Is there a story behind this pic?
Builds Project Fauxverlander 200 Series Land Cruiser Build Thread (1 Viewer)
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Is there a story behind this pic?
- Thread starter
- #402
There is. I'm very active with our local non-profit 4x4 recovery team (Utah Offroad Recovery Team), basically we work with BLM, FS, State and Local LEO's and individuals to get 4x4's unstuck, out of pickles, etc. Basically we will spool up if a traditional wrecker won't take the project (they have mouths to feed, we don't want to compete with them). We do a couple recoveries a week.
This exact scenario (our 3rd roll in that exact same corner!)
"On 5/23 the team was requested to help recover this truck on the Skyline Drive Trail above Bountiful. It had rolled several times after coming off the road, fortunately unoccupied, thus no injuries. We used 4 vehicles and two double line pulls to drag it up the steep hillside and back onto the road. There it was retrieved by a commercial wrecker.
While staging for this recovery, emergency personnel arrived to the Bountiful B staging area to respond to an injury related to another vehicle that went off the road, again unoccupied. Be safe out there, in-gear & park brake firmly engaged! #uorrt #recovery #allvolunteers"
Thanks Kurt!
Obligatory "that'll buff right out".
Glad nobody was injured, that could've been very gnarly
Obligatory "that'll buff right out".
Glad nobody was injured, that could've been very gnarly
Oh man... that dune camping pic... has me hankering for the camping we used to do in the UAE. Is that in Mexico or stateside somewhere?
- Thread starter
- #405
Kurt what is that showing your two batteries and speed, altitude and heading?
Appears to be an ARB Linx.
Thanks.....not familiar with it. Looked it up and it's amazing how much it does. I want one. 
- Thread starter
- #409
Yup, that is the ARB Linx. Controls my lights, lockers, compressor and air up pressure, dual battery linking and voltage, etc. Love it!
I am looking to install same setup for my 2012 LC 200. It has camera&sensors. I can not find photo/info is there any hi lift spots in bumper?Next up? Time to tackle the ARB rear bumper, and boy did that take a minute.
Boxes ready to be torn open and installed
The parts of the rear bumper (not including carriers) laid out, inventoried and ready
The pile of hardware, not including the hardware for the carriers
We've done a fair number of ARB rear bumper installs here in the shop but this was the first dual swing utilizing the factory park sensor system. The 4 ultrasonic sensors require not only drilling and physical mounting but more tedious, extending the pigtails on 3 of the 5 harness plugs. While the paint was drying on the new sensor holes, I made a wiring diagram as those 3 sensor plug extensions will require a total of 30 wire connections as two of leads have 6 uniquely colored wires and the other has 3. About half way through the park sensor install I started to really question the additional work to incorporate the sensors into the new bumper, I mean I had never really used them to date. The system is there and I might as well get familiar with it, so I marched on with the wiring.
Coming together, piece by piece:
As the carrier components are universal with the 80 and 100 Series offerings, ARB still includes 12mm wheel studs and lug nuts, despite the fact Toyota hasn't used that size on a heavy-duty Land Cruiser for almost 20 years now
14mm studs in place for the 5-lug configuration
Land Cruisers have flipped-flopped on the turn signal coloring over the years, red into the 70's, amber into the 2000's, red for the tail end of the 100's and back to Amber with the 200's. The red-tail/stop & red-turn is easy to work out with a simple red lens swap, ARB provides their bumpers with a red/Amber combo but they have the red lenses available for those applications. However, the red-tail/stop and amber-turn is a bit tougher. ARB includes a plug/play harness that requires popping open the rear panels (easier said than done when drawers are installed), but, it plugs into the same place as the US spec 7-Pin trailer harness. It does have a lead for a 5 pin trailer harness but I prefer to leave the factory 7-Pin in place. So, rather than pull drawers apart, pull panels and drop lines from the L & R tail lamp assemblies, I opted for a far easier and cleaner (imo) method. I tied into the 7-Pin trailer harness and used a converter to go from the combined tail/turn (red) back a separate tail (now red) and turn (now amber). It does require mounting a small converter (this size of a credit card) under the vehicle but they come with some good self-adhesive and I've not had one fall off or fail to date. This method allows one to trim down a considerable portion of the ARB harness and really end up with a tidy and simple install with just 5 connections into the trailer harness.
