New LC Differentials (5 Viewers)

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It's certainly could be a higher grade steel. Again, 2024 engineering and materials vs. 2008 engineering and materials. I am sure a team of engineers in Japan spent hundreds of hours optimizing the control arms with detailed numerical analyses. Things can be lighter and stronger (or at least just as strong). If you go through an entire vehicle like that you can really shave a lot of weight, it just takes $$$ in R&D money.
 
You are mis-reading my post even though you quoted it :). I would say what appears to be more robust would be the fact that it's a 2024 design rather than a 2008 design. Engineering software, materials, design methods, manufacturing, etc. have advanced significantly within the past 16 years. Just because something looks weaker doesn't mean it is weaker, it can often mean the engineers were able to sharpen their pencils using various tools that either did not exist or were rudimentary in the mid-aughts when the 200 was being designed. This results in mass being removed where it's not needed, thereby saving weight (which kills MPG, braking, acceleration) while maintaining strength. Or, mass being added in targeted areas where it is actually needed.

Either way, it's all a bit of conjecture right now. I don't have direct knowledge of how they designed the 200 vs TNGAF platform rigs and am extrapolating from how far my own field of engineering has come since the aughts. The other conjecture is about what looks to be weaker, which is again hard to verify without reviewing Toyota's engineering calculations and subsequent testing or putting the rigs on the road and driving them for 15 years to anecdotally determine the weak points.

Either way, but it's my opinion that it appears to be much more of an HD frame/suspension than a 150 (despite everyone claiming it's "light duty" and "not a Land Cruiser") and much more similar to a 200 than what was the Prado.
Wait, after the video, you concluded the GX550 is just as HD as the 200, if not more. But the video isn't very technical and everything you just mentioned wasn't in the video. Everything you said can be true.... but it wasn't in the video. I was just interested to know what in the video was so convincing.

Okay, never mind. Carry on......
 
Wait, after the video, you concluded the GX550 is just as HD as the 200, if not more. But the video isn't very technical and everything you just mentioned wasn't in the video. Everything you said can be true.... but it wasn't in the video. I was just interested to know what in the video was so convincing.

Okay, never mind. Carry on......
Beefier lower control arms, trussed rear axle (moreso than a 200), an obviously significantly modernized frame, and crossmembers.

The things I mentioned later on are not in the video. I'm not reading them from elsewhere either, I know of them because I'm an engineer :). The huge amount of modernization and more involved engineering in that platform was very, very obvious to me watching the video and comparing them to the firsthand experience working on my 120 and other vehicles and comparing them to various photos of 200s. That may not be obvious to folks who don't live in the design process on a daily basis.

Regardless, that video (in addition to blowing the "it's a Prado" argument out of the water) it convinced me - as long as the powertrains check out for long-term reliability, I think these will be great rigs.
 
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Just FYI:
Gross Axle Weight Ratings (GAWR)

GX550 Overtrail100/200300120
3,460 Front3,595 Front3,590 Front2,850 Front
4,100 Rear4,300 Rear4,250 Rear3,350 Rear
7,560 Combined7,895 Combined7,840 Combined6,200 Combined
 
Just wondering…
Can a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder engine actually break a differential? Yeah this engine has a turbo but turbos kick in at high RPMs - not when rock crawling. Without the turbo boost, this I4 engine at idle is going to be gutless - just like every 2.4L engine is at idle.

I can see how the straight 6 cylinders of old, especially when mated to a manual transmission and driving a locked differential at 4L 1 can break a diff, but this little 4 cylinder? I dunno.
 
Just wondering…
Can a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder engine actually break a differential? Yeah this engine has a turbo but turbos kick in at high RPMs - not when rock crawling. Without the turbo boost, this I4 engine at idle is going to be gutless - just like every 2.4L engine is at idle.

I can see how the straight 6 cylinders of old, especially when mated to a manual transmission and driving a locked differential at 4L 1 can break a diff, but this little 4 cylinder? I dunno.

