LC250 owner question why are so many people modifying immediately

[t3lcfe]

The main reason that I chose LC (FE) over GX550 Overtrail + is not about the $, but :
• Front approaching angle
• LC front-end look more classic /heritage and off-roader
• Lexus “feels” less robust and “more” mall “queen” look. Too elegant !
Very personal taste, I like something “luxury / comfortable” but a bit more “manly”/military/ utilitarian

Just my own thoughts. Every one can be different so that’s reason we have both LC and GX

 

[Nuke]

My feeling is the reason Toyota decided not to offer a LC Trailhunter was to not compete with the 4Runner Trailhunter and TRD Pro. A marketing decision at the executive level.

 

[Insanoflexathf]

I like that the guy that started this tread just trolled everyone and left. We're good at defending our reasons to spend money on our rigs when no one is listening. Keep modding boys! I love it.

 

[wpage]

I like that the guy that started this tread just trolled everyone and left. We're good at defending our reasons to spend money on our rigs when no one is listening. Keep modding boys! I love it.

Yes, different strokes for different folk...

 

[OverlandMethod]

Most people that don't modify their LCs cannot afford it and complain to reach the warmth of collectivism. If they could regulate you, they would. No more modding your shit because not everyone can do it. F off.

 

[DubDub]

Most people that don't modify their LCs cannot afford it and complain to reach the warmth of collectivism. If they could regulate you, they would. No more modding your shit because not everyone can do it. F off.

While I don’t agree with the “most” aspect of your statement, I relate 100% with the sentiment. Everyone knows at least one of these people you speak of, and those that don’t immediately recognize their tumor-like impact on society are either hopeless enablers or, cough, one of those people

 

[RideWithYanu]

My response to vehicle modification or any of the other hobbies I enjoy basically boils down to “because I like it.” Channeling Marge Simpson’s affinity for potatoes.

 

[MSINAL]

Off the showroom floor the GX550 Overtrail has front AND rear swaybar disconnect, a tad more height, and arguably appropriate tires. Additionally, the rear differential is more robust.

GX has the latest generation of KDSS, not swaybar disconnect like LC. Superior until out of warranty.

 

[cruiser_ss396]

I might use a peak spacer on the front of my 1958 to give it a level and would like to go with different springs in the rear to increase payload. First will most likely be the rear springs because we continuously carry about 750-800 of payload when road tripping.
The peak spacer will be a because it will look cooler leveled or possibly reduce even more rake from the increased rear spring.

So it would be to increase payload and for looks.
If I were not looking into springs , I would still be interested in doing the peak spacer for looks and it’s not going take anything away from the off roading we do. I have actually started looking into air bags for the rear and avoid new springs.

 

[Bajacruzzer]

Hey all. New LC250 owner here with the Premium Package and stabilizer disconnect. I am honestly a little shocked by how many folks seem to start changing suspension components the moment they take delivery.

I totally get tires, skid plates, recovery points, and similar upgrades. But I am seeing a lot of spacer or collar lifts, leveling kits to remove rake, and full shock and coil swaps right away.

I am trying to understand why, especially on a platform Toyota clearly invested heavily in developing and validating for both on road manners and off road capability.

From what I have seen and what many suspension folks say, some of the quick and easy lift options, especially spacers and collars, can trade away things that matter off road and even on road.

They can worsen ride quality and increase harshness. They can reduce usable droop or travel depending on the setup. They can increase stress on angles such as CVs and ball joints and can introduce alignment compromises. They can also make the truck look taller without necessarily making it work better.

Watching videos like Tinker’s Adventure has also reinforced the idea that a lot of bolt on aftermarket changes can actually worsen off road performance rather than improve it.

For my part, I have done a bunch of trails already with zero drama using the factory locking differentials and the stabilizer disconnect. The only change I have made is a slightly upsized all terrain tire, Yokohama Geolandar A/T4 in 275 70R18.

So, genuine question for those who lifted or leveled immediately.

1. What problem were you solving? Clearance, tire fitment, load and weight, or a specific terrain or style?
2. Did you see an objective improvement in travel, control, traction, or stability, or was it mainly aesthetics?
3. If you did spacers or collars, do you feel any downside in ride or off road articulation?

Not trying to bash anyone’s build. I am trying to learn the reasoning behind the day one suspension trend on a brand new platform.

Just add better tires, Toyota already produced another great vehicle!

 

[TEQJ250]

You will find that there are those among us who just can't stop themselves. It won't matter what vehicle they have, they will always find something that doesn't fit their taste or things that THEY can "improve".

There will always be people who believe they know better than an international company that invests millions of dollars into development, engineering and design.

