New to KZJ78, Excited to Learn

[pbratten]

Hello all!
This is my first post. I am the proud new owner of a KZJ78, sitting in my driveway here in Anacortes, Washington in the USA. This is a bit of a 180 degree turn for me in terms of cars, my previous car was a ford focus station wagon, but after thinking, researching and oogling for a while, I bought this car and I am excited to learn. I have a question or two and am grateful there's such a helpful online community here.

I will be using this car for short drives around town, pulling a teardrop trailer for family camping, and winter time ski trips to the mountains. My prado has 33" tires on 17" wheels with a Dobinsons 2.5" lift. I suspect that this is more capability than I need. I also noticed at highway speeds it was moving around a fair amount on the road. So I am thinking about downsizing the wheels and tires a bit. I also think I will prefer the look of narrower tires with retro Deans wheels. Can anyone tell me how switching to smaller or narrower tires will affect handling at high speeds and MPG? (if anyone in the area is interested in the wheels and tires let me know)

Second question: I'm looking for the easiest way to put a tow hitch on that will allow me to tow your usual ball style tow hitch for our family sailboat and teardrop camper. Any recommendations?

Last question: I'd like to add some rubber floor mats. I've been searching the forums and it looks pretty feasible to get replacement carpet floor mats, but I haven't seen any mention of rubber floor mats, the kind that really trap water and mud. Any recommendations?

Thanks!!

 

[AirheadNut]

Welcome! Sweet Prado you've got there, it looks like it is in really nice shape.

Due to the narrow track width on these trucks they tend to catch the semi truck ruts in the road, causing them to wander a little. However, narrower tires will help with that. You may also have worn wheel bearings, trunnion bearings, tie rod or relay rod ends that could cause wandering. Also, if caster correction bushings were not installed in your front radius arms when the lift kit was installed that could cause the steering to be twitchy at speed.

Personally I like the look of narrow tires better, and find that they handle great both on and off road. I am running 235/85/R16 tires on my Prado, but 255/80/R17 would be a great size too. One thing to consider is that Prados require a 0 offset wheel, which may be hard to find in some sizes. The alternative is to run wheel spacers, but not everyone is comfortable with that option.

I have a hitch that bolts on in place of the tow hook on the rear bumper, it is a ball/pintle combo and in that application would work fine for light trailers. There are 2" receivers that will bolt on there with some light modification to the bumper step, @FJ40 that green thing recently installed one: 1996 KZJ78 Family Wagon Build - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/1996-kzj78-family-wagon-build.1273812/post-14400665. Anything much over 2500lbs I would want a standard style receiver that bolts to the frame rails under the bumper.

I have a set of generic rubber floor mats that fit ok, but I think there are LandCruiser branded rubber floor mats available through one of the vendors on here. You could also try searching on eBay for 76-series LC floor mats, they're the same.

 

[Rigster]

Hello all!
This is my first post. I am the proud new owner of a KZJ78, sitting in my driveway here in Anacortes, Washington in the USA. This is a bit of a 180 degree turn for me in terms of cars, my previous car was a ford focus station wagon, but after thinking, researching and oogling for a while, I bought this car and I am excited to learn. I have a question or two and am grateful there's such a helpful online community here.

I will be using this car for short drives around town, pulling a teardrop trailer for family camping, and winter time ski trips to the mountains. My prado has 33" tires on 17" wheels with a Dobinsons 2.5" lift. I suspect that this is more capability than I need. I also noticed at highway speeds it was moving around a fair amount on the road. So I am thinking about downsizing the wheels and tires a bit. I also think I will prefer the look of narrower tires with retro Deans wheels. Can anyone tell me how switching to smaller or narrower tires will affect handling at high speeds and MPG? (if anyone in the area is interested in the wheels and tires let me know)

Second question: I'm looking for the easiest way to put a tow hitch on that will allow me to tow your usual ball style tow hitch for our family sailboat and teardrop camper. Any recommendations?

Last question: I'd like to add some rubber floor mats. I've been searching the forums and it looks pretty feasible to get replacement carpet floor mats, but I haven't seen any mention of rubber floor mats, the kind that really trap water and mud. Any recommendations?

Thanks!!
View attachment 2993166

welcome to the family PB!

