Best Expedition platform

[Mark W]

More Is Better Syndrome

<usually a guy with a small penis head down this road.>

Considering I coined the term Wayne, I take offense.


While there are plenty of "penis trucks" out there ( My girls came up with that one LOL), MIBS has nothing to do with that silliness.


Oh yeah... Bite me!

Mark...

 

[Mark W]

For the OP.... What sort of off roading background/experience do you have? What sort of hardcore trails have you tackled in what sort of rigs so far? What sort of "expeditions" are you contemplating. Have you done any similar travel before? What sort of rigs have you used to do it?


You really can not build a rig to handle hardcore trails with aplomb that will also be a good platform for "expedition use". it will at best be a collection of compromises.


Mark...

 

[bugsnbikes]

imho- it really starts with pricepint and defining purpose.

the Troopys while awesome vehicles are fetching $35+k here in the U.S. and while they are nice---- for ANY budget over $35k you really should be looking to step into a higher class of expedition vehicle- the Mogs.- U1300s can be had with fast axles in the $35k range and as an expedition platform are really a huge step up from any cruiser.

als0- dont get caught up in the MPG hunt- getting 5 extra miles per gallon with a diesel--for a weekend or week long expedition vehicle amounts to VERY few incremental dollar savings in fuel prices.

Given you can pick up an 80series with sub 150k miles- for around $5k here in the U.S. with lockers......you can drop $$7k into lift/ armor/dual batts/HG pm/ and for $10k be rolling with a spare 10k cash in hand to pay for enuff gas to get around the world compared to buying a $20k plus troopy/diesel.

 

[crushers]

Mark,
funny s***.

bugs, what experience do you have, personally, with a troopy vrs a mog?

 

[Combat Chuck]

als0- dont get caught up in the MPG hunt- getting 5 extra miles per gallon with a diesel--for a weekend or week long expedition vehicle amounts to VERY few incremental dollar savings in fuel prices.

Plus availability. I've driven a few Toy diesels, and love them because they're just great motors, I even had my heart set on owning one up until recently; but the few commonly available diesels here in the US are vergining on antiquity, and parts are getting mighty scarcre, even for the venerable, long-running 3B. Buying into a Diesel Toyota with anything older than the 1HZ, 1HD, 1PZ, 1KD, or 1VD is gauranteeing parts scarcity, meaning routine maintenence could actually take your rig off the road- possibly indefinitely.
Meanwhile Toyota USA is still producing parts for the 1FZ, 1&2UZ, 2&3RZ, 5VZ, and all those motors are incredibly reliabalbe, and efficient for their output. IMO, stay gas. If the economy of the rigs needed for expedition-travel is too much, then re-evaluate your hobbies.

 

[crushers]

gas or diesel makes no difference to me
but
one wire engines are nice in the remote areas where sensors, ECUs could be a bitch to find.

if you are driving 5000 km then fuel mileage is not an issue, if you are doing 20K or 40K trips then 5 mpg does make a difference.

me, if i was building up an expedition rig i would go for a troopy and it would have to be diesel. the comfort of knowing i can run it on WVO, diesel, peanut oil, canola oil etc is important. the idea of one wire with no sensors is comforting. the idea that toyota 70 series are world wide (except the states) is comforting and even in the states you can get parts for a 1HZ.

i have driven mogs, i do not find them comfortable or roomy. the ground clearence is nice but in reality how often do you need portal axles to get to where you are going?

 

[Methusalem]

i have driven mogs, i do not find them comfortable or roomy. the ground clearence is nice but in reality how often do you need portal axles to get to where you are going?

You're definitely right. If you want an expedition rig, you're not looking for extreme wheeling. Okay, it's nice to have 35's and lockers to get off beaches when the tide comes, and to get through mudholes in bad roads in the raining season, but you'll see that 98% of the roads you use, is also used by simple Toyota HiAce vans with street tires and with too many people in it. So don't spend too much money on off-road capacity.
Btw, on YouTube there's a series of video's about a trip from Europe to China. They use quite standard 4WD's, but they also took a low Mercedes 2WD ambulance with them! Okay, now and then they had to 'rescue' it, but the Mercedes made it.

 

[crushers]

exactly, a good winch, common sense will get you far.

you can spend hundreds of thousands to build the ultimate rig but if you don't have common sense you will still be stranded ...

 

[Combat Chuck]

I wouldn't invest in big meats either. Mud tires are good in mud, rock tires are good in rock, sand tires are good in sand, but none of them take to anything outside of their designed field well. I've had the best all around functionality out of 33" X 10.5" AT's, they're affordable to replace on the fly, efficient on-road, and grippy enough off-road. You can air 'em down on the coast, chain 'em up in the snow, air 'em up on the street, and various breeds of AT tire can be found nearly everywhere, not to mention BFG AT's are pretty much the most renown offroad tire marketed.

 

[freepowder]