I relate it to OCD or ADHD type people. They just can't NOT do it.

THIS! I've been modding my cars for 3 decades for items that don't suit MY needs. All my cars (except my old RX350) have gone through suspension upgrades, usually as the 1st mod, unless I decided to upgrade the stereo first.

I rode on Westcotts for 8k miles & upgraded to OME BP51 front & rear, specifically for the compression and rebound adjustments. Haven't been able to test it offroads yet, but on road manners is night & day!

To each their own whether you want to mod or not, but for me, it's just a way of life =)

 

[Matthew@LC250Mods]

THIS! I've been modding my cars for 3 decades for items that don't suit MY needs. All my cars (except my old RX350) have gone through suspension upgrades, usually as the 1st mod, unless I decided to upgrade the stereo first.

I rode on Westcotts for 8k miles & upgraded to OME BP51 front & rear, specifically for the compression and rebound adjustments. Haven't been able to test it offroads yet, but on road manners is night & day!

To each their own whether you want to mod or not, but for me, it's just a way of life =)

100%. Suspension is one of the very best bang for buck upgrades for just about any car.

 

[Sugarloafer80]

This forum experiences less than 1% of the owners out there. The racer community has their desires and look at me mods list, the offroad community has theirs........god forbid you go out there stock and find the limits..better to be overprepared so the ego doesn't get bruised. Be honest folks, I speak a lot of truth here. Until I go up my Western Maine mountain logging roads and get myself stuck, I won't touch it. I would rather learn the limits stock with my base knowledge level, than get in over my head.
I have seen hundreds of richy rich guys take sports cars with significant chops out of the box, but their egos throw 10-20K at them before they ever see a track...yup, you guessed it, more of these folks total out than any other group by a significant margin. Greenwich boys in Lotus Elise /Exige back in the day are the poster child for this kind of arrogant stupidity. I was trained just the opposite. The car at first is faster than you are. Drive it till you become faster than the stock bits then upgrade 1 piece at a time so you learn how every upgrade effects the bigger picture.....motor/power always comes last.....way too many ROOKIE idiots out there in 8 Z06s these days.
Take EVERYTHING I just said about track, change it for the various levels of offroading and apply. You will be a better driver by learning to do more with less EVERY TIME. Understanding slip angles, using downhill descent controls on moderate declines , learning to use the various tools like center and rear diffs, sway bar unlock etc will take you a long way before you need to touch a thing. Nothing makes me laugh more than the goons with shiny trucks sporting mud tires that are noisy as hell wailing down the state highway from my CT home while their make me feel like a big boy trucker diesels belch soot............don't be that guy.

If you are a true, use it monthly off roader types that goes places your stock rig can't handle, go for it...but until you have found those limits, it doesn't impress us because we have seen that guy with skills drive circles around the heavily modded crowd......like taking a bone stock Miata and blowing away cars with double, triple the HP and 10x price tags....yup the dick that refused to give you the point by .....

 

[Sugarloafer80]

100%. Suspension is one of the very best bang for buck upgrades for just about any car.

Very profitable too ehhh?

 

[Matthew@LC250Mods]

Very profitable too ehhh?

Fair question. Honestly, I bought dozens of suspension setups for multiple vehicles before I ever sold any.

I actually agree with a lot of what you said about learning a vehicle stock. Understanding line choice, traction management, and where the factory limits really are will make someone a better driver than throwing parts at a truck. The same goes for learning to drive a slow car fast.

Where I differ is that I don't think suspension is only about pushing harder trails. A well-designed suspension will improve ride quality, body control, damping over rough roads, load carrying, and tire fitment even for people who never tackle extreme obstacles. That's why I called it one of the best bang-for-the-buck upgrades.

As a vendor, I'd rather recommend someone not buy something than sell them a part they don't need. Plenty of people on this forum can probably vouch that I've talked them out of purchases before.

There's nothing wrong with keeping a Land Cruiser stock, and there's nothing wrong with thoughtfully modifying one either. IMO neither approach says much about someone's skill.

