We were out there last week on a Sunday in my Tundra. Same thing very very little traffic. always great to get out on any trail!
Builds What did you do to your Land Cruiser/Toyota/Lexus 4X4 this week?
- Thread starter murf
- Start date
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What suspension are you using here?Polished and waxed the old gal
lcgeek
Glad to meet you!
OME "stock height" springs and OME shocks
Flagstaff's expo season kicked off last night with me having to twice swerve to miss massive blinged-out overlanding rigs turning (navigating) the wrong way onto one-way downtown streets.
Wear your helmets, keep the children inside.
Wear your helmets, keep the children inside.
You should have offered to help, I’m sure they were just looking for a patch of woods to set up a fake campsite for instagram photos
It’s hilarious to see tens of millions of dollars worth of rigs parked outside of the hotels in town. If anyone wants to skip the expo entrance fee, go tour the parking lot at the Hampton inn right now
Isn’t XPO like a fantasy MLB baseball camp? People who can camp showing others what’s possible ?
I like camping too, but too much van life can lead to insanity & murder . . . a hot bath and a comfy bed sounds great to me after I’ve been out in the boonies for a week.
These weren’t really “camping” rigs. This was a fleet of black series travel trailers towed by mad max inspired trucks covered in light bars and gas cans and a convoy of COE trucks with 20’ boxes on the back. Pretty safe to say that their camping situation is more luxurious than my living situation, and nicer than any hotel in town for that matter.... Not a spec of dirt on anything either. Cool to look at, but not practical and nothing I would ever want to own.
As a fellow black truck owner, I'm always shocked at how those shiny new fully decked out trucks are always able to buff out any and all traces of trail pinstriping.
An “Overlander Inn” hotel chain would kill it. “Adventure the urban wilds.”
Sort of reminds me of a trip to Mexico a few years ago. In our travel group was me and my 92, a couple in a Chevy work truck, my Mexican friends in an old Suburban, a pal in an old Tacoma and friends in a beautiful Sportsmobile that cost more than my house.
After four or five hours on dirt we arrive at a remote beach, everyone starts to make camp. The Sportsmobile drives onto the beach to camp and gets immediately stuck. Triple locking, it digs deeper and becomes more stuck. Sand anchors fail; traction boards don’t work; too soft. Driver is hot, obviously pissed, and starting to flail.
Mexican friends take notice, drive up and circle the scene in their suburban—no problemo. They stop, assess, and then—finding and filling an old five gallon bucket half buried in the sand—proceed to dump loads of ocean water at each tire.
The wetted sand firms and, cold Pacificos popped—thanks to the free beach-trash-bucket and a bit of common sense—the very expensive Sportsmobile drives right out.
Installed some new factory plastic
I've cleaned these several times over the years and put the fancy 3M UV protectorate, but they still yellow too fast.
The passenger light got cracked a few years back when I hit a deer, and now it has discoloration on the INSIDE of the lens. I've seen several after market LED conversions, but none of them seem to be very good quality.
Finally bit the bullet and bought a pair of good ole Toyota headlights from Desert Toyota. The difference between the old & new is stunning!
Kinda makes the rest of the front end look sad
High beams before
High beams after with the same camera settings - Manual, F4, ISO 400, 1/50 speed
High beam stray light streaks before
High beam stray light streaks from the new headlights. Don't know if the streaks are worse or the plastic is just clearer. Not much I can do about it anyway.
I've cleaned these several times over the years and put the fancy 3M UV protectorate, but they still yellow too fast.
The passenger light got cracked a few years back when I hit a deer, and now it has discoloration on the INSIDE of the lens. I've seen several after market LED conversions, but none of them seem to be very good quality.
Finally bit the bullet and bought a pair of good ole Toyota headlights from Desert Toyota. The difference between the old & new is stunning!
Kinda makes the rest of the front end look sad
High beams before
High beams after with the same camera settings - Manual, F4, ISO 400, 1/50 speed
High beam stray light streaks before
High beam stray light streaks from the new headlights. Don't know if the streaks are worse or the plastic is just clearer. Not much I can do about it anyway.
Trying to do this on the wife's RX309 but OEM lights are $1400...each!
Did a bunch of PM stuff and updates on my 80 in prep for a moab trip.
Installed an ignition switch bypass relay for the starter solenoid, upgraded the battery cables, put a group 31m battery back in it, installed a brake controller and 7 pin plug for my travel trailer, replaced the bent tie rod, put some sliders on etc.
Then I bought jeep
Installed an ignition switch bypass relay for the starter solenoid, upgraded the battery cables, put a group 31m battery back in it, installed a brake controller and 7 pin plug for my travel trailer, replaced the bent tie rod, put some sliders on etc.
Then I bought jeep
Bought one! 1992 FJ80
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Congrats and Welcome!
