Ditched the Jeep and joined the land cruiser family today. 1996 LX450, this has been my dream car for a while. (1 Viewer)

[fawndog]

4x4 labs are the best value. DeltaVS look the best IMO.

 

[Swbkrn2003]

View attachment 2526270

Nice! But get rid of the Damage Multiplier Bull Bar.

 

[Swbkrn2003]

Welcome!

Looks like you got hold of a nice one!

Put on your big girl PINK panties, read voraciously on here, and don't take it personally.

We'll kick you a few times, but help you out with what you need.

The thing on the front is called a damage multiplier, not a brush guard. The things on the taillights are taillight breakers, not guards.

Recommend dumping those if you choose to take it off road, as tree branches can wreak havoc on them.

Let us know what your plans are, what your level of wrenching is, and how much you do your own work (or not) so we know how to respond (when helping or ridiculing)

What he said!

 

[Swbkrn2003]

I considered the 4x4labs front because of it being so low profile but I love the look of the ARB, I haven’t seen the slee tho I know something like that is more practical tho.

edit: sheesh that slee looks awesome gonna have to consider that. Wish they made it with the bull bar like the 200 series ones.

Check out Bump it Offroad he has nice bumpers and he'll modify his tube bumpers for you. He makes nice stuff! I Have his Rear Bumper!

 

[AussieHJCruza]

Skip the OME suspension and look at Icon/Slinky/multiple other better options IMHO

 

[undecided]

4x4 labs are the best value. DeltaVS look the best IMO.

Agreed, those deltas look awesome but too pricey for me haha

 

[undecided]

Skip the OME suspension and look at Icon/Slinky/multiple other better options IMHO

It has OME already. I’ve looked at icon but I’m leaning towards either dobinsons or just buying the pieces separately. King bump stops and shocks, dobinson springs, and tough dawg steering. Haven’t decided yet but planned on making a post about it soon haha

 

[Bryanseye]

Nice choice!

Regarding the bumper, I snagged an ARB from Fred Anderson Toyota when they were doing a group buy. They are an ARB dealer too if they are near you.

Definitely sync up with ONSC and hope to see you on the trails soon.

 

[undecided]

Nice choice!

Regarding the bumper, I snagged an ARB from Fred Anderson Toyota when they were doing a group buy. They are an ARB dealer too if they are near you.

Definitely sync up with ONSC and hope to see you on the trails soon.

Theyre about an hour from me so I’ll go check em out. I might have them give her a once over to see if there’s anything wrong that I didn’t catch. I also heard Lexus dealers can give me a maintenance record of any work done at other Lexus dealerships so I’m wanting to get that.

 

[spazzyfry123]

Buy whatever YOU like the best. Unless you're rock crawling or doing a lot of other extreme off-roading, your approach and departure angles (while affected) aren't going to be a game changer. So what.... if you drag a little here and there. 95% of the time you'll be fine. Get what you prefer.

Agreed. For my use, the ARB is perfect; plus it looks great!

 

[undecided]

Buy whatever YOU like the best. Unless you're rock crawling or doing a lot of other extreme off-roading, your approach and departure angles (while affected) aren't going to be a game changer. So what.... if you drag a little here and there. 95% of the time you'll be fine. Get what you prefer.

Awesome that’s good to know. I don’t plan on doing anything too crazy because I don’t wanna break s*** but I wanna be able to if need be haha. I’m just wanting a nice little overland rig that’s comfortable on road trips. Also gonna be my daily driver.

 

[undecided]

Check out Bump it Offroad he has nice bumpers and he'll modify his tube bumpers for you. He makes nice stuff! I Have his Rear Bumper!

Oh man those are nice and they’re a good deal, I’m probably gonna go that route.

 

[lumbee1]

It has OME already. I’ve looked at icon but I’m leaning towards either dobinsons or just buying the pieces separately. King bump stops and shocks, dobinson springs, and tough dawg steering. Haven’t decided yet but planned on making a post about it soon haha

Dobinson tapered coils and IMS shocks

 

[undecided]

Dobinson tapered coils and IMS shocks

Dobinsons shocks over king? Huh might just get the full 6” dobinsons lift. I haven’t decided yet.

 

[BILT4ME]

Drive it a while and make your list.

Compare notes with other LC owners and maybe see if you can drive ones with different suspensions.

You may come across a used set if you want to do that. But you need to know exactly what you want and what it's worth to pull the trigger when it comes up.

