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2008 Toyota Land Cruiser - The Silver BulletPart 1: Uptown Cruiser Meets Backwoods Boys From the March, 2009 issue of 4Wheel & Off-Road By Fred Williams Photography by Fred Williams
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2008 brought many great things to the world. We can't remember most of them, but we remember the winner of the 2008 4x4 of the Year, the Toyota Land Cruiser. Toyota has been building Land Cruisers for longer than many of our readers have been alive, and Toyota sold its first one in the United States in 1957. These trucks have gained a worldwide reputation as rugged wheeling machines straight from the factory floor, and last year we recognized that when we awarded the Cruiser our top 4x4. Toyota thanked us in a special way by offering us the keys to a Classic Silver Metallic 200 Series Cruiser as a project truck. When this $70,000 luxo ute arrived at our doorstep, we weren't sure they realized the types of things we do to trucks-and we certainly weren't going to tell them. Truth is we are hard on equipment here at 4-Wheel & Off-Road. Our trucks are used for everything from hauling parts to towing projects to filling in as hotel rooms when we're on road trips. Yes, we treated this high-brow ride like any other wheeling rig in our quiver, and it didn't seem to mind one bit. Plus we worked with some of the leading aftermarket companies to modify the Silver Bullet into a great all-around wheeling, camping, towing, and junk-hauling machine. And when we say wheeling we mean wheeling-this 4x4 followed along on Ultimate Adventure as the home base for two of our field photogs, and it only came back with a handful of scratches, dings, and windshield chips. We're sure there is some Toyota PR guy that might be forced to perform hara-kiri for ever giving us this extravagant vehicle to drive, but for the sake of you readers we're not going to lose sleep over it. Trucks and 4x4s are meant to be used. Like the millions of Land Cruiser drivers around the world hauling sheep and calves on ranches, exploring African vistas, and bombing through powdery bull dust across the Australian Outback, we plan to work this truck hard, no matter how much fun we have doing so.  1. When we heard we were getting...  1. When we heard we were getting a new '08 Land Cruiser as a project vehicle, this is what popped into our mind. You see, this was the very first Land Cruiser pickup to come to Australia, and it's still used today as a ranch truck. We're not the type of guys who get dressed up or worry about appearances, so the luxury SUV mentality is lost on us, but the heritage of Land Cruisers is very clear. We fully intend to use the '08 truck the way its forefathers have been used-in the dirt.  2. The first order of business...  2. The first order of business with any project vehicle is to take a photo and do some creative photo-chopping to get an idea of what is possible. This usually starts with adding some different wheels and tires, but we have been known to get out of hand and imagine bizarre body modifications. These changes will need to wait a little while.  3. After driving the Cruiser...  3. After driving the Cruiser for a month we decided an important first modification would be rock sliders. The Cruiser has a unique "Crawl" mode of traction control that is basically off-road cruise control. It applies brakes to each wheel at rapid speed to slowly creep the truck over off-road obstacles, and it sometimes allows crazy drivers (us) to get this truck into places that could damage expensive body panels. One pitfall of a luxo ute is the luxo price of replacing damaged luxo parts. So we gave a call to the good Cruiser-heads at Slee Off Road and requested one of the first sets of their 200 Series rock sliders.  4. We started the install...  4. We started the install by holding up the sliders and marking the frame mounting points with a paint pen. The rock sliders bolt on with an astonishing 17 bolts per side, using a mixture of factory threaded holes and some additional nutserts installed into factory frame holes. It takes a bit of Jedi mind-trickery, yoga, and ninja skill to get them in, but that was only for two bolts. In fact, we wouldn't be afraid to skip one or two if you can't get them all in, as they are definitely in the overkill arena when it comes to number of fasteners.  5. We added the stainless...  5. We added the stainless steel tread plate with the Slee logo cut into it. A no-logo plate is optional if that tickles your fancy. Slee makes rock sliders for many new Land Cruisers, such as the 60-, 80-, and 100-series trucks, so we felt that its 2x3-inch boxed tube sliders made of 3/16-inch-wall material would be perfect for whatever abuse we dished out on this unsuspecting high-brow Bullet. We would eventually find out that the sliders were strong enough to act as recovery points should the Cruiser fall over.  6. Another upgrade we made...  6. Another upgrade we made to the Cruiser is this set of forged-aluminum 17-inch TRD wheels with 33-inch (285/75R17) Goodyear Wrangler MT/R tires. The rims are amazingly light weight, and we used the TRD locking lug nuts and reused the factory tire-pressure sensor valve stems for the pressure display on the dash. We had the 33s on before any lift was added, and they did clear everything, though turning under full stuff could get them to rub the front mudflaps slightly.  7. More ground clearance was...  7. More ground clearance was on our wish list, and we found it at three well-heeled Toyota performance houses. First, we visited Total Chaos and Icon Vehicle Dynamics, where the front suspension kit for a new Tundra was redesigned to fit the similar, yet different, '08 Land Cruiser. Total Chaos built a 4130 chromoly upper A-arm with a 1-inch uniball for added wheel travel over the standard upper ball joint. The powdercoated upper A-arms come with urethane bushings, inner sleeves, Grade 8 hardware, zerk fittings, and high misalignment spacers.  8. Next, Icon Vehicle Dynamics...  8. Next, Icon Vehicle Dynamics replaced the factory coilover shock with its 21/2-inch coilover shock, which offers up to 3 inches of lift and gives the 33s plenty of room to stuff should the Cruiser ever find some weak gravity and go airborn. In the rear the thin factory links were replace with Icon's billet-aluminum lower rear trailing arms. These arms allow pinion angle adjustment and come with Delrin sliders should the opulent off-roader ever find some big boulder to crawl over.  9. The rear suspension on...  9. The rear suspension on the Land Cruiser is coil sprung, which makes for a supple ride and ultraflexy wheeling, especially when aided by a set of 2-inch Icon monotube shocks. We also use the healthy 5.7L V-8 to tow, and after bottoming out the Cruiser with a trailer full of Toyota rockcrawler, we needed to make a change.  10. The rear coils were upgraded...  10. The rear coils were upgraded to a set of the heavyweight coils from ARB/Old Man Emu, and the truck has never towed better. These coils use a massive wire thickness compared to the factory springs, and, though we found the new tow rating superb, the truck now sits high in the rear and has lost some of its twistability. Luckily, light- and medium-duty springs are available from ARB since customers in the Austrailian Outback have varying load requirements. We are considering upgrading to a slightly less rigid rear coil since the truck currently doesn't have a heavy rear bumper.  11. While making changes to...  11. While making changes to the suspension, we ran into a problem with the factory Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS). This suspension system is a patented product of Tenneco (parent company of Rancho Suspension) and is designed to control fore-and-aft sway-bar movement dependent on the vehicle dynamics, such that it stiffens up the suspension when on road at speed and allows it to droop and flex when off road. When modifying the suspension on the Land Cruiser, it is important to back off the set screws in the KDSS master control to allow the hydraulic suspension fluid to flow freely. Once complete and returned to the ground, simply retighten these set screws.  12. Tune in for more Land...  12. Tune in for more Land Cruiser updates and upgrades, and learn how we took our Cruiser off road and off its tires.
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