80 Series Adventure Rig Build!
Well, after selling my 100 Series (see my other build thread) a couple of years ago, I decided I wanted a return to the Cruiser Life. Here in New Zealand, a lot of our back-country areas are laden with braided river beds, deep river crossing, and large rocks/boulders. With this in mind, and my desire to do some more remote and solo travel, I wanted a vehicle that was comfy enough on road, but most crucial, was extremely capable off-road, for the conditions mentioned above. The vehicle platfrom that ticked this box for me was the Land Cruiser 80 Series.
I started looking, and my criteria was specific: I wanted a low mileage model (less than 200,000kms or 125,000 miles), automatic, 24 Valve, immaculate interior and exterior, and factory diff locks if possible.
Fortunately, I scored all but one of those - the diff locks. More on that soon, as I am in the process of fixing that...
I scored a nice rig, with a few tasteful mods (2" lift, 315/75r16's on 16x8 steel wheels, snorkel, mild tune, 3" turbo-back exhaust etc.)
My plan is to build up a "70/30" - 70% offroad use, 30% onroad. With this in mind my planned list of mods/accessories is:
- 3" Dobinson Lift (replace the current 2") just to get a little extra clearance and better departure and approach angles
- ARB bar
- Snorkel - DONE
- 315/75r16 tires - DONE
- 16x8 Alloy wheels (to replace the generic black steel wheels on it currently)
- Genuine OEM Toyota Factory Diff Locks (retrofitted)
- Flat roof platform
- Awning
- 2x LED spotlights
- Recovery tracks
- Shovel
- Double-din Headunit and reverse camera
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