What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend? (68 Viewers)

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Took it for 2800 mile overlanding trip from Chicago area thru Copper Harbor UP Michigan to Ely, MN to Bismarck, ND to Rapid City, SD. Run into some overheating issues in ND and ended up getting the thermostat replaced in Black Hills Toyota Dealership where they went above and beyond to help me out, especially Jason one of their technicians that worked on my truck. Unfortunately the thermostat didn't fix the issue so new radiator is on the way to be swapped out. Ended up driving it back home 830 miles in 90 deg weather in one day with heat blasting to keep the temp down, will not attempt to do this again as I was very close of getting a heatstroke.

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After changing all fluids, flushing radiator, new hoses, VC120, new rear tires, greased drivelines I loaded her up and drove north west. Camped north of fort bragg ca on the beach for a week. Twas 106 degrees in the nutsac (Sacramento) had a hi of 77 on day coast. I had to take this pic. You think you got a sweet 4x4 vehicle, a beast if you will? Then you pull up next to this. Dreams of driving up to Alaska again kick in! Drove there & back in a 84 GTI in 92. Driving in this & you would be king of da road! It gave me tears of joy

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lol. $250k for an earthromer, or $40k for an F350 and a nice slide-in. Exact same vehicle :o
 
Took it for 2800 mile overlanding trip from Chicago area thru Copper Harbor UP Michigan to Ely, MN to Bismarck, ND to Rapid City, SD. Run into some overheating issues in ND and ended up getting the thermostat replaced in Black Hills Toyota Dealership where they went above and beyond to help me out, especially Jason one of their technicians that worked on my truck. Unfortunately the thermostat didn't fix the issue so new radiator is on the way to be swapped out. Ended up driving it back home 830 miles in 90 deg weather in one day with heat blasting to keep the temp down, will not attempt to do this again as I was very close of getting a heatstroke.

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Sounds like an awesome trip except for the overheating..did you do a flush and fill? Anyway I think you went right past my house on US Hwy 2 going from the UP of Michigan to Superior, Wi.
 


As @LandCruiserPhil stated, it's not good for your front diff. You can read on here about guys getting into deep mud and blowing out their front diff standing on it in reverse, or reversing up a steep downhill with rocks. It's weak. I consider it the Achilles heel of the LC in an otherwise over-built truck. Even without lots of HP, it can still tear up the drive line.

I guess I have NEVER pulled anyone out in reverse on ANY vehicle I own. I would ALWAYS turn around and pull it from the hitch. Or in this case, drive past and drag him through it.

I did like Phil and drove past a F250, asked if they needed help. They said no, and don't go over there! (as they pointed over to their right) So I drove over there, went through it, turned around in it, then came back and asked....."Did you mean over where I just went?" They growled and went back to work scooping snow from under their truck.........
 
Do you run all of that stuff off of just a single battery?

No. I have dual batteries and solar. Finally will have solar completely hooked up today.

Many do all that with one group 31 without issue.

They do. I would never do it though. I prefer to be safe rather than sorry. But I also carry a third battery with me that isn't hooked up, just in case.
 
After changing all fluids, flushing radiator, new hoses, VC120, new rear tires, greased drivelines I loaded her up and drove north west. Camped north of fort bragg ca on the beach for a week. Twas 106 degrees in the nutsac (Sacramento) had a hi of 77 on day coast. I had to take this pic. You think you got a sweet 4x4 vehicle, a beast if you will? Then you pull up next to this. Dreams of driving up to Alaska again kick in! Drove there & back in a 84 GTI in 92. Driving in this & you would be king of da road! It gave me tears of joy

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Nice! We were camping in that area all last week. Van Damme State Park. The cool weather was nice compared to the Bay Area. Sweet Cruiser!
 
No. I have dual batteries and solar. Finally will have solar completely hooked up today.



They do. I would never do it though. I prefer to be safe rather than sorry. But I also carry a third battery with me that isn't hooked up, just in case.

A group 31 gives you twice the available output of a traditional dual battery set up. Couple a group 31 with a jump box you have more power at a lower cost, higher reliability, with better battery longevity than a dual battery set up.

My current set up is a group 31 and a group 34 tied together always and I carry a jump box. The set up gives me 85 available AH where as a traditional dual battery group 34 can only supply 27AH.

