Story time: what is your stock 40 capable of (1 Viewer)

[White Stripe]

My truck is capable of keeping me alive

I usually talk about this in a short version... but... here’s the longer version:

I was driving my 74’ FJ40 FST back from Maine ... think it was 98’ (meet up with Stan a fellow fst owner... mud member as well... I had not seen him in a few years, I had picked up an engine hand crank at his place)

On my return trip home that night ... going 65 mph... i hit a truck rim and tire that somebody left in the middle of the highway at night.

Blk rim , blk tire .... I saw it when it was about 10' from the truck, middle of the night .... slammed the brakes and cut the wheel... I hit the tire with my drivers side front tire ... Broke the spring pin... Axle moved back 6"

Tried to control the truck in a fish tail... Didn't quite do it

My truck lifted off the ground and slammed to the pavement... I remember the weightlessness and watching the windshield shatter to pieces as I was trying to pull myself below the steering wheel when it hit on it’s side

It then rolled...

Rolled several times ... side over side... in the middle of the highway came to a stop after it had slid for a bit

Ended upside down

Knowing I was most likely in the road because I felt it through my softtop vinyl (kayline fst replacement top) I turned off the radio (Brian Setzer Orchestra was playing on my cassette tape)

Turned off the ignition because the fuel pump was trying to pump air... then turned off the lights (thinking later I should have kept them on because it was pitch black)

Then I released my lap belt that was holding me upside down in my seat

Looked over to my right after I landed on the ground, I can see my passenger door was no longer there ... it had flown several yards up the road

I had to crawl through the broken glass and under the passenger seat that was leaking fuel on top of me ... as I got up from the ground outside the passenger side I flung my hair back to hear pieces of glass fly from my goldilocks onto my truck (yes I had long hair ... yes I still had hair... yes I was hippy)

I had just turned around in the direction I was previously driving from when a guy all dressed in brown ran up to help ... he was panting and going on about how he was thankful he didn’t kill me ... dazed still ... I knew I had hit a tire and he wouldn’t have anything to do with that ... looking at him I realized he was a UPS guy, I then also realized what he was talking about when he hysterically going on that he didn’t want to hit me... his 28’ tractor trailer nearly jackknifed in the road just behind me by maybe 15-20’ ... I was slowing down much faster than him, he watched the whole thing unfold as he was locking up his brakes ... and prayed he could slow down in time... he did luckily for me (I most likely prayed the same time as he did ... sooo we both had prayers answered ) my prayers had a lot of @&?! Words mixed in... but... it worked

So the tire that I hit got ejected from the back of my truck bounced up the off ramp and struck two cars getting off the exit from the highway ... grazed off the side of a lady’s car that had her 4 children and ended up under an elderly couple’s car

It was pretty quick that a Mass trooper showed up ... when he got out and walked up to us he asked if the ambulance came for the driver... ups guy and me both told him no... no ambulance yet... he runs off to my truck yelling Oh s***

“I’m right here” I told him ... he was relieved that a dead guy wasn’t splattered inside the truck! We stood around for quite awhile talking ... the people from the off ramp had also come over thinking that the tire was mine... nope not mine


it was the first mass trooper that was actually down to earth and funny... one of the first things he said to me was “Man don’t you wish you were able to film that”... ahhh No... that isn’t what I was thinking about at the time plus I used up my wish on “please don’t let me die”

Ambulance finally showed up and checked me over... no broken bones ... or head trama... no cuts even

Walked away without a scratch...

Eventually when the tow truck showed up it was just getting light and we can see further down the road a ford bronco (full sized) on the northbound side sitting there missing a front tire ... One of the two troopers that were here now drove over to the bronco to run its plates

Tow truck guy and I right sided my truck ... loaded it on the flat bed .... then swept the highway of all the debris

The trooper was there still when the owner of the bronco drove up in another car to retrieve his truck... you can hear very clearly what the trooper was saying ... well yelling... as he wrote the multiple tickets... I am glad it was not me he was going off on ... that was as crazy as me rolling the truck lol

A good night and bad night all rolled up into one

Bad: rolled my truck
Bad: had to fight with his insurance to get full price on my truck and still keep it
Good: Got an oem hand crank
Good: found out cruiser owners help each other out in tough times
Good: did not die

The good outweighed the bad... rebuilt the truck... still driving it ... still my DD 28+ years

View attachment 2290605

Looks like the hood and tub survived. Did it tweak the frame?

