Triple Locked LX600 Offroad

[1world1love]

Don't forget Japan also has a wide variety of terrains and climate for a relatively tiny island nation. Not just urban hellscapes.

True. It is a surprisingly diverse country for terrain and climate. But the enthusiast market is still comparable to here.

Also, hellscape is a bit much. I find the urban areas to be clean and functional, with an emphasis on the clean part. The Japanese culture generally promotes personal responsibility and civic pride, and it only takes a few minutes walking through parts of Tokyo to realize how true this is. It’s an amazing city.

 

[AnyMal]

True. It is a surprisingly diverse country for terrain and climate. But the enthusiast market is still comparable to here.

Also, hellscape is a bit much. I find the urban areas to be clean and functional, with an emphasis on the clean part. The Japanese culture generally promotes personal responsibility and civic pride, and it only takes a few minutes walking through parts of Tokyo to realize how true this is. It’s an amazing city.

Yeah your right, its Tokyo really but just due to shear size and density and my personal dislike of that sort of thing.
Japan is indeed a beautiful country, Im just not a huge fan of mega cities.

If theres one thing covid did that was beneficial it was de urbanization. But even that has had highly destructive economic impacts to locals anywhere near economic hubs. Cities, being the businesses that they are do everything they can to ensure their tax base growth as well and add to the fire.

Austin is a travesty in this regard as im sure you are aware. Huge tax breaks for corps to come and no housing or infrastructure to support any of it. Theyre trying to figure out who to provision enough power and water for Tesla and Samsung plants here after the fact.
Property prices up 34% in one year... QOL everywhere is slipping.

 

[1world1love]

Yeah your right, its Tokyo really but just due to shear size and density and my personal dislike of that sort of thing.
Japan is indeed a beautiful country, Im just not a huge fan of mega cities.

If theres one thing covid did that was beneficial it was de urbanization. But even that has had highly destructive economic impacts to locals anywhere near economic hubs. Cities, being the businesses that they are do everything they can to ensure their tax base growth as well and add to the fire.

Austin is a travesty in this regard as im sure you are aware. Huge tax breaks for corps to come and no housing or infrastructure to support any of it. Theyre trying to figure out who to provision enough power and water for Tesla and Samsung plants here after the fact.
Property prices up 34% in one year... QOL everywhere is slipping.

Yeah, places like Austin, Nashville, Charlotte, etc are really at a inflection point on growth. Tokyo is massive and is not immune to common urban woes, but it is remarkably efficient and there is not a city in the US of any size that works as well.

But back to the topic at hand, it will be interesting to see how the LX offerings evolve in the US now that we know more about the platform.

As far as mods go, it seems that for all of the newer off-road capable vehicles, there is more and more automation and ECU involvement. It will start to affect what is possible. I say that because of the discussion about aftermarket lockers. While the mechanics of installing lockers may not change, you have to think that at some point such a mod will require some hacking as well. More to the point, as these trucks become more sophisticated and complex, it’s likely that modifications will also.

How long till there are spare ECUs and a chrome book next to our spare CVs and extra transmission fluid? Or how soon till we are reprogramming ECUs routinely?

When I was growing up, the idea that we would carry around a computer interface that plugs into the car to tell us what was wrong was complete sci fi. Yet here we are.

Another digression, but I am interested to see what is possible with this vehicle.

 

[TonyP]

Yeah, places like Austin, Nashville, Charlotte, etc are really at a inflection point on growth. Tokyo is massive and is not immune to common urban woes, but it is remarkably efficient and there is not a city in the US of any size that works as well.

But back to the topic at hand, it will be interesting to see how the LX offerings evolve in the US now that we know more about the platform.

As far as mods go, it seems that for all of the newer off-road capable vehicles, there is more and more automation and ECU involvement. It will start to affect what is possible. I say that because of the discussion about aftermarket lockers. While the mechanics of installing lockers may not change, you have to think that at some point such a mod will require some hacking as well. More to the point, as these trucks become more sophisticated and complex, it’s likely that modifications will also.

How long till there are spare ECUs and a chrome book next to our spare CVs and extra transmission fluid? Or how soon till we are reprogramming ECUs routinely?