She’s a beauty Clark
this is more about what wasn't done:
so, the DSRTGX had developed a definite noise on the highway, between 50-70mph, that would go away when I took the foot off the gas pedal - while we both sought to define the problem better, Michael noticed that a vibration could be felt in the transfer case shifter whenever the noise was present . . .
having long listened to vehicle noises obsessively, we both came to the conclusion that this originated either from a driveshaft or U-joint . . .
so, as I was going downtown anyway to pick up wiper blades, I dropped the GX off at the dealer, with exactly this above description of the problem - they came back with saying that that date code on the tires was 2015, they were cracked, and the GX needed new tires and an alignment - call me skeptical at the diagnosis, but I agreed that it was time for tires; they gave me the alignment for free
sure enough, the noise was quieter, but NOT gone, and neither was the vibration at speed (I doubt they ever test drove the vehicle
) - as I was mentioning this to Richard while visiting the shop the next day, he goes "why don't you just roll it in the bay and we'll have a look" - well, you guessed it:
within not even 3 minutes under there, Travis yell up "this doesn't look good" - yup, discovered a front U-joint busted
- 
I'll post pics in a minute . . .
the fundamental point here is: it's not about that I did in fact mention this possibility when I gave the GX into the dealer service department, it's also not that dealer didn't claims to have performed a >100-point all-around vehicle inspection (several times over my 3 years of ownership, and every year before) and didn't see this (???), it's foremost that this very vehicle has never been serviced anywhere else since new 180K miles ago than at this very same dealer shop, and the inspection of all U-joints revealed that they hadn't seen any grease in years and years
so, the DSRTGX had developed a definite noise on the highway, between 50-70mph, that would go away when I took the foot off the gas pedal - while we both sought to define the problem better, Michael noticed that a vibration could be felt in the transfer case shifter whenever the noise was present . . .
having long listened to vehicle noises obsessively, we both came to the conclusion that this originated either from a driveshaft or U-joint . . .
so, as I was going downtown anyway to pick up wiper blades, I dropped the GX off at the dealer, with exactly this above description of the problem - they came back with saying that that date code on the tires was 2015, they were cracked, and the GX needed new tires and an alignment - call me skeptical at the diagnosis, but I agreed that it was time for tires; they gave me the alignment for free
sure enough, the noise was quieter, but NOT gone, and neither was the vibration at speed (I doubt they ever test drove the vehicle
) - as I was mentioning this to Richard while visiting the shop the next day, he goes "why don't you just roll it in the bay and we'll have a look" - well, you guessed it:within not even 3 minutes under there, Travis yell up "this doesn't look good" - yup, discovered a front U-joint busted
- I'll post pics in a minute . . . the fundamental point here is: it's not about that I did in fact mention this possibility when I gave the GX into the dealer service department, it's also not that dealer didn't claims to have performed a >100-point all-around vehicle inspection (several times over my 3 years of ownership, and every year before) and didn't see this (???), it's foremost that this very vehicle has never been serviced anywhere else since new 180K miles ago than at this very same dealer shop, and the inspection of all U-joints revealed that they hadn't seen any grease in years and years
sorry for the long post, but Richard, Travis and John came through with having a new OEM U-joint available and installing it right then - needless to say, the test drive up to Fountain Hills at speeds just about allowable on the new tires (unmentionable on a public forum) proved the noises and vibrations to be entirely gone
after some back-and-forth texting pics and calling, I do have it in writing from the service advisor that my next U-joint job at the dealer will be comped :rotf:
after some back-and-forth texting pics and calling, I do have it in writing from the service advisor that my next U-joint job at the dealer will be comped :rotf:
there were no needles left in the bearing - it was probably then when the last needle left that the noises started, because it looked like this had been going on for a while . . . - the bearing was not only cracked but also egged out, and the U-joint spider arm was bent and rounded off as well (which made it major work getting it out
)there was no evidence of any grease anywhere in the bearing cap
this was on the front driveshaft, parts number of U-joint attached
bonus info: the front driveshaft from an 80 series cruiser has the same dimension and mounting points, so interchangeable
Lexus dealer service advisor said "I have never seen anything like this on a GX" - yeah, evidently he doesn't fully recognize yet what "I can mangle anything" means 
although I have managed at least one other purportedly rare incident early after buying the GX: one of the front struts broke off flat at the junction of the shaft to the mounting ear
this GX is proof that even a one-owner vehicle with full documentation of all service history at the original dealer is not immune from problems - major drama queen of our fleet
although I have managed at least one other purportedly rare incident early after buying the GX: one of the front struts broke off flat at the junction of the shaft to the mounting ear
this GX is proof that even a one-owner vehicle with full documentation of all service history at the original dealer is not immune from problems - major drama queen of our fleet
