Jonathan & Viki's 80 Series

[jonathan.viki]

Given that I never did do a write up of the old 60 series it seems appropriate to start the story of the "new" 80 series with a quick farewall to the 60.

We had the 60 for about 18 months. In that period I spent a lot of time improving the overall running condition and was slowly making headway given quite a bit of mechanical neglect over the years. This obviously meant in the time we didn't make many modifications. Despite this and being pretty much stock standard, it took us to many places and we tried to take on any challenge we could.




A couple of shots the day we picked it up


On our first trip to Cania Gorge

Unfortunately fter about 1 year of ownership she started sprouting rust and soon it was all over the place. Due to my lack of experience with body work we started keeping our eyes out for a new 4wd while I tried to get my head around doing the rust repairs. After a few months of looking and pretty much when I was ready to give up the hunt and start doing the repairs a single owner 80 series with only 214,000kms came up for sale. We quickly had a look at it and after seeing it in such good condition we decided to buy it and sell the 60. As I had neither the parking space or time to maintain two 4wds we decided it best to sell the 60, but as fate would have it not long after we bought the new 4wd a hail storm hit our house while we were out of town. We arrived home to plenty of large dents all over the 60 and with the prospect of having to sell a rusted and dented 4wd. Strangely things all turned out in the end and after a chat with the insurance company and a quick inspection on their part they decided to pay us out and we were able to recover what we paid for the car, which in the circumstances is all we could have hoped for.


For a while we were the owners of two Landcruisers

They did give us the option to keep the car and while this sounded great to have it as more of a project car, we were still faced with the issues of no space and no time. So they took the car away and more than likely sent it to auction, so hopefully somebody got a good deal on it. As much as I was happy to have the whole issue resolved, I couldn't help but be sad to see the old car go.


The 60 on the day it was to be taken, dirtier perhaps but otherwise much the same


The 60 being taken away

Now I've been having computer problems for the last couple of hours and have finally got this to submit, so I will post more on the new car in the next update.

[jonathan.viki]

So in my last post I went on about the old car but I guess the reason for this topic is really to talk about the new 80 series. As I stated in my first post, we had been looking for a few months and had almost lost hope, having looked at pretty much everything available in the Brisbane area, when we came across a 1HD-T 80 series with only 214,000kms and looked like it was in pretty much stock standard condition. The story goes that the retired couple had owned it since new and originally bought it as a company vehicle and soon after replaced it with two Hiluxes. Essentially that left it in the garage to be used for the occasional holiday trip towing the 14ft caravan. It all sounded too good to be true but on inspection all seemed to check out with everything in immaculate condition inside and out. Even a quick once over with Ben J from the club to double check the next day produced no issues other than a leaking front pinion seal. So with an agreement to get the seal fixed for purchase we put down a deposit and a week later we had the car parked at our house.


The rear of the new 80 series


Front view still sporting the original bumper


Side view, more than likely still the original suspension

So far we haven't been able to take it too many places between the holiday period, the weather we've been having and just lately the birth of the little one. We did take it along on the Condamine River trip but that wasn't really challenge enough to put it through it's paces. So far my only complaint is that it appears to suffer from a lot of turbo lag. However, from a bit of reading and talking to others this is quite typical. Perhaps an exhaust and then tune when finances allow will help to solve this problem. The interior of the car is probably the stand out as the previous owners were obviously meticulous about keeping it clean and in good condition. They had even constructed a cardboard system to protect the carpets in the back from damage when carting anything in the back.


The cargo area with hardly any damage to the carpet


Rear seats and with no children are pretty much as they were originally


The front seats are certainly more comfortable than the 60

[maverick01]

Looks good and from what everyone has said lately it is in better condition than bens. Although i will say its hard to believe how ben looks after his but cant wait to see it.

[Capella_Ben]

I'm still very jealous.

To get rid of the Turbo lag you will most likely have to get a 3" exhaust ($800 to $1000) and then get it tuned. When you want the tune, let me know as I know the right man for the job. He did mine for $200 and it has made a huge difference.

[Dilligaf]

Great write up on the new cruiser, Turbo diesel with that amount of K's, has to be great, I'm sure Ben will be jealous with a clean canvas that you have.

