Twice actually, used it to get my boat sold, but had to take it off to fit my spare.

 

i would supercharge it to make sure it has power, especially with the added weight

if you need a technician, i would come along, i have alot of experience building and racing cars, i have also traveled alot of the world to include living in china

you can see some of my projects here www.sfaboston.com

you may especially want to check out the '67 camaro' link on the first page

i worked at a race car shop all through college and am capable to do anything from welding up a cracked frame, to doing a clutch, setting up gears, to porting heads to building engines from scratch

 

actually, for mud and narrow trails, i'd get a 85 runner and drop a 4.3 in it w/ dual ARB's.

3rd gens are pretty heavy. you need something that will be light so it won't sink.

 

Are you sure about the weight difference?? I think it's only a few hundred pounds.

 

smaller frame, smaller body, smaller motor, less interior, removable fiberglass top that can (and should) be replaced by a lighter canvas one, etc... i think the difference between a built wrd gen and a built 85 would be close to if not more than 1000# and on top of that, you can go up to 37's easily on a 85 w/ solid front axle where 35's are the MAX you want on a 3rd gen.

 

If you need more space than an 85, my suggestion is to follow formulatoy#36's plan and SAS a 2nd gen and swap a 4.3 in it. You cold even chop 10"-18" off the back
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyot...QQcmdZViewItem

 

saw that the other day.

great platform to get a serious crawler going.

 

From looking at the link with pics, you have tight trails and thick mud, so thick that speed doesn't look to be an options for the most part. So weight and size will need to be limited. A fast HD winch looks to be used the most, front and rear with a lot of armor.
I sure hope you take a lot of pics and keep us posted.
Why not buy something down there already built for it? Nevermind, that's no fun.

 

Hmm....85 4runner with solid axle seems to be one of the best choice!! Most likely we will stick with my 96 4runner since the truck is in pretty good mechanical condition. Well, power isn't any issue anymore since we will swap a toyota 3.0 turbo diesel into it when we ship it there. That 3.0 is so powerful after I drove a 4 door LC Prado with the same engine, I just fall in love with it. I think the most cost effective way is to keep my 96 and build it up, I just have to add a fast and well built winch, may be a WARN 9.5xp or M8000, add a snorkel, arb lockers, some likghtforce, 35 Simex jungle treckker tire, and replace stronger cv half shaft. The truck currently has ome rear lift and racerunner front lift, demello slider,TJM winch bumper, Azrain front skid plate. We will add either internal or external roll cage, possibly strip most of the interior out and line x it. I really wanna use my 95 LC80, but that thing is just to heavy for this Ohh yea, do you guys know if there is anyway to get ARB & WARN sponsor for some of their equipment?!! Bamachem, did ARB sponsor you one time by advertising with your truck? Thanks guys!!

 

Hey Boston4runner, if you are interested, u r welcome to come along. So far we have 3 people who is interested in this. Me and my bro, and one of our friend in CALI, not sure if he want so to use his LC100 for this. May be you can pair with him. We dun really care if we get to the top number in this race, we just want to experience this and and really gain some knowledge in extreme offroading. And I can bring you guys around for some yummy food and interesting places since I am born and raise there ohh yea, the entry fees is $2000 per team/per vehicle. We have to ship our own vehicle, they will get all the paperwork and special plate done. Or you can join as Touring Adventurer and sit in suppoet vehicle for $1000 per person. So the expensive part is the shipping cost. Around $4-$5k :cry: