New GX470 Owner (1 Viewer)

[08GX470]

Hey Red, how many years have you owned your GX470?

My maintenance/repairs/upgrades is also pushing $20k over 6+ years of ownership.

But a set of tires and multiple sets of brakes/rotors over the years start to add up. And we do a lot of preventive maintenance as well. And way too many little upgrades.

I guess if I average it out, I’m spending about $3k a year in maintenance/repairs/upgrades. But I hope to slow down now…lol.

No aftermarket bumpers for me nor roof rack, but well maintained mechanically and interior.

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Looks great! Love the wheels. I just vinyl wrapped the woodgrain in my car too. I'm pretty sure I got the same high gloss carbon fiber pattern you have. I have to re-wrap some parts that didn't turn out too good. Once I'm done I'll put up some pictures.

How did you apply the vinyl on the shift knob? Does the wood grain piece come off, or did you just put the vinyl on the shift knob and cut around the wood grain?

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Looks great! Love the wheels. I just vinyl wrapped the woodgrain in my car too. I'm pretty sure I got the same high gloss carbon fiber pattern you have. I have to re-wrap some parts that didn't turn out too good. Once I'm done I'll put up some pictures.

How did you apply the vinyl on the shift knob? Does the wood grain piece come off, or did you just put the vinyl on the shift knob and cut around the wood grain?

Yeah…just cut vinyl around the shifter knob…and the most difficult pieces were the center vent ones.

I did those twice and still not great. And broke a couple clips! Oh well…they are holding on without issue…

 

[HomersCanyonero]

Thanks for the reply! $10k was just a ballpark amount I threw out there. I was expecting to definitely spend more than that. I'm trying to get a more economic car for daily driving, so once I do that, I'll begin upgrading the GX and it'll go from being my daily driver to strictly being a camping/family vacation vehicle.

Also, I was speaking to a friend of mine who off-roads pretty regularly. He recommended I don't get skid plates because they're heavy and sit low, and therefore reduce ground clearance. I know I can get stiffer suspension to decrease suspension sagging from the added weight, but I feel he has a point. He did recommend getting a different front bumper to be able to get better approach angles. Thoughts?

If you are worried about approach angle, then maybe you going to hit some medium hard trails.

And I would personally get rock sliders and skid plates before a bumper….but that’s me. Im more function over style.

They have aluminum skids which weight less. Or the ARB ones which are mid level metal I think. Then there’s the full metal skid plates for rock crawlers.

Here’s how I would prioritize:
1. Wheels and tires
2. Lift and rock sliders
3. Recovery gear like kinetic ropes, soft shackles, recovery points, rear tow shackle, shovel, etc
4. Skid plates

If you damage your rocker panels, then your doors might not fully open or close. So, rock sliders are key in this protection.

And rock sliders don’t go well if unlifted.

 

[08GX470]

Yeah…just cut vinyl around the shifter knob…and the most difficult pieces were the center vent ones.

I did those twice and still not great. And broke a couple clips! Oh well…they are holding on without issue…

Same here. The center vent pieces are the most annoying. Broke a few of the clips and after all that it still didn't come out great. Gonna have to pull them out again and redo them.

 

[08GX470]

If you are worried about approach angle, then maybe you going to hit some medium hard trails.

And I would personally get rock sliders and skid plates before a bumper….but that’s me. Im more function over style.

They have aluminum skids which weight less. Or the ARB ones which are mid level metal I think. Then there’s the full metal skid plates for rock crawlers.

Here’s how I would prioritize:
1. Wheels and tires
2. Lift and rock sliders
3. Recovery gear like kinetic ropes, soft shackles, recovery points, rear tow shackle, shovel, etc
4. Skid plates

If you damage your rocker panels, then your doors might not fully open or close. So, rock sliders are key in this protection.

And rock sliders don’t go well if unlifted.

Wheels, tires and lift kit are definitely first on my list. Rock sliders shortly after that. Definitely gotta get all my recovery gear after that. I'm still trying to figure out the bumper/skid plate situation. Weighing out my options. Thanks for the info though. It's much appreciated!

 

[McDuff123]

Wow! That was extremely informative. Thank you for that. I'm going to start looking into the different options to see what the differences are and what I need/don't need for my application.

One brief clarification on an otherwise very helpful post…
The 255-70/17‘s measure out to about 31”, not 33 as listed. Probably just a typo…

 

[HomersCanyonero]

One brief clarification on an otherwise very helpful post…
The 255-70/17‘s measure out to about 31”, not 33 as listed. Probably just a typo…

I fixed it…you are correct that it’s a typo….I meant to write 255/80R17

I’ve had my eye on that tire size for a while especially the Nitto Ridge Grapplers which measure 33.3” by 10” per Nitto specs.

Unfortunately, I need to change my wheels for this tire size from 17x9 -12 to say 17x8 -10….that’s a better fit without front sway bars and 17x8 zero offset if you have front sway bars.