When I was growing up, the idea that we would carry around a computer interface that plugs into the car to tell us what was wrong was complete sci fi. Yet here we are.

Another digression, but I am interested to see what is possible with this vehicle.

Carrying an obd reader is common.
It would be nice if Toyota had something similar to VAGCOM or ISTA available for the public.

 

[bloc]

It would be nice if Toyota had something similar to VAGCOM or ISTA available for the public.

I dream of such a thing.

Meanwhile most of the major manufacturers are busy lobbying against our right to repair our own property.

As for lockers and hacking, at least with my understanding of current crawl control implementation it won’t even notice a locked diff.. it just won’t have any wheel spin to try and react to. But the future may bring whole different systems.

 

[stonepa]

At least in the taco they moved to an eaton-style e-locker without the old school actuator that rusts out. I wouldn't be surprised if this makes it into the new Tundra as well.

I'm not totally sure but in the Landcruiser 300 GR sport off-road video it does look like an external actuator, but it is much smaller than the old ones.

Maybe it is a cable locker like in my FJ60.

 

[stonepa]

Triple locked? This thing has such poor overhangs, it will never make it to the terrain that difficult. G-Wagon looking better and better.

Overhangs are irrelevant but lockers important when dealing with steep gradients, gravel, mud, or snow.

 

[TonyP]

Overhangs are irrelevant but lockers important when dealing with steep gradients, gravel, mud, or snow.

Approach and departure angles? They're not irrelevant at all depending on the terrain.

 

[stonepa]

Approach and departure angles? They're not irrelevant at all depending on the terrain.

Oh I know that but lockers are valuable in many types of terrain, even those where approach and departure angles are not relevant.

 

[linuxgod]

Doesn't look like the LX600 will have front and rear lockers available in any trim or as an option in the USA:

https://www.lexus.com/content/dam/lexus/documents/fcv/MY22_LX_POG.pdf

Whether or not they can be retrofit easily is a different question of course.

 

[OSS]

Doesn't look like the LX600 will have front and rear lockers available in any trim or as an option in the USA

A testament to how Toyota views the vehicle will be used.
But none of the USA Landcruisers from the FJ62 and earlier came with lockers either.

 

[linuxgod]

A testament to how Toyota views the vehicle will be used.
But none of the USA Landcruisers from the FJ62 and earlier came with lockers either.

Yep. Neither did my triple-locked 200, at least in the USA. I'm sure it'll be possible to triple-lock w/ aftermarket options... just disappointing that it's not being offered in the USA given the 6 figure cost of a Lexus, though in fairness I do suspect >95% of LX600 sold in the USA will never see gravel roads, nevermind actual offroad use which would require lockers.

 

[AnyMal]

Yep. Neither did my triple-locked 200, at least in the USA. I'm sure it'll be possible to triple-lock w/ aftermarket options... just disappointing that it's not being offered in the USA given the 6 figure cost of a Lexus, though in fairness I do suspect >95% of LX600 sold in the USA will never see gravel roads, nevermind actual offroad use which would require lockers.

The foreign variants exist with all the compatible parts and are usually order-able in the US but I'm sure the cost is obscene nonetheless which really sucks.

I just did an exercise of the sort to find all the black edition trim my truck would need.
It got up to about $5,000 before i stopped. I think it would be about $8-10K total. Ridiculous.
Then there is the question of labor and dealing with selling take off parts.

Im also trying to figure out if a 2022 interior console/nav conversion for my sisters 2017 GX is even possible.
I dont even want to know what that will cost but my guess is not even worth looking into...

 

[vantage78]

True. It is a surprisingly diverse country for terrain and climate. But the enthusiast market is still comparable to here.

Also, hellscape is a bit much. I find the urban areas to be clean and functional, with an emphasis on the clean part. The Japanese culture generally promotes personal responsibility and civic pride, and it only takes a few minutes walking through parts of Tokyo to realize how true this is. It’s an amazing city.

Look at the cars as well. While gawking at all the cool cars during a vacation there, I never once spotted a dirty automobile. Definitely a culture thing.

 

[t4r2lx570]

A proper off-road package would have included redesigned front and rear bumpers for a better approach and departure angle, but it's nice that Toyota at least tried.