Many people would agree that the LandCruiser 79 Series would ahve to be one of the toughest looking no-frills vehicles on the market. What do you get when you add all the frills?
Talking Dirty with Tuff 79...
Name:
Luke Doyle
Location (town and state):
Hervey Bay QLD
What do you do for a crust?
I lean on a shovel! Lol (council)
When did you join the A4WDM forums and why?
First joined july 05, because a few of mates told me about it.
What do you drive and how long have you owned it:
2005 Toyota Landcruiser 79 series RV
Bought January 2007.
What modifications have you done to it in that time:
Where to start... (Note from Sammie the girlfriend - Luke had almost everything at home ready before he had even taken delivery of the truck! You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. I had tyres & rims, an exhaust, space cases, a hi-lift jack, a stereo, speakers, sub & amp, UHF & aerial, bull bar, spotties, winch - all piled up in our garage! He also got Bobby from All Set Springs to order in his lift kit early and made Ryano from Fourby’s put his tyres & rims on a truck and send them up early just so that he could have a look at them! Not to mention that we had to cut our Christmas holiday short and fly back just because his truck had arrived a little earlier then planned and he wanted to get started on it straight away!)
The truck came stock as so I have done everything you see, so here goes:
305x75 Mickey Thompson MTZ’s (Fourby’s)
Allied rims (Fourby’s)
ABR Deluxe winch bar & side rails & steps Warn Winch Light Force XGT spotties Custom 4inch springs with spaces in the front and airbags in the rear EFS extended shackles and shocks (All Set Springs) 3inch mandrel bent exhaust with 3.5in dump pipe (Beaudesert Exhausts) Rapid chip tuned with 180 rwhp (Chapman’s Dyno Tuning) Custom black canvas canopy (frame by Custom 4x4 Modifications) Space cases, spare tyre and 40L Engle fridge all mounted on the tray, rubber tray liner Black Duck canvas seat covers GME UHF & aerial Pioneer CD player, speakers, 10inch sub and amp ARB air-compressor dual-batteries break-controller
Where do you like going bush:
Cruiser Park, Fraser Island, Rainbow Beach, Augathella...
Any members off this forum you usually go wheeling with?
Kickers, Brooksy,
Lockers, lift, rubber or bar work - what's the first thing you should put on a stocker, and why?
Rubber because if you don’t have traction, you ain’t going anywhere!
Tell us about that first 'ooops' moment you had offroad:
My girlfriend will tell you. Taking her up Old Hilux Hill at Cruiser Park,
but probably in my 1st truck (a 94 Hilux). My mate and I thought it
would be fun to go out to our local 4WD spot and have a play in the mud. Of
course it had been raining for a week straight so all the mud holes were
nice and full and me being in my ‘unbreakable Hilux’ decided not to worry
about checking the water level first - she’ll be right! So in I ploughed,
and of course it was way too deep and way to long for the old 2.8L Turbo
with 32inch muddies to handle! So as the muddy water was coming in the
doors, and we didn’t have a snatch strap, I had to climb out the window and
get the winch out, no worries, except the winch was jammed and wouldn’t free
spool (or even engage for that matter!)
There was nothing else we could do but sit and wait for about 3 hours until someone could come out and pull me out!
Thankfully everything dried out and the mud washed off and there was no
Major damage done - except to my ego!
Although I probably should have taken notice considering that there was a D9 dozer bogged just up the track!
What's next on the list for your truck?
My last truck had front & rear Air lockers and going to a truck without them is just not the same, so I’d have to say lockers. But other than that, maybe just a bit of custom bar work on the tray to smarten it up a bit. I can’t really do too much because of the canopy, but just tidy it up a bit. Maybe a bonnet scoop… Deffently a intercooler with a 2 stage boost conroller
Any modifications you've made and since regretted, and why?
Thankfully none, although buying a truck with full carpet inside was a bad
idea!
There were a few things on my old 75series that I didn’t really regret, but had to sacrifice like, comfort and fuel consumption!
One thing about leaf sprung trucks is that the higher you go, the more rough it seems to get, so with custom made leaf spring packs it made the corrugated roads pretty rough (my GF will tell you that driving around town was bad enough!)
Also with an after-market turbo and intercooler on the 1HZ that ended up pushing out 155 rwhp, it tended to drink the fuel and also made towing heavy things (such as the boat) on hot days or for long distances almost impossible (the pryo tended to creep up very quickly, and with an exhaust that finished just under the drivers door it made it almost deafening!)
But who cares about that when you’ve got that sort of power!
What's the best single piece of advice you could give anyone new to 4WDing
reading this?
BUY A LANDCRUISER
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