Builds Heritage Blogmobile Build Thread (1 Viewer)

[BloggerL]

Hi, all. New here. I really appreciate the depth of information and spirit of sharing on this board; so I thought I'd start a thread for my own build. This build is for a vehicle that will primarily be used for blogging and multimedia production, often in remote locations.

This build will be done incrementally over several months. I had been hoping to commission my build from @Eric Sarjeant , given that his expertise was incredibly impressive when I consulted with him, but I'm just not ready to do everything at once. I needed a vehicle now but also need time to figure out some of my needs. So, for starters, I picked up a 2020 Heritage Edition from my local dealer. I had them install a Front Runner Slimline II rack and KO2 tires as part of the deal, and then I added partial expedition rails to the rack. You can see my starting point down below.

After some initial testing at a nearby offroad park, I've decided not to lift the vehicle. I found myself more worried about maintaining a low center of gravity during climbs and turns that tilted the vehicle than about clearing obstacles beneath it. But if I ever find a robust, reliable system that can lift the vehicle on command for those occasional situations in which I need to clear larger boulders and such, I might consider it.

I'm currently gathering parts and vendors for the following:

1. Onboard air
2. Hidden winch
3. Front LED bar mounted to the rack (mainly to illuminate more of the distance in front of me when going down steep hills, which I found to be an issue in initial testing)
4. Ditch lights to better illuminate corners when turning
5. Ground Zero 1500x portable power system when released later this summer/fall with alternator-based charging system
6. Swiveling rods that clamp onto expedition rails and swing out for mounting of various lights and camping gear, as needed
7. DC power outlets mounted to the rack and connected to the 1500x battery
8. Custom painting on the grille, and fabrication of custom emblem
9. Longer term: low-orbit satellite service with flat dish for mobile broadband Internet while moving. The Kymeta system is available now but costs 18K plus about 1K a month in service fees, and I worry the whole system will be obsolete in a year. So I'm waiting for news on potential other developments. These systems will eventually proliferate and come down greatly in cost.
10. Drawer system/sleeping platform that can easily be removed from vehicle without prolonged disassembly routine

 

[bloc]

Sliders! If you plan to keep it low these are critical to protect the rocker panels and drastically increase your confidence over many obstacles. I’m with you on wanting to keep CoG low, and these were among the first things I bolted on.
Otherwise, congrats and great looking truck.. I’ll be watching this seemingly atypical build.

 

[KLF]

Welcome from another NH 200-series owner. Looks like you purchased from Rockingham, so you can't be far from me. I lived in Salem for 20 years, now I'm up closer to the seacoast. Would love to get together at some point to compare notes, obviously observing social distancing .

Ya, you need some sliders. Need to call up Budbuilt and order up a set. You can check mine out if you want to see how beefy they are. I'll even volunteer to help you get them installed. That's my truck in their install video.

I also have a custom built sleeping platform that matches up to my ARB drawers, to get some ideas.

 

[bloc]

Budbuilt, metaltech, slee.. it’s hard to go wrong with the big name brand parts.

 

[benc]

Congrats on the purchase! Let us know if we can be of any help with the build. We build a lot of items for the lc200 as well as can get you great prices on lighting, winches ect.

 

[bloc]

And yes, Ben makes beautiful stuff!

 

[g1701gst]

Welcome and looking forward to watching your build. I am also waiting on the release of the 1000x or 1500x.

I think SpaceX's Starlink is accepting requests for their beta program. It might be worth looking into. Starlink

The Air Down Gear Up platform and drawers look nice and seem to have a simple install and removal that might work for you.

200 Series Land Cruiser and LX570

Storage, drawer and sleeping platforms designed for the 200 series Toyota Land Cruiser and Lexus LX570. Vehicle organization systems.

store.airdowngearup.com

 

[BloggerL]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. Okay, I ordered the sliders from Bud Built and will be having those installed at my upcoming trip to the mechanic.

