91 FJ80 Build

Lots of thoughts we’ll see how they come out. Hopefully in a fairly coherent manner…

The trip was awesome. Kentucky has some stunning views and some even better wheeling.

I was riding with an FJ Cruiser with 35s and ARBs front and rear and an 85 4Runner with 33s and ARB front and lock right rear. My Land Cruiser is on 35s open front and rear.


I don’t have all the photos from the trip yet. Being the only vehicle with open differentials I brought up the rear so I could could hammer down and not pelt everyone with rocks or mud :lmao:
 
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Lost my drivers drive flange dust cover about 1.5 hours into the 6 hour drive. The old covers didn’t fit well on the new drive flanges I just installed. Plus it seemed to be a little interference with the zerk fitting on the gun drilled RCVs. I’ll order the trail gear extended ones and not have to worry about it anymore.
So I wrapped it with electrical tape from the flange to the end of the axle splines. Maybe not fully water proof but was good enough for the several day we were wheeling.
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We stayed at Lago Linda Hideaway Campground in Beattyville KY. Highly recommend. Super laid back and friendly. They have camp sights with outlets and water so repairs or rinsing off mud is no problem. They also have RV sites. And they have shower and restroom facilities. The place has WiFi and overall the perfect amount of amenities.

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Two more of camp. I’m traveling this week so internet speed on the plane was awful. It took 1.5 hours to do those few posts above 😆
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Chkn said:
Lots of thoughts we’ll see how they come out. Hopefully in a fairly coherent manner…

The trip was awesome. Kentucky has some stunning views and some even better wheeling.

I was riding with an FJ Cruiser with 35s and ARBs front and rear and an 85 4Runner with 33s and ARB front and lock right rear. My Land Cruiser is on 35s open front and rear.


I don’t have all the photos from the trip yet. Being the only vehicle with open differentials I brought up the rear so I could could hammer down and not pelt everyone with rocks or mud :lmao:
Click to expand...

Who needs lockers when you have a V8! :laughing:
 
Friday was also fun.

Had a late start but found some beautiful places. The old mine was rad. Wanted to drive inside but people had burned a metric ton of pallets and there were nails everywhere. So we ate lunch and walked around instead.
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So still on Friday we decided to go on another trail or two and it wouldn’t be too bad.
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We decided one more because why not. Lol The FJ Cruiser sliced a sidewall at 11:30pm
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Tauler jack worked awesome.
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We were using OnX to follow the trail and that’s not always easy to do during the daytime let alone in the dark. But we worked our way through a creek and beside the creek and back through the creek a million times. There was a perfect view of the Milky Way the whole time in the sky. It was super awesome.
This was about 2AM still working our way through. Lost but not really lost lost.
:lmao:
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Finally finished and headed to the fuel station at 4am lol
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And this was the first damage of the trip. Some branches were overhanging the trail and I was driving and thought nothing of it. Turns out they were bigger than I anticipated and wrecked my passenger side marker light. Oops 😆
 
Saturday was another good day.
Definitely forgot that I love tapped the driver side and passenger side rockers :homer: I definitely need sliders and a transfer case skid. Those are both high priority items. Both could have been avoided with either a driver mod or lockers. :flipoff2:

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Got loaded up and we had to head to the auto store. The 85 4Runner is running a GM alternator and the belt started slipping and squeaking when it was wet or dusty. The belt on there was a bit long so luckily Advanced had a factory length belt we were able to install. Also had to visit the Dollar General to try and find Pineapple Mountain Dew but they didn’t had any so I we got some snacks and hit the trail.
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This was right before the main obstacle of the trail. And about 4 minutes after this photo about 10 SXS came bombing down the trail and decided to watch us tackle it. No pressure :lmao: FJ Cruiser did it with little drama, the 85 4Runner was a dang mountain goat and didn’t even have to try. Good ole throttle application and momentum got the 80 there :lmao: One SXS guy was like “Dang you got some muffler on that?” “It’s got an LS” “Oh you’re LS infested?!” 🤣
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Those are fun trails! I still haven't made it down to that mine yet but I def want to.
 
Sunday we ran a few more trails. It was dusty as hell lol.
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Also tried to make it through this mud hole but didn’t have the ground clearance required. It had been dug out more than the mud let on lol oops. But the bumper took the hit like a champ.
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Nightfall came and we decided to do one more trail. It took a while to get to the trail.

When we were staged up I hopped out of the truck to check for a clunk noise that had steadily gotten worse on the front of the axle. (Found it later to be the panhard bar where it bolts to the axle).

For whatever reason I didn’t put the truck in Park. I either left it in drive or put it in neutral and hopped into drive when I was checking the shocks and looking at the suspension. But the truck didn’t start rolling forward immediately so I think I tried to put it in neutral. Anyhow, it started to roll towards the 4Runner. I got in front of the cruiser and slowed it down some so the 4Runner could drive out of the way (he was out of his truck too). Meanwhile the truck is moving towards the 4Runner and after the 4Runner is a sloping hill. So stopping the Land Cruiser is fairly important.

