What should my first mods be?

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krice118

krice118

10 Year
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St. Louis, MO
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Hey y'all! Love the info and following on this site. I will be acquiring my first LC, a 99 with rear locker in a few weeks and I was wondering what should my first mods be? I want a snorkel, sliders, bumpers tires....... But am a college student wih limited funds.

I searched but could not find what the best snorkel is. Safari?
I will use the LC to go out to the lake and on the beach. Some mudding here and there. I'm in Mississppi. . I was thinking Nitto mud grapplers?
So what so y'all think my first mods should be? The cruiser is completely stock with 110,000 and timing belt done.
 
Also what are the best/cheapest sliders and best bumpers for clearance with winch?
 
Can you define "limited funds"? Bumpers, sliders, winch, tires = $5,000. Give a little more info and we can help prioritize. I'd personally keep $2,000 in a rainy day fund if something breaks, even on what sounds like a nice low mileage truck.
 
First mod - before tires, before bumpers, before 'wheeling any trail requiring 4-wheel-drive: Sliders. If you can't afford sliders... you can't afford to 'wheel the Land Cruiser. And give a lot of thought to the snorkel. They definitely give it that "Hey, look at me - I'm on a safari!" look. But, there's a whole lot of other things to address before going in water deep enough to "need" as snorkel.
 
0 to 500 = save your cash
500 to 1000 = tires
1000 to 2000 = tires and sliders
2000 to 3000 = tires, sliders and front ARB locker
3000 to 4000 = tires, sliders, front arb and lift kit
 
College student + limited budget + lake + mud + stock '99 Land Cruiser = no bueño... :lol:

If you just want to do a little wheeling, forego the snorkel, winch and bumpers. You can crank the front torsion bars for free. $50 bucks shipped from MAF gets you 30mm spacers for the back springs = mild lift (won't support f/r bumpers or winch - also shouldn't require diff drop.) Get some 285 or 295 tires, and call it good. That's ~$1300. Ditch the running boards. A snorkel doesn't sound necessary, and a winch will just make you want to do stupid things... :lol:

In short, these are not cheap trucks to own, ESPECIALLY if you want to mod and wheel them, let alone just fill the tank...

Good luck.

Oh, and there's a thread about a guy here who tried to use his new cruiser to pull his jeep buddy out of a pond. Go read that before going to the lake with your buddies. And no, I'm not picking on you. I had a four wheel drive truck in college, and know first-hand the idiotic things that my friends and I did...
 
Suspension, suspension, suspension!

Oh, and by the way, did I mention SUSPENSION??

Seriously, before you do anything, you will probably be needing to replace your shocks, and adjust your front t-bars to level it out, and maybe do some sort of a suspension lift depending upon your planned usage. You can't even put larger tires on if you don't address your suspension first.

Just my honest opinion... Have fun with!
 
krice118 said:
.... But am a college student wih limited funds.
Click to expand...

re_guderian said:
College student + limited budget + lake + mud + stock '99 Land Cruiser = no bueño... :lol:

In short, these are not cheap trucks to own, ESPECIALLY if you want to mod and wheel them, let alone just fill the tank...
Click to expand...

pretty much sums it up. i'd say save your money for filling up that gas tank until you graduate and start making $ to spend on toys. Figure to fully build your rig with tires, lift, lockers, armor and a few other goodies, you're looking at close to $10k just for parts. once you start adding things like a lift and tires, you'll be able to go further into the tougher parts of a trail = need more mods like armor = empty wallet :crybaby: also, just giving your rig some height via lift and tires will make for less aerodynamics = spending more money on gas :clap:
 
r2m said:
Suspension, suspension, suspension!

Oh, and by the way, did I mention SUSPENSION??

Seriously, before you do anything, you will probably be needing to replace your shocks, and adjust your front t-bars to level it out, and maybe do some sort of a suspension lift depending upon your planned usage. You can't even put larger tires on if you don't address your suspension first.

Just my honest opinion... Have fun with!
Click to expand...
not entirely true, 285's will fit stock. Shocks might be shot, but OEM's are ~$130 for four (a bright spot for OEM prices!). If springs or t-bars are shot you can usually score take-offs for free.
 
re_guderian said:
not entirely true, 285's will fit stock. Shocks might be shot, but OEM's are ~$130 for four (a bright spot for OEM prices!). If springs or t-bars are shot you can usually score take-offs for free.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, exactly my point, this takes us back to the original question: "What should I do first?". And to that I still say suspension!

Aside from any mechanical issues, take care of your suspension first, even if it is just shocks, make sure your ride is right before you bolt on some new tires or even just going on some fire trails in stock form. ;)

Even fire trails can put a suspension to the test depending upon your location. Bad shocks will have you bottoming out and banging your under carriage real quick!
 
uzj100 said:
0 to 500 = save your cash
500 to 1000 = tires
1000 to 2000 = tires and sliders
2000 to 3000 = tires, sliders and front ARB locker
3000 to 4000 = tires, sliders, front arb and lift kit
Click to expand...

For 0-500, I'd replace your headlight assemblies. By now your inner reflectors are oxidized and not performing anywhere close the when they were new. I just changed mine out ('99) and it made a huge difference to my light output!



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My question exactly ^^ how much are those housings?
 
Thank y'all for responding so quickly!
What it seems like I will do first is headlights, suspension and sliders. What Are good options as far as Brighter headlights? HID replacements? I have read about LS430 retrofit HIDs?
 
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