Yes, I'm working with Air Down Gear Up on a prototype of their drawer system for the Heritage Edition, which lacks the usual 3rd row seat brackets for mounting. I'll share pictures once the set up is in place.

I forgot to mention I just got an Android Auto/Car Play unit from Australia: https://www.naviplus.com.au/. The unit is supposed to work with current 200s. Might try installing this myself, but might have to bring it to a specialist. I'll let folks know how it goes!

@KLF Thank you, I'd love to learn more about your experiences with your vehicle. I live in Jackson, NH right now, with a home in NYC as well. But a lot is in flux for me as I juggle a number of business and social changes.

 

[grinchy]

But if I ever find a robust, reliable system that can lift the vehicle on command for those occasional situations in which I need to clear larger boulders and such, I might consider it.

Buys Heritage. Describes LX.
Sensible to start slow and continue to trail test as you go.

 

[bloc]

To be fair the new LX has serious disadvantages to someone that would actually use it off-road.

But I thought the same thing.

 

[BloggerL]

Buys Heritage. Describes LX.

I wouldn't say that. I chose the Land Cruiser to meet specific requirements for durability, dependability, and aesthetics that the Lexus doesn't meet.

A lot of the production gear I use has been custom created/manufactured over many months. It's possible I'll look closer at unique approaches to the vehicle's suspension over time, but I currently lack the competency to do that.

 

[grinchy]

To be fair the new LX has serious disadvantages to someone that would actually use it off-road.

Go on then.... But we probably shouldn't do it in this fine gentleman's build thread. Sorry to off topic your thread @BloggerL.

 

[BloggerL]

So I have received the Naviplus Android Auto/Car Play unit for the 2018+ 200 series from Australia. The parts all seem to be high quality, but the instructions are problematic. The pictures do not completely align with the parts I received. However, Tim at the company has been responsive. He has been answering my questions and is working on getting more pictures for me.

I am going to see if additional materials from Naviplus give me enough confidence to install the kit myself. If not, I will ask an audio/electronics installer to give it a go. But that will be a low priority right now, given the limited resources in my area and my busy schedule.

 

[NickInTheValley]

Man oh man is the black LC pretty with bronze rims. Nice looking truck!

 

[MrCWineMan]

So I have received the Naviplus Android Auto/Car Play unit for the 2018+ 200 series from Australia. The parts all seem to be high quality, but the instructions are problematic. The pictures do not completely align with the parts I received. However, Tim at the company has been responsive. He has been answering my questions and is working on getting more pictures for me.

I am going to see if additional materials from Naviplus give me enough confidence to install the kit myself. If not, I will ask an audio/electronics installer to give it a go. But that will be a low priority right now, given the limited resources in my area and my busy schedule.

Woah - good find! I might have to get one of these for my MY16!

 

[greynolds]

So I have received the Naviplus Android Auto/Car Play unit for the 2018+ 200 series from Australia. The parts all seem to be high quality, but the instructions are problematic. The pictures do not completely align with the parts I received. However, Tim at the company has been responsive. He has been answering my questions and is working on getting more pictures for me.

I am going to see if additional materials from Naviplus give me enough confidence to install the kit myself. If not, I will ask an audio/electronics installer to give it a go. But that will be a low priority right now, given the limited resources in my area and my busy schedule.

Please keep us posted on how this goes. If you decided to hook it up yourself, it would be really awesome if you take some photos showing where you installed the box and where it plugs in, etc. And of course, impressions on how well it works and whether it causes anything to no longer work, etc.

 

[BloggerL]

Installed Android Auto/Car Play today. I used the Naviplus unit with steering wheel controls for the 2018+ LC200. I'm new at this, so it took me a while to install the unit, but after several hours of sweat, I successfully got everything running. I haven't tested Car Play, because I use an Android phone, but the Android Auto integration is definitely outstanding and a huge upgrade to the vehicle's electronics.