You will also have to update your avatar and vehicle details of the new rig

[jonathan.viki]

Not too long ago I saw that Tigerz11 was running a special on their basic bull bars for $399 and given that the 80 series still had the original bumper which was likely to be the first thing sacrificed on the tracks I decided I would go out and get one. Now I'm not really certain of the overall quality of these bars but at that price it seems like they would certainly be good value for money.

The bar comes in two parts, the winch cradle and then the main bar. Plans of course to put a winch in at some point but for the time being the cradle will remain empty. Overall the bar appears strong but not having a steel bar on the 60 I can't say I'm an authority on judging strength. The only imperfections I could see was that in a few places you can still see grind marks through the powder coating in the right light. So I guess overall quality of finish is not fantastic, but this shouldn't actually influence the actual performance of the bar.


The winch cradle


The main bar section

The cradle bolted up to the car relatively easily but I did find that none of the bolts supplied fitted the chassis captive nuts as the thread was not the same. I used the original bolts from the bumper and these bolt from the sides as well as the bottom through the existing recovery/tie down points. Now this is a question that hopefully somebody here can answer with experience, but those points on the 80 seem quite solid but I'm not sure they're much more than just tie down points. I don't have any replacement points at the moment so I have re-installed them but I'll be pretty hesitant in using them.


The factory recovery or is it a tie down point?


No more bumper


Fitting the winch cradle

Once the cradle is fitted the main bar section bolts on to this cradle. The bar doesn't come with recovery points and to be honest I don't think I would use them anyway. The way the bar is mounted the bolt holes allow for some give. I imagine this is to allow you to align the bar correctly but it does seem to mean that the bar could move if you were able to provide enough force. It took me a while to get the main bar on as the bolts are in an out of the way position meaning getting two ratchets in was quite difficult. Nevertheless an afternoon and early evening later and the bar was fully installed.




The bar installation complete

Now as I said before I have re-installed the points that were originally on the vehicle but one thing I then came to notice was that the provided bash plates, if installed, would cover up these or any other recovery points installed. As they're not particularly thick and don't appear to be positioned to protect much, I have not installed them.


A view from the bottom after install, you can see that the points are very close in to everything

Now having not done a bar install before I can't really comment on the strength, ease or anything really on how this compares to any other installation so I'll have to hold judgement and just see how it all performs once it gets a few knocks out on the tracks. Hopefully that's the worst I'll have to worry about...

[Capella_Ben]

Those are Tow point (not tie down points) and it is generally accepted that they are strong enough as recovery points. That's what I have always used. However if you are at all worried, these are a great replacement.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TOYOTA-80-10 ... _500wt_975

I have been meaning to get a pair of these for a while.

I guess something has to give with a bar that is less than half price of others, It could be design or materials (or maybe everyone is being ripped off ) but from the photos, it looks to be pretty nice. You get a lot of bar for your money.

[jonathan.viki]

Yeah they did seem pretty strong given the points I put on the 60 didn't look much thicker/stronger. I will put those recovery points on my wishlist, even if just because they look nice! It seems a good practice to use an equaliser strap regardless so this may suffice in the meantime. I guess the number one rule is take it easy and safely in any recovery and you're halfway there.

[Dave]

I too can confirm they are technically recovery points. The welded joint removes them from the "rated recovery point" class. But in practise, they are probably more than strong enough.

But .... I too have welded points. And since I'm often recovering people on the beach, I've decided to get "rated recovery points". The catch is that I have extra strong under-body-protection, and it partially blocks the location where the standard recovery brackets go. So this Thursday I'm getting some custom built points .... at around 4 times the normal cost.

The ebay link that Ben listed are probably the best recovery points for the price. There is a cheaper set, but mechanically don't look as strong.

Dave.

[Dilligaf]

Hey Jonathan, Not quite sure if Ben has pointed you in the direction of Offroad80s ......not saying you guys aren't doing a great job on helping him in the right direction, but also help him with manuals and local knowledge of 80's

I use same user name over there, but they will help with issues or mods that you want to add to your truck, not stealing Breakaways thunder, just helping another 80 owner.