Forget cylinder count. Modern turbo engines make huge torque at low rpm compared to NA engines.
 
And the electric motor is contributes 150 ft-lb of torque. That torque is available from zero RPM and idle through the rev band. With the electric motor in front of the 8 speed transmission it gets the same transmission torque multiplication benefits as the gas motor.

150 lb-ft of electric torque together with the gas motor (317 lb-ft) makes the 465 lb-ft of torque @ 1700 RPM better than big block gasser V8 levels of torque. Clearly from the math somewhere the system loses a couple lb-ft of torque.
 
Just FYI:
Gross Axle Weight Ratings (GAWR)

GX550 Overtrail100/200300120
3,460 Front3,595 Front3,590 Front2,850 Front
4,100 Rear4,300 Rear4,250 Rear3,350 Rear
7,560 Combined7,895 Combined7,840 Combined6,200 Combined
They are conspicuously just below the 300. I'm wondering if Toyota is intentionally sandbagging to protect the top-trim models. That would explain the 50 hp drop for the GX550 relative to the same engine in the LX600, and the 8.2 instead of the 9.5 in the 250. Otherwise it makes little sense for things to be different.
 
Was it confirmed that the LC 250 does not get the 9.5 rear diff on delivered production units? Has anyone crawled under one and looked yet?

What do I look for if I get the chance to see one IRL?
 
Was it confirmed that the LC 250 does not get the 9.5 rear diff on delivered production units? Has anyone crawled under one and looked yet?

What do I look for if I get the chance to see one IRL?

100% confirmed on current production and trim levels.

Screenshot_20240430_234153_Gallery.jpg

(Production LC250)

I'm optimistic they'll be some surprises in the future at which point we'll have more to discuss.

Here is a quick visual guide

C7196859-5726-4208-AE73-9F347B59FF25.jpeg
 
What do I look for if I get the chance to see one IRL?
One way to help identify the diffs is to look at the left side of the rear of the diff. See how the one in the image posted above by Kurt is round, like an orange? That's the smaller 8.2".

In other posts earlier in the thread you can see photos of the 9.5" and larger diffs. Instead of being round, they have a notch in them to accommodate the larger ring gear.
 
I'm optimistic they'll be some surprises in the future at which point we'll have more to discuss.
You just convince me to cancel my current order. If the 4Runner TRD Pro got 9.5" diff then it's BS for Toyota to give LC 8.2" diff.

In the meantime anybody got complete rear axles assembly P/N from MT Tacoma with elocker? I need to order this for my GX470 instead. Understand it's not a bolt on but with little modification it would fit and still much cheaper and stronger than diamond axle with LC80 9.5 30 spline diff.
 
FWIW, the 8.2 in the 250 looks significantly beefed-up in the housing department compared to the 150-platform 8.2. The tubes are drastically reinforced, which will likely provide additional stiffness and prevent housing flex which can blow up the R&P. Past the 3rd member, the tubes taper all of the way to the link mounts as a square, relative to the 150 platform 8.2 that tapers right down to a round tube without any reinforcement. This new 8.2 also looks very similar to the 9.5 housing. So, it's not an apples-to-apples 8.2 from the 150 that they are bringing over.

8.2 housing a snagged from an eBay listing.
s-l1600.jpg
 
Some food for thought—
Many of the gears inside the older Landcruiser’s transfer case are about 1/2 the size of the ring gear in the smaller 8.2” LC 250 housing — and they never break.
 
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Some food for thought—
Many of the gears inside the older Landcruiser’s transfer case are about 1/2 the size of the ring gear in the smaller 8.2” LC 250 housing — and they never break.
The differentials are downstream of the t-case and so will receive more than 2x the torque in Low Range.
 
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Earlier in the thread, I thought the consensus was that the lc got the 8.2 and GX got 9.5… is this still the case?
 
Earlier in the thread, I thought the consensus was that the lc got the 8.2 and GX got 9.5… is this still the case?

Yes, current grade LC250’s have the 8.2” and the GX550 has the 9.5”
 

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