Hey you guys! I've been a Toyota guy since the early 2000's. Owned several Yotas (see my sig).
The 'mission' my rigs fulfill has tamed a bit in the last decade as my kids and wife don't much enjoy bumpy wheeling rides. But, we do love disbursed camping in the Forest Service lands of the West.
We upgraded from a 1998 4Runner w/ 275,000 miles that we owned for 11 years. That truck was awesome! We drove it to Panama City, Panama about 10 years ago and it has been like a member of the family. It had the 5 speed manual transmission and e-locker. It was rad. With two kids and a dog, we had outgrown the 4Runner and there was only ONE vehicle that I looked at to replace it LC200.
I looked for months to even find one to test drive locally. Let my wife drive it first and she was sold (despite being initially skeptical due to poor MPG). She got out and said "this truck is bad ass!"
So in December of 2019 we got our 2009 Land Cruiser w/ 124,000 miles for $27,300!
I've had it into the shop and they've remarked that it might be the cleanest LC of this vintage they've seen.
Build Plans
After going with adjustable coilovers, extended brake lines, ARB lockers, plate bumpers, sliders, etc. on my previous builds - I'm done with all that.
The trade-offs that come with each modification are just too difficult for me to justify on this truck. Toyota did an excellent job engineering the LC200 and I'm going to rock it for all it's worth - STOCK!
Having overlanded though Baja and Central America, and having seen what locals do with stock Toyotas in the Amazon and elsewhere, I'm convinced that the stock vehicle (with great tires and a reasonable disregard for rubbing tuperware) will take me and my family everywhere we could want to go. In style, comfort, and with great alacrity.
I do plan to add stock spacers for a little extra suspension travel.
I'll post more pics and specs as time goes on, but this is the thread to follow for those of you who:
The 'mission' my rigs fulfill has tamed a bit in the last decade as my kids and wife don't much enjoy bumpy wheeling rides. But, we do love disbursed camping in the Forest Service lands of the West.
We upgraded from a 1998 4Runner w/ 275,000 miles that we owned for 11 years. That truck was awesome! We drove it to Panama City, Panama about 10 years ago and it has been like a member of the family. It had the 5 speed manual transmission and e-locker. It was rad. With two kids and a dog, we had outgrown the 4Runner and there was only ONE vehicle that I looked at to replace it LC200.
I looked for months to even find one to test drive locally. Let my wife drive it first and she was sold (despite being initially skeptical due to poor MPG). She got out and said "this truck is bad ass!"
So in December of 2019 we got our 2009 Land Cruiser w/ 124,000 miles for $27,300!
I've had it into the shop and they've remarked that it might be the cleanest LC of this vintage they've seen.
Build Plans
After going with adjustable coilovers, extended brake lines, ARB lockers, plate bumpers, sliders, etc. on my previous builds - I'm done with all that.
The trade-offs that come with each modification are just too difficult for me to justify on this truck. Toyota did an excellent job engineering the LC200 and I'm going to rock it for all it's worth - STOCK!
Having overlanded though Baja and Central America, and having seen what locals do with stock Toyotas in the Amazon and elsewhere, I'm convinced that the stock vehicle (with great tires and a reasonable disregard for rubbing tuperware) will take me and my family everywhere we could want to go. In style, comfort, and with great alacrity.
I do plan to add stock spacers for a little extra suspension travel.
I'll post more pics and specs as time goes on, but this is the thread to follow for those of you who:
- Want to know what a stock LC200 can do
- Are skeptical that you NEED to spend $40K on a $70K truck just to go camping