Build The Bedouin - A 75 Series Rock Whomper

[wngrog]

I poked around a little a few months back to see if anyone had and good 70/73/75 crawler ideas.

Thread '75 Rock Crawlers?'

Feb 9, 2026

I just finished watching king of the hammers all week and there were a ton of videos of clowns at night rock crawling the trails and there are so many mini trucks still out there schooling the rocks it's crazy.

One of the most frustrating things from back in my rock days was when a $15,000 mini truck walked right up something that my $100,000 buggy struggled on.

Obviously there are very few 75 Rock crawlers here in the US because we don't have many 75s.

But what would be cooler than a 75 on one tons with working AC and heat and maybe a flatbed.

Anyone have any pictures of some...

• wngrog
• Replies: 95
• Forum: 70-Series Tech

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I have been collecting parts and finally the day came and @Ozark cruiser picked it up and now it’s game on.

 

[wardharris]

Well, now, that made my day

 

[wngrog]

I asked @Box Rocket to draw it up as I described it.

We can circle back to this and see how close we get

 

[wngrog]

When I lived in Texas and had some of the best trails in the US within a days drive I went hard into the paint on a modified FJ40 and then a couple of world class buggies.

I went all over the west running and cutting some of the hardest trails in the US

Then I moved to Mississippi where everything is a rock crawling park that is close. Alabama. Arkansas. East Texas. The park scene is not my vibe and I sold out and went back to my passion. Land Cruisers.

 

[wngrog]

So, why a FZJ75?

As most of you know, I import Saudi trucks with @Meshal

We’ve done 35 or so now and the easiest truck for him to source there is the 75. They are everywhere and now that the 79 is importable the prices on these are down as well.

Also, there are literally thousands of these bodies all over the Middle East. Take off bodies for military and .gov projects. If I smash it up, who cares? It’s probably the easiest body to replace there is.

Wheelbase.

Perfect. Longer the better for what I want to do.

Bed.

This truck is not a park truck. Not being built to hang with the buggies. I want to load it full of gear and taking it for 3 days in the Rubicon. Dusy. Fordyce.

Holy Cross. Hole in the Rock.

Harder trails but “overlanding and camping”

Again the 75 is perfect.

AC and heat were a must. I want to be able to go rain, sleet snow or shine.

 

[clrussell]

In on this.

Also going to have to stop by Jason’s more often in the coming weeks.

 

[matzell]

Looking forward to this.

 

[Climbingnut]

Following. I was cutting my teeth in the rock scene in AZ in a 79 Scout Traveller that Randy Ellis did a SPOA on. Your rock crawling story and this build are gonna make for an interesting combo. I’m excited to see where it goes!

 

[TRDdrew]

this is the stuff that gets me excited, following

 

[wngrog]

Following. I was cutting my teeth in the rock scene in AZ in a 79 Scout Traveller that Randy Ellis did a SPOA on. Your rock crawling story and this build are gonna make for an interesting combo. I’m excited to see where it goes!

I was big into it for many years. At the time I made it around to all of the best trails in the US. This one will be a bit different. Had I wanted to go back to the buggy world I could have purchased so many great used buggys for what I’ll have in this thing.

 

[wngrog]

So why this 75?

My instructions to Meshal were:

Low ish KMs
Usable body
AC has to work

Normally I get all the weatherstripping done at least but he shipped it as he found it.

This is what most of them I see on line look like. Rough. Meshal would never sell something like this unless a customer specifically wanted some cheap s***.

 

[wngrog]

What the driveline going to be you ask?

A few months ago I got a killer deal on a set of DS Trac axles. These are Dynatrac copies made in Brazil.

Big heavy ass axles with 35 and 40 spline axles and air lockers. 5.38 gears.

I’ll be running 40s but these knuckle draggers will be equivalent to running 38s on a normal size axle.

That said I’m not chasing pounds on this truck. Durability is the goal versus light.

Axles

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[wngrog]

So why Bedouin?

Funny story.

I took Meshal to Windrock two years ago for the 70 event.

We see some peckerwood redneck on a Banshee 4 wheeler and Meshal said “hahah look at that Bedouin “

I realized that’s the Saudi word for redneck.

Seemed fitting.

 

[wngrog]

I discovered after spending ten of thousands of dollars on the best, heavy duty upgraded Toyota parts over the years that once you get over 37” tires you are on borrowed time.

Eventually the repeated shock load is going to kill it. Somewhere.

So, this truck has an H150. Very nice shifting transmission. I run one in my 80 series. The 19 spline output allows me to sneak a Black Box behind it for my lower trail gears and this will allow me to mate a drivers side drop NP205 monster Tcase behind it.

Should be perfect. For buggy stuff automatics rule but for this truck I like the simplicity of the manual. One Less thing to heat up.

We have terrain tamer heavy duty clutch and NW Fab sells a cable shifter kit for the 205 so
I can do front and rear digs.

 

[Broski]

I will be following

 

[wngrog]

I think the 1FZ is the greatest Toyota motor of all time. Absolute overbuilt beast. The carbed versions put out 205 HP with excellent torque numbers.

Of course I can’t run a carburetor but the ones I’ve been on the trail with this past year I’ve never seen one stall out due to Angles. That said we all know EFI is the only way in the technical stuff.

So I’m going to run a prototype Holly 2300 adapter @FJ60Cam made. I’ll use an in tank pump. The engine will have a bad ass set of headers I got out of Australia. I’m betting this combo will get me into 1FZ-E numbers 230-235

 

[wngrog]

Suspension.

One of my main goals for this truck is for it to be streetable. I want it to perform off road of course, but I also want to be able to get this thing from trail to trail out west without the need to tow it.

I can imagine leaving it in Ridgway with @RustyNailJustin and driving it to Moab. Leave it at my son’s place in Reno and drive it to the Rubicon.

That’s why I wanted to do 4 link front and leaf springs in the back. Keep it low as possible and limit the front uptravel so I can keep the body intact. I want it to look like a Cruiser too.

Front will be a 4 link with 2.5 Radflo air shocks. Simple. Im not planning on bombing across the desert. If they don’t hold up I’ll try some ORIs.

The rear will be long Alcan springs attached high into the frame and Radflow Triple bypass shocks.

Leaf springs tend to bounce on steep climbs under power. We should be able to dial that out with these massive shocks.

 

[wngrog]

Wheels and tires.


I fell in love with these Mickeys about the time they came out. I was making my day trip to Hot Springs for the Crawl and there was a mini truck on 1 tons rocking these things.

I almost wet my pants.

These are DOT street legal so maybe they won’t wear out super fast.

If looks could kill.

Aluminum beadlocks

5 tires.

My bed “tailgate” is basically going to be a spare tire.

With a buggy I always just left the spare on the trailer to save weight. This truck is going places and really needs a spare.

I bought a knock off ARB jack to be mounted inside the bed.

 

[bottombracket]

Baller. Go time.

 

[Meshal]

amazing how the body is clean in this truck, I was telling nolen don’t ask about clean body but he said at least no rust. but dang he got clean one.

Clean means no accidents or fillers. I couldn’t see any painted areas.


the only downside of it that it was converted to power window