4x4 of the best
smart thinking
A
long time ago, one of Shaun Dickinson’s friends invited him along to a playday. The same amount of time ago, minus about half an hour, Shaun knew he had to have a 4x4. What you’re looking at here is in fact the fourth he’s owned. A mechanic by trade, and a long-time fan of all things Japanese, he started with a couple of Fourtraks before moving over to Toyota. This is his second Land Cruiser, with both of them having been short-wheelbase 70-Series models. The first of these was an early one with the somewhat agricultural 2.4-litre diesel engine. But this one has the later 3.0 turbo unit, which at the time was one of the best diesels in the world. These days, when you’re modding a Toyota the typical course of action is to spend as much money again as the truck itself cost you on kit from abroad. But Shaun has a different
68 | MAY 2023
10pp 4x4 of the Best May 23.indd 68
Words and Pics: Dan Fenn
approach, which involves taking cheaper equipment (often designed for Land Rovers) and adapting it to fit. A grey import from Japan, the truck came to Shaun having already been started as a project by a previous owner. He’d fitted some bits before deciding to get rid; these included rock sliders made of steel box with tubular extensions, which were welded in to replace the original sills. Shaun was getting round to fabricating a heavy-duty rear bumper when we met him, but he’d already done the front. This is an example of making a Land Rover part fit on to the Cruiser. ‘I thought “I’ll make that fit,” and I literally just lifted the body and slid it in,’ he explains. ‘A couple of the bolt holes in the bumper actually lined up with the ones in the chassis! I couldn’t believe it. I had to drill a couple of other holes and make a couple of brackets, just so it’s strong enough to take a winch, but it doesn’t look out of place at all.’
He mentioned a body lift there, and this too uses kit intended for a Land Rover. ‘I could have made it myself, but you go on eBay and you put in Toyota, and it’s 80 or 90 quid. Exactly the same thing for a Discovery, and I paid £20 for the set.’ What his money bought was a set of eight aluminium spacers made from a bar chopped into 50mm sections. These are drilled down the centre to make way for the mounting bolts, two of which are even long enough on the original to be used again. ‘It doesn’t necessarily lift anything out of the mud,’ as Shaun admits. ‘But it leaves more space to let your axles articulate, and as one moves up the other moves down and stays on the ground.’ Helping them do this is a 2” Ironman suspension lift, which works on axles held in place by radius arms that came out of the Toyota factory with cranks in them as standard. And Shaun has an interesting view on this. ‘I’ve discovered with a lot of Japanese vehicles, not
4x4 11/04/2023 00:58
