I'll be feeling your pain soon, brother. I'll be putting my girl (Lexi) in the shop for a couple of weeks to get the body damage done from being t-boned.
Build Grizzly Clint's 2010 GX460 build
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ABSOLUTELY HELPED!! If I didn't have them, I would have buckled both the front and rear door and maybe the body because of me having a raised suspension and he had a low front end Camery.
I'll swear by having rock sliders adding to side impact protection! Especially against lower vehicles, e.g. sedans, sport cars, compacts, sub-compacts, etc.
It'd be a different story if I'd been hit by a full size truck/off road truck though.
- Thread starter
- #165
So we are about a week through our ~5k mile road trip and currently in Bonners Ferry Idaho. Leaving for Boise tomorrow AM (booooooo!!). Here’s the trip odo traveled from the driveway at home until this post. I’m averaging 18-19 MPG overall and this thing shines on the rough stuff. A road going to a buddies property east of Moyie Springs was very rough and a brief excision off the road was rough but my GX made it look easy.
Bonus time!!
WTF is this? A convertible FJ? Found in Coeur d’Alene today.
Bonus time!!
WTF is this? A convertible FJ? Found in Coeur d’Alene today.
I seen a couple of those soft top FJ's down here in So. Cal.
Bonners Ferry is a nice small city right on the Kootenay River! The Panhandle Overland Rally will be held there in early October.
- Thread starter
- #168
Saw another one in Boise today. WTF is going on out here?! They are hideous!!!!!
That's awesome. I wish we were already moved up here so we could go! My buddy lives east of Moyie Springs about a mile from the MT border. My wife and I have decided 100% we want to move to north of Sandpoint ID preferably as close to Bonners Ferry as possible. We loved it there. Probably will wait for the bubble to pop and the californians to stop coming out here and taking all the inventory away from the rest of us.
Go back and visit in January, it’s extremely cold. With that said there is some killer skiing near by on both sides of the border.
What I really met to say is everyone should go to Colorado for skiing as its the best in the world.
- Thread starter
- #170
I love cold. I’m the bloke in 20 degree F weather wearing shorts and a t shirt. And cold > hot. I always say you can put on more clothes for the cold but you can only take off so much when it’s hot!! Haha. When it was -10 at our house during that Texas winter storm I wore short sleeves and cargo pants. Felt good.
- Thread starter
- #171
Shot of the rig parked next to the Salmon river.
Okay, I see the fire pit, but no fire OR salmon!
- Thread starter
- #174
Long road trip done, arrived back yesterday. I’ll be posting a separate thread about a review of my 460 and it’s capability for the long road trip in the next few days.
Ending mileage, driveway to driveway.
Ending mileage, driveway to driveway.
How many days, that’s a lot of miles!
- Thread starter
- #176
The overall trip was June 15-30 but we stayed a few nights in various stops. The two longest single day drives were from Amarillo TX to Gillette WY and Las Vegas to Hillside CO (with US50 added in). We hit 11 states.
Wow, that's getting close to the mileage when my wife and I did our "Lobster Hunt" last May driving from our home in So. Cal to Maine for a lobster dinner. Did 6,800 miles in 9 days.
I can totally appreciate a trip like this and the wonderful things to be seen and do!
Good on ya for getting out there and doing it!!!
I can totally appreciate a trip like this and the wonderful things to be seen and do!
Good on ya for getting out there and doing it!!!
- Thread starter
- #178
I just got done going on a ~5,420mi road trip with my 2010 Lexus GX460 and now that it’s over it’s time for me to do a review. It’ll be very long winded so feel free to skip to the bullet point section.
I bought the 460 in August 2020 for just about $15k or so. At that time it was a steal of a deal. It had 134k mileage and a decent service history and excellent mechanical condition. It’s funny the inside smelled like crayons haha so we named her Periwinkle. It was definitely a family vehicle and all three rows were used as I soon found out digging around behind panels and carpet. The only part replacement that I’ve had to perform was replacing the radiator due to a small leak and the belt. The rest is usual maintenance items (oil, brake pads, etc). Overall I’m highly satisfied with the reliability and performance as a 4WD truck.
