Story time: what is your stock 40 capable of (3 Viewers)

[4x4veteran]

One time a friend and I pulled our camp trailers up to Pismo Beach for a weekend.
He had a Bronco and I my FJ40.
We decided to get some action shots so found a nice mound of sand and proceeded to jump our rigs and take pictures.
Had an Instamatic with a 24 roll and shot it all up.
We both got all four wheels of the ground a few times so figured we had some good pictures.
Got the roll developed and it was all black.
Turned out sand got in the shutter and stuck it open.

 

[DangerNoodle]

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

*Australian bezels*

 

[JohnnyC]

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

View attachment 2293451

All original except for all the things that aren’t

It is nice however ...add ons and all... looks to be in great shape even though it has the dreaded inverted bezel... that can be corrected with proper daily mud intake

 

[SADDLEUP]

All original except for all the things that aren’t

It is nice however ...add ons and all... looks to be in great shape even though it has the dreaded inverted bezel... that can be corrected with proper daily mud intake

There are some things in life you just have to get over....... BEZELS are one lol

 

[Dizzy]

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

View attachment 2291366

That looks more like NM4 on the west rim of the caldera?

 

[JohnnyC]

Story #3

My truck is capable of towing a lot....


Some friends and I were camping at a Ny state park and we were waiting for a friend to get there...we didn't think he was coming since he was 6 hrs late. getting ready to sack out a park ranger knocked on out tent...our friend called ...he was stuck 40 min north of us.

This was high up in the adirondacks near Speculator, NY. I was the only one with a truck so I packed tools jumped in my 74 fj40 (that had 300k miles on it at the time or there abouts) and set off to do the good deed!

In an fj40 it takes an hour to go on the 40 min drive...or at least in one with 300k+ miles on it. I found him on the side of the road ... just before a parking lot of a townie bar (where he called from) ... a bar ... he had a ford f150 w/pickup camper and two jet skis in tow on his snowmobile trailer. He was in the process of making a gravity feed line to his carb...he's not mcgiver ...but he tried! Fuel pump was dead!

So here we go with a tow... I wasnt about to tow his truck then go all the way back for the jet ski trailer!

Im not doing this twice

We tied the tow rope to his piece of crap ford .... put it in low 1 and took off...luckly we started off with a down hill quite soon. i qickly put it in high range on the fly...very easy to do with that many miles on the trany/xcase by the way.

Up and down, up and down , up and down ,up and down all the way to camp in an hour and 15 minutes... we averaged probably 50mph. at one time on the trip he kept swerving to my drivers side ...i thought he was F’in around trying to look past me... turns out the trailer was wipping around like a fish out of water. something about dead waight at the end of the line and a very windy day... LOL

Figured out later it was around about 10k lbs ... 5ton of weight up and down the mountainsides ... a cruiser can flat tow a great deal of weight...


We made it and had a nice drunken night to remember !

That was the camping night of the sawdust box explosion (as we called it) ... another equally as stupid occurrence that evening

 

[4Cruisers]

That looks more like NM4 on the west rim of the caldera?

East side, just before the Dome Road turnoff.

 

[Dizzy]

It's capable of almost keeping up with a second generation 4Runner in the Puerco dunes, @lurch I was really glad for that one to be over - I limped most of the trip on a leaky wheel cylinder and dive-to-the-left drum braking. 2002(ish)

 

[Downey]

Another story: I don't know how much 2 yards of wet cement weighs, nor the double axle trailer you get to pull it home with (using your own rig). As I was towing the 2 yards with my 300 h.p. Chevota, in corners the Landcruiser tried to make the turn, but the forward momentum of the trailer just kept dragging the Landcruiser forward. Then I had to put my rig into low range just to get the trailer up the hill (paved) to my brother-in-law's house. WARNING, don't try to wheel barrel 2 yards of cement into the back yard with 2 non-construction workers, the cement sets-up in the trailer before you can get it to the back yard, we had to keep adding water and re-mixing in the trailer.

 

[Marn0]

I purchased my 1964 fj40 FST from my uncle in 2002. He owned it for as long as i can remember. It used to sit at my grandparents weekender on the shores of ( now dry thanks to cotton farming and a corrupt government) Menindee lake in far west new south wales, Australia. I remember as a kid it was used as a tractor to launch the boat and as a general shooting vehicle. It came from a remote property originally and he brought it from the local wreckers.
Before use each time the tappet cover had to be removed so as to pour oil along the tappet rail, as it no longer pumped oil to the head.
On at least one occasion it was left bogged to the eyeballs overnight in the lake with waves crashing over it.
This he told me about when i quizzed him as to why there was about two litres of water in the diff, but no oil.
When i eventually pulled the engine down, Five out of the Six pistons had smashed rings. Varying in size from about 5 mm in length. They had been flapping around in there that long that the ring groove had angled edges.
It STILL RAN LIKE A CLOCK

 

[Blue77FJ40]

I was living in New Bloomfield, PA and worked in Camp Hill, PA. At least a foot of snow had fallen on my commute back to New Bloomfield and had to cross a mountain pass enroute. About a mile back from the long uphill climb, I see a looooooooooong line of stopped traffic. No lockers, I didn't even know what a locker was back then. I then calmly locked the front hubs, put it in low, and drove on the right hand side, off the road, at a moderate off camber. I passed car after car until I reached the base of the mountain. Looking up, I could see numerous two-wheel drive vehicles in various positions up the mountain, spinning their wheels uselessly, spread out all over both sides of the road. I then slowly wound my way around each vehicle, sure-footed with no slip at all, and made it to the top in practically no time at all. The rest of the commute was open and traffic-free. What a rush!

 

[tls3601]

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

Johnny, so glad you are still here man I know many things must have gone Thru your head many times over the years. Did your 40 have a roll bar when that crash happened?

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

1978 HJ45 4spd Semi Float Rear. PO drove it from South Africa to Switzerland overland. Toughest deserts and roads. Shipped it to US to drive the Pan American Highway. We know the PO. “Most interesting man alive”. Tough as nails! In our hands for the next phase of its journey with my youngest son (15yrs old) who is rebuilding it for his adventures in life. Affectionately called Old Landy.

Getting new drive train 2HT/5spd. Pics of my son @Cowboy45 starting his journey.

more details on the find and build here:

Builds - Old Landy: An HJ45 Story/Build Thread

Hey everyone welcome to thread. I created this thread to share the story and unique history of an FJ45 that @ceylonfj40nut and I recently purchased from Kodiak, Alaska. As this thread continues your input and advice would be much appreciated as we go on in this new journey. Thanks to @Rock...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[JohnnyC]

Johnny, so glad you are still here man I know many things must have gone Thru your head many times over the years. Did your 40 have a roll bar when that crash happened?

Yes... had the factory roll bar... and lap belts

The sides were replaced a few years prior with 3/16” ... but... floors were still the bondo steel lol