Super cool 200! I work in Madison and have a 100 and a 40 series. It’s nice to see Landcruisers in Wisconsin! I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Madison, WI - 2018 Land Cruiser "Tiny" - Build Thread (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter varun bhargava
- Start date
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Fellow WI here, Oshkosh. There are a bunch of us in this area. I have lost track of how many I have owned at this point. We have a guy that does great work here so I think that helps with having a bunch of Land Cruisers here.
Where are you taking that monster? Colorado etc. We drive the forest roads up north sometimes but otherwise it is just pavement princess.
Where are you taking that monster? Colorado etc. We drive the forest roads up north sometimes but otherwise it is just pavement princess.
- Thread starter
- #24
Good question.
The truck is my daily / dad duty/ fun car so I expect that to be the 95% use case. Beyond that it's intended to be our national park, camping, road trip, and up north off-roading rig. Realistically that's 5% of the time. First up is a camping/race weekend trip to Road America.
My kids just saw your truck on their way back from school. They were jumping with excitement! And couldn't believe it when I showed your thread to them here! They now think I know of all the cruisers in the whole WI 
- Thread starter
- #26
Lots of progress over the past couple of weeks but mostly on the maintenance side.
- Oil Change
- Found and fixed the source of a horrible vibration and squeak. Has been driving me crazy since I picked up the truck in November but it was too cold to really dig into.
- Timbren rear bump stops were making contact w/the spring. Had to grind away some of the base.
- OME rear shocks were squeaking and the bottom collard washer had to be replaced with the OEM one. Its an easy fix for a stupid design by ARB. This thread was helpful. Can someone with BP51 Confirm my theory? Squeak gone, now thump. - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/can-someone-with-bp51-confirm-my-theory-squeak-gone-now-thump.1275286/
- Timbren rear bump stops were making contact w/the spring. Had to grind away some of the base.
- Adjusted the KAON Maxtrax mounts for increased tilt and made them easier to access.
- Started working on the electrical foundation
- Replaced the pre-cleaner with the Safari snorkel top. A mud member pointed out that the model that was installed by the PO didn't allow enough air at high revs and was made for 4.7L engines or below. I'm interested to see if there is a noticeable difference at higher revs.
- Still waiting on parts but expecting significant progress by the end of the month!
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Really interested in seeing your plans for electrical stuff. I am currently dealing with a lot of sub par accessory wiring in my truck.
@varun bhargava I'm liking the looks of your truck! I have been doing some homework on the SwitchPro and from what I've read, SP recommends connecting loads directly to the wire harness and not through a bus bar/fuse box. They say all this is already built into the unit. These extra connections are also additional failure points. I'm curious as to your thoughts on that? Again, the truck looks great!
- Thread starter
- #29
Very good question.
My reason for using PowerTray and the bus bar approach is organization. From what I can tell the electronics and long-term serviceability of 12v systems get messy over time and the ability to quickly troubleshoot was important to me. I'm designing things to be detachable, traceable, easily serviceable so that when something does go wrong and I can get to the root cause without ripping the car apart.
Regarding failure points. You are 100% correct but given its passive nature I'm ok w/that.
- Thread starter
- #30
Let there be light!!!
Installed KC Cyclone v2 lights under the hood over the weekend. It was a good first step in building a wiring harness, running cable and making sure its protected from the elements and vibrations.
Next up: Wiring all of the STEDI camping lights that are attached to the roof rack. With a few small mods I was able to easily install lights for the rear too.
Installed KC Cyclone v2 lights under the hood over the weekend. It was a good first step in building a wiring harness, running cable and making sure its protected from the elements and vibrations.
Next up: Wiring all of the STEDI camping lights that are attached to the roof rack. With a few small mods I was able to easily install lights for the rear too.
I have those KC lights for an underhood kit for my RAM 3500, I need to get those installed. It looks like plenty of light, good to see.
- Thread starter
- #32
The electrical fun continues! Wiring harnesses and rock lights!
- Thread starter
- #33
While I wait for a couple of parts to arrive so that I can wire everything from the SwitchPros to the accessories I got a head start on the accessory installation. 90% of all roof rack wiring is now complete until I tear apart the interior and run cable. I have been pleasantly surprised by how easy building wiring harnesses, installing accessories, and hiding cables has been thus far. Let's hope my luck continues.
Now complete:
Now complete:
- Rock Lights
- Camping Lights R
- Camping Lights L
- Camping Lights Rear
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- Thread starter
- #34
Learned how to make battery cables and finished up the AUX main fuse block and routing of cables around the battery. The red fuse block is designed to be leveraged for a full dual battery setup including a SBI, Redarc BCDC, rear aux fuse block and a couple of extras. I'm debating moving the winch to the fuse block but the amp rating is pretty high (400A) and will max out the fuse.
- Thread starter
- #35
@Eric Sarjeant - Is there an easy way to wire up the switch-pros trigger when you unlock the car. I want to turn on the rock lights when I press the unlock button on the key. Also thanks for the inspiration on the fuse block design.
CharlieS
GOLD Star
Nice clean install!
I seem to recall winches are supposed to be run directly to the battery...
Maybe consider a rubber or silicone boot for the exposed 12v lug on your switchpros? A shorted out tool will turn into a welder (don't ask how I know...).
Daang! This is a work of art!
- Thread starter
- #38
Great idea
Great idea! I have one from the Switch-Pros kit.Nice clean install!
I seem to recall winches are supposed to be run directly to the battery...
Maybe consider a rubber or silicone boot for the exposed 12v lug on your switchpros? A shorted out tool will turn into a welder (don't ask how I know...).
- Thread starter
- #39
Thanks man. Its been pretty low effort thus far but I imagine to reach the next level like the @Eric Sarjeant's work is 5x more effort.
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If my bumper ever gets here I’ll be running my winch behind a fuse and a switched relay.
Many winch manufacturers are recommending a physical switch at the battery. A few are even including it in the box. I guess that big fat hot wire on the front of the rig had them nervous in a potential front end collision. That switch is typically under the hood and I didn’t love the thought of stop and pop at the beginning and end of each trail, so I’m running a switch ‘on’ in cab which activates the control box, and a large ign switched solenoid (500a continuous) for the relay.
Bonus - without cab access my winch won’t be able to be spooled out by the mythical street joker who wants to. Though in reality this would almost always be some prankster in camp.
I fuse all positive wires. I don’t see how the winch is special and wouldn’t need one.
