New Landcrusier GX 200
- Thread starter yabbietol
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- gx landcrusier 200
Busy week, just got Firestone heavy duty air bags with Kevlar sleeves fitted and 4WD wheel alignment done by local 4WD suspension specialist. Fitted the Toyota off road tow tongue with our McHitch coupling. The Toyota tow ball required a lot of persuasion 
(angle grinder in the end) to undo. I have had the Anderson plug connected up by auto elec after I ran the heavy duty cable and genuine Anderson plug recycled from our Pajero. I have also run the wiring harness from our ORA rearview camera (again recycled from the Pajero). I attached the connector for the van rearview camera and positioned the ORA rear view camera (for tow hitching) on the LC200, now just need to get ignition 12V for the ORA monitor.
Tomorrow getting first service done, it is just a hook up to the computer and look around. Although Toyota do need to relocate the Tow Pro Elite as it will not calibrate, it appears Toyota did not mount it to a solid enough surface, it has 2mm to 3mm movement, which according to Redarc is enough to prevent calibration. Redarc have been very helpful.
On Friday morning we will be getting Water Watch fitted by different Toyota dealer and hopefully getting ignition 12V for ORA monitor connected. This dealer also offered a good deal on fitting a genuine Toyota steel bull bar a lot cheaper than what was offered by the selling dealer. Still waiting for the Smartbar LC200 release scheduled this month, the steel has some advantages, but it a bit heavy. Have had Smartbars on previous vehicles and we are keen to see and price their LC200 version.
Finally, after this week and all this work we will be able to Tow our van.
(angle grinder in the end) to undo. I have had the Anderson plug connected up by auto elec after I ran the heavy duty cable and genuine Anderson plug recycled from our Pajero. I have also run the wiring harness from our ORA rearview camera (again recycled from the Pajero). I attached the connector for the van rearview camera and positioned the ORA rear view camera (for tow hitching) on the LC200, now just need to get ignition 12V for the ORA monitor.Tomorrow getting first service done, it is just a hook up to the computer and look around. Although Toyota do need to relocate the Tow Pro Elite as it will not calibrate
, it appears Toyota did not mount it to a solid enough surface, it has 2mm to 3mm movement, which according to Redarc is enough to prevent calibration. Redarc have been very helpful.On Friday morning we will be getting Water Watch fitted by different Toyota dealer and hopefully getting ignition 12V for ORA monitor connected. This dealer also offered a good deal on fitting a genuine Toyota steel bull bar a lot cheaper than what was offered by the selling dealer. Still waiting for the Smartbar LC200 release scheduled this month, the steel has some advantages, but it a bit heavy. Have had Smartbars on previous vehicles and we are keen to see and price their LC200 version.
Finally, after this week and all this work we will be able to Tow our van.
great news,
I love it when a plan comes together - even if its not my plan
I love it when a plan comes together - even if its not my plan
Yeah I have that. It's good although I relocated the light and added a buzzer.
Just becareful with the genuine bar. They were problematic originally and even cracked some chassis. Toyota remedied it but by using some brackets. Not sure it's been redesigned since. Story is Though genuine Toyota but they are just made by a local AU manufacturer to Toyota specs. I think it was ARB who apprantly even advised Toyota it was a bad design. If you like smartbar I'd be waiting they look good
Thanks Jim
Most likely will wait for SmartBar. I will need something soon to mount driving lights on (cheapo LED's recycled from Pajero).
Meanwhile:
The Tow Pro Elite works but will still not calibrate, back to Toyota next week. They did a major rewire job of Tow Pro at no cost to us, but have billed the seller dealer for the work (they are owned by the same person). The Tow Pro is working with green light and works well as a manual brake controller (green LED), but will not go into automatic mode (Blue LED). I will be onto to Toyota to get this fixed even if I have to take my van to the dealer to demonstrate the problem. Water Watch fitting went well, hope I never need it.
We just had the draws, fridge slide and ½ Cargo Barrier fitted by Drifta, they did nice job. They do give you a courtesy car while they fit the draws, but we simply set up camp on the grass footpath outside the factory had morning tea and Lunch and picked up car in a couple of hours. Will try to post some photos of draws soon.
We are also really pleased with the tow, the Pajero was good but this LC200 is awesome. Really like the Firestone airbags and the Toyo AT2 tyres. However, think suspension upgrade is on the cards OEM suspension is a bit limousine like for us, possibly Lovell springs and Aussie Ryder shocks from Ultimate suspension. That can also give an after market GVM upgrade for NSW.
Most likely will wait for SmartBar. I will need something soon to mount driving lights on (cheapo LED's recycled from Pajero).
Meanwhile:
The Tow Pro Elite works but will still not calibrate, back to Toyota next week. They did a major rewire job of Tow Pro at no cost to us, but have billed the seller dealer for the work (they are owned by the same person). The Tow Pro is working with green light and works well as a manual brake controller (green LED), but will not go into automatic mode (Blue LED). I will be onto to Toyota to get this fixed even if I have to take my van to the dealer to demonstrate the problem. Water Watch fitting went well, hope I never need it.
