I love those newer taco shortbed std cabs!!

 

they are nice! and the guys are pretty cool too

 

A friend of mine has been bugging me for 2 weeks now to build a bumper for his FZJ80 cruiser. He said he would give his stock bumper to replace my broken bumper on my cruiser. I said DEAL!!! Well last night he came over with steel, a welder and an idea of what he wanted. So we cued the music and got to work....

His dad made these mounting brackets at work:


angle set, and brackets welded:


first test fit:




Adding the wing support:




Final bolt up:




testing its strength:


We are going to put some diamond plate on the top and a winch plate on the bottom. The cruiser had 6 (yes 6) mounting points on EACH frame stub end. 2 on top, 2 on the side, 2 on the bottom. the plan is to get a plate and bolt it to the bottom on the frame and bolt a winch to that plate. Then weld the bottom winch plate to side bumper mounting brackets for a beefy bumper. When we jacked the cruiser up by the middle bar with the high lift, the bar never flinched. The cruiser ways 5800 pounds, fyi. the mounting plate is 1/4 inch steel and the tube is 2x2x1/8.

it was a fun night with some friends, drinking a few beers, and a late night run to taco bell.... lol

 

anxious to see the end result. I like it...a lot.

 

Im gtn another 80 i cant wait

 

very cool

 

The guy whose 80 that is named Michiana 4x4 Toyota on here. He lives about 20 minutes from me. We actually met on here... lol. We both have an 80 and a pickup, so we have similar interests. I love my 80, but the PO certainly didn't do me any favors or any maintenance on the truck. It has caused some issues but it a good truck over all.

 

nice build its a sweet truck hey was wondering if there was a adapter plate to bolt 22re up to a v6 tranny

 

a quick 30 second google search reveals this:

http://www.advanceadapters.com/produ...ter-plate-kit/

next time ask your tech questions in the tech section

 

Today I believe I have finally conquered the battery drain that was plaguing the Cruiser. It was the voltage regulator in the alternator. I had replaced the alternator on July 4th weekend from AutoZone. It is possible that when I replaced the battery cables and fusible links that I shorted out the regulator. So I am cautiously optimistic that I have fixed that very troubling problem. While I was at it, I replaced the bumper. It looks much better now.


I also worked on my truck a bit today as well. I put some rubber matting in the fender wells and gave the body seams another good whack with a 8 pound sledge hammer. I also cut my bump stops in half to allow some more travel. Here is how much I cut off.

 

Late nite run to taco bell???!!! lucky!!! i used to be around fast food but now im in a town with a gil dern caseys general store!!! I love the looks of the landcruisers. Im wondering if the voltage regulator is bad on my neighbors lexus that looks like the landcruiser. cannot remember the model number, like a gx470 or something. But i fought it with my multimeter pulling every fuse i could find to watch for a drop on the drain, but nothing changed. If you unplug the alternator should it drop if thats the problem??

 

Taco Bell is only 5 blocks away. I have made way to many late night runs to that place. Lol.

The way we found the drain was to first leave everything plugged in and the truck off to watch the rate of drain. On this thing it was fast. It would drop .5 volts in about 2 minutes. So we then unplugged all the fuses in the the truck. And once we established that the drain had stopped we started to put the fuses back in and watched for the drain. We determined that the main fuse had the problem. So we started to unhook the main components to see when the drain stopped. It turned out to be the alternator. It was a very long patient process. But worth it in the end.

 

I suppose you could unplug the fuses one at a time and see when it stops. Good luck

 

It takes a while but it works either way. Thats pretty much what i ended up doing to solve my alternator issues on my old truck.
Is that the original style bumper on the cruiser? It doesn't seem to quite flow.

 

Yes it is original bumper. There is still a piece missing below the lights. That is what is throwing off the look

 

Ah. Right, didn't think about that. Looks in pretty good condition otherwise.

 

So today I took my truck and my boys on an adventure today. I drove 3 hours south to go to the Indianapolis Colts vs St. Louis Rams in the new (to me) Lucas Oil Stadium. This was my first ever NFL game. So I took off at 8:45 am with my boys in the truck and starting driving. I filled up the truck with 93 octane in South Bend which is about 20 minutes from my home. I drove down to the Stadium, went to the game, and drove all the way to my house on 1 tank of gas. It was 309.7 miles. I was pretty impressed, especially with the new 33s.


I set the cruise for 67 mph for most of the drive. The truck was purring a 2750 rpm and did a great job. Never skipped a beat. I was very pleased. This is the longest I have driven the truck in one day.

Yes the Colts lost horribly but the boys and I had a great time.. Some pictures of the day

 

Awesome pics. Glad you guys had a good time. And you gotta drive the yoda too on an adventure!

 

Just want to say a big Thanks to all the Veterans and current service members of all our Armed Forces. Your service and sacrifice can never be repaid or appreciated enough.

 

I filled up my truck this morning on the way to work. It took 17.4 gallons. The trip meter said 310.7 miles by the time I made it to the gas station. Which equals 17.8 mpg. If you calculate 7% difference in the tire size (31/33) the gas mileage equals 19.2 mpg. I would say that is pretty good for an old modified 3vze rolling on 33s.