The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

fridayman · **** Joined: 23 Jun 2010 Posts: 263 Location: Surrey

Hi all

Do you think it is possible to buy and kit out a land cruiser to drive to Australia, for £10k (excluding camping/cooking kit)? What model, age, mileage would I be looking at?

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ignat · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 13:45 Post subject:

£10k just to buy and kit out a vehicle? Definitely.

£10k for the car, prep and for the entire trip? Dont know.

I guess you would be looking at an 80 Series. Others will do the job too.

I'm going to travel from London to South Africa in a 90 (95) series (Colorado/Prado).

I've spent about £6-7k on the car and uprating the suspension, tyres etc etc and its pretty much good to go.

You can give me £25k and I will spend it fitting out a cruiser no problem. But most things are not necessary. I've decided not to get a roof tent (they are like £1k), fancy African Outback drawers (another grand there too), winch & winch bumper (another grand+ easily) etc ! So I could have spent over £10k easily if I wanted. But then again I am cheap. Laughing

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fridayman · **** Joined: 23 Jun 2010 Posts: 263 Location: Surrey

ignat · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 14:41 Post subject:

Yes the 6-7k includes the car, Old Man Emu suspension, All Terrain tyres etc. I got it for just under £4k. Prices have gone up now though but you can still get them for under £4k. You can get 80's for similar money too

I stand to be corrected here but I think the 80 series were produced from 1991 to 1997.

I went for a 90 before I knew much about cruisers. I never even considered an 80. I originally was looking for a hilux but thought for similar money i could get a 90 which is more comfortable. Having owned the 90 I've learned a little about the 80's and they are pretty good.

Bulletproof engines, comfortable not too thirsty as you might imagine etc. Yes, they are older and have more mileage than 90's but they are still good.

Having said that you should remember that people take £100 bangers down to Timbuktu so any Land Cruiser will make it to Oz in my opinion!

The consensus is the 80 is the best car overall. But a shotgun is the best tool to kill a rabbit, but there are other ways of doing it Very Happy

Its down to what you need. If I were to choose again I would seriously consider an 80, but might choose a 90 again anyway.

If you plan on sticking to the roads as much as possible then an 80 isnt essential.
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'97 Colorado 3.0 TD LWB
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fridayman · **** Joined: 23 Jun 2010 Posts: 263 Location: Surrey

Great reply, thanks.

Are the 80's 3.0 or 4.2's? Which one should I go for? And what is the max mileage that I should be looking to buy?

Maybe I should buy you a beer sometime and pick your brain Smile

fridayman · **** Joined: 23 Jun 2010 Posts: 263 Location: Surrey

Hi all -

The wife and I (and Smint) are planning to drive from Woking to Brisbane when we emmigrate over there in 2012 hopefully. At the moment I am still trying to figure out which vehicle is most suited to us (and our budget...). I'm looking at Land Cruisers, Patrols and Hilux's atm. From what I've learnt so far Discos aren't really up to the job. We're not decided on the route yet. Probably the usual Turkey, Iran, etc and then we were thinking about China but it sounds like a bit of a ball ache and expensive, so will probably get a boat from India to Thailand/Vietnam.

Anyway, all advice on vehicle choice and prep will be much appreciated.

Et

lucky · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 16:50 Post subject:

80 Series definately the job, plus will be easy to maintain in Australia as they love them over there.

I used to live in Woking a few years ago moved around a bit since then mind you.
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ignat · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 23:30 Post subject:

80's are 4.2 (except petrol's - not sure what they are). the 90 series have 3.0 turbo diesel and a 3.4 V6 petrol. later models come with a 3.0 D4D engine which is more efficient

Just in case you are still considering a Disco, have a read of this first: http://www.overland-rovers.com/ralphs-pages/trips-a-journeys/12-morocco2009.html

Shocked

Patrols are not as common here but popular in Oz . Land Cruiser is your best bet but i'm biased Smile

With regard to mileage, dont be put off by an 80 with 200k miles. so long as its got its service history and had its big end bearings done etc it should be fine. I've seen some with less than 100k on the clock. maybe 150k is average. That will still give you a few hundred thousand miles of trouble free motoring Very Happy

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'97 Colorado 3.0 TD LWB
LML125 Scooter

TobyJug · Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:15 Post subject:

80 series...

but ehhhh surely that 10k does not include the trip...

Because it's about 24k miles for the sensible route, so a couple of grand on boats and close to 7k on Diesel....
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Early K-reg (UK truck) Landcruiser Amazon 4.2 TD VX

fridayman · **** Joined: 23 Jun 2010 Posts: 263 Location: Surrey

TobyJug · Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:43 Post subject:

fridayman · **** Joined: 23 Jun 2010 Posts: 263 Location: Surrey

I'm not sure how rough we will be going because we will have an 18 month old with us. I will be taking camping/cooking gear with us, but I've heard that once you pass Iran the accommodation is pretty cheap and there are apparently very few places to camp (depending on the route).

Toby - what was your intended route?

TobyJug · Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 9:36 Post subject:

Wow with an 18 month old....
Respect for taking that on...
Ours is 15 months but I would not attempt that kind of trip with him I think...

anyway rough route was going to be....

France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China, India, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia.. Very Happy

Although I was toying with the idea to ship the truck direct from china and then do the bottom bit there on rented bikes (or bought)...

It is not a direct route as I really wanted to see a few country's..

Maybe one day ay.... the missus might turn around and want to do that trip... Very Happy

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Early K-reg (UK truck) Landcruiser Amazon 4.2 TD VX

fridayman · **** Joined: 23 Jun 2010 Posts: 263 Location: Surrey

We want to emigrate over there so thought we would do the journey there overland rather than just flying.

From what I've heard Burma is a definite no-no. So its either through China (and pay for a compulsory guide) or ship from India around Burma. I'm not sure if I want to be tied to a guide telling me where to go and what to look at...

Daz · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 15:30 Post subject:

No problems with maintaining the 80 series here, especially if its a 1Hz motor.

Thing you need to be mindful of, and check out prior
1. Import tax and conversions required to ADR (Aust Design Rules). This probably includes converting speedo to Kilometeres.
2. Im not sure if your rigs have the heavy duty radiators, engine oil coolers, power steering oil coolers etc. Cars built for Aust are sometimes designed with these, and also larger sumps.
3. From India, you will arrive probably Fremantle, maybe Darwin. Its still a long way to Brizzy, especially from Perth. You would need to go either around top thru NT, thru the Central Desert Road, or across the Nullabor through South Aust, NSW to Qld.

BTW, plenty of 80 series diesels here with 400 - 500,000 kms on the clock, still going good.
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Cheers

Daz

2004 TD 120 GXL Prado
2006 4x4 Dual Cab Hilux
2012 4x4 Dual Cab Hilux