... but I have not spent time researching the H-E- double hockey sticks out of it yet like I usually do...
 
Oh, and since the oil pan gets dropped for the turbo oil return installation, I took the opportunity to change the oil. I also had them install a new fuel filter since the couple I had ordered were still enroute...
 
Now, since I decided to go with 35" tires, you cannot open the rear small door with the tire mounted on the rear spare tire carrier. The only way to get into the back is to open the small door from the inside as far as it will go, then reach between the doors from the inside and release the larger rear door to open both together... hardly ideal nor sustainable to a sane mind...
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So while I was up at 4wheelauto in Edmonton, I was able to pickup a used aluminum roof rack (they are surprisingly LIGHT, but strong!!) It is just the right size to still allow for using the sunroof! I ordered a spare tire mount online and installed that so I could throw the spare up there (fortunately I am 6'3" so I could literally lift it up there by myself without too much difficulty). A Bestop tire cover completes it to protect the spare from UV damage over time:
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However, this left a vacant spare tire carrier in the back that looked lonely... and taking it off seemed like a waste of resources, not to mention the unseemly 4 bolts in the door that would leave behind...

I decided to cut up some spare aluminum checkerplate I had kicking around and designed a fuel carrier I could bolt on. I purchased the smittybuilt military jerry can steel holder cage and welded up an aluminum support for it that I could bolt onto the OEM spare tire carrier:
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The top of the aluminum housing I made as a step to stand on to put/get things from the roof rack (if you look closely, you can see the hose I cut and put in place for the aluminum step edge to rest on the tire carrier to protect it)
 
Now for some dirty details... a little look under the skirts. The initial cancer I found was pretty obvious, and somewhat surprising at the same time considering the body and frame condition overall. Someone had seriously cared for this Land Cruiser for which, of course I am grateful. They had completely undercoated the Cruiser and it seems to have helped considerably. However I did have to deal with one area quickly on the rocker panel at the rear:
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This was the only spot that had actually perforated through, everywhere else was pretty minor and just had a little surface rust that needed to be cleaned and POR-15'd
Rather than spend day and days on this myself, without the proper bodyworking tools, I have a friend in the industry and for a reasonable rate, he had it looking like this in 4 days:
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No complaints from ME! What a relief! I also took time to POR-15 the rear fender trouble spots, the rest of the rocker panels underneath, the inside of the door bottoms, and slathered it liberally in between the rear quarters from the inside where the jack and rear spray reservoir is after cleaning them thoroughly.

I also planned on pulling a utility trailer with this beast, so I was considering various hitch options... I decided to put a receiver where the tow hook resides on the rear bumper cross-piece. This seemed best and would not reduce the amount of clearance in the back at all. However, as I started to work back there, I discovered that my dealings with cancer on this machine were not quite over. Despite the very clean main frame, the rear cross member had accumulated a lot of road snot over the years and just sat in the c-channel year over year, trapped and slowly eating away at it. I could literally poke my finger through in spots and pull chunks of rotted steel away from the inside.

I knew the integrity was lost, and it would be unsafe to use this to tow anything but dreams for now. My little mig in the shop was no match for what was needed here so I took it down to a fabrication shop and crawled under the back end while I commiserated with my new colleague and tossed ideas to and fro. We settled on a plan and $300 later I had some new 1/4" plate c-channel welded into the rear cross member and even integrated into the rear gusset supports as well. After a couple of days of cleaning it all up, applying 2 coats of POR and re-assembly of the rear bumper and moldings (and drilling and re-tapping almost EVERY bolt) it is now serviceable and looking pretty good:
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Wait!! That's not all! While I was up at 4wheelauto, I asked to peruse their tickle trunk of junk (or spare parts boneyard) as I was specifically looking for a brush bar to help protect the beautiful face of this creature I was pouring so much love into. I wasn't picky, if it was close and I could mangle it (or transmogrify it for you Calvin and Hobbes fans out there) to fit then it was good enough for me...

Well, I did find something that would likely work with a little massaging, and Dan graciously told me to just take it. Which of course, I gratefully DID and promptly threw it in the back for my 9hr drive home.