That does indeed look like a decently cared for PRADO you have there. Congratulations! @AirheadNut has given you some solid advice there. MPG can be really subjective to driving style, but in general, smaller, narrower tires will net you higher MPG and a little less wandering on the highway. Those are some pretty nice rims you have on the unit now, I would see if the narrower tires would fit right on those. With where you live, narrower tires will also hydroplane less in puddles.

Give yourself some time to get used to driving one of these, if you have never driven one before, you may find that even though your front end is tight and ok it will wander a bit more than you are used to - solid front axle, wide tires and heavy front end will all contribute to wander even on a brand new unit. You definitely need to pay attention driving these - but they are SO fun to drive!

Check your rear crossmember before bolting a hitch on there... I had to cut the original out of mine and replace it. I chose to beef it up at the same time, and I could literally pull 10,000# with peace of mind. (not that I would, mind you, but I like having a nice healthy safety spec of overbuild) Better to put something in with way more capacity than you need, than be pulling close to max threshold all the time.

If you have not already, install a good quality pyrometer and watch the temps when towing, keep them below 1200F, it will save the head on your 1KZ engine.

 

[pbratten]

welcome to the family PB!

That does indeed look like a decently cared for PRADO you have there. Congratulations! @AirheadNut has given you some solid advice there. MPG can be really subjective to driving style, but in general, smaller, narrower tires will net you higher MPG and a little less wandering on the highway. Those are some pretty nice rims you have on the unit now, I would see if the narrower tires would fit right on those. With where you live, narrower tires will also hydroplane less in puddles.

Give yourself some time to get used to driving one of these, if you have never driven one before, you may find that even though your front end is tight and ok it will wander a bit more than you are used to - solid front axle, wide tires and heavy front end will all contribute to wander even on a brand new unit. You definitely need to pay attention driving these - but they are SO fun to drive!

Check your rear crossmember before bolting a hitch on there... I had to cut the original out of mine and replace it. I chose to beef it up at the same time, and I could literally pull 10,000# with peace of mind. (not that I would, mind you, but I like having a nice healthy safety spec of overbuild) Better to put something in with way more capacity than you need, than be pulling close to max threshold all the time.

If you have not already, install a good quality pyrometer and watch the temps when towing, keep them below 1200F, it will save the head on your 1KZ engine.

Thank you! It's all very exciting. I considered getting a prado that needed a little bit more upgrading, but I'm glad I got one that already had a lot of work done. It looks like the extra bushings that came with the Dobinsons shocks were not installed, which I think will help with the road feel. That will be the first order of business.

I am planning on ordering the EGR bypass from Vanlife Northwest, which comes with a temp gauge.

Anything in particular I should look for on the rear crossmember besides the obvious of rust, visible damage, etc?

thanks!

 

[Rigster]

When you delete the EGR, take that opportunity to clean out the intake manifold and pipes. If it was functioning properly, you should not see *too* much sludge buildup.

As far as the rear crossmember, they are kind of 2 c-channel placed together with the forward facing one having some access holes that seem to collect road grunge and it just sits in there are causes rot. If yours seems fairly clear and clean then you should be ok. Mine was deteriorated so much I was able to break chunks off back there, so decided to completely remove the cancer and put in a 1/4" c-channel that is open to the front so there is nowhere for the crap off the roads to get trapped.

You can see it here about 2/3 down the page...

 

[FJ40 that green thing]

Congrats and nice Prado! I experienced the twitchy steering as well after the lift but I would never want to go back to stock height, too small of tires and limited off road capability, its an alright compromise I guess and most lift kits don't have all parts included to do it properly. There are castor correction bushings as well as radius arm drops you can install to help keep the angles as designed. Pros and cons of each I suppose. There is a company in Malaysia making some of these suspension fixes I'll leave a link below. These drop brackets would likely resolve your main issue with feeling twitchy at speeds but also some other solid advice in the other comments about tires and such. There are also tie rod extensions, panhard rod extension brackets, adjustable panhard rods, etc. I haven't installed any of these suspension mods yet but plan to one at a time.

Radius Arm Drop Bracket: Caster Bracket Drop Box Toyota Land Cruiser ll LJ79 KZJ70 KZJ79 | eBay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/124415826873