Vman's majestic wheelin' and build thread™ (2 Viewers)

[vman07]

What's up Mud! The 100 series community is incredible and I'm glad to finally be a part of it. In all honesty I never saw myself as a "LandCruiser" guy. For years I drove beater Toyota 2wd trucks. I followed the typical Toyota trajectory and landed in a 93' 4x4 pickup. I threw some BFG's on it and rear auto locker and drove it for years.

Fully bit by the wheelin' and camping bug (now branded as 'Overlanding' apparently) I moved onto building a proper rock crawling rig. It's a 1990 4Runner with a multitude of acronyms and numbers like SAS and ARB and 5.29's and 37's etc. It's incredibly capable off road and I still drive it and wheel it to this day.

But ^^^ LETSWHL lacked a lot of things, like air conditioning, air bags, and the ability to drive straight or go above 65 mph. When my wife and I learned that we had a baby on the way, I knew we needed a "family 4x4". I'd wheeled with a few 100 series guys and I'd seen first hand how capable the platform was, so the search was on for a 100 series I could call my own.

I found one! And it just happened to be in central Iowa (I live in Redwood City CA). After many conversations with the owner, exchanges of receipts, VIN checking etc, I bought a one-way ticket to the middle of nowhere Iowa and picked up my 07' LX 470.

Here's my first pic of the beauty during my 1800 mile please-don't-breakdown-on-me-in-the-middle-of-Wyoming return drive home:

All along the drive home I kept telling myself "I can't believe I'm actually in a Land Cruiser". It really was a thrill and the drive back across the country was uneventful.

Now the previous owner had done some tasteful mods that gave me a headstart on my own build. He had the AHC deleted, OME rear springs and torsion bars installed as well as SLEE shocks and sliders. These were almost exactly the mods I had planned on doing when I got a 100 series, so I was happy to find a 100 that already had this relatively expensive work done.

So my tenure with the rig began in March of 07' with 150,000 miles on the clock, it's just barely broken in right? more to come...

 

[vman07]

My first mods were to ditch the 32" inch Terra Crapplers and get some BFG's. I found a great set of 275/70/18's on CL for $400. I also handed my credit card info over to Mr. SLEE and he sent me a nice set of 1.25" wheel spacers.

With tires sorted out, I moved onto some aesthetic improvements. I plasti dipped the front and rear chrome a nice shade of grey to match the lower trim...

 

[vman07]

I love the combination of orange and black (hey I'm a huge SF Giants fan) so I added some orange marker lights into the grill...

(that sweet conversion van in the background belongs to my neighbor, she's 65 years old and probably gets out and camps more than I do)

Next, following Mud member nnnate's clever writeup, I ditched the tape deck (where the previous owner had left me a sweet Oingo Boingo tape , Dead Man's Party anyone??) and installed a mount for my cell phone...

After a few other mods like a Wit's End organizer, LandCruiserPhil's mudflap eliminator, and a VAIS blutooth unit, I felt warmed up and ready to tackle some bigger mods, up next, a homemade roofrack and a dual battery install.

 

[vman07]

I'm happy to share my credit card info with people who make cool stuff. It's like magic, you give them 16 little numbers and before you know it boxes start showing up on your doorstep. But I cannot understand roof racks, that is, I cannot understand paying $1,500 for a metal rectangle that sits on your roof. I know it's more complicated than that, but I figured I could make a suitable rack for far less.

I started with 60' of 1"x1" square tubing @ .072...

My main priority was to have a place to mount my awning and space for my hi-lift, shovel, and gas cans...

Like my welding slippers and super safe stack of 2 by 6's ??

And we have a rack!! A few stats: It weighs in around 50lbs., not the lightest thing ever but not a total boat anchor either. Overall cost was about $200. The six mounting towers ended up being the most challenging aspect of the rack. As I found out, there really isn't a flat surface on the roof of the LX. It's curved and the front of the gutter rails are even about an 1" wider than the rear. That was a nice little surprise.

All the work that goes into a rack, the multiple times lifting it on and off the car, the numerous trips to the hardware store, your neighbors shaking their head at you as they walk by, all of that is worth it the first time you get it out in the field somewhere and you can give your wife and little boy some shade on a hot day...

dual battery up next...

 

[4Beast]

digging the rack, nice work! Dual battery, with an isolator is a nice anxiety reducer!

 

[geanes]

$400 for KO2s is a steal! I can't find any on CL in my area (Austin) in the size I want (275/70/18). Leaving for Colorado at the end of the month and HAVE to buy new tires before then (the 2 front Terra Grapplers have screws in them on their outer treadblock and can't be repaired). Best I've found is $240/ea at Discount Tire Would love to find a deal like yours on CL and use the savings for some other upgrades.

Congrats on the LX and welcome to the cult.....Nike shoes and Kool-Aid are not compulsory.

 

[bucfl]

Nice start! Congrats on the little one also. That 4Runner looks beastly... lol

 

[LEX]

Looking good so far. Care to share another pic or 2 of LETSWHL?

 

[vman07]

Our little boy LOVES blueberries, and I love cold beer. That was reason enough to get a fridge. Plus we were tired of doing the ice chest dance....locate ice, put in cooler, watch it melt, dump out disgusting hot-dog water and repeat. So we got a 50 qt. Dometic. With increased power requirements comes the necessity for increased aH availability....Plus I've always wanted to "run duals"...

Job #1 was to identify a space for the second battery. The PO had removed the AHC reservoir so that area was an obvious choice. I relocated the power steering reservoir and a couple other electronic do-dads and I had my spot behind the air filter.

