What makes LC80 most capable 4WD/SUV?

[landcrusher80]

Things I don't like. Range. Not necessarily mileage, but range. 200ish with the LC. over 400 with the H1 I had. Pretty much the same MPG. Towing capacity is minimal compared to a V8 Turbo Diesel. Any gas motor dies once water hits the ignition system. Diesels are water proof. I would consider myself to be objective to almost all 4wd vehicles. They all have strengths and weaknesses. I personally liked a truck that could ford 3 feet of water all day, take a 38" tire, have a huge payload and a diesel motor stock! But the articulation sucked a lot and it broke a lot.

Now imagine if you had a 1HD-T motor in your truck!? You get 400 miles.... close to the same towing...water proof motor.......37" Goodyear Wrangler MT Military OZ or bigger.

Cheers

Landcrusher 80

 

[Altaf]

Hey, what about the 100 series?!!!


I'll just sit back and watch from here...

 

[Erratic]

Now imagine if you had a 1HD-T motor in your truck!? You get 400 miles.... close to the same towing...water proof motor.......37" Goodyear Wrangler MT Military OZ or bigger.

Cheers

Landcrusher 80

I know it! That'd be sick! And it would fit down a normal trail! I'd love to get a 1HD-T. Eh, it's only money, right!

 

[flintknapper]

Well said, Cary.

the LC 80 is best of breed without a doubt... except for the stereo.

T.

Truer words were never spoken.

 

[stayalert]

Its the internet support

 

[Nay]

Take a stock 80 out rock crawling on a tight trail with a Rubicon Unlimited on 32's with a 4:1 low range, etc., etc. and report back how it goes.

What the 80 has going is the best out of the box multi-purpose platform for relatively heavy hauling (people/gear), but the more your bias shifts to hardcore offroading both in type and frequency, the less the "most capable" statement can be well defended.

 

[Brian Macgyver]

Within each of your questions you answered them....

Perfect answer!
You compare the LC to a Honda? I worked on Hondas for 18+ years giving feedback and design ideas back to the company and during much of that time I had a Toyota in my driveway! Honda builds a great car but second best is still just a close second. Hondas are reliable but soft and fragile. Only Toyota can build a Toyota!
As to the rest of the builders, the Japanese (with the exception of Honda) use real steel in a truck. They are solid. My last 4X4 was a short Montero, about the size of a Jeep CJ7. The Montero weighed in at 4210 pounds without fuel, compared to the Jeep at 2500 +or-. The Montero's weight is similar to that of a full-size Chevy 1/2 ton 4X4. It is built from real steel, not soup cans.
The LC 80 is more of the same at 5700 pounds. It is basically a tractor with air conditioning. Weight savings are great for soccor mom wagons, but it will hurt you off-road. Weight is what keeps the wheels on the ground as well as preventing broken frames and axles.
I spent years building desert buggies and Baja Bugs. Light weight is key to those cars, but traction is minimal. They do not have the weight to hold the wheels on the ground. They exist on speed and momentum. That can be hazardous on a crowded forest road, as I discovered many times!.
Most of the 4X4's on the market are too light and are responsible for the rutting on our forest roads due to lack of traction and wheel spin. Trucks (and desert buggies) without weight and traction cause most of the damage to our forest roads. They may get better fuel mileage on the highway, but they waste energy by spinning the wheels when the surface is less than perfect. This includes rainy days and snow as well as off-road.
I recently took my locked 80 up to a high altitude in ice and snow on basically street tires. In over 20 miles of slush, snow and sheets of ice, I only slipped a wheel one time. All of the energy used by my truck was applied to the road. None was wasted in wheel spin. In addition, no fuel was used to dig holes in the road or to create the "washboard" effect that is caused by trucks that lack weight and traction. No road grader needs to follow me to repair damage to the roadway.
My heavy truck may rate lower in MPG, but no waste is accepted. My LC does not spin tires, does not damage roads, (paved or not paved) and does not require a much heavier truck, using more fuel, to repair the road after I have used it. My heavier truck treads more lightly in the forest and causes less erosion and road damage because it has better traction. This is why I gave up the "off-road sports cars" in favor of slow-poke Monteros and Land Cruisers. They are made of steel, they have weight, and they do not tear up roads.

 

[Ivan80]

Take a stock 80 out rock crawling on a tight trail with a Rubicon Unlimited on 32's with a 4:1 low range, etc., etc. and report back how it goes.

Then drive them both for 11 years and 135K miles and do it again, then report back how it goes.

 

[Pete483]

Tired Iron, is that one of the 1987ish ex-Marine Corps trucks? If so, the newer ones have new axles, diffs, transmissions, and 6.5 diesels (through still not turbo). I've taken an M1097A2 through stuff that would have been tough for a Cruiser, though I've driven my old stock 4runner through stuff that would have been a challenge for the Humvee. I would like to try one with the CTIS as I've driven bigger trucks with it an it is a pretty convenient feature.