Read the whole thread. Lots of good info there.
My two cents:
I building more or less what you're looking for and it goes like this:
'85 FJ60 2F engine desmoged (PO's choice not necc. mine) will have headers, FJ40Jim carb and dist. K&N. Might try to fit another a/c pump where the smog pump is for onboard air. I put a V8/T400 in my FJ55 and turned it into a great boat towing platform with much reduced off road ability. A friend called it my "Toyota Blazer."
Would like to have an H55 tranny but they're pricey.
2.5" Old Man Emu Medium suspension kit.
Procomp rock something or other steel wheels w/Cooper STT 31/10.50-15. You can bang a bent steel wheel out enough to get you home, 'luminum usually breaks.
You can go bigger tires, but remember that tires are the final gear in the drive train and the bigger the tire, the taller your end drive ratios--as I've got 3.73s to begin with and I don't really want to have to replace gears w/lower (Higher numerically) I stick w/smaller tires. They've gotten me every where I wanted to go in 40 some-odd years of wheeling anyway. (Note: I'm not a rock crawler) Oh, and the STTs are very good in snow due to the sipes.
Will have some sort of on-board air.
Rebuilt front and rear axles, will have full floater rear if I can find/afford it.
Will have rear locker, probably Powertrax.
4+ rear bumper w/tire & can rack, Scepter MFCs.
Will have either an ARB front winch bumper or a homebuilt custom version of the same thing. Maybe a non-winch bumper w/receiver hitch for cradle-mount winch.
Home built 8 point mount, 3/4" plywood roof rack that will cover entire roof--built one of these for my FJ55 and it was brilliant, canvas--not plastic--tarp permanently attached to the front and extra spare tire at the rear. Also helps to keep rig cooler in the hot.
Since I'm now single, when trekking I'll pull the seat part of the rear seat, put a mattress in, carry most of my camp gear on the roof rack and sleep in the rig. No big deal if others come along, just toss in a tent and put the seat back together. All my camp gear is packed in two 155mm ammo boxes and they fit nicely on the roof rack. Ice chest goes inside w/tiedowns--make sure all the stuff you pack inside is well secured--a geologist I knew tied down all his gear but loaded his Jeep w/rock samples, when he rolled it he was beaten to death by the rocks.
Have I forgotten anything?

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

Read the whole thread. Lots of good info there.
My two cents:
I building more or less what you're looking for and it goes like this:
'85 FJ60 2F engine desmoged (PO's choice not necc. mine) will have headers, FJ40Jim carb and dist. K&N. Might try to fit another a/c pump where the smog pump is for onboard air. I put a V8/T400 in my FJ55 and turned it into a great boat towing platform with much reduced off road ability. A friend called it my "Toyota Blazer."
Would like to have an H55 tranny but they're pricey.
2.5" Old Man Emu Medium suspension kit.
Procomp rock something or other steel wheels w/Cooper STT 31/10.50-15. You can bang a bent steel wheel out enough to get you home, 'luminum usually breaks.
You can go bigger tires, but remember that tires are the final gear in the drive train and the bigger the tire, the taller your end drive ratios--as I've got 3.73s to begin with and I don't really want to have to replace gears w/lower (Higher numerically) I stick w/smaller tires. They've gotten me every where I wanted to go in 40 some-odd years of wheeling anyway. (Note: I'm not a rock crawler) Oh, and the STTs are very good in snow due to the sipes.
Will have some sort of on-board air.
Rebuilt front and rear axles, will have full floater rear if I can find/afford it.
Will have rear locker, probably Powertrax.
4+ rear bumper w/tire & can rack, Scepter MFCs.
Will have either an ARB front winch bumper or a homebuilt custom version of the same thing. Maybe a non-winch bumper w/receiver hitch for cradle-mount winch.
Home built 8 point mount, 3/4" plywood roof rack that will cover entire roof--built one of these for my FJ55 and it was brilliant, canvas--not plastic--tarp permanently attached to the front and extra spare tire at the rear. Also helps to keep rig cooler in the hot.
Since I'm now single, when trekking I'll pull the seat part of the rear seat, put a mattress in, carry most of my camp gear on the roof rack and sleep in the rig. No big deal if others come along, just toss in a tent and put the seat back together. All my camp gear is packed in two 155mm ammo boxes and they fit nicely on the roof rack. Ice chest goes inside w/tiedowns--make sure all the stuff you pack inside is well secured--a geologist I knew tied down all his gear but loaded his Jeep w/rock samples, when he rolled it he was beaten to death by the rocks.
Have I forgotten anything?

literally to death?!? holy cow. Could you elaborate on this permenantly attached canvas tarp afixed to where exactly on the rack of your 55 and how big was it and what did you do to hold it open and and and...sorry, but I got to have the details...

 

[freepowder]

literally to death?!? holy cow. Could you elaborate on this permenantly attached canvas tarp afixed to where exactly on the rack of your 55 and how big was it and what did you do to hold it open and and and...sorry, but I got to have the details...

Yes, the geologist that rolled the jeep was killed. Literally.

The roof rack works like this:

It uses real, live canvas 'cause the plastic tarps disintergrate in the sun and wind, canvas lasted me for over five years.

Regular "J" hooks mounted across the front of the rack, grommets on the tarp hook on, I just left 'em on like that. I planned to cut the little knobby things off the J hooks thread the ends and put nylocks over fender washers to keep it on permanently, never got 'round to it. Down the sides at the grommet points two J hooks one pointing in and one out. Bungee cords crimped onto grommets.

Works like this: flip the trap forward. Load camp boxes, etc, on rack. Tie down cargo with ropes to the J hooks that curve inward. Flip tarp over rack, pass bungee cords under, hook on J hooks that curve outward. Bungees shortened to fit.

Rack has 3/4" plywood deck with 1 1/2" angle iron running fore and aft, gutter mounts attach to these. Cross braced with same angle on top of rack, (except back two, over which the extra spare tire goes, more later), which prevents cargo from shifting fore and aft, ropes prevent side to side shifting.

3 gutter mounts about a foot from front and rear and middle, 4th about a foot in in front of rear to support spare, 3/4" bolt goes through angle and a 10" or so piece of 2" square stock, double nutted on top to hold spare tire.

If you don't want to use a second spare, mount all cross braces on top, and divide gutter mounts evenly. Paint the plywood before assembly to prevent water damage. I used flat black on the bottom and silver on the top, that way if you choose to pull the tarp off or roll it up on the front, the silver helps reduce heat--the FJ55 was spectacularly ill vented. Wish I had a picture of it, but I can't find any That show anything.

That help?