I've owned my 94 Land Cruiser going on 2 1/2 years, and during all that time it has taken my wife, and i everywhere we wanted to go. We would do 1, or 2 day camping trips in the cool winter months all over the desert southwest. There are some really cool places to check out in the desert when it's not a 110 degrees in the shade, plus it's alot less life threatening.
Anyway over the last 2 years I've been slowly working on making us a small expedition trailer to carry all our camping gear. The reason we wanted an expedition trailer, with it set up as our base camp we would no longer have to break camp each time we wanted to use our truck to do some exploring.
So this past weekend i finely finished our expedition trailer. So we make plans to try it out first by heading off to the cool mountains where we've never been camping with our L.C. the camp ground elevation there is a little over 7000 feet. During our drive there we encountered some 6, and 7% uphill grades. I have to say that the extra weight (1250 pounds) of our expedition trailer with camping gear did not effect the performance of our truck to much in the low lands.
Once we started climbing up 6, and 7% grades above the 2500 foot elevation mark, performance started to noticeably drop off. The higher we climbed in elevation pulling the extra weight of our trailer, the worse our performance got. By the time we got above the 6000 foot elevation mark, if we had to drive up a long 6% grade we were lucky to be going 45 MPH by the time we reached the top.
On flat highways above 6000 foot it seemed like the truck was down 50% on power. If you needed to pass a slower car, you needed to wait till there was a really BIG gap in oncoming traffic. When we got to the area where we were planing to camp (above 7000 feet), even driving at off road speeds, there was a VERY noticeable drop off in engine power. I hate to think what Mud members living in the Rocky Mountains deal with.
So yes, i feel if your planing to live, drive, or explore out west in the upper elevations, it would be wise to invest in a Turbo, Supercharger or V8 swap to compensate for this lack of power. This is Just my 2 cents, YMMV.
If this is the wrong place to post this, please feel free to move it.
Anyway over the last 2 years I've been slowly working on making us a small expedition trailer to carry all our camping gear. The reason we wanted an expedition trailer, with it set up as our base camp we would no longer have to break camp each time we wanted to use our truck to do some exploring.
So this past weekend i finely finished our expedition trailer. So we make plans to try it out first by heading off to the cool mountains where we've never been camping with our L.C. the camp ground elevation there is a little over 7000 feet. During our drive there we encountered some 6, and 7% uphill grades. I have to say that the extra weight (1250 pounds) of our expedition trailer with camping gear did not effect the performance of our truck to much in the low lands.
Once we started climbing up 6, and 7% grades above the 2500 foot elevation mark, performance started to noticeably drop off. The higher we climbed in elevation pulling the extra weight of our trailer, the worse our performance got. By the time we got above the 6000 foot elevation mark, if we had to drive up a long 6% grade we were lucky to be going 45 MPH by the time we reached the top.
On flat highways above 6000 foot it seemed like the truck was down 50% on power. If you needed to pass a slower car, you needed to wait till there was a really BIG gap in oncoming traffic. When we got to the area where we were planing to camp (above 7000 feet), even driving at off road speeds, there was a VERY noticeable drop off in engine power. I hate to think what Mud members living in the Rocky Mountains deal with.
So yes, i feel if your planing to live, drive, or explore out west in the upper elevations, it would be wise to invest in a Turbo, Supercharger or V8 swap to compensate for this lack of power. This is Just my 2 cents, YMMV.
If this is the wrong place to post this, please feel free to move it.
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As others have mentioned, there is a shifter, use it early, keep the motor in the power band, not a race car, but will get the job done. But mine is pretty light, 37"s and stock gears.
Turbo was actually easier on the truck from a water temp standpoint 
