Okienomads 2006 Lexus GX470

[zelseman]

It's about time for us to write a build thread on our 2006 Lexus GX470 that we have been adventuring in since 2020. The first few posts will be historical as we have put this vehicle together over the last few years. We were driving a 1986 Toyota 4Runner with no AC, sketchy power steering, and lots of quirks. The 4Runner served us well and took us down to Baja for a few months, but an upgrade was in order and the GX470 crossed our searches a few times.



We did a ton of research and found a couple of acceptable-looking ads and through a few hours of test driving, we were really disheartened when none of them worked out. On our way back home from a bunch of crappy test drives we decided to stop by the local dealership and just see what was on their used lot. We looked around and saw nothing promising until we noticed a black GX470 parked in the back of the service lot with dirt all over it. We asked and the salesperson kinda played it off and directed towards newer models. I insisted and it turned out that it was dealer maintained, around 130,000 miles, and had a check engine light for the SAIS system and the quote was $2500 to fix it. The vehicle drove beautifully and there were no symptoms from the SAIS code. We offered $9500 as is and the dealer jumped at it. We were the proud new owners of a 2006 Lexus GX470 with a grey interior and non-nav entertainment.

This is what the bone-stock GX470 looked like when we bought it in 2020.

 

[TLar25]

It's about time for us to write a build thread on our 2006 Lexus GX470 that we have been adventuring in since 2020. The first few posts will be historical as we have put this vehicle together over the last few years. We were driving a 1986 Toyota 4Runner with no AC, sketchy power steering, and lots of quirks. The 4Runner served us well and took us down to Baja for a few months, but an upgrade was in order and the GX470 crossed our searches a few times.

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We did a ton of research and found a couple of acceptable-looking ads and through a few hours of test driving, we were really disheartened when none of them worked out. On our way back home from a bunch of crappy test drives we decided to stop by the local dealership and just see what was on their used lot. We looked around and saw nothing promising until we noticed a black GX470 parked in the back of the service lot with dirt all over it. We asked and the salesperson kinda played it off and directed towards newer models. I insisted and it turned out that it was dealer maintained, around 130,000 miles, and had a check engine light for the SAIS system and the quote was $2500 to fix it. The vehicle drove beautifully and there were no symptoms from the SAIS code. We offered $9500 as is and the dealer jumped at it. We were the proud new owners of a 2006 Lexus GX470 with a grey interior and non-nav entertainment.

This is what the bone-stock GX470 looked like when we bought it in 2020.
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Wow I've never seen anybody add MORE woodgrain to a GX lol. Excited to see more of the build thread!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[ITTOG]

Good luck with the new ride.

Wow I've never seen anybody add MORE woodgrain to a GX lol. Excited to see more of the build thread!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Funny, I thought the same on the wood. Looked like a 1990's interior. I liked the outside a lot more.

 

[zelseman]

Wow I've never seen anybody add MORE woodgrain to a GX lol. Excited to see more of the build thread!

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Good luck with the new ride.


Funny, I thought the same on the wood. Looked like a 1990's interior. I liked the outside a lot more.

The worst part, I didn't know any different until these comments. Don't worry, the extra woodgrain was removed this morning. Soooooo much better!

 

[zelseman]

Using our theory of only modifying things to add utility and fix a problem with the OEM vehicle, the two areas that were most glaring problems for how we travel: lighting and roof storage. We travel mostly with an OZtent RX5 and the stock crossbars were not up to the task.

We opted for the Prinsu rack simply on cost and availability. The Prinsu has a track record of being dependable and the ability to have it in the garage in a week was a plus. Install was super easy and the performance has been great. It mostly carries our OzTent, occasionally our traction boards, and eventually will house a solar panel.



At the time, working for DENALI Electronics had some perks, like access to driving lights for my vehicle. I managed to squeeze a pair of DENALI D7 Driving Lights into the stock bumper without too much cutting. The lighting is unbelievable and the D7 will have a place on our rig for a long time.



Moab was a great place to push the vehicle a bit, mostly in the way of how we camp and how we organize our gear. We found some challenge areas including the stock front bumper. Approach angle on the stock vehicle is abysmal, so some high clearance mods were going to be necessary.

Moab itself was amazing and beautiful, as it always is. We are always counting down the days until we can get back.









On the way out to Utah, we met friends at a hotel in Denver to travel out together and to organize our supplies. We should have opted for a better town than Denver as we were broken into and our third row window was busted out. The thief avoided taking our drone, camera, GPS, or radio, but opted to take our kitchen bag with our carefully curated kitchen gear that we have assembled over years and years of camping. Hopefully the person that stole it found some use in it and needed it worse than us. All that to say, we explored hundreds of miles off road around Moab with cardboard on our rear window and will need to figure out a replacement window before too long.

 

[zelseman]

After our Moab trip, it was pretty clear that the front bumper was a weak spot on the GX for the most modest of wheeling. We drug the front bumper numerous times on chill-ish forest service roads and that wasn't going to cut it.

I wanted a bumper that accomplished a few things: a spot to securely mount a winch eventually, a place to mount driving and fog lights, and an improved approach angle. Second, I tried to remove the soccer mom appearance however I could and the bumper felt like a good place to start. I found a hybrid tube/plate bumper from a new company (Explore Overland) and the price was right. I liked that the approach angle was fantastic, the winch mount was frame-mounted and solid, and the bumper was lighter and less bulky than the ARB. I was one of the lucky ones that wasn't hosed by Explore Overland. After some pestering and threatening legal action, my bumper arrived.





Despite the problems with Explore Overland, the bumper is fantastic and is exactly what we were looking for. I wasted no time mounting the DENALI D7s in the bumper and wiring them up. Winch will go on eventually, but it is more of a precaution than a need for every trip. Eventually, I will add some DOT fog lights and relocate the washer reservoir, but it's not a priority at this point.

 

[zelseman]

The cost of replacing the busted-out back window was not ideal, around $1000 from Lexus. At the time, the used market didn't have any windows for sale so we got creative. The team at Rugged Bound was extremely helpful at getting us set up with a pair of gull-wings for the rear windows. The plan for this vehicle is to complete the Pan American Highway someday and the gull-wings will increase the utility of the back window space a ton. The rear windows stock just pop out and provide no access to the contents of the cargo area, the gull-wings are well built, look awesome, and were not that hard to install.





My wife was out of town, so I explored a bit and tested out the DENALI lights. The DENALI D7 is bonkers bright and I can't believe more overland-types aren't using them in their builds. I like how discreet they are and how stupid-bright they are.

 

[zelseman]

One of the benefits of working for a lighting company (DENALI Electronics) is the ability to test products. The DENALI Soundbomb is a compressor horn that is wildly loud. The stock GX horn is fine, but the SoundBomb is crazy loud. Install was pretty simple, I only needed to scoot over the stock horns and use a positap to tap into the horn wires. Everything tidied up really well with the DENALI universal vehicle harness.