My 1st 200 Build

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usmcHOG

10 Year
Joined
Oct 17, 2015
Threads
4
Messages
232
Location
CA
So, after years of wanting what I consider one of the most capable expedition vehicles, I finally did it. Purchased a super low mile '14 Land Cruiser in Blizzard Pearl three weeks ago. Wife had to fly to the dealership to pick it up and drive home. This is what the LC looked like when she got to the dealer:

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I've wanted one of these beasts since 90-91 when I was over in the sand box and our team was assigned one by the UAE Special Forces. I found it to be a way more capable and comfortable vehicle to drive then the HMMWV's we were issued. We again had one in Somalia in '93 that we tooled around in from time to time. While these were diesel and mines gonna be a gas guzzling 5.7, I know she'll do me right.

Over the past couple years I've been building my Tundra, BADASSARY. I've still got some things to do (4:88's, rear bumper, BHLM, 37's) and then I'll start on the LC. BADASSARY has a boat load of mods but the main stuff is; 2013 LTD Crew Max Rock Warrior, King Coilovers w/Total Chaos Secondary Shock hoops & Custom King Triple Bypasses at all 4 corners, ICON Billet UCA's, Custom Deaver leafs, Coach Builder +2" Shackles, Total Chaos Spindle Gussets, BFG AT KO 315/70/17's, Demello Offroad Bumper w/TJM Stealth 10,500# winch, ARB Air, BudBuilt Aluminum Skids, Coach Builder Custom Roof Rack & bed rail pioneer gear racks, Howling Moon 1.6m Stargazer RTT, BA Exhaust, Lots of LED's

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Obviously the LC looks like a pimp mobile with the chrome rims, the pin striping and the bug guard! So as soon as the wife got it home, I had the windows tinted, removed the pin striping and bug guard and gave it a fresh coat of wax.

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I already had an extra set of 5 RW wheels from the Tundra. Sent them off to powder coating and am debating to have the beadlocks look like my Tundra's or go all black:

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Found a brand new set of BFG 285/70/17 KO2's on CL for a steal (they may have been stolen!) and grabbed em last week. Ordered a black grill off Amazon, a complete set of Weather Tech's, Prestigious Society Navi Mod, Escape Gear Seat Covers and an Eezi Awn K9 2.2m roof rack. Worked on it this weekend and now it looks like this:

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Next to BADASSARY:

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Next will be a set of sliders, full skids, and some sort of suspension upgrade. Not sure what, but am leaning towards BP-51's, King internal Bypasses or ICON?

I also want to redo the chrome trim on the doors and lift gate black. Probably going to do the 3M wrap unless anyone has a better idea? I'd also like to do a Black Headlight Mod (BHLM). Haven't found anyone on here that has done this on a 200? Has anyone done this or know someone who has?

The LC will be my wife's DD but she only puts about 6-8K on a year. We'll use it for the bigger family adventures when the boys want to bring a friend or grams and gramps want to join us. The Tundra will be the primary ExPed vehicle. Last year we did 2 weeks in the Sawtooths and the year before we did 3 weeks around UT, over 1200 miles off road. It's also my primary hunting/fishing/camping rig.

List of Mods done contained throughout this thread:
Baja Kits Upper and Lower Control Arms
King 2.5" Adjustable Shocks
Rock Warrior Wheels
Falken Wildpeak A/T3W 285/75/R17
Eezi-Awn K9 2.2m Roof Rack
White Knuckle Offroad Sliders
Husky Weather Techs
Escape Gear Seat Covers
Prestigious Society Navi-Mod
LED Interior bulbs
Front Grill
Window Tint
TEQ Badging
Fumoto Oil Drain Valve
 
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congrats!
 
usmcHOG said:
The ugly chrome wheels will be for sale! Any takers? They are 18" Worx 801V Triad with Dunlop Grandtrek AT23 tires. About 6,000 miles on them.
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With a sales pitch like that? How could they NOT sell??? ;)
 
usmcHOG said:
They are only ugly in the eye of the beholder! To someone else, they may be the bomb!
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Momma always says, "Ugly is as ugly do-oes..."
 
All of those radar, auto-braking features many newer vehicles offer make me nervous.
I don't want anything stomping on the brakes but me.

**Sometimes you need to actually ACCELERATE** right up to and toward something--swerving intentionally late in order to avoid trouble. I wouldn't want a car to assume I need to slam the brakes in that scenario on its own.
 
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My Radar is built into the logo. On the trip from Denver to Moab, I got to like it. On Cruiser it would adjust the speed to the car in front so you didnt have to keep changing. It has the set vale so if you change lanes and the space in front of you opens up, it accelerates to your set speed. You can adjust how much space you have in front of you

Back to the thread. Nice Build and congrats. IMOP, 2014 is the best year :D

Added to the FAQ build threads

Thank you for your service!
 
Romer said:
My Radar is built into the logo. On the trip from Denver to Moab, I got to like it. On Cruiser it would adjust the speed to the car in front so you didnt have to keep changing. It has the set vale so if you change lanes and the space in front of you opens up, it accelerates to your set speed. You can adjust how much space you have in front of you

Back to the thread. Nice Build and congrats. IMOP, 2014 is the best year :D

Added to the FAQ build threads

Thank you for your service!
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That does sound like a nice feature (adjusting cruise speed for traffic). Does it apply emergency brakes aside from cruise control? That's the part I'd want to deactivate.
 
Markuson said:
That does sound like a nice feature (adjusting cruise speed for traffic). Does it apply emergency brakes aside from cruise control? That's the part I'd want to deactivate.
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It keeps you so many feet from the car in front of you based on your settings and it does decelerate when the car in front does to maintain pace and spacing. I haven't had anyone cut in front of me yet to see. It takes 1-2 seconds to deactivate it.
 
Romer said:
It keeps you so many feet from the car in front of you based on your settings and it does decelerate when the car in front does to maintain pace and spacing. I haven't had anyone cut in front of me yet to see. It takes 1-2 seconds to deactivate it.
Click to expand...
if someone cuts in front of you and locks up the brakes the system beeps and flashes red on the screen and then slams on the brakes if you don't...
 
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