We just had the draws, fridge slide and ½ Cargo Barrier fitted by Drifta, they did nice job. They do give you a courtesy car while they fit the draws, but we simply set up camp on the grass footpath outside the factory had morning tea and Lunch and picked up car in a couple of hours. Will try to post some photos of draws soon.
We are also really pleased with the tow, the Pajero was good but this LC200 is awesome. Really like the Firestone airbags and the Toyo AT2 tyres. However, think suspension upgrade is on the cards OEM suspension is a bit limousine like for us, possibly Lovell springs and Aussie Ryder shocks from Ultimate suspension. That can also give an after market GVM upgrade for NSW.
Sorry Bluey.
We just did 1800km in the last week, we got to Gloucester, then to Dubbo. B&C Caravans in North Dubbo who fixed the issue with the Tow Pro Elite not going into auto mode (blue LED) in 15 mins. B&C were brilliant they fitted us in on short notice, worked out Toyota had not installed the push button switch with enough clearance to work correctly. They put in a spacer and it now appears to be working well.
We visited a couple of nice Nat Parks, Coolah Tops and Nangar (near Forbes NSW), both had 2WD access on dirt roads which both had large drainage ditches and a few holes and bumps. The air bags worked well as did the McHitch, I think we may need to upgrade the suspension as well. The strong winds yesterday from Eugowra, Goulburn to Queanbeyan, were a real pain, but the whole rig towed well.
Towing at 90k to 100k (in S5) so far we are getting 20l/100k to 22l/100k in very hilly country. About the same as the Pajero in similar conditions and speeds.
Great stuff @yabbietol . Mate if your only hitting 100 max towing probs safer to stick to S4 . For anything but downhill. The tranny will not be locked and you can see pretty high trans temps till it locks
Well done mate it looks great i like the barn doors too im trying to sell my 100 series been for sale on carsales for months no bites ...... ive droped price 10 grand still no bites its hard times i need the cash ..... but will take it off from sale soon as the add is going stale i think ........ ive fixed it so much but no one wants it ive got 37 grand on it
What I like is you rethinking your options. I agree if its not selling change your plan. When our situation changes we adapt. Have you tried Pickles auctions, I sold my Pajero through them and the price was way better than any dealer and a lot easier than advertising. After the sale the money was in the bank 3 days later. An easy low risk option. They do fixed price or auction (cost $1400 for 2 auctions and you can change reserve between auctions if it does not sell).
Mate hang in there get heaps of photos up and else. Their great rig the 100 but the unfortunately the arse has fallen out of them in the last year or two. Kms are the king if you have low kms on it that helps
Photo of Drifta draws and ½ Cargo barrier. Not packed properly yet, stuff just thrown in quickly to get it home.
Need to decide what goes where and also need properly secure fridge to slide.The dark edge above smaller draw is the table, which stows very neatly. The table can be pulled half out and used to load and unload fridge. Each of the draws comes with an internal divider. The ½ cargo barrier (curtain air bag compatible) in the GX is attached at the two points just inside the top of the rear door and to the draws at the bottom. Very happy with the install.
Need to decide what goes where and also need properly secure fridge to slide.The dark edge above smaller draw is the table, which stows very neatly. The table can be pulled half out and used to load and unload fridge. Each of the draws comes with an internal divider. The ½ cargo barrier (curtain air bag compatible) in the GX is attached at the two points just inside the top of the rear door and to the draws at the bottom. Very happy with the install.
then all you need is the divider in the middle, with a shelf that goes across the width of the rear................
then...................
then...................
Hello Bluey
We had a 3 month wait because we got something different, the GX and in Silver. That gave us lots of time to think about what we wanted to do, the Pajero towing the same van was a good learning tool, some bits of kit just moved across smoothly such as ORA rear view camera and Hema HN7 and tyre pressure sensors. The hardest bit was recycling the wiring harness for the ORA and the Anderson plug wiring, both the removing and the installing.
We just planned all our mods and used the cash saved from not buying the GXL to do the mods we wanted. We still have the the suspension upgrade to think about, recycled LED driving lights to fit recycled CB to fit and a new bull bar, so more $ to spend. I know the choice of a vehicle is a very personal thing, but the GX really suits us better (barn doors and vinyl floors) than the GXL and is a fair bit cheaper, which enables you to get the important mods done. Toyota seem to want to up sell to higher model and make it hard to buy the GX as they do not often have one for you to look at when shopping and you usually can't buy one off the lot unless you are really lucky. The VX and above are really nice, but scary $ when compared to the already expensive GX. The fancier models also have lots of nice bits we don't need, the GX with air conditioning and a metal roof are real luxuries compared to some of our old 4WDs.
We just ordered the really ugly big black Clearview mirrors, as unfortunately our recycled Pajero add on towing mirrors vibrate and slip a lot more on the LC200 (due to the angled shape of the Toyota external mirrors) than on the Pajero mirrors. The passenger one fell off 1½ times. This was one modification we hoped we would not need for some time, but we do need to be safe when towing.
Regards
Terry
The gx i looked had carpet in it put in there by somone it was nice but the 2010 model didnt have air bags in the back seats now they do i think there must be somwhere to see one if you want one ??????? Moldered carpet wouldnt cost that much surly just take seats out easy oh and console