I’ve done some mods to get it more towards the overlanding conversion that I had planned. I’d far I’ve spent close to half of its purchase price with mods and replacement parts. These mods were done for convenience and utility being an overlander. I took a break with the mods because we we took on our annual anniversary road trip, and this one was a doozy @ ~5,420 miles. The trip was going on the first ~1,000 miles but the little annoyances and limitations started to creep up and by the 3,000th mile or so they became clear. Make no mistake I love my 460 However if I cannot address these few things I may have to sell it and buy something else.
The good:
*Space, lots of space with the 3rd row folded down.
*Turning radius is spectacular
*Parking is very easy (related to above)
*Reliable
*Aesthetically pleasing
*Very capable off-road
*Very good road manners
*Not expensive to maintain
The bad:
*Sluggish acceleration without pedal commander
*Foot fatigue without pedal commander
*Poor high elevation performance
*Cruise control hunts too much
*Headwinds are not a fun experience
*Is under powered for its weight
The ugly:
*Way too much wind/road noise. It’s appalling for such a “premium” vehicle
*Poor front legroom for tall front passengers
*Front seat bottoms aren’t very comfortable (maybe vehicle age related?)
*Needs a larger petrol tank
*Steering wheel itself is crummy and not comfortable to use
*Did I mention it’s under powered?
Conclusion, there are a few things I’ll need to address if I’m going to keep this GX. I really don’t want to have to sell it but there are some items in the bad and ugly above that I have to get resolved. I need more legroom, a better steering wheel, make it quieter and if I can help it get more power to compensate (small turbo?) for the lack of high elevation performance. I’m not sure where to begin but if i had to rank the most important the wind/road noise, steering wheel and legroom are the worst in that order.
I’m open for discussion on this on how to address these issues. I’d like to keep it but understand it has a high demand and value right now that I could get a very good offer for it pretty quickly in the current market.
I bought the 460 in August 2020 for just about $15k or so. At that time it was a steal of a deal. It had 134k mileage and a decent service history and excellent mechanical condition. It’s funny the inside smelled like crayons haha so we named her Periwinkle. It was definitely a family vehicle and all three rows were used as I soon found out digging around behind panels and carpet. The only part replacement that I’ve had to perform was replacing the radiator due to a small leak and the belt. The rest is usual maintenance items (oil, brake pads, etc). Overall I’m highly satisfied with the reliability and performance as a 4WD truck.
I’ve done some mods to get it more towards the overlanding conversion that I had planned. I’d far I’ve spent close to half of its purchase price with mods and replacement parts. These mods were done for convenience and utility being an overlander. I took a break with the mods because we we took on our annual anniversary road trip, and this one was a doozy @ ~5,420 miles. The trip was going on the first ~1,000 miles but the little annoyances and limitations started to creep up and by the 3,000th mile or so they became clear. Make no mistake I love my 460 However if I cannot address these few things I may have to sell it and buy something else.
The good:
*Space, lots of space with the 3rd row folded down.
*Turning radius is spectacular
*Parking is very easy (related to above)
*Reliable
*Aesthetically pleasing
*Very capable off-road
*Very good road manners
*Not expensive to maintain
The bad:
*Sluggish acceleration without pedal commander
*Foot fatigue without pedal commander
*Poor high elevation performance
*Cruise control hunts too much
*Headwinds are not a fun experience
*Is under powered for its weight
The ugly:
*Way too much wind/road noise. It’s appalling for such a “premium” vehicle
*Poor front legroom for tall front passengers
*Front seat bottoms aren’t very comfortable (maybe vehicle age related?)
*Needs a larger petrol tank
*Steering wheel itself is crummy and not comfortable to use
*Did I mention it’s under powered?
Conclusion, there are a few things I’ll need to address if I’m going to keep this GX. I really don’t want to have to sell it but there are some items in the bad and ugly above that I have to get resolved. I need more legroom, a better steering wheel, make it quieter and if I can help it get more power to compensate (small turbo?) for the lack of high elevation performance. I’m not sure where to begin but if i had to rank the most important the wind/road noise, steering wheel and legroom are the worst in that order.
I’m open for discussion on this on how to address these issues. I’d like to keep it but understand it has a high demand and value right now that I could get a very good offer for it pretty quickly in the current market.