 

[4Cruisers]

@4Cruisers...ahem. Do recall how you enticed your wife to head in the general direction of the dealership? I recall a swing set of some sort? Perhaps I am mistaken. I recall laughing immensely. I might be getting you confused

Yep, we went out to buy a baby swing for our youngest son, who was 5 months old. Target wanted something like $69.95, which we thought was too much for our budget. On the way home we passed the dealership on Decatur just a few blocks from Target, and decided to stop in to see what they had. The rest is history.

 

[JohnnyC]

Looks like the hood and tub survived. Did it tweak the frame?

The hood was shot got a pic of it someplace ... the frame had a mild tweek that was repaired by a frame shop

All but one rim I think bent

The bows I repaired ... the center bow is a 1” solid stock bar now that runs down the length of the door post

The tub sides we reused they survived well as they are 3/16” steel... they were tweaked as well... but fixed ... the floors in the rear shot ... bondo does not hold up well and the roll bar pushed thru

All in all the truck was a mess ... but... an annoying rattle under the dash before the roll over never came back

Another benefit to the roll over I guess LOL

Henry C. came to the rescue with a great letter that sealed the insurance issues and got the truck and a good amount to fix it

 

[Tancruiser]

Mine was slower than a speeding turtle but it was able to climb mountains at a single bound, sure wish I that one back.

 

[middlecalf]

...in Idaho. I'll be visiting there this summer .

If your in the vicinity of the metropolis of Sweet I usually have cold beer, as long as you don’t laugh at my PO‘s

I’ve bragged a few of times to my brother about cruisers‘ 4wd capabilities while puttering around the ranch hills only to find out I never engaged 4wd. He doesn’t know.

 

[FJBen]

When I was a wee lad, we took our FJ40 can't remember the year, all over the Colorado trails. Black bear, Imogene, Engineer pass all over the mountains. That thing would go everywhere stock it seemed. It took me close to 20 years to get my own FJ40, and to me it's still THE land cruiser. As much as I love the BJ74, i would sell/trade for the right 40.

 

[TCEd]

Our stock 40 is capable of sitting in the garage all winter without leaking a drop of : coolant, fuel, engine oil, trans, diff or rear end lube onto the floor.

 

[lcwizard]

If your in the vicinity of the metropolis of Sweet I usually have cold beer, as long as you don’t laugh at my PO‘s

I’ve bragged a few of times to my brother about cruisers‘ 4wd capabilities while puttering around the ranch hills only to find out I never engaged 4wd. He doesn’t know.

"metropolis" ?

 

[4Cruisers]

"metropolis" ?

It could be, if it's anything like the area I live in.

 

[4Cruisers]

Not my FJ40, but one belonging to fellow members of Southern Nevada Land Cruisers.

Their FJ40 was capable of getting them into Kingman after plunging off a large box culvert into the bottom of a wash off US 93 south of Hoover Dam.

We were on a club run to Burro Wash in northwestern Arizona for a weekend of camping and 4-wheeling. They were in the lead, pulling a decent size single axle camping trailer. My young son and I were following right behind them in my '84 FJ60. All of a sudden their trailer tongue popped off the ball hitch at highway speed and things got dicey really quick. After an awful lot of weaving back and forth, the FJ40 decided it was time to leave the highway, right at the next box culvert. The FJ40 ended up laying on the drivers side down in the wash, with the trailer tongue precariously perched on the lower right rear corner. The trailer's axle was likewise precariously perched on the top of the box culvert's parapet wall. Luckily no one was hurt. Obviously the safety chains held, and the FJ40's rear corner kept the trailer from following them into the wash bottom.

We were able to safely get the trailer off of the FJ40 and tip the FJ40 back onto its wheels. The battered FJ40 was able to drive out of the wash under its own power, up onto the pavement, and all the way to Kingman.

