Build: 2000 LX470, Our first foray into off-roading and Cruisers
- Thread starter KCoverland
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- #42
That was a great trip! That sketchy little creek section was a good time
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- #43
After working a ton of snow storms though the rest of the 2021 holiday season, by the end of January, it was time to get back to work on the LX. I had ordered new 35x12.5x17 Hankook Dynapro MT2's, and a set of 5 Vision Manx Competition beadlocks(17x8.5).
And then it was time to start dealing with all of the clearance issues, as well as raising the AHC as high as it will go.
And then it was time to start dealing with all of the clearance issues, as well as raising the AHC as high as it will go.
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- #44
After about a week of messing around with the AHC, and hammering on the pinch weld, it was time to test out how it handled in the snow and holy cow; it was like a different truck. I was incredibly impressed so far, it was finally felt as good as it performed. Plus it looked like it belonged in the wilderness!
It was still rubbing bad on the rear wheel well at full flex, but other than "rolling" the fender with a hammer, there wasn't a whole lot that I was ready to do.
It was still rubbing bad on the rear wheel well at full flex, but other than "rolling" the fender with a hammer, there wasn't a whole lot that I was ready to do.
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- #45
While prepping for our first trip of the year in March of 2022, it was time to do some front end work. Our next shipment from @cruiseroutfit was a set of tie rods and ball joints.
It was also time to chase down a couple of intermittent AHC problems, and see what we could do to make it somewhat happier. The first issue that was easy to deal with was high rear AHC pressures, which we helped with the addition of Land Cruiser non-AHC springs, with airbags. The next issue was an intermittent system overpressure that would cause the system to drop into "Low" mode, and give us a flashing Off light on the dash. That was somewhat harder to chase down, and we attempted swapping the main relay, as well as swapping in a known good AHC ECU, neither of which actually solved the problem unfortunately, but we ended up running out of time before our trip, so we left with a functional abet a bit temperamental AHC system.
It was also time to chase down a couple of intermittent AHC problems, and see what we could do to make it somewhat happier. The first issue that was easy to deal with was high rear AHC pressures, which we helped with the addition of Land Cruiser non-AHC springs, with airbags. The next issue was an intermittent system overpressure that would cause the system to drop into "Low" mode, and give us a flashing Off light on the dash. That was somewhat harder to chase down, and we attempted swapping the main relay, as well as swapping in a known good AHC ECU, neither of which actually solved the problem unfortunately, but we ended up running out of time before our trip, so we left with a functional abet a bit temperamental AHC system.
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- #46
By the morning of March 4th, we were on the road headed West to meet up with Garret T, @ChristopherPrice, Sindatuk, and David C in Utah. Our meet up point was Alstrom Point, but Gigi and I went through Moab, and decided to try out how the new 35's handled the snow covered rocks at the Top of The World trail just outside Moab.
Spoiler alert: they dominated. We were able to make it all the way up, camped at the top, then come down the back side, without any issue at all, even with it being slick and snow covered.
The rest of the trip was amazing, and we're planning on doing a similar trip March of 2023.
Spoiler alert: they dominated. We were able to make it all the way up, camped at the top, then come down the back side, without any issue at all, even with it being slick and snow covered.
The rest of the trip was amazing, and we're planning on doing a similar trip March of 2023.
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- #47
Oh, I almost forgot the best picture of the whole Utah trip. @ChristopherPrice 's wife caught us in the air at the dunes in Sand Hollow Utah
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- #48
After we got home, the next event was just a few weeks away at the beginning of April. But before we headed to the MOORE expo in Springfield Missouri, I had the chance to help out a fellow overlander (Cullen Powers, @Powers4x4) who had hydrolocked his 2021 Ford Powerstroke Tremor going through a river in the Ozarks.
That was my fun wrenching project for that weekend, then also got to help another friend from the Kansas City Toyota Club with a flat tire issue on his 80's toyota pickup on the way home from the MOORE expo.
That was my fun wrenching project for that weekend, then also got to help another friend from the Kansas City Toyota Club with a flat tire issue on his 80's toyota pickup on the way home from the MOORE expo.
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- #49
The next thing I tackled was a post trail failure fix, which was a broken tie rod and a forcibly removed front bumper after I sent it a bit to hard into a muddy creek crossing that was deeper than I had originally thought.
This moved the timeline up a bit for the front bumper, which thankfully I had planted the seed for in Garret’s mind a few months prior to this.
This moved the timeline up a bit for the front bumper, which thankfully I had planted the seed for in Garret’s mind a few months prior to this.
