Advice on choosing an older LC for touring camping / light overlanding.

[CraigTL76]

Hello all and straight off let me apologise for being another newbie asking what might be dumb questions again, please bear with me.

I am shortly going to be in the market for a 4x4 for light overlanding and touring and could do with some advice and opinions to narrow down model/year/engine choice.

The legendary reliability and capability of Toyota Land Cruisers has led me towards them rather than Land Rovers (also because I hate the LR Defenders driving position, I’d need to remove either the drivers door or my arm to drive one!).

I’m looking to do this on a skinny budget so am looking for the most car for the least money without it being a rust bucket that eats money. It’ll be bought and built up a bit at a time while being a daily driver rather funded all in one big project in one go. I’d love a big 70-series Troopie camper or an 80-series world-crosser like others have done but they seem to be getting rare and/or expensive to find one that’s not rotted out or costing a fortune in the UK. So I’m wondering what folks think of building a rig based on one of the smaller engined Prado / Colorado models (either a pre-02 J90 or pre-96 J70) as my main criteria are:

• Minimum “bad-road capable” – as I’m not likely to be doing anything too extreme or going too far off the beaten track to require serious technical off-road capability.
• Minimal to no “mission critical” electronics – I’m getting sick of electronical gremlins in modern cars and am planning to learn how to diagnose and repair the vehicle myself beyond my current “I know what it does but I’ll be buggered if I can remember the technical name for it!” basic knowledge.
• Economical (as much as possible) on fuel – I don’t mind slow but I’d like it not to be a big drinker to minimise fill-up costs and maximise range which led me to wonder about the smaller Hilux based engines in the Prado / Colorado.

What does the collective mind here think about narrowing down year/engine choice for a suitable lighter duty LC? Does the J90 have too many electronics to make it reliable and bush-mechanic repairable? Is a J70 Prado / J70 Light going to be either too old and busted or (if in good nick) too much of a collectors car now to suit a low budget?

Cheers,

Craig

 

[al_burpe]

Hi Craig,

I owned a 1995 Prado with the 3.0L turbo diesel for a little over a year while living in South Sudan. I drove it all over South Sudan and Uganda. It is one of my favorite vehicles that I have owned. It was very much bad road capable. I took it to some pretty gnarly places without any problems. It was mostly stock. I replaced the shock absorbers shortly after I got it with some cheap off brand stuff that was available to me, but other than that the only issue I had was with the a/c. Below is a picture in Kidepo National Park in Uganda.



It sounds like you are in the UK, so I don't know what the availability is there. However, it would definitely fit all your requirements. As far as vehicle power, it was more than adequate for African roads. In the US, it would feel under powered on our interstates. I don't know what your import laws are in the UK, but I ordered this one directly from Japan from this website https://www.autorec.co.jp/.

If you really want to go cheap however, I would suggest you also consider a Rav4. I had several while living in Uganda and South Sudan. While small, they are economical, cheap, easy to work on the generation 1 models, and are a global vehicle. I drove the below vehicle back and forth from Uganda to South Sudan.

 

[Klierslc]

I don't remember the specifics, but I recall that the LJ models with the smaller diesel are very particular about Exhaust gas temps and you can wreck those engines very easily if you aren't careful on long uphill sections of road. Other than that, prados are an excellent choice!

 

[Paddler Ed]

I don't remember the specifics, but I recall that the LJ models with the smaller diesel are very particular about Exhaust gas temps and you can wreck those engines very easily if you aren't careful on long uphill sections of road. Other than that, prados are an excellent choice!

An LJ by definition is going to have either a 2L (2.4) or a 2LT - it might have a 3- or 5-L (2.8 or 3.0) but I'm not 100% on that combination, beyond I think they do it as a UN special out of Gibraltar. The 2LT is very sensitive to temperatures, and are notorious in Surfs/4Runners for doing heads and head gaskets.

The KZJ7x that al_burpe had is a really good combination by all accounts - coils all round and the 1KZ diesel in it, much as a KZJ90 or 95 would have.

Hope that helps a bit....

 

[FJOE]

The Suzuki Grand Vitara is incredibly capable as an off road vehicle and reasonably affordable.