Job #2 was to create a battery tray to secure my yellow top Optima. The tray was easy and I added two side trays to mount a BluSea auxiliary fuse box and my circuit breakers...

Now that the second battery had a cozy home in the engine bay, it was time to hook up the big cables and the solenoid...

 

[geanes]

Our little boy LOVES blueberries, and I love cold beer. That was reason enough to get a fridge. Plus we were tired of doing the ice chest dance....locate ice, put in cooler, watch it melt, dump out water and repeat. So we got a 50 qt. Dometic. With increased power requirements comes the necessity for increased aH availability....Plus I've always wanted to "run duals"...

Job #1 was to identify a space for the second battery. The PO had removed the AHC reservoir so that area was an obvious choice. I relocated the power steering reservoir and a couple other electronic do-dads and I had my spot behind the air filter.

Job #2 was to create a battery tray to secure my yellow top Optima. The tray was easy and I added two side trays to mount a BluSea auxiliary fuse box and my circuit breakers...

Now that the second battery had a cozy home in the engine bay, it was time to hook up the big cables and the solenoid...

@vman07 .... you might consider doing a "run" of those 2nd Battery trays and sell them here on Mud. Very, very nice and clean setup. Big, BIG fan of that solution.

 

[vman07]

There are numerous types of solenoids available for connecting and disconnecting batteries. The range is literally a $20 dollar solenoid at AutoZone and a $500 computer controlled electronic marvel that senses your every thought and anticipates your mood and when and where and why to disconnect your batteries.

I found a happy compromise with this $60 unit on Amazon. It's user controlled, as in there's nothing automatic about it, more about that later....
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001YIPXR2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The next task was to find a spot to mount the solenoid and the switch that controlled it. Here's where it landed. I like that I can hear it engage and disengage with a very satisfying click...

Next I mounted an in-cab switch to control the solenoid. I LOVE that there is this huge blank palette of space between the tranny and t-case shifter, lots of potential for more switches...

The connecting and disconnecting of the two batteries is completely user controlled. Obviously when you're in camp and the vehicle is off, you want your starting and house battery disconnected. But I also wanted the the option to wait and connect the batteries after the truck had been started, thereby giving the starting battery a chance to recover a starting discharge. I guess it all comes down to the fact that I'm a huge control freak and I needed the ability to do whatever I wanted with my two chunks of lead and acid. The only "uh-oh" scenario is leaving the two batteries connected after the vehicle is turned off thereby providing an opportunity for both batteries to become discharged, but I'm hoping to create a habit of always checking the switch every time I exit the vehicle....until then I'll carry a jump pak around...

 

[vman07]

The last step was to wire every thing up. I went with 2/0 gauge welding wire for my main cables. I added the yellow wire sheathing just for looks....

Then a few circuit breakers later, a relay here and there, and a generous helping of zip ties and it was all over...

A few other details: Total cost was anywhere between $600 and $800, that includes a new Yellow Top and a new group 27f Bosch starting battery, also included in that cost was the solenoid, 3 circuit breakers and the Blu-Sea aux box. Voltage drop between the two batteries with the car running is less than .02 volts. Total time to setup was several hours a day for about a week. Total beers consumed during install: quite a few. Number of times I accidentally sparked both battery posts with an errant wrench: 3.

 

[Live to Ski]

Alrighty. Going big & welcome to the tribe.

BMed for future learning!

 

[vman07]

Looking good so far. Care to share another pic or 2 of LETSWHL?

welllll I might have a few pics lying around lol...

 

[vman07]

@vman07 .... you might consider doing a "run" of those 2nd Battery trays and sell them here on Mud. Very, very nice and clean setup. Big, BIG fan of that solution.

Thank U for the kind words! I really have no business making and selling things here on Mud, but if u ever want a tray like that hit me up and I'll see about cranking one out for you. Stay on top of CL about the tires as well, they do pop up now and then, but I understand the time constraints in your situation....

 

[yotasavg]

Awesome thread so far. I'm loving the dual battery install. For some reason, I've always felt that it's WAYYY over my head, but today, your install made sense to me. Maybe it's just that it's highlighted in yellow lol? One question though, one ground off the 2nd batt runs to the main batt, where does the second ground we can see run to? The blue sea box is my thought, but if you could confirm that'd be awesome.

 

[vman07]

Awesome thread so far. I'm loving the dual battery install. For some reason, I've always felt that it's WAYYY over my head, but today, your install made sense to me. Maybe it's just that it's highlighted in yellow lol? One question though, one ground off the 2nd batt runs to the main batt, where does the second ground we can see run to? The blue sea box is my thought, but if you could confirm that'd be awesome.

You are correct, the second ground you see goes from BlueSea to 2nd battery. You could also ground the BlueSea to the chassis but it was no big deal to go directly to the battery. A Dual install is not at all complicated, just requires a bit of planning, time and funds...

 

[yotasavg]

You are correct, the second ground you see goes from BlueSea to 2nd battery. You could also ground the BlueSea to the chassis but it was no big deal to go directly to the battery. A Dual install is not at all complicated, just requires a bit of planning, time and funds...

Gotcha, thanks for this. I'm feeling capable for next camping season. I think I'll be just about tired of a cooler by then, time for a refrigerator.

 

[crimsonaudio]

One of the more entertaining build threads on 'Mud. Digging the updates, thanks.

 

[El Cid]

Excllent job on the wiring write up. I got some blank looks from the locals when i did my dual battery, wish I'd had your detail on how you created your wiring.