70 series – 4WD New Zealand

Suspension…tough but comfortable

January 25, 2017January 22, 2017 by 4wdnewzealand, posted in Landcruiser upgrades

Before considering any major modifications to your 4WD, suspension should be at the top of your to do list.

Without good suspension your articulation, road comfort and clearance on the tracks can be limited or non existent. This makes it difficult to complete even the simplest of tracks. Not to mention that adding additional weight such as a bull bar and winch, roof rack and or a rear bar can cause your original suspension to sag.

When we bought our 70 series it’s suspension had been upgraded but it was getting pretty tired, which limited us in some areas and it did not tolerate load well. Because the Landcruiser is so capable off-road we didn’t realize the extent of the sag until we put the new suspension on. To explain, we gained and extra 45mm in ride height without installing extended shackles.

We opted for the EFS suspension from Force4 owned by Phil Clark . We highly recommend going to see Phill if you are looking to upgrade your suspension, he seriously knows his stuff and he has some of the best customer service in the industry.

When installing our suspension we took out two leafs from the rear leaf pack. This was recommend by Phil as the pack was made for the 4 door 75Series which is larger and heavier than our Landcruiser. Removing the 2 leafs made the ride less stiff and more comfortable for road driving.

Installing the new suspension was pretty straight forward but having an extra set of hands is not a bad idea. We had trouble with one of the shackles as it was put in backwards. This made it hard to remove when installing the new bushings. But don’t worry we reinstalled it in the correct direction. We also stripped the front left shackle whilst removing the old suspension as it was seized! This was a problem when it is 10pm at night. But thank God for friends with Landcruisers, we were able to grab a spare from our friend with a 40Series and complete the job the following morning.

Get the best

January 7, 2017January 8, 2017 by 4wdnewzealand, posted in Landcruiser upgrades

We want to give a big shout out to Regan Bates owner of Sinosaur in Kerikeri for our sign writing job. He recently branched out on his own last year and started Signosaur, and trust us, he knows what he is doing. Signosaur is a one stop shop and full service sign manufacturing facility which covers everything from one off small signs,design and corporate branding in Bay of Islands and throughout Northland. Regan loves what he does and is just OCD enough that you know he’ll do the job right the first time.

Regan does a little of everything and in regards to design his company aims to create visual impact with purpose. Regan says “that while a stunning image and layout can be great to look at it should also always communicate with it meaning and a message.”

Signosaur does business cards, flyers, calendars… you name it they do it. They have the experience and knowledge to meet all of your needs. Their team is friendly, knowledgeable and eager to help your business grow with with their professional cards and marketing materials.

Well worth calling in or stopping by to get a quote for your marketing material or sign writing needs.

Winch it

December 21, 2016 by 4wdnewzealand, posted in Equipment for 4WD, Landcruiser upgrades

On the front of any good 4WD you’ll find a good winch, so there was no doubt that our 74Series needed one too.

There are plenty of winches out there, but there are several factors to consider before purchasing one. These include the weight of your vehicle, the cable material, its operating voltage, pulling power and wether or not you need a PTO, hydrolic or electric winch.

Our landcruiser is 24V so we needed to find a winch that was compatible. We opted for a Runva 11xp (11000Lb) electric winch as it bolted directly onto the IronMan winchbar and comes in either 12v or 24v.

On a side note, before in stalling, always double check that the wiring harness is the correct voltage for your system. We received the correct one with our winch but have heard that other people have not. If you hook a 12v wiring harness to a 24v system you will start a fire.

The Runva comes standard with a steel cable but we had that swapped out with dyneema. Steel if not wound back in perfectly is quick to fray, it also needs to be cleaned more often to keep from breaking down. With the dyneema you have a little more flexibility and ease. It is a fraction of the weight, doesn’t throw kinks, you don’t have to wear gloves and it has the same breaking strength as steel. However, if you aren’t keeping it covered it needs to be inspected on occasion as it will eventually break down due to high UV especially in places like New Zealand. Also if it happens to break while in use it will cause less damage to the vehicle or vehicles than a steel cable.

If switching to dyneema then you also need to swap the fair lead. Dyneema requires the use of a solid fair lead (the one without the rollers). The rollers can catch on the dyneema and cause the rope to fray. Dyneema doesn’t like friction so it needs to be kept off the ground and away from tight spaces. The rollers are only needed if your utilizing the steel cable which is much better if you know your 4wd expeditions will occur in tight spaces.

Wiring up the winch was a breeze thanks to the coloured coded cables and connectors. It took less than 1/2 hour to bolt it on and connect it. A little longer if your finicky about how you run your wiring.

We bought our winch from Spy Performance, and they sent us the steel cable instead of the dyneema which we ordered. Although they did fix the problem and sent us the dyneema they were slow in doing so and we had to follow up several times to make sure that it got shipped. We would give them 5 stars for friendliness but 1 star for efficiency.

Although we may not use the winch on every trip we go on it has definitely lended a hand to the 74Series and is a must for any serious four wheel driving.

Tires; A must have for 4WD

December 3, 2016January 7, 2017 by 4wdnewzealand, posted in Landcruiser upgrades

Tires, probably one of the biggest discussion topics in the off-road world.

There are so many factors to consider when it comes to selecting the perfect bit of rubber for 4 wheel driving. These include what kind of rims they are on, the tread, side wall strength, the internal design, road noise and how they will wear.

The boys from ATJ Auto Parts in Waipapa recommend we try out the new Maxxis Bighorn M/T’s over the BF Goodrich KM2 for a competitive cost effective alternative.

Don’t get me wrong, BF Goodrich makes an excellent tire standing true to the name and providing strong, reliable tires with good tire wear, but the problem is they are upwards of $400’s.

The Maxxis Bighorn seems to be the next up and coming off road tire and has been building a good reputation within the NZ 4WD market. They have been delivering a long lasting and tough product, and at $390ea they are very attractive.

Maxxis M/T offers a radial construction tire, with a wide foot print which allows for good traction and shock absorption. They have extra wide shoulder luges which are supposed to be great for mud and add protection for the sidewalls and rims. Maxxis’s touts that these tires are good in the desert, dirt, rock , snow and mud giving it the all terrain label. Which is why we decided to give them a try.

We have had them for 6 months now, about 20,0000kms, and we still have 15mm of tread left so we honestly can’t complain. They’ve held their own in mud, gravel, dirt and tar seal. The road noise is minimal and the sidewalls have held up in the tightest of situations.

Double thumbs up for Maxxis being a more affordable durable tire for 4 WD.

Keep an eye out for a future post on the importance of having good rims for your new tires.

Her First Addition: Ironman Winch Bull Bar

November 20, 2016 by 4wdnewzealand, posted in Landcruiser upgrades

The first addition to the 74 Series project was some serious frontal protection!
After considering durability, practicality and Styling we found that the IronMan Commercial winch bar ticked all the boxes. Ironman 4×4 NZ webpage was very user friendly in selecting the correct bar for the 74series. The bar is sold as (Toyota LC75/78/79 1984-2007 BBC018).

It was super easy to fit as IronMan makes their bars specifically for your vehicle. Slide right into place and attached at 4 spots. Please note that this truck does not have airbags, for vehicles with airbags the bar has to be compliant.

All up it took about 2hours to remove the standard bumper bolt on the winch bar and to wire up the indicator, running lights and light bar. I’ll talk about those in future posts. Lucky for us the 74Series had already had a suspension upgrade and can therefore support the extra weight of the bar and winch, otherwise you should seriously consider a suspension upgrade before installing a bar.