Remnants of the ARB harness and the wiring portion of the project
Another time consuming aspect of the bumper install is the OE bumper cover trimming. We used a loose variation of ARB's recommended measurements and they got us close but we fined tuned the trimming and installed a nice clean w/s edge material that offers a really clean fitment while allowing the needed flex that the bumper and cover panel will experience. This is where we could really streamline a future install as we kept some good notes on what worked for us and the w/s is something I'll have available ahead of time next go around.
Trimmed panel with w/s in place
So, while it likely represented the longest I've ever spent on a bumper install, I'm quite confident the remaining installs will take a fraction of the time. I've since done an additional ARB rear bumper on a 200 while it was a different configuration, the trimming portion took a few minutes
Finished product!
- Thread starter
- #411
Not integrated Hi-Lift pockets.
- Thread starter
- #412
No real exciting updates, just working this 200. This machine has been on some serious trail/race pit support duty the last few years, annual trips to the Baja 1000 and other dersert races supporting Canguro Racing & Jaos in their LX600, King of the Hammers supporting Rusty Nail Racing, Mint 400 supporting @landcrusher909 and a bunch of Lexus/Toyota projects. All this and some fun personal trips too.
We recently hosted Chief Engineer Sadayoshi Koyari at Cruiser Outfitters along with a run down to Central Utah to show him some of our Canguro team's favorite desert spots. As Koyari-San was Toyota's Chief Engineer for the 200 Series. He was most generous with his time, signing things at the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum and here at the shop. I asked him if he would be willing to sign the sun visor from this 200 Series and he was kind enough to do so. I'll likely remove it if/when I ever sell the vehicle, but in the meantime it's a fun memory.
The last few months have seem some occasional 'dry-dock' time, new front OEM lower control arms, new rear calipers, rotors and pads, new windshield, and last week it got a new OEM steering rack and TRE's, a low-mile front diff assembly (it had the typical mount bolt weep/leak), OEM wheel hubs (it's nice just stealing fully assembled unit bearings from the shelf) and a new set of Toyo tires. It then got loaded with a ton of gear to support a Toyota/Lexus project this last week in the desert. I'll share some photo's there when I can but it was an OVER the top TRAIL experience
We recently hosted Chief Engineer Sadayoshi Koyari at Cruiser Outfitters along with a run down to Central Utah to show him some of our Canguro team's favorite desert spots. As Koyari-San was Toyota's Chief Engineer for the 200 Series. He was most generous with his time, signing things at the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum and here at the shop. I asked him if he would be willing to sign the sun visor from this 200 Series and he was kind enough to do so. I'll likely remove it if/when I ever sell the vehicle, but in the meantime it's a fun memory.
The last few months have seem some occasional 'dry-dock' time, new front OEM lower control arms, new rear calipers, rotors and pads, new windshield, and last week it got a new OEM steering rack and TRE's, a low-mile front diff assembly (it had the typical mount bolt weep/leak), OEM wheel hubs (it's nice just stealing fully assembled unit bearings from the shelf
) and a new set of Toyo tires. It then got loaded with a ton of gear to support a Toyota/Lexus project this last week in the desert. I'll share some photo's there when I can but it was an OVER the top TRAIL experience
landcrusher909
Athlete/Race truck driver/Hobbyist
We can't Thank you all enough for all the help. We need to find some desert races in Utah next ?
- Thread starter
- #414
From our recent trip. We were able to spend a wonderful weekend in the desert with friends from Toyota/Lexus including the Cheif Engineer (Tsukasaki-san) and Project Manager (Kitamura-san) of the new GX550. Both have been with Toyota for many years and worked on a variety of Land Cruiser platforms prior to the GX. They have a great deal of excitement for the new platform and it's siblings. It was an honor share some of my favorite spots with them in some unique vehicles.
Dude, that rules. 99% of GX buyers won't care about any of this but for those of us that do, the Land Cruiser and true Toyota 4x4 history and heritage baked into the 550 (and 470/460) means everything. Can't wait to see what this thing is like.
Also where can someone get one of those shirts? Asking for a friend just kidding it's me I'm asking for me
Also where can someone get one of those shirts? Asking for a friend just kidding it's me I'm asking for me
- Thread starter
- #416
They were part of the GX550 launch event. The TMNA team had them made for the Japan guests and attendees.
How does the GX 550 compare to a 200 underneath where it matters?
We need to have you back on the show with those guys in tow
