All right this sounds stupid but I just joined the board and by the way Hi to everyone, in any event I've had a moment of clarity. I'm currently driving a '77 Land Cruiser and as much as I do love it ...It's time to move on. There are three things that have worn on me about it and that is why I'm thinking of a 2nd generation 4Runner. 1) the ride is like my spine is attached directly to the frame, after a while that gets old. 2) It's too damn small, my wife already owns a 99 wrangler and it makes no sense to have two tiny suv's. 3) My cruiser likes to let me know it doesn't enjoy highway speed and for that reason alone I may need a swap.

So, my question is this: I've been tossing around the idea of a 93 Land Cruiser as well but dang I can get a really nice 4 Runner for the same price as a Cruiser with crazy miles on it. I'm asking you all for a little help on capabilities of both and also if there is a local crowd in Salt Lake that would be handy for bouncing info around with. Any info would be great and sorry about my lack of knowledge on both newer cruisers and newer Runners, I've been tinkering with my cruiser for a while now and just would rather do maintenance rather than rebuild. Thanks

 

Hello Jason, and welcome to the forums here.
Wow, you have a few choices here.

The Land Cruiser is going to be more comfortable for you, especially with a little extra room inside.
Plus I believe the '93 was the year for the bigger 6, or was it '94?
I forget.
Plus the 'Cruiser I believe has the electrets locker in the rear where as the 4Runner does not.
You have to add one if you want a traction device.

However the 2nd gen 4Runner are very nice. I have owned one since November of '98, and absolutely love it.
It's never let me down, and the only major thing I had to have done was have the injectors removed and cleaned.
That is typical as they age.

The 4Runner 3.0 engine is very reliable, and lots of low end torque. But it's not a fast mover.
There is a head gasket campaign for that engine as they are prone to blow.
If you find one, run the VIN # by your dealer and see if the work has been done to it.

It's free. I received a new short block in my rig before I got it.
Previous owner took it in, and the head gaskets caused too much damage, so they gave him a new block.

Have you also looked at the FJ62s? Those have plenty of room in them for a Land Cruiser, but only come with an automatic.
If I sell my rig one day, that is what I might end up getting.

But other than that, I am very happy with my 4Runner.
Check out my homepage listed in my sig file below to see some of the things I have done to it.
I have 4 pages of mods have lavished on it.

For not having a locker, it gets me around just fine in the mountains. Near the top of my homepage is the last two runs I went on.

Either rig you go with will be a good choice as far as wanting extra room inside.

 

Welcome to the forum, all the guys are nice here, and informative as well. As for older toys I don't have THAT much experience, but I can say that we used to have an 89 SR5 2dr. that was a great car. We put 200k on the clock before we had to give her up. No problems, just replaced the timing belt at 140k (yeah... I know...) and put an exhaust on it b/c the other rusted through. We loved it, took it on our annual trip up to Maine every year with 4 people and all our gear. Good luck in finding a new ride man!

 

I am from SLC. I bought my 1997 4Runner from Mark Miller Toyota in Dec 2001.
I know my fair share about the gen 3 4Runners. But my knowledge of the gen 2 is a little limited.
Anyways if you have any questions (where to buy a 4Runner, how to do certain mods, etc) the people on this board are a great help. or shoot me an email anytime
SLCPunk@4runners.org

Travis

 

Im from the salt lake area... i used to drive my moms 95 land cruiser, its a nice ride and its great in the snow, i loved it... i just recently bought a 94 4runner, it rides more like my moms land cruiser than my dads tacoma. i havent had the chance to drive my runner in the snow yet. as for off roading, ive only done a little in the land cruiser (dont want to pay for any scratches) but as for my 4runner, ive learned to trust it a GREAT deal off road. both were and are stock as of now, so yeah if that helps at all...

--Rory

 

So the new report is that I just bought a brand new to me '99 4Runner. Stellar Blue. The best part, only 45k on it. It's like a god send compared to my old cruiser. Come on give me some love. I'll have to post some pics this week so you all can see it. I guess the Land Cruiser phase is over and to be honest I think I'll be much happier with the runner. It has plenty of power for me compared to a 77 that was loosing compression. My next step is to start changing some fluids and thinking about mods for the runner. And getting in touch with some other 4runner freeks in SLC. Later