- I'm surprised about the wind noise! Even with the Gamviti rack and RTT we don't consider wind noise an issue. Wonder if all your door and window seals are good and really closing snugly?
- Regarding leg room, you must be >6'-2" for leg room issues or you have the leg proportions of a Barbie doll!
Not sure what to do about leg room other than trying to move the seat rails further back, and that may require some ingenuity. - Horsepower is easy if you have the $$$$.
- You could do a nice leather wrap for your steering wheel.
- Your problem with cruise control hunting for gears? Have you thought about re-gearing your diffs? Re-gearing will help a lot of these issues. It'll give a little more umph when you step on it at lower speeds, keep your tranny and cruise contorl from hunting for gears and make it feel like it has a little more HP.
Other than that, your next best choice to solve most off of your bad's and ugly's would be a 200 series Landcruiser.
That'll give more cockpit room and more horsepower.Anyways, hope the rest of the trip was worth it!
- Thread starter
- #180
- I'm surprised about the wind noise! Even with the Gamviti rack and RTT we don't consider wind noise an issue. Wonder if all your door and window seals are good and really closing snugly? I'm not sure what it is to be honest, it just feels less insulated versus our 470. i know when I open the sunroof shade it adds another ~5dB right above the front passenger's ears so we don't even get to leave that open. What's a good set of window seals cost?
- Regarding leg room, you must be >6'-2" for leg room issues or you have the leg proportions of a Barbie doll!
- Horsepower is easy if you have the $$$$. True, I know I do not want to drop multi-thousands of dollars here because it isn't worth it and will mess with reliability so I know I'm stuck with this anemic power plant at high altitude.
- You could do a nice leather wrap for your steering wheel. It isn't so much the hardness as it is the shape of the spokes. I prefer 3 spoke steering wheels where I can put both hands on the bottom. Plus the top of the door panel where my elbow would be if I'm driving one handed after a little bit starts to cut off my circulation haha so I constantly have to shift around. This wouldn't be noticeable if I hadn't of traveled 500-750 miles at a time on each leg of the trip.
- Your problem with cruise control hunting for gears? Have you thought about re-gearing your diffs? Re-gearing will help a lot of these issues. It'll give a little more umph when you step on it at lower speeds, keep your tranny and cruise contorl from hunting for gears and make it feel like it has a little more HP. The problem with gearing though is I'll lose more top-end if I go with a change like that. While I know I'll get more low-end I feel like the 460 already has a relatively decent low-end with all that torque. I really wish I could add an electric motor per axle to compensate for the lack of high altitude performance. A small turbo would be ok but I'd have to find a way to get it tuned and when I'm done it would end up costing me way too much money I think. I really wish the GX had the LS' 4.6 and more importantly the LS' 8spd auto.
Other than that, your next best choice to solve most off of your bad's and ugly's would be a 200 series Landcruiser.
Anyways, hope the rest of the trip was worth it!
Added my comments in bold in your quoted post. The conundrum I have is if I sell my 460 for what it's worth on today's market it may bring in a healthy price but the 200's have skyrocketed in price so much that they are out of my price range. Trust me, I'd love to get a 200 series, but I do not think it would be in the cards. Plus with the 200 series' heavier weight would you even notice the extra horsepower and torque? I think it would be similarly affected by higher altitudes as well. It also has the 6spd auto like the GX so it may just gear hunt too.
I'm debating on focusing on the driving experience that doesn't include the engine performance since I know that would be the deal breaker. I need to figure out how to get the seat mounts or get brackets to give me another 3" of leg room. I am tossing the idea around of getting a 2020 GX's steering wheel from a wrecked one--which will happen at some point--which will solve the steering wheel problem. Don't really care about the buttons but I'd figure out how to make them work. The wind/road noise will likely have to be solved with all new seals and some serious sound insulation plus finding double pane front windows may help too. I was also wondering if adding a fairing or wind deflector would help with keeping the wind noise away from the sunroof... All of that isn't going to be cheap and I know I'll never get that money back if I do ever end up wanting to buy a 200 series. Perhaps I should concentrate on modifying my wife's 470 and I'll sell/trade my 460 for something else like a 2022 Lexus NX350h/450h for the daily driver when it comes out later this year or get a Toyota Rav4 Prime or Venza.