In case anyone else is interested, the product is here: https://www.naviplus.com.au/online-store/Toyota-Landcruiser-LC200-2018-Current-Capacitive-Touchscreen-audio-Apple-CarPlay-&-Android-Auto-Integration-p163937243.

Once you've got everything installed, you enter Android Auto mode by holding down the Nav button for a couple of seconds. To get audio, you also have to select Aux as your source. The only annoyance is having to do that extra source selection when starting a new drive.

For Android Auto, you also have to have your phone plugged into USB (I think Car Play is different?). But I don't mind that at all. The quality is higher than with Bluebooth, so it's worth it, and I generally keep my phone plugged in for charging anyway.

What's really cool about this unit is that you can easily access all your phone apps on the car's touchscreen but also switch back to the car's apps by pressing the nav button. So you can switch back and forth between the car's gps and your phone's, for example.

The steering wheel controls work great. I haven't noticed any loss of functionality with anything due to the install, though I haven't had enough time with it to say with 100% certainty that everything is as it's supposed to be.


Here's my car with the panels removed for install:

Here are the boxes attached behind the screen. I know it looks like a mess, but it's very secure. I used industrial strength velcro to attach the bigger box to the back of the screen and then the smaller box to the bigger box. Then, I used velcro straps on top of everything as an extra support. I like redundancy in my fastenings.

Naviplus gives you a USB receiver that seems to be designed to fasten into an unpowered cigarette lighter. I drilled a hole for mine and installed it in the side panel, a little below where I intend to install a phone mount. I need to fine-tune how the wire is placed behind the panel. Right now the wire is pushing the panel out a bit; but I'll do that tomorrow.

The microphone is taped to the steering wheel column for now. If you look closely at the last pic, you'll see the wire running along the wood trim. I will fine-tune that tomorrow as well.

Here we are! Last pic.

 

[greynolds]

Nice! I like the planned phone mount location too. Did you find instructions for the order in which to take the dash apart or just sort of figure it out as you went? It looks like that and drilling the hole for the USB port are probably the most difficult part of the job. It's really nice that there's plenty of space behind the screen for the boxes.

 

[BloggerL]

Nice! I like the planned phone mount location too. Did you find instructions for the order in which to take the dash apart or just sort of figure it out as you went? It looks like that and drilling the hole for the USB port are probably the most difficult part of the job. It's really nice that there's plenty of space behind the screen for the boxes.

I just surfed through various youtube videos for info on panel removal. It really wasn't very hard, except on my fingertips. The hole was easy too. The bit went through the fabric and the plastic very easily. Then I just made a sort of monster tape mountain on the back side to hold the USB port in place.

 

[BloggerL]

Spent some more time driving and testing the Android Auto last night. I can confirm no loss of car functions with it in place.

The audio quality really is astounding. Listening to some of my favorite songs on my Spotify list almost brought tears to my eyes, as if I was rediscovering them in their full glory. I don't known whether this is due to using a wired connections instead of bluetooth, the Naviplus module's electronics, or both. But the LC200 really has incredible audio potential that is being brought out now. (Note that, based on my learnings from other threads in this forum, I have surround sound and auto leveling turned off in the DSP settings.)

The system is intelligent and well-designed. While listening to music in Android Auto, I can make a call, and the system will seamlessly pause the music and use the car's microphone to conduct the conversation over bluetooth. Then, when I hang up, the system will resume the music. In other words, it switches automatically between the aux input assigned to the phone and the bluetooth. Also, after driving out of areas with no cell reception, the system auto resumes smoothly.

Again, I have not tested Car Play and don't have plans to do so any time soon.

[7/12 edit: After some initial confusion, I have found that Google Maps works when driving out of areas with cell service if the software has had time to cache the map. The antennas included with the Naviplus unit are not needed or used with Android Auto. These antennas, according to the manufacturer, are used only with Car Play in wireless mode.]