We have a lovely looking merlot coloured Land Cruiser 200, year 2016. It is the GXL model with a thumping 4.5L V8 Twin Turbo-Diesel and 17” alloy wheels. We bought it as a demo model with 23,000km on the dial – rather a lot for a normal demo car, but this is a Cruiser.
The downside was that it was a basic vehicle in terms of gadgets and accessories. Which was a bit of a blow as we had traded a 1 year old 3.5R Subaru Liberty, full of gadgets and front line technology and a beautiful car to drive.
In the Cruiser we have sat nav, bluetooth and cruise control, and that is about it. There are no audio/information controls on the steering wheel, no information display on the dash, and no digital speedometer. It also had no 4WD accessories such as a tow bar or bull bar. But it is a hulking brute of a car, ideal for taking us around.
It came as an 8 seater with 3 seats in the very back row. Getting that row of seats out was our first challenge, which brought out some very surprising issues. Initially we were going to simply take them out, a very simple process well covered on YouTube, but saw a few hints in the various forums that this needed to be be approved by the NSW authorities – Roads and Maritime Services (RMS). So we wrote to RMS – to see copies of our letter and the reply, click here.
Basically the reply says that if you change anything specified in the ADR category, then approval is needed via a blue slip certification. The Vehicle Data Information for the Cruiser can be seen here: RVDResult
It specifies either 7 or 8 seats, not – as we were hoping – 5 to 8 seats. So if we simply take the seats out we are illegal. We decided that we would incorporate this change when we got the engineers certificate for the suspension upgrade.
Having taken out the rear seats we then set that area up for storage. We bought a fridge and put that on one side and then built a storage unit in the centre. We thought about buying the metal storage drawers you see at all the shows but these weigh around 90kg so we made our own out of timber and ply with steel cross bracing. There is slide in storage on the right. Functional rather than pretty.
We bought many things for The Cruiser and made many changes. The main ones are as follows.
| Items | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| PRIMARILY FOR THE CRUISER | Cost | Weight (kg) | |
| General exterior | |||
| Tow bar | 725.0 | 6.0 | North Shore Towbars |
| Alloy Bull bar | 3,400.0 | 35.0 | North Shore Towbars |
| TJM Snorkel Kit | 811.4 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| Roof cross bars | 329.0 | 5.0 | Autobarn |
| Bonnet protector | 82.0 | eBay | |
| Roof rack cage (3/4 size) | 350.0 | 25.0 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Roof bag - waterproof | 129.0 | 3.4 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Car awning 2.5x2.5 | 124.0 | 12.0 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Milenco extension mirrors | 97.0 | 1.4 | Autoelec |
| General interior | |||
| Blue slip (rear seats) | 28.0 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| 60L Fridge/freezer | 593.6 | 42.0 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Fridge slider | 189.0 | 7.0 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Seat covers (woollen) | 296.7 | Autobarn | |
| Floor mats | 22.0 | 1.6 | Supacheap auto |
| Dash Mat | 69.0 | FitMyCar | |
| Sheet ply 1200x1198x12 | 25.7 | Bunnings | |
| Framing timber | 41.7 | Bunnings | |
| SS Ties | 4.9 | Bunnings | |
| Mechanical | |||
| Car electrics | 2,250.0 | North Shore Towbars | |
| ScanGauge 2 | 235.0 | Fuel economy solutions (ebay) | |
| GVM Upgrade (Lovells) | 3,915.0 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| Engineering Certification for upgrade | 695.0 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| Upper Control Arm | 1,000.0 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| Secondary fuel filter and water alarm | 1,214.3 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| Recovery points | 345.0 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| Harrop Breather kit | 415.0 | Mitchell Bros, Brookvale | |
| Tools and other | |||
| Recovery kit | 79.1 | 12.0 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Thumper air compressor | 108.2 | 10.3 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| 10m Lead with Anderson Plugs | 24.5 | 1.1 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Staun Tyre deflators | 72.0 | Anaconda | |
| Tyre deflator and gauge | 40.0 | Supacheap auto | |
| Tyre repair kit | 25.0 | Show at Eastern Creek | |
| Hercules Impact Wrench | 50.5 | 3.3 | 4WD Supa Centre |
| Hi-vis vests | 18.0 | 0.3 | K-Mart |
| D-shakles (2) | 14.6 | Bunnings | |
| Diesel jerry can | 19.0 | Bunnings | |
| Stanley Wrench | 26.4 | Bunnings | |
| Jumper leads (3000amp) | 33.9 | 3.0 | E-bay |
| TOTAL THE CRUISER | 17,898.4 | 168.4 |
Overall we probably spent around $15,000 to get The Cruiser up to a level that we think can take us around safely and comfortably. I know many people spend much more than this, and some up to 4 times this amount, but it is still frustrating as I reckon we are putting back things that Toyota took out so as to provide the minimum vehicle for its primary market – city folk.
Want to read about Mobi the van – click here