 

[MSINAL]

This forum experiences less than 1% of the owners out there. The racer community has their desires and look at me mods list, the offroad community has theirs........god forbid you go out there stock and find the limits..better to be overprepared so the ego doesn't get bruised. Be honest folks, I speak a lot of truth here. Until I go up my Western Maine mountain logging roads and get myself stuck, I won't touch it. I would rather learn the limits stock with my base knowledge level, than get in over my head.
I have seen hundreds of richy rich guys take sports cars with significant chops out of the box, but their egos throw 10-20K at them before they ever see a track...yup, you guessed it, more of these folks total out than any other group by a significant margin. Greenwich boys in Lotus Elise /Exige back in the day are the poster child for this kind of arrogant stupidity. I was trained just the opposite. The car at first is faster than you are. Drive it till you become faster than the stock bits then upgrade 1 piece at a time so you learn how every upgrade effects the bigger picture.....motor/power always comes last.....way too many ROOKIE idiots out there in 8 Z06s these days.
Take EVERYTHING I just said about track, change it for the various levels of offroading and apply. You will be a better driver by learning to do more with less EVERY TIME. Understanding slip angles, using downhill descent controls on moderate declines , learning to use the various tools like center and rear diffs, sway bar unlock etc will take you a long way before you need to touch a thing. Nothing makes me laugh more than the goons with shiny trucks sporting mud tires that are noisy as hell wailing down the state highway from my CT home while their make me feel like a big boy trucker diesels belch soot............don't be that guy.

If you are a true, use it monthly off roader types that goes places your stock rig can't handle, go for it...but until you have found those limits, it doesn't impress us because we have seen that guy with skills drive circles around the heavily modded crowd......like taking a bone stock Miata and blowing away cars with double, triple the HP and 10x price tags....yup the dick that refused to give you the point by .....

Haha, you speak wisdom. Ive seen my share of corvettes/z06s in the wall. They add crazy power to them then total it before the session even starts to heat up.
Land cruiser is more than capable with the caveat that the ground clearance will limit you over the extreme stuff or deep ruts. If youre not worried about putting your skids and rails to use, you can get over most realistic obstacles.
I've taken rental sentras through worse stuff than most LCs will ever see. Granted i had passengers to push me as needed.

 

[RideWithYanu]

This forum experiences less than 1% of the owners out there. The racer community has their desires and look at me mods list, the offroad community has theirs........god forbid you go out there stock and find the limits..better to be overprepared so the ego doesn't get bruised. Be honest folks, I speak a lot of truth here. Until I go up my Western Maine mountain logging roads and get myself stuck, I won't touch it. I would rather learn the limits stock with my base knowledge level, than get in over my head.
I have seen hundreds of richy rich guys take sports cars with significant chops out of the box, but their egos throw 10-20K at them before they ever see a track...yup, you guessed it, more of these folks total out than any other group by a significant margin. Greenwich boys in Lotus Elise /Exige back in the day are the poster child for this kind of arrogant stupidity. I was trained just the opposite. The car at first is faster than you are. Drive it till you become faster than the stock bits then upgrade 1 piece at a time so you learn how every upgrade effects the bigger picture.....motor/power always comes last.....way too many ROOKIE idiots out there in 8 Z06s these days.
Take EVERYTHING I just said about track, change it for the various levels of offroading and apply. You will be a better driver by learning to do more with less EVERY TIME. Understanding slip angles, using downhill descent controls on moderate declines , learning to use the various tools like center and rear diffs, sway bar unlock etc will take you a long way before you need to touch a thing. Nothing makes me laugh more than the goons with shiny trucks sporting mud tires that are noisy as hell wailing down the state highway from my CT home while their make me feel like a big boy trucker diesels belch soot............don't be that guy.

If you are a true, use it monthly off roader types that goes places your stock rig can't handle, go for it...but until you have found those limits, it doesn't impress us because we have seen that guy with skills drive circles around the heavily modded crowd......like taking a bone stock Miata and blowing away cars with double, triple the HP and 10x price tags....yup the dick that refused to give you the point by .....

Totally agree.

 

[Sugarloafer80]

Wow thanks folks. Getting to like this group more and more. I really thought I'd get the hair up on a few speaking the truth......I'd put heavier skid plates on and use them...which would keep the on road ride height safer, before I'd go big lift. I see a lot of folks adding an inch of OD to tires. Safer choice once again...your mileage is another story but........to each his own.
As far as improved ride quality, , I suppose one can never argue with the fluid damping of Ohlins.....Bilsteins have a history of being pretty harsh. I would have to experience it firsthand. I assume it is just rear shocks and front struts. Thus far , except for 15-25mpph low speed chatter (a little) on dirt roads which goes right away at 35, I have been very impressed. Ride quality means so many different things to different folks.
This may be an opportunity for us to start various mod listings with brief descriptions. Best descriptions usually compare to OE before they compare to each other. better base line. May be benficial for our vendors as well. On some of my forums, this tuff ends up being a sticky at top of a forum. Kind of the go to catalog.
Suspension aka shocks
springs
sways
lift kits
winches
skid plates
foot rails, etc
towing gear and accessories using the towing hookup like bike racks etc
wheels ( this has been started but needs to be put into a more precise format with all specs
tires (this has some lists as well)
exhausts
intakes
oil coolers
gas tanks, main and aux
tunes (with actual personal dyno verified results)
aux power backups, boosters, jumpers

THe forum has entered a more mature phase with an established group. I always read these kinds of threads on other forums because they go far beyond the hype of advertising. I have been in some pickups with "better" shocks that did not impress for example. Same thing with suspension setups on track cars..stiffer not always better.
The relationship between tire choice and suspension setup needs cannot be underestimated. E ply tires are HEAVY and firm requiring much more aggressive damping for example. Screw with one piece, it affects a lot of others. We need our Excel experts to format this stuff.

