Newly purchased FJ62 (1 Viewer)

[SHREG]

Not new to Cruisers or the 60 series, we are however proud new owners of a 89 FJ62. For the last couple of years my wife has been looking for the perfect 62! 60 would not due, nope, had to be a 62.. We dont "need" another Cruiser as we have a 40,45,LX already... But this would be nice to have as she does not drive the 40 a great deal given it does not have heat and all the creature comforts.... And she has always loved the 62, even with its flaws...they are just cool trucks...

When on a golf trip in Vegas Jen sends me an add for what looked to be a very fair deal and a pretty nice truck. I asked her to contact the seller and get some additional pics. This truck was in the Denver area, i was in St George and Jen was in Austin....and to further complicate issues we live in Wisconsin... Just not in the winter... We went back and forth with the seller, great guy.. a close friend went and looked at the truck, we struck a deal. Happy days...

Now we have to go get the truck.... Given flights are cheap we booked a flight out for May 22nd. Figured we would take the week to drive back to Wisconsin while visiting friends and family on the way home... Paying close attention to social distancing of course..

When in Denver I would like to try and find a RTT for our trip home. If you live in the area, and have or know of one for sales please let us know. The seller has said he has a roof rack, so we are good there....Ideally we would find and pay for a RTT and pick it up on the 22nd for our adventure back home.

Couple pis of the "new" 62 for attention. Very excited to get out to Denver, meet some cool Cruiser folks and make the very slow trip back home.
@razzoo

 

[Saucerman]

Right on! Nice truck, hope the wife enjoys it.

 

[batthewmrown]

Pretty sure I remember seeing this one on Craigslist. Either way, damn fine 62. Not sure what the best route for an RTT is. I'm sure someone else will chime in or you could always hit the local club board (Rising Sun) and check classifieds. DM if you need anything when you're in town. Safe travels!

 

[Cruiserdrew]

I have gone from thinking the FJ62 is the weird step child of the FJ60 world, to thinking the FJ62 is by far the best FJ6X land cruiser. It has a better frame and engine than all previous FJ6X Land Cruisers.

 

[SHREG]

Thanks guys, will def keep an eye on Rising Sun, PO sent a note out to them for us. We did get one reply but it has not gone anywhere. Will keep looking, we have time.

There is "something" about the 62 that just draws us in... We have had a 60, and we loved it... Was have also had a 55... Very excited to explore our way back in this beauty...

 

[Seth S]

I’m always divided on the idea of a roof top tent. For one thing it’s another object to slow you down and cut into your already limited gas mileage. They are also very expensive for a new one. But on the other hand the convenience of just popping up the tent on the roof and going to sleep at night is appealing.

there are really two kinds of RTT these days. The ones that look like a traditional tent that just sets up when you open up the box and usually hangs out off the side or front/back of the vehicle on a pair of legs. These are the less expensive but don’t look as nice as the hard shell box variety. If I were going to invest in one I’d opt for the hard shell like an autohome. Pop a couple patches and open and pretty much done.

for now I just throw a sleeping pad in the back or pitch my $200 tent on the ground outside

 

[OG SUV]

Congrats on the 62! Looks very clean! Should be a great trip.

 

[Seth S]

a quick search of the denver craigslist found:

James Baroud Explorer - New in Box Roof Top Tent - auto parts - by...

I have a brand new James Baroud Explorer, unopened new in box. This tent retails for $4300, and...

denver.craigslist.org

Camp Castle Slim Hard Shell Roof Top Tent King Bed BRAND NEW (MSRP...

Our Colorado-based, small-batch, high-end Roof Top Tent brand offers a heavy-duty, ultra-slim (10...

denver.craigslist.org

Roof top tent - sporting goods - by owner - sale

Tepui Roof top tent. Fits myself and 3 kids. Great tent and Tepui makes one of the most top...

denver.craigslist.org

Roof top tent - general for sale - by owner

Tepui Roof top tent. Fits myself and 3 kids. Great tent and Tepui makes one of the most top...

denver.craigslist.org

4x4 Off Road Camping Trailer - trailers - by owner - vehicle...