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- #50
After tearing up the exterior a bit more than I had planned on, it was time to get some work done on the interior to try and make Gigi happy before our next trip. This bit of upgrading included a Ohana Rig Supply stealth center console to help organize our pilot and copilot stations, LED interior lights from @cjmoon, some Molle pouches on the backs of the seat covers to hold our winch controller, and other random odds and ends, and also our new MyMedic Myfak.
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- #51
The next project with the LX was in mid-May, and that was finally upgrading to a real roof rack. We had been looking at Prospeed rack for a while, I like how low profile they are, plus with the slots in the side panels rather than the individual holes like a Prinsu, it is much easier to adjust. So after talking to Brian for a little while, pulled the trigger on our very own. We got it installed right before our anniversary trip down to Texas on the 28th of May to do rowdy things with our Cruiser friends (@ChristopherPrice, Brandon Fudge, Randy Hernandez) at Barnwell Mountain. Unfortunately for us, we only got through one hard trail before our AC compressor pulley seized, which killed our AC, and also made our truck start to overheat, both because of the incredibly high ambient temps, and the drag on the serpentine belt.
After hustling off the trail and back to Brandon's house in Dallas, we were able to pull the AC compressor, source a new Denso unit from Autozone, install it, and charge the AC system all in a day. So we were back on the road and heading southwest to Big Bend National Park by the afternoon of the 29th.
Thankfully we had no issues the rest of the trip, and we were back home on the 31st.
After hustling off the trail and back to Brandon's house in Dallas, we were able to pull the AC compressor, source a new Denso unit from Autozone, install it, and charge the AC system all in a day. So we were back on the road and heading southwest to Big Bend National Park by the afternoon of the 29th.
Thankfully we had no issues the rest of the trip, and we were back home on the 31st.
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- #52
After we got back it was time to get back to working on the truck again, we had a huge shipment from Rigid Industries, and it was almost time to get the version 1 of the Valleytech Fab hybrid front bumper installed! Also, we had finished the pre-production version of our Multifunction Chase Light, a light housing that is a direct bolt on, no modifications needed, replacement for your 3rd brake light on the upper hatch.
June was a super productive month, we got a ton of big-time upgrades done, for lighting, obviously for the front bumper, but also trimming the front fenders and rolling the rear fenders a little bit more for even more clearance while at full flex and while turning.
June was a super productive month, we got a ton of big-time upgrades done, for lighting, obviously for the front bumper, but also trimming the front fenders and rolling the rear fenders a little bit more for even more clearance while at full flex and while turning.
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- #53
Next up on the docket was getting our Rigid rock lights and our Overland Pros 270 degree awning mounted up on the sides of the Prospeed rack. Also got our limb risers installed as well, I'm pretty happy with how those turned out.
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- #54
We went up to Iowa for my family's yearly fishing trip over the 4th of July, and once we came back, we had a present from Jimmy Mackim. With all of the front end updates, the truck was really starting to come together!
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- #55
After going out with the Kansas City Toyota Club to Tuttle Creek OHV Area, about 2 hours west of KC out in the Flint Hills of Kansas, I twisted up the rear driveshaft and crushed the fuel tank after smacking the truck while climbing a ledge, so after pulling that shaft, locking the center diff and driving back home, it was time to retube that rear shaft with .090 wall DOM and make sure that the rock is the thing that breaks the next time 
The awkward part about this was it was about 2 weeks before we were supposed to leave for the Unofficial 100's in the Hills, so I also had to hammer out the dented fuel tank and straighten out the bent fuel pickup, all while making sure the rest of the truck was good to go for 2 weeks in the mountains.
While working on the rig I also thought it was probably high time to replace the inline fuel filter in the engine bay, just in case the fuel tank impact knocked any debris into the fuel system and either way, the fuel filter looked OEM, so 330,xxx miles was plenty of service life.
The awkward part about this was it was about 2 weeks before we were supposed to leave for the Unofficial 100's in the Hills, so I also had to hammer out the dented fuel tank and straighten out the bent fuel pickup, all while making sure the rest of the truck was good to go for 2 weeks in the mountains.
While working on the rig I also thought it was probably high time to replace the inline fuel filter in the engine bay, just in case the fuel tank impact knocked any debris into the fuel system and either way, the fuel filter looked OEM, so 330,xxx miles was plenty of service life.
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- #56
4 days before we were planning on leaving, I decided it was time to redo our cargo system, I was sick of moving totes and tool bags to get to everything. So with just a few days I went and picked up 3 sheets of plywood, and got to work.