 

[OverlandMethod]

I have majorly regretted going e-load on my tires and now I'm about to get a 1.5" lift front and back in the next week or so. However, I've been very tempted to go SL (Toyo OC iii EV 275) while I'm getting the lift.

The only thing is I wanna get a pure delta of the difference pre and post lift .

The engineer in me wants the exact delta feel, measurements, gas mileage etc.

The responsible dad in me wants the tires to wear before replacing.

The enthusiast in me wants it all, immediately.

The reason for the lift was actually getting in and out of my steep driveway under a full load. The back side around the recovery hook scrapes on the driveway whereas my old 5th gen 4runner never did after lifting. The larger tires helped the LC but not fully as under heavy load her back side still sags and scrapes and in this case it's too much sag for her. I don't mind a little backside sag you know. Not too much though, maybe not loading the back too much helps like a good diet. A 1.5" lift will solve the driveway scraping. (There is more detail like load rating and what kind of lift but separate thread on that)

A few months ago on a beach drive the wind was so high at midnight high tide that when I woke up in the morning the back side of the car was buried in sand. The exhaust dump was stuck and I had to shovel it free.
So I replaced the exhaust and got major clearance in that area and drove 3 hours back to the beach to see what happens. Of course there was no wind and it was hot as hell. So I didn't get the delta I was curious about but it felt like it will do as intent. it still gave me an excuse to go back to the beach, get chewed up by mosquitos and come home satisfied like after a night of driving a slightly sagged questionable tail.

I'm still tempted to roll to discount tire and get those damn tires replaced before the lift. Maybe a week of new tires before the lift will give me enough time to gauge the delta but as with the exhaust not getting the delta wasn't so bad after all.

The moral of the story is some of us have functional intent for the mods but not always . We may go too far and sometimes overdo it.

So I'd say keep on modding and share your experiences and chime in on what you'd do with this tire and lift predicament I'm in right now.

 

[RideWithYanu]

I have majorly regretted going e-load on my tires and now I'm about to get a 1.5" lift front and back in the next week or so. However, I've been very tempted to go SL (Toyo OC iii EV 275) while I'm getting the lift.

The only thing is I wanna get a pure delta of the difference pre and post lift .

The engineer in me wants the exact delta feel, measurements, gas mileage etc.

The responsible dad in me wants the tires to wear before replacing.

The enthusiast in me wants it all, immediately.

The reason for the lift was actually getting in and out of my steep driveway under a full load. The back side around the recovery hook scrapes on the driveway whereas my lifted 5th gen 4runner never did after lifting. The larger tires helped the LC but not fully as under heavy load her back side still sags and scrapes and in this case it's too much sag for her. I don't mind a little backside sag you know. Not too much though, maybe not loading the back too much helps like a good diet. A 1.5" lift will solve the driveway scraping. (There is more detail like load rating and what kind of lift but separate thread on that)

A few months ago on a beach drive the wind was so high at midnight high tide that when I woke up in the morning the back side of the car was buried in sand. The exhaust dump was stuck and I had to shovel it free.
So I replaced the exhaust and got major clearance in that area and drove 3 hours back to the beach to see what happens. Of course there was no wind and it was hot as hell. So I didn't get the delta I was curious about but it felt like it will do as intent. it still gave me an excuse to go back to the beach, get chewed up by mosquitos and come home satisfied like after a night of getting slightly sagged questionable backside tail.

I'm still tempted to roll to discount tire and get those damn tires replaced before the lift. Maybe a week of new tires before the lift will give me enough time to gauge the delta but as with the exhaust not getting the delta wasn't so bad after all.

The moral of the story is some of us have functional intent for the mods but not always . We may go too far and sometimes overdo it.

So I'd say keep on modding and share your experiences and chime in on what you'd do with this tire and lift predicament I'm in right now.

Yeah e-loads mostly suck. I just love the sidewall strength of mine. Going to try something lighter for my next set.

Which exhaust dump did you switch to?