Selling my OffRoad Camp Trailer. I have the legendary Hannibal Safari Roof Top Tent set up on this...

denver.craigslist.org

TEPUI ROOFTOP TENTS 20% OFF - sporting goods - by owner - sale

***ALL TEPUI ROOFTOP TENTS 20% OFF*** ***Must be in stock*** ***Over 45 tents in stock*** ***Brand...

cosprings.craigslist.org

Luxury ROOFTOP TENT (HARD SHELL) - general for sale - by owner

Paid well over 3K for this plus tax and shipping so this is a steal. Serious buyers only (IF YOU...

rockies.craigslist.org

 

[SHREG]

Thanks Seth, we have been watching those in Denver... Lurking on the 4Runner (Teupi) tent... we like that one....

A little context for this.. we currently flat tow our 97LX behind a Seneca Motor House. We leave the Northern winter in search of warmer climates.. Last 3 years we have been in Austin Texas, next year AZ, UT and 2022 Florida and Carolina. Plan is to base camp with the Seneca and do weekend, shooter, trips to national parks and state forest maybe catch a TLCA event or many. Jen is a photgrapher and drone pilot so early morning and late night photo ops in the parks, remote ares are best. 2021 we plan on flat towing the 62. to Arizona and Utah.

IMO, hard top RTT is ideal if we were going to use the RTT for a main camping rig... I love the look, they seem very stable and ride lower on the roof. However, given we have no intention on over-landing i think the soft top tent will do... Dont get me wrong, if a hard shell comes along at the right price we would likley do that. We also have 3 vehicles the RTT will be used on... possibly 4 as id like to adapt it to my FJ45.

 

[SHREG]

We will trael North from Denver, up through Wyoming and over to Rapid city.. can pick up the RTT in route.

 

[Skniper]

I have gone from thinking the FJ62 is the weird step child of the FJ60 world, to thinking the FJ62 is by far the best FJ6X land cruiser. It has a better frame and engine than all previous FJ6X Land Cruisers.

Great point, I’ve had my ‘90 62 going on 23 years and always had similar thoughts about it being the red headed step child, so much so that I seriously considered selling it years ago for a late model 60. But I grew to accept it as it is most up to date 6X series available and there’s lots of small things I prefer over the 60.

I’ve also decided the 62 is a better platform to “reverse” engineer to get the cool simple stuff of a 60 rather than try to forward engineer a 60 to get the benefits of a 62. I’m now creating my 62/60 hybrid with the best of both worlds, at least IMO.

Congrats on the find, that 62 looks like a gem, love white rigs!

 

[SHREG]

Mission complete. We flew to Denver Friday May 22nd and picked up the 62 and RTT. We ended up with a ARB Simpson 3 tent and Annex. Mounted the tent on Friday and took off for the Rockys on Saturday afternoon. We committed to avoid interstates as best we could, all told i think we spent about 100 miles on 4 lanes with those impressive speed limits. No way we were going to sustain 80MPH with the 62.. We did find a name for it though, we call it the Dragon Fly.... as it drags itself up one side of the hill and Flys down the other.. (Stolen from Dale Watson) but it fit... The tent took some adjustment, we are used to "camping" in a 35' RV with a sleep number bed.... this was no sleep number bed... we ended up with a foam mattress cover in addition to the ARB mattress.

All told over 1000 ish miles through several National Parks and state campground. Custer State Campground was our favorite, as RV owners we typically have to schedule these things out a year, @razzoo was nervous playing reservations by the seat of our 62 but it worked out great. We called Custer about a day prior to arriving and got the best spot in the park. A great trip we will do again... maybe head east.

 

[georgebj60]

Is this ok? The shackle looks to be on an angle.

 

[Seth S]

Is this ok? The shackle looks to be on an angle.

View attachment 2328402

Looks like an excuse to me to go through everything and do a mechanical refresh.

Glad to hear the trip went well and things were open for camping.

 

[SHREG]

It needs some love. Drove great, honestly did not notice the sahckle so thanks for pointing that out. That bumper took a pretty good whack.