 

[Nielsen]

Now imagine if you had a 1HD-T motor in your truck!? You get 400 miles.... close to the same towing...water proof motor.......37" Goodyear Wrangler MT Military OZ or bigger.

Cheers

Landcrusher 80

Exactly! Throw in that Toyota Diesel and you take a step further up on the reliability scale

/Nielsen

 

[cary]

Perfect answer!
You compare the LC to a Honda? I worked on Hondas for 18+ years giving feedback and design ideas back to the company and during much of that time I had a Toyota in my driveway! Honda builds a great car but second best is still just a close second. Hondas are reliable but soft and fragile. Only Toyota can build a Toyota!
As to the rest of the builders, the Japanese (with the exception of Honda) use real steel in a truck. They are solid. My last 4X4 was a short Montero, about the size of a Jeep CJ7. The Montero weighed in at 4210 pounds without fuel, compared to the Jeep at 2500 +or-. The Montero's weight is similar to that of a full-size Chevy 1/2 ton 4X4. It is built from real steel, not soup cans.
The LC 80 is more of the same at 5700 pounds. It is basically a tractor with air conditioning. Weight savings are great for soccor mom wagons, but it will hurt you off-road. Weight is what keeps the wheels on the ground as well as preventing broken frames and axles.
I spent years building desert buggies and Baja Bugs. Light weight is key to those cars, but traction is minimal. They do not have the weight to hold the wheels on the ground. They exist on speed and momentum. That can be hazardous on a crowded forest road, as I discovered many times!.
Most of the 4X4's on the market are too light and are responsible for the rutting on our forest roads due to lack of traction and wheel spin. Trucks (and desert buggies) without weight and traction cause most of the damage to our forest roads. They may get better fuel mileage on the highway, but they waste energy by spinning the wheels when the surface is less than perfect. This includes rainy days and snow as well as off-road.
I recently took my locked 80 up to a high altitude in ice and snow on basically street tires. In over 20 miles of slush, snow and sheets of ice, I only slipped a wheel one time. All of the energy used by my truck was applied to the road. None was wasted in wheel spin. In addition, no fuel was used to dig holes in the road or to create the "washboard" effect that is caused by trucks that lack weight and traction. No road grader needs to follow me to repair damage to the roadway.
My heavy truck may rate lower in MPG, but no waste is accepted. My LC does not spin tires, does not damage roads, (paved or not paved) and does not require a much heavier truck, using more fuel, to repair the road after I have used it. My heavier truck treads more lightly in the forest and causes less erosion and road damage because it has better traction. This is why I gave up the "off-road sports cars" in favor of slow-poke Monteros and Land Cruisers. They are made of steel, they have weight, and they do not tear up roads.

Are you for real? Just out of curiosity, what exactly was your role in providing feedback to Honda? It sure wasn't as an engineer.

 

[Hayes]

I too see some strange things in this post...

 

[Nay]

Then drive them both for 11 years and 135K miles and do it again, then report back how it goes.

The stock 80 will still get stuck 11 years later

 

[Buckru]

The stock 80 will still get stuck 11 years later

Maybe, but it wont be stuck on the side of the road waiting on a tow truck.

 

[Nay]

Maybe, but it wont be stuck on the side of the road waiting on a tow truck.

That is silly. This isn't AMC in 1985. My 1997 XJ had 105K miles when I sold it, 85K of which were heavily modified with a great deal of trail time, and it was rattle free and in better overall mechanical condition than my 1995 80 with the same 105K miles that had been driven by a grandmother in Florida for 90% of its life and obsessively PM'd and maintained by the second owner.

The roadside is not littered with broken down late model Jeeps, and I have personally spent as much trail repair time in a few Toyota crowd runs as I did in years of non-CJ Jeep runs, although that hasn't been due to 80's for sure.

Having said this, I spent years and a fortune trying to turn an XJ into what an 80 is at its essence out of the box: a perfect dual purpose rig for an active family that does everything together.

Nay

 

[Farr off road]

Hey, what about the 100 series?!!!


I'll just sit back and watch from here...

IFS!!! Need I say more?

 

[NaterGator]

Hey, what about the 100 series?!!!


I'll just sit back and watch from here...

Don't you need to pick the kids up from soccer practice or something?

 

[Grench]

All of the energy used by my truck was applied to the road. None was wasted in wheel spin. In addition, no fuel was used to dig holes in the road or to create the "washboard" effect that is caused by trucks that lack weight and traction. No road grader needs to follow me to repair damage to the roadway.

I always thought that washboards were a micro dune effect of the wind rolling over gravel/sand roads.

 

[Skillet]

This is the best setup because you can just blow the crap out of any obstacle with your Ma Deuce.

 

[TiredIronGRB]

That was a M60...