It was covered in a peeling, sort of hastily applied rock guard type paint, I am guessing. Because it has some kind of weird plasticity to it when I took the wire wheel to it. However I had the whole thing wire wheeled in about and hour to an hour an a half... not too bad. I was not too sure yet, what this thing was made of because it was light, like aluminum, but not necessarily colored like it, unless it was oxidized badly... hard to tell. I test fitted it to gauge what I will need:
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There was a couple of cracked welds, and I needed to make a couple of brackets to bolt to my existing bumper, I proceeded to try to weld it like it was aluminum... well that did not work, nothing would stick... lol... so it is not aluminum. Maybe stainless steel? Not likely, unless it is really cheap stainless, because there is some evidence of rust? Hmmm... maybe chromium? So I proceed like I was trying to weld stainless or chromium and it seemed work...ish. I managed to repair the cracks and weld on two feet so I could bolt it on.... but since it will rust... I had to do something to it...

I decided since I got the thing for free, I could afford to powdercoat it. My motto is - do it right the first time, or you will just end up wishing you did...

So I took it down to a powdercoating shop in town and they had it done in a few days. I am not a huge fan of chrome, so we tried our best to match it up to flare/trim paint color. Primer, color, and clear powder coatings ended up coming in slightly darker, but it is pretty close:
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Total cost - another $300
 
Next up, was the driveline... I ordered in a complete pail of 80w90 full synthetic and proceeded to drain both diffs, transfer and tranny.

I let them all sit there and drain for a long time to try to get everything out... I was pleasantly surprised that everything came out CLEAN, even the tranny which technically does not have a maintenance interval when you look into the service specs. So the PO at least looked after this unit nicely. All the plugs only had your minor bit of gunge on them you would expect from normal wear and tear.

I also noted when I took delivery that there was a Toyota dealer oil change tag hanging from the steering wheel that showed the next change due in 2000km, and there was a maintenance sticker on the timing belt housing showing it was last changed at 202,000km.

All in all, the evidence was stacking up that this was indeed a decent auction find... considering you are always taking a bit of a chance when purchasing direct from auction.

I pumped everything up with fresh full synthetic gear oil and buttoned everything back up.

*NOTE* - I found it rather odd that a heavy-duty Land Cruiser would have PLASTIC skid plates... so in other words, not skid plates per se, but rather splash guards... 🙄
Does anyone know of aftermarket skid plates for these series for a decent price??

After a couple of trips around 5-600kms total, I noticed a very slight/slow sweating at the rear diff pinion seal, so that is now added to future parts order list and maintenance plan. No other leaks or sweats anywhere on this unit, so that makes my heart smile...

Oh, I forgot to add a pic of the gauges for the turbo install above so here it is now:
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So, on the list of things to do:
- Injector rebuild, or replace - pending research
- pinion seal on rear diff replace
- circulating coolant heater install prior to November
- complete EGR delete (last step - get rid of coil light on dash/check engine light - requires research)

Dreams list - ARB front bumper
- custom low profile rear bumper with potential carrier options for large size tire/fuel cans
- possible turbo intercooler install pending investigation
- auxilary fuel tank or aftermarket high capacity replacement fuel tank
 
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Beautiful rig, and a HZJ76 is the ultimate!

Alas, that's a lot of rust... I guess you can look at it positively, at least you won't feel bad driving it around in our winters, will you? Good luck - hope to see it one day!
 
Now, because I am involved in search and rescue, I do also have an ATV - :nailbiting: GASP! My Land Cruiser is not my ONLY exploration vehicle?? I know, I know... shocking!



I also teach ATV, UTV, Snowmobile use to people that need the training for work insurance purposes. As well as teach swiftwater rescue, so I spend a fair bit of time doing other stuff out in them thar mountains...



But this brings me to my other half of the "Bruiser Build"

I have a multi-purpose utility trailer for hauling the ATV, and acting as a base camp:
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Isn't it cute how they match?? I think they will be good buddies...