Power upgrade Group 31 install and Optima content
 
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Here is a pro tip for slow and dense people like me. If you have purchased a battery-to-fridge cord with the SB50 Anderson plug on the end from @NLXTACY, do yourself a favor and pull the pins from the SB50 housing to make running the cord easier. I'm an idiot and don't be me.

Second, Joey needs to sell that wire loom by the foot. It is fantastic! When I looked online to buy some the minimum order was too big for me to justify.

Otherwise I'm ready to install the carpet.


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No. I have dual batteries and solar. Finally will have solar completely hooked up today.



They do. I would never do it though. I prefer to be safe rather than sorry. But I also carry a third battery with me that isn't hooked up, just in case.
It almost seems like if you can run everything on one battery that you could just pack a spare battery like you do, just in case, rather than spending all the money to rig up a second battery in the truck.

Beyond just wanting to, what are the main reasons people install the second battery? Sorry for all the newb overlanding questions. I have always been more of a canoe packer, backpacker or state park campground camper. The only real road based trip I have done was on a 3 month van life trip throughout the Southeast in an '81 Chevy 15 passenger van that we built out for camping. A lot of the fancy gear you guys have is kinda neat but I don't know much about it. I am also a terrible electrician. I don't really understand all the little do-dads that people use to install things properly. If it's not in the FSM, I get into the weeds pretty quickly and even then, the EWD is a bit of a mystery novel to me.
 
lol. $250k for an earthromer, or $40k for an F350 and a nice slide-in. Exact same vehicle :eek:
If I am spending that type of money, I think I would go for a Sportsmobile. You can pick one of those up for about $100K. The folks I bought my cruiser from had replaced it with one of those. They are kinda ridiculous, but also pretty practical.
 
Nice! We were camping in that area all last week. Van Damme State Park. The cool weather was nice compared to the Bay Area. Sweet Cruiser!
Sweet, I love van damme! Went there for a week on a 5th grade field trip & have loved the northcoast ever since. We stayed at Westport from July 1st-8th. I didn't wanna come back.
 
Sounds like an awesome trip except for the overheating..did you do a flush and fill? Anyway I think you went right past my house on US Hwy 2 going from the UP of Michigan to Superior, Wi.

Hey Nigelsiam,
Yes I did flush and fill and a lot of radiator mucus was flushed out but there is no telling how much more of that stuff it's stll inside there. I did use US Hwy 2 on my way to Superior did you actually see me?
 
Both north and south California. Up around the Bay Area at first, then LA, Orange County, San Diego, and then back up to San Francisco.
Turns out there is a Land Cruiser restoration business right down the street from my families farm property in Gilroy CA. The name was Custom Cruisers, and they had like twenty 40 series plus a few 60's there. It was pretty awesome!
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Also saw this cool old man with his arm out the window cruising in his nice 62. I honked at him, but he just
Both north and south California. Up around the Bay Area at first, then LA, Orange County, San Diego, and then back up to San Francisco.
Turns out there is a Land Cruiser restoration business right down the street from my families farm property in Gilroy CA. The name was Custom Cruisers, and they had like twenty 40 series plus a few 60's there. It was pretty awesome!
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Also saw this cool old man with his arm out the window cruising in his nice 62. I honked at him, but he just ignored me. Maybe he was creeped out by me photo stalking him!
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We did have tentative plans to head out that way and visit the Land Cruiser Museum in Utah, but Mike went on a last minute trip to Ireland. He's there now, and keeps sending me pictures of all these cool diesel Land Cruisers we don't get here.
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I am from Gilroy and still live here. Did you grow up here?
 
Sweet, I love van damme! Went there for a week on a 5th grade field trip & have loved the northcoast ever since. We stayed at Westport from July 1st-8th. I didn't wanna come back.
Have you tried Usal Beach? It is north of Westport about 30 min and right on the beach. We go up there for the day when staying at Westport.
 
I am from Gilroy and still live here. Did you grow up here?
No, I didn't grow up in Gilroy. But my father owns the big palm tree nursery/farm on both sides of the 101 fwy from Masten to Buena Vista. So I usually spend some time there in the summers.
 

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