Toyota off road enthusiast

4cornersexplorer · Tuesday at 2:46 PM

Greetings,

I hail from the Dallas, TX area. Born and raised in Florida. My Toyota journey started with a 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD OR. I still have it for the time being with 80k miles on it. 2” lift from Bilstein 6112/5160 and Icon RXT leafs. 33” KO2s. JBA UCAs and Hammer hangers in back. Leitner Designs rack with a Go Fast Superlite RTT. Extra lumens in all the right spots.

It has been an incredible truck with incredible adventures. It’s been off road all over AZ, CO, UT, NM and SOCAL to include my favorite place Canyonlands NP.

I just purchased a 2025 Land Cruiser that I hope will be a positive iteration on the off roading experience. My expectations are a few more MPG (Tacoma averages 15-16), leather upholstery, enclosed cargo area for less dust exposure, and more comfort for long drives trying to escape Texas.

In the three weeks I’ve had it I’ve added Victory 4x4 aluminum skid plates
Garmin Powerswitch
Rago Fab ditch light mounting plates
Baja Designs squadron sports
Rock lights tied into puddle light circuit

Future plans
275/70R18 perhaps?
C4 Fab front center bumper
Ready lifts 1” front top hat spacer lift
(Waiting on Bilstein to release LC tuned shocks!)
Rigid SAE 20” high beam light bar
Roof rack or Victory 4x4 crossbars
Bigger turbo? J/k

-Joe

LC_DFW · Tuesday at 3:08 PM

Congrats on the new ride. Looks sick. Do you have a shop you use in DFW to get things added?

RideWithYanu · Tuesday at 3:09 PM

Welcome! That Tacoma sounds pretty sick. I think you’ll love the Land Cruiser - but would recommend to temper expectations on fuel efficiency as you proceed with modifications. Unsprung weight especially eats into the MPGs, speaking from experience!

Underground is my personal favorite color!

Beach Cruiser · Wednesday at 5:22 AM

Welcome, I think you will enjoy your Land Cruise for all the reasons stated. It a very comfortable ride.

Where did you tap into the puddle lights? I’m getting ready to do the same mod.

TimHerald · Wednesday at 5:37 AM

Welcome and congrats on the new truck !

4cornersexplorer · Wednesday at 10:52 AM

LC_DFW said:
Congrats on the new ride. Looks sick. Do you have a shop you use in DFW to get things added?

I do just about everything myself except getting the lifetime alignments at Firestone. That may change going from a $36k vehicle to $70k lol! But in reality I take the risk because I want to know as much about the vehicle and how it goes together as possible because when it breaks in the middle of the Utah desert there is no shop to help.

4cornersexplorer · Wednesday at 11:01 AM

RideWithYanu said:
Welcome! That Tacoma sounds pretty sick. I think you’ll love the Land Cruiser - but would recommend to temper expectations on fuel efficiency as you proceed with modifications. Unsprung weight especially eats into the MPGs, speaking from experience!

Underground is my personal favorite color!

Absolutely. I’d like to stick with p-metric tires despite having run LTs on my Tacoma. I am concerned about sidewall durability but my extreme off roading days are probably behind me anyways living 12+ hours from the southwest now. My Tacoma would average 12 MPG off road btw.

4cornersexplorer · Wednesday at 11:03 AM

Beach Cruiser said:
Welcome, I think you will enjoy your Land Cruise for all the reasons stated. It a very comfortable ride.

Where did you tap into the puddle lights? I’m getting ready to do the same mod.

I’m running a Garmin Powerswitch tied into the passenger side fuse box (Thanks to EOD Guy for the idea). I’ll post a build thread soon.

Markarian421 · Wednesday at 12:35 PM

4cornersexplorer said:
Rigid SAE 20” high beam light bar

Welcome to the forum! I didn't know Rigid made SAE compliant driving lights, this is tempting. I put driving lights on both my FJs, they're really useful in remote rural areas. There's forum vendor that makes brackets for mounting light bars in the lower grill area, I'll look that up and add a link in a moment. Now if someone can figure out how to have them automatically shut off when you switch off the high beams...

Edit: @MandRautomotive makes lighting kits and brackets and mentioned in this thread that they'd be willing to sell just the brackets.

4cornersexplorer · Thursday at 11:35 AM

My end goal is to get a high beam signal using a canbus module that will tie into my Garmin Switchpro. That’ll allow the light bar to mirror the high beams. I have the C4 bumper on order that has the 20” mount as well as mounts behind the lower grill for 4 light pods. When I figure it all out I’ll create a build thread.

AgRN16 · Thursday at 4:59 PM

4cornersexplorer said:
Greetings,

I hail from the Dallas, TX area. Born and raised in Florida. My Toyota journey started with a 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD OR. I still have it for the time being with 80k miles on it. 2” lift from Bilstein 6112/5160 and Icon RXT leafs. 33” KO2s. JBA UCAs and Hammer hangers in back. Leitner Designs rack with a Go Fast Superlite RTT. Extra lumens in all the right spots.

It has been an incredible truck with incredible adventures. It’s been off road all over AZ, CO, UT, NM and SOCAL to include my favorite place Canyonlands NP.

I just purchased a 2025 Land Cruiser that I hope will be a positive iteration on the off roading experience. My expectations are a few more MPG (Tacoma averages 15-16), leather upholstery, enclosed cargo area for less dust exposure, and more comfort for long drives trying to escape Texas.

In the three weeks I’ve had it I’ve added Victory 4x4 aluminum skid plates
Garmin Powerswitch
Rago Fab ditch light mounting plates
Baja Designs squadron sports
Rock lights tied into puddle light circuit

Future plans
275/70R18 perhaps?
C4 Fab front center bumper
Ready lifts 1” front top hat spacer lift
(Waiting on Bilstein to release LC tuned shocks!)
Rigid SAE 20” high beam light bar
Roof rack or Victory 4x4 crossbars
Bigger turbo? J/k

-Joe

Howdy and welcome! Love your Rig and your plans!

Our family are also big Toyota fanatics

Been driving exclusively Lexus/Toyota since 2012. We also have a LC 250 Premium package and have some similar upgrades to the ones you plan for yours. We live in Ellis County and both my wife and I work in Dallas. We have had Judah (our LC) since January and absolutely LOVE him. Let me know if you ever want to meet up sometime!