I have a 2013 second gen Tacoma trd off-road that I've spent too much money on over the years and built it to a great little all around truck. Couldn't shake the dream of owning an 80's series Land Cruiser the more i learned about them. Ended up selling my practical daily driver sedan to purchase another 4x4 project after i found a deal i couldn't pass up. I wish I had a cheaper autistic special interest. Had this for two years now, another money pit/ poor financial decision, but **** I love both of these trucks. Picking one is like choosing a favorite kid. 1994 fzj80 tripple locked (Eaton front and rear, factory mounted selector) Picked it up for a good deal, mostly modified already and had a lot of maintenance and records. Just had a top end rebuild and refresh with no leaks. Drove from San Diego to San Francisco to pick it up. Brakes were really mushy and the ac didn’t work at all so it was a long drive back home. Truck has a salvage title But only from being stolen and recovered, no damage anywhere. Helped with the price, but didn’t help with getting insurance. Previous owner had already done alot of tasteful mods and took great care of it. He loved it and was only getting rid of it because he had another baby on the way. Favorite mod he did was the Australian quad headlights and clear corner lights. All I’ve done to it is sliders, jdm style rear spoiler, kc lights , expensive ass/ heavy/ non street legal kmc wheels ( I love them, favorite wheels ever) and lots of maintenance. Truck is 30 years old so even if you get a good one you better like to tinker. I did an ac compressor and belt tensioner, plus leak check and recharge and filter drier ( I work in hvac). Leak was thankfully only in the high side schrader valve, compressor was shot and pulley was seized. Put in a new oem Toyota radiator, alternator, new air intake hose as the old one had a crack, load sensing proportioning valve, brake master cylinder and brake booster, fusable link, and got the knuckles rebuilt by a shop because I didn’t want to do them in the street. Did all the fluids, still need to go back and do all my small coolant hoses and the rear heater bypass, and fuel filter. Any other common baseline things to check let me know. Originally bought it with dreams of doing Rubicon and the harder trails that I don’t think my mid travel ifs would survive. Spent about as much as I would’ve on a MCRCLT kit. Gonna be a lot more money to get everything together to properly fit 37s so for now I’m just enjoying the cheap ome 2 inch lift and 35s which it clears effortlessly. I could chop the body and make things fit like i did with the Tacoma, but its nice having an intact truck and i would feel bad cutting up a classic. Thing is capable as hell and super comfy, really nice sleeping inside too out of the wind or rain. Drives straight and feels like a tank. 4.88 gears move the truck well, doesn’t feel underpowered, but I live at sea level and don’t have a lot of extra heavy s*** on it. Biggest con is constant work to baseline an old truck and 10mpg, but other than that I think it’s the most practical vehicle there is and peak Toyota.