The FJ Cruiser sees what is happening and can get to the driver door fairly quickly so he hops out of his truck but he also left his truck in gear because he was checking the OnX app to make sure we were on the right spot.

Good news is the FJ Cruiser stopped the Land Cruiser from going down the hill. :lmao: Bad news is if I wasn’t an idiot from the start these serious of events would have never happened 🤦‍♂️ But the dent can be popped out and repaired. No one got hurt and nothing is totaled so it’s not the end of the world. Just a good reminder to be aware of what you’re doing even if you’re tired from wheeling all day and it’s 11PM.


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Overall great trip. Would highly recommend and totally do it again.

Best MPG there was traveling with the 4Runner who comfortably could go 70 so the cruiser got 15.88mpg. Worst mileage was on the trail and got about 9mpg. On the way home the 4Runner took off early so me the FJ Cruiser averaged around 80 on the way home and I got 12.5mpg.

Priority items:
-Fix accelerator pedal. It’s not comfortable to drive for long periods of time.
-Cruise control. Would be nice to have for long trips.
-Fix AC. I have the parts I need to buckle down and do it.
-Fix reverse lights. They would have been helpful to have.
-Shifter. The stock Land Cruiser one works but doesn’t work as good as it could. See the above post 🤣
-Sliders
-Transfer case/Belly skid

Less priority items:
-On board air
-Upgraded lighting
-selectable lockers
-make some kind of cabin air filter
-repair the dash vents (they’re floppy as hell)
-fix exhaust and work on the tune. It goes real rich with tip in throttle and it’s loud loud. Too loud for my liking. It needs additional resonators or cats to cut down on the sound.
 
thezentree said:
Those are fun trails! I still haven't made it down to that mine yet but I def want to.
Click to expand...
The mine was cool. Some of the SXS guys mentioned another one we wrote it down but weren’t able to explore it. Seems to be no lack of mines or caves in the area.
 
Went with some friends to Beasley Knob. Cruiser did okay. Had not traction so wheel spin was a constant companion. lol

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Wheel spin was great until the brakes were applied all the time. I had some difficulty getting over a couple obstacles (no surprise with open differentials) but the front wasn't pulling like it should be. I had a stiff brake pedal and we ended up stacking rocks to make it up and over. I could only pull in 2L not in 4H. So pull over and start to figure it out. Come to find out the brake switch pad had been replaced at some point in time with a sheet metal dash screw :homer: . The bouncing and jouncing over the obstacles while pressing the brakes was the magic combination to have the screw fall out and wedge itself between the brake pedal and the switch to constantly apply the brakes. Ended up pushing the sheet metal screw back in and then using duct tape to secure it in place. lol. Didn't run into that issue again.

Also, the power steering pump finally died a complete death. So the second half of the day was one heck of an arm workout. 35s and a giant pig of an 80 is no fun without power steering.

Swapped out the power steering pump today. Also found the root cause why the original pump died. So in Kentucky, I hit a mud hole and slammed into a wall that I reasonably couldn't see because it was hidden. Well I didn't notice any apparent damage at the time but I believe it pushed the bumper backwards enough to pinch the power steering return line from the cooler to the pump. So the new pump was cavitating until I loosened the bumper to unpinch the line. I knew when I installed the lines that it was a tight fit, I should have rerouted the lines around the winch :homer:. Good news is that it's an Autozone pump with free replacements. lol. I do plan to upgrade to a better p-pump with a larger remote reservoir. At the same time I plan to install a york compressor for onboard air but that will be a 2026 projec
t.
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Fixed the power steering lines. Replaced the pinched lines then rerouted to prevent further issues. No restrictions at all. :Homer:
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Changed the oil and decided to finally fix the slow leak the tire had. Had about half of Kentucky on the bead seat. Needed to wipe the wheel around the entire diameter to finally get it sorted.
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Need to rotate the tires tomorrow and finally get the PRP seats mounted. The OE seats are beyond worn out. I need to do this ASAP since I will have to commute in the 80 starting next week.
 
Let us know how you like the PRPs in your daily after a month or two. The seats in my 4Runner are trashed and I don’t want to spend Scheel-Mann money on a 25 year old Toyota with 300k miles lol
 
i had a prp daily driver in my land cruiser for a bit and the ride was good no issues there. but the getting into and out of sucked... thats my experience. i took it out after a bit.
 
Got the power steering cooler mounted. Put it at an angle because why not and it helps keep the hoses from getting pinched.
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thezentree said:
Let us know how you like the PRPs in your daily after a month or two. The seats in my 4Runner are trashed and I don’t want to spend Scheel-Mann money on a 25 year old Toyota with 300k miles lol
Click to expand...
chaplinfj60 said:
i had a prp daily driver in my land cruiser for a bit and the ride was good no issues there. but the getting into and out of sucked... thats my experience. i took it out after a bit.
Click to expand...
We’ll find out soon enough. 😆
I got the less aggressive ones that have the flatter side bolsters. So hopefully it isn’t too bad. Time will tell…
 
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