Toyota Landcruiser FJ40
I own a 1970 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40. I originally chose the FJ40 because of not only its reputation for being an excellent off road tank but also because you just don't see that many FJ40's anymore.
In the owning of my FJ40 I not only disassembled the entire truck with hand tools but also managed to lift the truck about 17 inches. Combine the 17 inches of lift with 38 by 14.50 TSL tires and I was an off road god. Also while owning the truck I completely disassembled the entire driveline and rebuilt it to be better than before. This mainly involved overboring the cylinders, porting and polishing the cylinder head, larger offroad profile camshaft and a set of long travel headers. Combine these modifications with a non USA distributor with about 20 degrees of advance and I had no problems crawling this truck.
The most major transmission modification I did was to combine a 4 speed transmission to a 3 speed style transfer case to achieve a loser gear ratio. I Painted my truck flat black and removed the hard top. Once I had the truck up and running I had my local 4x4 shop custom build a fuel cell with a trick tool box atop. Had recaro seats and 5 point belts. It was sweet.
The Main problem that I ran into with all of the truck modifications was that when the engine was overbored it must have become to thin around the cylinder walls because chronic overheating became a serious issue to deal with. Just think Mad Max meets death race 2000 only really redneck.
If I had it to do allover again I would most likely pursue either a Toyota truck or a Jeep wrangler, the main reason for this being ease of parts to acquire combined with cheapness of price and I think that either one of these would make a solid off road platform.
 |
Before you take action and buy a truck or SUV through eBay make sure you read the 4x4 Trucks & SUVs Buyers guide.
Toyota Landcruiser FJ40 User Stories
I have a 1968 Toyota FJ40. I never wanted a 4WD truck growing up or even as I got into my 20-30's. I always did say that if I ever was to buy a 4WD truck though, it would be a 'Cruiser. Reason? they are Just so cool and they are 50 times more rugged than a Jeep or most anything else on the road (or the trail), except for possibly a Unimog.
I have NEVER been truly stuck with my Cruiser. In fact, onetime I pulled a 5 ton dumptruck out of a ditch on the side of the road. I fell in love with my Cruiser due to the fact that I rescued it from a farmer that was using it to plow dirt. I did months of body work on it, and now 15 years later it has BF Goodrich Mud/Snow tires on it (mounted on slotted mag/aluminum rims), a Weber carb, Smitty rear bumper, custom front bumper, a '79 2F engine along with a 79 4 speed and transaxle. I've got a Con-Ferr roof rack and Con-Ferr shackles. The driveline has a custom shortened driveshaft. I've recently upgraded the completed braking system, changing out all brake lines, the brake master cylinder and most recently installing dual rear seals on my output shaft to eliminate the drip that ends up on the emergency brake shoes of most all Cruisers.
I use my Cruiser mostly for around my 3 acre property, dealing with downed trees, landscaping issues, hauling tools etc. I've got TN antique plates on it, which is a great deal as they charge a one time fee of $25 and then never need to be renewed - very inexpensive!
In the future I'd like to get an 8274 winch and an army issue dump trailer for the truck.