🛠️ Member Build 2026 LC “Bandit”

overtrail887 · Feb 22, 2026

Hi Everybody,

Meet “Bandit” my 2026 Land Cruiser. Yes, bandit as in the dad from Bluey.

I’ll try and update the main post here with links to mods and adventures. There are lots over over landing adventures planned, and I tow extensively so there will be some more info on my experiences. Hopefully back to the Ike Gauntlet this year.

Thank you everyone for being welcoming. Enjoying the asylum so far

TimHerald · Feb 22, 2026

Looks great. I love the solid blue

juuuiiiice · Feb 22, 2026

Hello Bandit! Meet Chilli

overtrail887 · Feb 24, 2026

Since I do long tows, I’ll also be going down the sound deadening route. For a baseline my db was about 71db on an asphalt freeway at 72 mph. However, the surface makes a huge difference. Concrete sections of overpasses are louder at 76db.

basicxj · Feb 24, 2026

She is a beauty- congrats, and welcome to the forum

overtrail887 · Feb 24, 2026

Got my mounts setup. One for my phone and one for my tablet to run Gaia GPS while I’m off pavement. If I’m towing I usually have a live dashboard with the actual temps and gear through OBD Fusion.

Matthew@LC250Mods · Feb 25, 2026

Great looking truck. Welcome!

overtrail887 · Mar 29, 2026

Added a trip report

Rowher 4x4 Trail to Boquet Reservoir

overtrail887 · Apr 4, 2026

The upfitting has begun. Slee radiator support skid plate achievement unlocked. Loved the easy installation.

wpage · Apr 4, 2026

Very nice...

Like those pivot mounts on the dash. Too cool for school !

overtrail887 · Apr 12, 2026

Installed a Mace Manufacturing topo knob. I know what you’re thinking, why would someone spend this kind of money on a radio knob.

First, Stuart over there at Mace is amazing and that alone is a good reason to work with him. Second, I have always gotten a good return on investment from upgrading the things I touch. It feels premium, with the aluminum and the knurling means I don’t have to grip it so hard anymore.

overtrail887 · Apr 25, 2026

Installed the OEM upgraded front skid-plate, Part Number: PT228-60242. Very easy to install. I love the two bolt idea that holds it while you remove the other bolts. Will make removing it for oil changes easy.

overtrail887 · Apr 27, 2026

Design philosophy

Probably should have been in the first post, but oh well. Having modified several cars for various purposes (full time racing, audio, daily/canyon car) I’m applying what I have learned over the years.

“There are no good winds if you don’t know where you are sailing” is my version, but Seneca said, “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

First a general sense of my goals. As much as I love rock crawling I’m not doing portals and 40’s. This truck has to;

Tow 2,000 miles at a time with grace and ease over vail pass, in 8min or less towing 5,000 lbs.
Travel along <6 in Ontrails/OnX, with oops room and more comfort than stock but again not a rock crawler.
Be a daily for the next 10 years.

Things I want to help do the above;

Longer travel suspension. I love suspension design and it’s more for my interest than the need to do off roading. I’m quite confident a stock LC with the swaybar disconnect will do <6 with some scraping.
17’s with light weight wheels and lightweight all terrains.
Quiet. So yeah sound deadening, lami pane Lexus windows. That kind of stuff.
Big gas tank. As soon as they take credit cards I’m buying and installing it. Period.
Nice tunes. So audio upgrade at some point.

Some items are easy, some are going to take a lot of thought. Buying once is much much cheaper in the long rung, so my choices are buy once cry once and it’s going to be the exact items I want. No compromise.

I hope to have many adventures in “Bandit” and thank you for joining along.

overtrail887 · May 2, 2026

To make long tows and trips more comfortable, I’m going down the sound deadening route to help quiet the interior. Bonus is my music sounds better too.

Installed some pimpy lami-pane Lexus front door glass. Original Thread here.

First, it is a super easy install, just take your time. I liked to push in the door panel to get behind the lower handle panel with my trim tool. Aligning the driver side window height with the holes in the door (to access the glass bolts) is a little awkward since the door panel needs to be plugged in, but other than that it’s 2 bolts a side, 3 screws and some clips.

The results.

As far as I know I’m the first one to measure before and after with only the front glass change. First, my subjective was an immediate reduction in sound. The LC was quieter generally, but really seemed quieter when another car was passing, so a lower peak Db.

The testing.

Originally 71.7 db (up to 76 depending on the surface) became 67.1 db. The Lc peak Db was originally 103.5 became 100.5.

Very content with those results and it helped guide my next steps. The road surface seemed to have the largest change in Db, so I’m going to work on front fenders and liners next, which might not lower my overall Db’s much, but my hope is that it will keep the Db’s lower on rougher surfaces.

Yousef · May 10, 2026

overtrail887 said:
View attachment 66185

To make long tows and trips more comfortable, I’m going down the sound deadening route to help quiet the interior. Bonus is my music sounds better too.

Installed some pimpy lami-pane Lexus front door glass. Original Thread here.

First, it is a super easy install, just take your time. I liked to push in the door panel to get behind the lower handle panel with my trim tool. Aligning the driver side window height with the holes in the door (to access the glass bolts) is a little awkward since the door panel needs to be plugged in, but other than that it’s 2 bolts a side, 3 screws and some clips.

The results.

As far as I know I’m the first one to measure before and after with only the front glass change. First, my subjective was an immediate reduction in sound. The LC was quieter generally, but really seemed quieter when another car was passing, so a lower peak Db.

The testing.

Originally 71.7 db (up to 76 depending on the surface) became 67.1 db. The Lc peak Db was originally 103.5 became 100.5.

View attachment 66186

Very content with those results and it helped guide my next steps. The road surface seemed to have the largest change in Db, so I’m going to work on front fenders and liners next, which might not lower my overall Db’s much, but my hope is that it will keep the Db’s lower on rougher surfaces.

Thanks for sharing your experience and as per my experience the biggest contributer to road noise characteristics is tires and the type of tires you choose.
I've already added additional sound deadening material to the front and rear finder liners but noticed minimal change to road noise however I've noticed big difference after changing the tires.
I'm using Dunlop Grandtrek AT23 and it's very quiet however it's quite mild in terms of off road potential almost HT tire .

overtrail887 · Jun 6, 2026

Added some ceramic tint all the way around. So much better. Better when parked and the sunroof vented, better when driving. Now I don’t need the a/c blowing full blast on me, instead the passenger compartment is generally nicer.

0% on the windshield, 15% in the rear, 30% up front.