 

[igotta40]

One night I was rolling around on the beach on the east end of Galveston Island and saw a crowd and a few Jeeps so I drove by. They were in the process of righting a Jeep that had crossed a dune and fell over on its side. So I went the same route he had taken, and as I crested the same spot the crowd started yelling for me to stop, because I was going to roll over too. It was pretty steep and off camber, but honestly, I had been through worse. So when I got down off the dune they asked how the h*ll did you do that? Pretty cool moment.

 

[devo]

Okay, here is another stock story with photo......

Who has been to Moab? Who has been up Pritchard and over the White Knuckle ? It’s been a nasty spot this last decade. You need a solid, special built rig to accomplish that trail.

So, how bad ass is a stock FJ40? Here we go...... Back in 1986 I made it up Prichard and over the Knuckle in my 1982 FJ40. Unassisted except for some rock stacking. I will concede to not being fully stock because I was running 31x10.5’s and I had a 1 inch shackle lift.

❤ My ’82




devo

 

[cbmontgo]

Okay, here is another stock story with photo......

Who has been to Moab? Who has been up Pritchard and over the White Knuckle ? It’s been a nasty spot this last decade. You need a solid, special built rig to accomplish that trail.

So, how bad ass is a stock FJ40? Here we go...... Back in 1986 I made it up Prichard and over the Knuckle in my 1982 FJ40. Unassisted except for some rock stacking. I will concede to not being fully stock because I was running 31x10.5’s and I had a 1 inch shackle lift.

❤ My ’82




devo

View attachment 2292409

Great pic!

 

[Downey]

Another story: A very light weight flat hood Jeep rolled down a sand dune (Afton Canyon) and into rocks at the bottom. Two Jeeps with winches (working together) could not get the rig out, one Landcruiser with PTO winch got him out instantly. This is not an ad for PTO winches though, both times I had to use my winch to save my rig- - -the engine was not running, and a PTO would have been useless !!!!!

 

[JohnnyC]

Story #2

My cruiser is capable of driving on two wheels.

No not like our brethren in the Middle East (however that would be cool)

See video... they are nutz:



I was driving my 74 FJ40 (at this point it still had the original hardtop) and had it for not that long at this point (1991ish) tooling down a two lane blacktop ... being cool hippy dude I was playing around with my radio when I looked up suddenly...

Whipping out from a side road more oblivious than me... a gang of blue hairs (old people) raced out of a side road and cut right in front of me... in typical old person fashion they race out but then go deathly slow

Being new to the truck I realized there was a lot of maintenance that needed to be taken care of continuously... like adjusting 4 wheel drum brakes... however at this moment I had not adjusted them for awhile ... I wasn’t on the double pump to stop mode ... it was more ... at least three pumps (yes young and very stupid)

Wellllll the truck just didn’t want to slow down that suddenly when I slammed on the brakes ... I swerved to avoid ramming right into them... when I jerked the wheel to the right... and then overcompensated to get back in the lane my drivers side came off the ground ... I was in pucker factor 10 .... thank God I didn't roll or better yet plow thru them

It did come back quick ... but... my heart rate not so much, that went away after I got to my buddy’s and chugged my stupidity away

From that point on I saved my money and made one of my first modifications ... 4 wheel disc brakes

They best investment I ever made ... front axle from @stainless 40/45 and the rear setup from @Downey ... brackets are still on there to this day with well over 300,000 miles on them

They stop on a dime ... as long as the dime is over 10’ away at 65mph

 

[SADDLEUP]

OK another story... purchased my first fj40 ,a a1975 in early 76, drove it till 86 and sold it. BUT i bought the 75 because my buddy bought a 70 in feb of 71, and i was with him. Long story short, he passed away last year, and i bought the 70 fj, all orginal and not driven in last 15 years. Here are pics as i now have a 70 driver and a green 71 without motor. TOUGHFEST VEHILCE EVER BUILT

 

[fjc-man]

Wow, two upside down headlight bezels at the same time!

 

[DangerNoodle]

Wow, two upside down headlight bezels at the same time!

Found the bezel police.

 

[devo]

Nice brother from other........







devo

 

[SADDLEUP]

aaaawww come on guys...... these are CANADIAN BEZELS........LOL