Where does the FJ Cruiser fit? (2 Viewers)

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COS80

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Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I'm curious to hear your opinions anyway... is the FJ Cruiser a part of the Land Cruiser "family" the way a Lexus LX is, or is it a "pretender"?
 
Some people don’t like the way they look, I think capability wise they fit right in.
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Yeah I've always thought of it as a modern interpretation of a 40 series.
I think Toyota was just making an offroad vehicle, checking a few boxes with regard to size, capability, and style.
It shares a large percentage of parts with the Tacoma, which I thought was a good thing for commonality and availability.
The IFS is probably the biggest departure from the LC range (even as it debuted about the same time as the 100 w/IFS), tho it too could just be a Taco setup.
There is a dedicated group of modders for the FJC.
 
The FJC is built on the “global Prado chassis”, same as the 5th gen 4Runner and Lexus GX(Prado). Although it has the same chassis, I’m not a fan of them off-road. The short wheelbase, combined with the limited suspension travel and top heavy body, make them pretty sketchy off-road. If you’ve ever been out ‘wheeling with one, you’ve seen what I’m talking about. They always seem to have a tire off the ground. The balance is terrible. With the 4Runner being available, I’m not sure how they ever sold any FJC’s. The 4Runner has a better wheelbase, more utility, more room, better balance, and far less blind spots. The 4Runner wheelbase is only 5-6 inches longer, but it seems to make a lot of difference.
That’s just my experience though.
 
The FJC is built on the “global Prado chassis”, same as the 5th gen 4Runner and Lexus GX(Prado). Although it has the same chassis, I’m not a fan of them off-road. The short wheelbase, combined with the limited suspension travel and top heavy body, make them pretty sketchy off-road. If you’ve ever been out ‘wheeling with one, you’ve seen what I’m talking about. They always seem to have a tire off the ground. The balance is terrible. With the 4Runner being available, I’m not sure how they ever sold any FJC’s. The 4Runner has a better wheelbase, more utility, more room, better balance, and far less blind spots. The 4Runner wheelbase is only 5-6 inches longer, but it seems to make a lot of difference.
That’s just my experience though.
I haven't seen or been in one off road, but I did have one as a rental nearly a decade ago. I was impressed at how nice it rode on the street, but that's kind of irrelevant.

When you say the balance is terrible, do you mean they have poor weight distribution, or something else?
 
I haven't seen or been in one off road, but I did have one as a rental nearly a decade ago. I was impressed at how nice it rode on the street, but that's kind of irrelevant.

When you say the balance is terrible, do you mean they have poor weight distribution, or something else?
To have a balanced suspension, you would typically have the same suspension setup in the front and rear. With IFS, the live rear axle can flex pretty good, but the front doesn’t- this leads to some pretty odd weight transfer situations on the trail.
IFS rigs tend to “follow” the front end on trails, because IFS doesn’t have very good travel. The weight of the engine up front accentuates this behavior. The rear is alway going to unload weight, and cause the front end to fall in holes going downhill, lifting a rear tire- or pick up front tires going uphill. The front suspension can’t cancel out the rear. I don’t know how to explain it well, because I’m certainly no suspension guru, but you see this behavior a lot on IFS rigs. The short wheelbase of the FJC makes it even worse. The body on those particular vehicles is also pretty top heavy.
It looks like this:
 
That did look like a strange rollover.
 
The 4Runner had a big rooftop tent on it- but yes, all IFS rigs are susceptible to roll at this spot.
 
I was wondering if this video would rear its ugly head. lol
Stevie Wonder driving ... Ray Charles spotting ... found the worst line even still.
I agree with all the shop talk but think one could train to it and get alot out of it offroad.
Tho at the end of the day it would be hard to get over the IFS.
 
What do you mean by that?
Just mean that no matter what you do - short of swapping in a solid axle - you're still dealing with IFS and its inherent qualities.
 

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