Or just throw money at it.

 

[undecided]

Drive it a while and make your list.

Compare notes with other LC owners and maybe see if you can drive ones with different suspensions.

You may come across a used set if you want to do that. But you need to know exactly what you want and what it's worth to pull the trigger when it comes up.

Or just throw money at it.

Didn’t think about trying to test drive other folks rigs, good call. I just know I want something good and strong.

 

[BILT4ME]

Didn’t think about trying to test drive other folks rigs, good call. I just know I want something good and strong.

FYI, I drove mine for two years and 25K miles with s***ty brakes, bad tires, and wobbly steering as a DD so I could put together my plan.

Then I had a radiator explode due to the PO mixing coolants and me not PM'ing it right away.

That moved up my ENTIRE timeline, but fortunately I ha already started gathering my parts for the important things.

Make it run
Make it stop
Make it safe
Make it reliable
Make it pretty

I ALWAYS prioritize in this order. My suspension change came 4 years after I started driving it because the important things came first (make it stop and make it safe)
The suspension fell into the Make it Pretty category for me because no springs were broken, no parts were broken. Yes, it needed bushings, but those came later under the "make it reliable" part. There will be crossover based on how deep you are in something, but I prioritize that way.

When it went down, I rebuilt front and rear axles, all brake calipers, rotors, pads, wheel bearings, radiator, cooling system, hoses, cap, rotor, wires, VC gasket, oil pump gasket, front main seal, PS hoses, because I had to have the radiator out, I did a LOT of other stuff in the timeline. I could have got by without it, but I had it all apart and it needed it anyway. I also did tires at that time.

Took me about 3 full weekends of 12 hour days with me and a 15 YO son at the time learning about stuff. Since then, it is my DD for about 20K per year. I have added sliders, winch, extra lights, upgraded interior lights, floor mats, suspension. Now I get to do little things like add an inverter, upgrade the stereo, maybe more comfortable seats. Things like that to make it more pleasant for me to spend my days in and not break me financially all at once.

I do all my own work, so I plan for down time and have another vehicle to drive if it's going to be a while.

 

[woodsman 44]

I have the ARB bumper and luv it

 

[BILT4ME]

Maybe you can work out a suspension swap / trade with others.

Lowering the Cruiser - Tapered back to OME

I’m currently running the Dobinson Tapered Heavy springs on an LX450 that isn’t really that heavy right now, and I have this paired up with Icon 0”-3” shocks. Yes, I know they are short on droop, but I stumbled across the springs them after I ordered the shocks. I’ve been cleaning a set of...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[undecided]

FYI, I drove mine for two years and 25K miles with s***ty brakes, bad tires, and wobbly steering as a DD so I could put together my plan.

Then I had a radiator explode due to the PO mixing coolants and me not PM'ing it right away.

That moved up my ENTIRE timeline, but fortunately I ha already started gathering my parts for the important things.

Make it run
Make it stop
Make it safe
Make it reliable
Make it pretty

I ALWAYS prioritize in this order. My suspension change came 4 years after I started driving it because the important things came first (make it stop and make it safe)
The suspension fell into the Make it Pretty category for me because no springs were broken, no parts were broken. Yes, it needed bushings, but those came later under the "make it reliable" part. There will be crossover based on how deep you are in something, but I prioritize that way.

When it went down, I rebuilt front and rear axles, all brake calipers, rotors, pads, wheel bearings, radiator, cooling system, hoses, cap, rotor, wires, VC gasket, oil pump gasket, front main seal, PS hoses, because I had to have the radiator out, I did a LOT of other stuff in the timeline. I could have got by without it, but I had it all apart and it needed it anyway. I also did tires at that time.

Took me about 3 full weekends of 12 hour days with me and a 15 YO son at the time learning about stuff. Since then, it is my DD for about 20K per year. I have added sliders, winch, extra lights, upgraded interior lights, floor mats, suspension. Now I get to do little things like add an inverter, upgrade the stereo, maybe more comfortable seats. Things like that to make it more pleasant for me to spend my days in and not break me financially all at once.

I do all my own work, so I plan for down time and have another vehicle to drive if it's going to be a while.

Oh man that’s awesome. That’s a really good order as well. I really want to do a full restoration of this one so I’m probably gonna do it like that and just start slowly ordering the parts I need. I wanna have this thing basically brand new when I’m finished so that I can drive it for the rest of my life.