I wanted to have a 3 drawer system, with a spot to keep all of our tools and spare parts well organized and easy to access, a cooking/camp drawer for our pots and pans, cooktop, and camp shower, and a thin drawer for plates, and utensils, as well as other small odds and ends. Then it also needed to house a tilting slide for our cooler or fridge. My dad and I built this system and painted it with black bedliner in 3 days of working in the afternoons and evenings. We routed, glued, and screwed it all together, it is pretty heavy, but also quite solid. Before we installed the drawer system, I sealed all of the bolt holes for the back seats that we are not going to be using, removed the rear carpet, and installed Coolit sound and thermal insulation underneath.
I wanted to have a 3 drawer system, with a spot to keep all of our tools and spare parts well organized and easy to access, a cooking/camp drawer for our pots and pans, cooktop, and camp shower, and a thin drawer for plates, and utensils, as well as other small odds and ends. Then it also needed to house a tilting slide for our cooler or fridge. My dad and I built this system and painted it with black bedliner in 3 days of working in the afternoons and evenings. We routed, glued, and screwed it all together, it is pretty heavy, but also quite solid. Before we installed the drawer system, I sealed all of the bolt holes for the back seats that we are not going to be using, removed the rear carpet, and installed Coolit sound and thermal insulation underneath.
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- #57
The last thing to do before we left for the Unofficial 100's in the Hills was to get the production version of our Multifunction Chase Light (MCL) wired up and installed in the truck, then we were hitting the road!
We hit a CAT scale on our way out, just to confirm what we already knew, this truck is HEFTY.
We hit a CAT scale on our way out, just to confirm what we already knew, this truck is HEFTY.
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- #58
We had a blast with the whole 100's in the Hills crew, and we didn't have to wait long before it was time to do some more wrenching. We had a CV failure on a mountain switchback, so with the help of a few other Cruiser owners we got it swapped out with one of our spares on the mountainside.
That was the only mechanical failure we had the whole 2 weeks off-roading in the mountains, so we count ourselves lucky!
That was the only mechanical failure we had the whole 2 weeks off-roading in the mountains, so we count ourselves lucky!
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- #59
After taking some time to decompress once we got home, it was time to start working on the truck again, this time it was prepping for Cruisers On The Rocks 2 in October with @patchagan and the East coast cruiser guys and gals!
It seemed like we had plenty of time, but there was a lot to do to get ready. Including going through the front end with fresh Nitro UCA's (that needed to modified to use with AHC height sensors), @cjmoon’s diff drop, installing Land Cruiser non-AHC torsion bars, installing fresh AHC shock bushings and cushions, then readjusting the AHC again. This would not have taken that long with a southern truck, or any truck that didn't have significant corrosion around every part of the suspension and AHC system. After a month of working on the truck, chasing wiring issues that made the AHC system not able to pressurize, and eventually swapping my AHC pump out with a unit that @cjmoon had on the shelf I had gone through everything and it was fully functional with the new UCA's, T-bars, rebuilt AHC shocks, fresh alignment, and leveled AHC pressures. We were ready to take on Windrock Park with Cruisers On The Rocks.
It seemed like we had plenty of time, but there was a lot to do to get ready. Including going through the front end with fresh Nitro UCA's (that needed to modified to use with AHC height sensors), @cjmoon’s diff drop, installing Land Cruiser non-AHC torsion bars, installing fresh AHC shock bushings and cushions, then readjusting the AHC again. This would not have taken that long with a southern truck, or any truck that didn't have significant corrosion around every part of the suspension and AHC system. After a month of working on the truck, chasing wiring issues that made the AHC system not able to pressurize, and eventually swapping my AHC pump out with a unit that @cjmoon had on the shelf I had gone through everything and it was fully functional with the new UCA's, T-bars, rebuilt AHC shocks, fresh alignment, and leveled AHC pressures. We were ready to take on Windrock Park with Cruisers On The Rocks.
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- #60
Here is the wiring that had gotten some severe corrosion from having the back driver’s corner of the LX flooded when we got stuck in a pretty deep mud hole. This was part of the AHC issues we were having, the other half was a failing pump.
Also my key was falling apart around this time, and needed a battery change, so with the special edition UZJ100 group key release from @suprarx7nut, it was high time we upgraded.
Also my key was falling apart around this time, and needed a battery change, so with the special edition UZJ100 group key release from @suprarx7nut, it was high time we upgraded.
