Does anybody use there 40s for daily driver? (1 Viewer)

[JohnJL]

There is a dude with a ~1975 BJ40 that daily's it to work at the Maple Town Hall. My train drives by every day and I always check for it. Makes me happy to see.

 

[DPV7070]

I daily drive my 40 every now and then for about a week at a time. After that I get tired of the lack of heat or cooling, dependent on the season, and then go back to something newer. However, out of all the vehicles I own, my MBZ diesel 40 gets better MPGs!

 

[cruiserboy14]

@mrboatman you are my hero....

 

[Flatlanderfj40]

Drive mine most days March-October.

 

[rmckay1021]

drive my '64 every day, to work and around town.. not to far out of town View attachment 2019099as it tops out around 50 mph.

Great looking truck. I also have a 64 that I try to drive every day

 

[65swb45]

So basically functionality,comfort,safety,convenience,
reliability,.....vs.....strong ,dependable ,and cool as hell......Im leaning toward the daily 40 .adventures are good...maybe not at the moment but a few years later they make good stories.plus I’m not rich enough to buy the car I want

Yes, it’s all about the stories!

I daily drove my 1968 FJ40 from ‘86 thru about ‘94, when I got my lwb 45, which became my daily driver until 2015. The first two years behind the wheel of the 40 were a real adventure. The list of deferred maintenance on the then 18 year old truck was a lot longer than I realized, and I literally could not go ANYWHERE those first two years without two bags of tools!

The learning curve was steep. My family could not grasp the depth of my fortitude. My reply to their admonitions to give up was always the same: it’s a machine. It has a finite number of parts, and sooner or later I will get through them all. Two years later, all the catch up work was done, and I had a truly reliable and enjoyable vehicle.

And part of the enjoyment was in knowing that I had mastered it.

As a side benefit, daily driving is the best insurance that you will never rack up deferred maintenance.

On the downside, motors are a lot more expensive to rebuild than when I got into this game, so racking up miles will come at a cost down the road. I have salted away a spare engine for both my ‘64 and my ‘68, the two rigs I plan on keeping.

With that in mind...drive on! :drive:

 

[tls3601]

I like what Mark said, they do need to be driven. Mine get driven each week, just not each day. Does keep you aware as to where you are for maintenance.

 

[POPO AGIE]

Wipers that’s definitely something to think about ... winter? What are some of the issues of driving in winter ?This is my first land cruiser,but not my first s***y Toyota ..looking at the heating system , it doesn’t seem like it would do that great a job heating my cab and the lack of air tightness would let whatever heat escape...

When I bought my FJ40 it was my daily driver and only car to get around in. I am from Wyoming and our winters can cold sub 0 but keeping warm was not a problem before I rolled it and not bad after either. Mine has the cold weather package.

The wipers are terrible in rain and heavy snow ice will build up under the blades and you have to stop often to knock it off. The short wheel base and narrow track are also terrible on slick icy roads. It will break tracktion faster than you can think about it and you are headed to the ditch. You have to slow down keep the hubs locked all winter so you can shift into 4wd as quickly as you can and back to 2wd as conditions change. Keep your foot off the brake or gas peddle when it is slick let it compression brake it will most likely keep going the direction you want.

Long distance highway driving will wear you out because they follow the ruts in the road and you have to stay on top it and constantly correcting. But with all of its worst I would rather still be driving it today because when you get off the road or slow driving in bad weather I felt safer in it than anything else I have owned.

I like it so much I will not part with it and have not been able to drive it since 1991 and dragged it from Wyoming to PA and back and finally will start putting it back together and make improvements to make it a safer rig to drive in all conditions. Use an many Toyota parts as possible and repower with a Cummins R2.8.

 

[POPO AGIE]

I daily drive my 73 with AC, 5 speed, 3FE, front disc brakes and power steering, 32" tires, It'll go 70-75 no problem. 80 is my limit, the tops of the doors start to peel out about there. Carb and points start to take away reliability unless you know how to take care of them (I found I did not).

I kept mine tuned up all the time but waited over 40K to adjust the valves the first time.

 

[POPO AGIE]

Cloth. I knew you had an ace up your sleeve. I’m with you though, there are very few things that smell better than old vinyl. When I was 16, my first car was a ‘69 VW. It was completely original; down to the seats (yet I don’t remember the heat). Every time I step into the 40 now, it reminds me of being 16. Wouldn’t trade the smell at all in the 40. But then again, I’m not daily driving the 40 either. Guess I can’t have both a cool smell and a dry back.




Exactly. My kids get along great with each other, but force them to face one another on a daily basis and you’re asking for trouble. That’s just torture.

mine didnt know the difference and sometimes they fell off the seats when Mom drove the speed bumps in the trailer court.

 

[POPO AGIE]

I like it ...couple bottles of rain ex in the glovebox good to go,

did not exist when I was driving mine all the time.

 

[POPO AGIE]

Yeah, I've got a bit of winter driving experience. Montana doesn't like to use salt. Sometimes they don't like to plow either. The roads develop a base of packed snow which is pretty good to drive on if you have good tires. Good tires means soft rubber with sipping, plenty of tread left, and possibly studs. Studs are definitely nice, but something like the Bridgestone Blizzak works well without them. As the weather turns toward spring that base pack started to break up. You end up with "potholes" in the snow pack, which tend to be hiding potholes under the snowpack. In short, the roads get really rough. This is a situation that does not favor a short wheelbase. The shorter the wheelbase, the less deviation from straight ahead is required to start moving the vehicle left or right.

Example: It's late winter and you're driving the 40. You come up to an intersection in town that has a stop light. Your light is green and you're going straight, so you maintain speed. Lets call it 25 mph. The areas where cars generally stop for a red light have broken snowpack. You hit that broken, bumpy, mess of snow at 25 mph just before going into the intersection. The front end bounces right just a bit. You correct left just a bit. You hit another bump and the front end bounces just a bit left but you're already correcting left. The short wheelbase causes the truck to veer pretty significantly into the oncoming traffic. You now have to make a big correction right. Maybe you jab the brakes somewhere in the mix? Well, now the front brakes are locked up. Are you in 4WD? You're going to need to tap the gas to get the wheels spinning again so you can steer.

In Michigan they use TONS of salt so it's a different set of issues in the winter. The roads are either covered in snow because the plows haven't been through yet, absolutely clear, or slushy and icy because it's too cold for the salt to work. Studded tires are illegal in Michigan too. I liked to run really narrow tires in the winter in Michigan. My theory was that the narrow tires could cut through the slush better. They still needed to be soft rubber, sipped, and with plenty of tread on them.

To make a wall of text into a short statement. I don't drive my 40 very much in the winter. If I do drive it, I generally don't drive it to town.

Sounds like winter and spring driving in Wyoming. I didn't do much 4 wheeling in the spring because the ground was just too soft and still some snow in the gully's that you would get high centered in if you did not put your foot in it to carry you to the other side.

 

[Jetlander]

I’ve spent 3.5 years rebuilding mine to make it a daily driver. Redid the power steering to remove all play, rebuilt or replaced every component of the brake system, added air conditioning, and leather seats. The rear side seat were removed for a forward facing bench for more safety for the kids. All in all it’ll be a solid DD once I get a new t-case installed. It’ll be a while before I have the top and doors finished, so as long as it’s not supposed to rain, it’ll be driven.