 

[highme]

Good looking rig OP, that seems to be a tremendous score. My path here is similar to yours, went through a pile of VWs & Audis, until eventually moving into things with more capacity so I could sleep in ski resort parking lots without buying an RV. I'm in a huge VW/Audi (DCI) club where a large portion of the folks have moved onto off road and or motorcycle based things. I've spent more time in cars that shouldn't be off road, than in my GX off road. I co-drive a homies E34 Gambler500 rig (he's also has a 92 Audi V8 that is the current Gambler speed record holder from the Mint 400 events) and we make all the wrong decisions in that thing.

A year into ownership, digging around here and other spaces online and I'm still figuring out what all I'm trying to do. Feeling ahead of the game getting mine for $10k w/ all the suspension/wheel/tire mods done. It also came with a boatload of miles, but that's the life I live. My main goal is something that can handle most of the PNW landscapes, of which there are many, and let me live comfortably for a week or so. I'll probably take it out for some Sirch & Rascue OG500 work as an Aid & Comfort station (air-conditioned space for folks to relax in while somebody is pulling their 93 Tercel out of a ditch). Mine came on 35s and I'm about to drop to 33s so I can carry the spare in the stock location, get better mileage and not have to regear. Sliders are coming sooner rather than later. Whle I'd like a nice Prinsu style low profile rack, I'm going the DIY route w/ heavier duty cross members with better attachment points than stock. I've added a platform in back, but need to finish adding drawers and such.

I also learned a bunch from the replies, tires and sizing always confuses me it's nice to have a spot to bookmark to come back to.


Oh and if in your shopping anything at Ironman grabs your attention, they tend to run 20-30% off sales regularly, so don't make an immediate impulse purchase. Like currently they have a 25% off sale

 

[08GX470]

Good looking rig OP, that seems to be a tremendous score. My path here is similar to yours, went through a pile of VWs & Audis, until eventually moving into things with more capacity so I could sleep in ski resort parking lots without buying an RV. I'm in a huge VW/Audi (DCI) club where a large portion of the folks have moved onto off road and or motorcycle based things. I've spent more time in cars that shouldn't be off road, than in my GX off road. I co-drive a homies E34 Gambler500 rig (he's also has a 92 Audi V8 that is the current Gambler speed record holder from the Mint 400 events) and we make all the wrong decisions in that thing.

A year into ownership, digging around here and other spaces online and I'm still figuring out what all I'm trying to do. Feeling ahead of the game getting mine for $10k w/ all the suspension/wheel/tire mods done. It also came with a boatload of miles, but that's the life I live. My main goal is something that can handle most of the PNW landscapes, of which there are many, and let me live comfortably for a week or so. I'll probably take it out for some Sirch & Rascue OG500 work as an Aid & Comfort station (air-conditioned space for folks to relax in while somebody is pulling their 93 Tercel out of a ditch). Mine came on 35s and I'm about to drop to 33s so I can carry the spare in the stock location, get better mileage and not have to regear. Sliders are coming sooner rather than later. Whle I'd like a nice Prinsu style low profile rack, I'm going the DIY route w/ heavier duty cross members with better attachment points than stock. I've added a platform in back, but need to finish adding drawers and such.

I also learned a bunch from the replies, tires and sizing always confuses me it's nice to have a spot to bookmark to come back to.


Oh and if in your shopping anything at Ironman grabs your attention, they tend to run 20-30% off sales regularly, so don't make an immediate impulse purchase. Like currently they have a 25% off sale

Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one haha! And thanks for the helpful info. I'm still looking for a cheap economy car to daily drive before I begin upgrading the GX, so I have some time to do my research and (hopefully) pick the right parts for the job.

During my quest for the perfect GX, I came across a lot that already had some upgrades done to it, but I decided to avoid those and find one as close to stock as possible. I can't believe how lucky I got with this purchase. I just found out the one I bought is the executive (??) package that came with all the bells and whistles. It even has the Mark Levinson sound system which I cannot get enough of. It's been many years since I drove a car with a decent sound system, and being an audio engineer, it's really difficult for me to enjoy music through sub-par speakers/headphones.

It's really cool that your GX was ready to off-road from the day you got it, though. Tire sizing confuses the crap out of me too sometimes. Especially when figuring out the right offset. I can't wait til mine is ready to go. I'm going to go do some light exploring in the central California coastal region this weekend, but nothing too crazy. Maybe find a nice spot to crash for a night or 2 then come back.

 

[highme]

It's really cool that your GX was ready to off-road from the day you got it, though. Tire sizing confuses the crap out of me too sometimes. Especially when figuring out the right offset. I can't wait til mine is ready to go. I'm going to go do some light exploring in the central California coastal region this weekend, but nothing too crazy. Maybe find a nice spot to crash for a night or 2 then come back.

Don't worry, yours is pretty much ready to go off roading and camping. They're still decent rigs stock.

 

[08GX470]

Don't worry, yours is pretty much ready to go off roading and camping. They're still decent rigs stock.

Oh, I'm aware of that. Some of the places my buddies go to are a bit much for a stock GX, but I know there's a lot I can still do as is.