So, I had a little problem... I was so enthralled with the Land Cruiser work when I ordered this trailer that I forgot to ask that they flip the axle to give it a little more clearance, and so I would not need a 12" drop (or more) to tow it. By the time I thought of it, it was too late they said it was already started on the production line. So I figured, no big deal, I will just flip it when I get home... except... it came with a drop axle. :frown:

No easy peasy flipping, buuuuut, still not a showstopper...

I decided to pick up some axle plates and weld them to the other side of the axle so I could move the whole axle to the bottom of the springs for about a 4-5" lift overall.
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Next I jacked up the trailer and removed the axle (sooooo easy when it is NEW, lol)
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Welded on the plates and POR-15'd them once they cooled:
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Then bolted it right into place nicely, but carefully because the paint was still a little wet... lol.


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Overall, it came out to a decent amount of lift so I will not be bottoming out so quickly on some of the backroads we frequent:
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Now for the inside, I wanted to wire it with solar, a battery for when I am not connected to a tow vehicle, and insulate it for starters:
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In the second-last pic you can see the fold down bed frame I built, so it can fold up and out of the way to drive the ATV in, and when I am where I can unload and am on a multi day search, I have somewhere to come and hang my hat for a few winks. Every fall a few of us from SAR will head out for a week or two of backcountry excursions as well so something like this will come in very handy... I am getting a little tired of tenting it (it is just getting too intense!! I know, I know... STOP) lol
 
I still have a fold down table to build, as well as a front cabinet and shelving in the v-nose to make it a little more homey, but overall it is coming along nicely...

I picked up this little beauty for trips:
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The nice thing is this is both a fridge and a freezer, and draws a nominal 3.7amps in eco mode. Now, my high efficiency solar panel puts out ideally (in direct sunlight) a little over 5.5amps so in theory, that is enough to power this little(big) unit AND still charge the onboard battery.

However, actual tests have shown that I need to add another panel to my system, as in cloudy conditions, the fridge WILL decimate the battery in about 2.5 days. The charger controller I picked up can take 3 100watt panels easily, so I already have picked up another panel, simply waiting for me to install it alongside the other and plug it in! Another test to follow...
 
Beautiful rig, and a HZJ76 is the ultimate!

Alas, that's a lot of rust... I guess you can look at it positively, at least you won't feel bad driving it around in our winters, will you? Good luck - hope to see it one day!
Thanks @janyyc, I definitely buy my Cruiser's to use 'em, else, what is the point? I look after them, but I like to get out there and use them!! It would definitely be fun for us westerly Canucks to meet up somewhere for sure! Let me know if you ever end up in the Okanagan area!
 
Great build! Thanks for sharing. Love the color of your truck, and those are some very tasteful upgrades. I'm jealous of the body work you had done. My LJ78 needs exactly the same work in the same spot.

I'm curious to know how your turbo 1HZ does with towing. I'm sure power will be fine, but I'm curious if you'll have any coolant temperature problems on the long hill climbs on hot days. Hopefully not....
 
Great build! Thanks for sharing. Love the color of your truck, and those are some very tasteful upgrades. I'm jealous of the body work you had done. My LJ78 needs exactly the same work in the same spot.

I'm curious to know how your turbo 1HZ does with towing. I'm sure power will be fine, but I'm curious if you'll have any coolant temperature problems on the long hill climbs on hot days. Hopefully not....
I have done 2 trips now pulling the trailer a couple of hundred km each way, through the mountains. One trip was during around 30C weather, and the gauge didn't move. I downshifted, kept the RPM's up, and the EGT's around 1100F. So far I find this machine drives slightly better than stock pulling around 2000lbs

The other trip however, was during the heat wave with outside ambient temps around 45+C!! I thought the poor cruiser was performing poorly until my girlfriend told me her taco v6 loaded up (not pulling a trailer) was heating up quite a bit. The landcruiser climbed up pretty high in temp, but not into the red and I was careful to downshift, keeping the RPMS up and the EGT temp 1100F or lower. I did end up having to slow down more, keep the A/C off, heater and fan on full blast to assist in cooling. But those were extreme heat wave conditions.... overall, I was pretty impressed it did as well as it did.

I considered doing a full coolant flush and replace, but the existing coolant does not look too bad, and I will need to replace it in 60,000km when I do the next timing belt anyways...
 

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