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

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

Above left: Cranked radius arms can only mean one thing: they’re non-standard. Except they can also mean another thing: it’s a Toyota Land Cruiser. Shaun knows a bit about Japanese cars of every kind, and reckons the manufacturers build in features like this to aid owners who’ll come to modify then in the future

Above right: Back in the early nineties, the 3.0 turbo-diesel engine came without an intercooler. The same basic engine gained one in later years, however, when it was used in the 90-Series Colorado model – which is where this one came from. Shaun says it boosts the Cruiser’s torque output nicely, and that it was a simple bolt-on job to fit

Right: Extended mounts lift the Cruiser’s body by 50mm. They’re made from sections of aluminium bar with a hole bored down the centre for the mounting bolts – two of which are even reusable from the factory-height set-up. There are eight mounts in total, for which Shaun paid the princely sum of £20 – though only because the kit was sold as being for a Discovery just 4x4s but street cars as well, that they’re built to allow you to modify them. I know that in a lot of vehicles, they make them like that because they know what people are going to do to them, and they’re built ready to be modified at a later date. The Japanese have always been well ahead, and the way they’re put together is second to none.’

‘They’re a great chassis to work from, too. Rock-solid, absolutely bomb-proof. After the Jeep Wrangler, in my opinion, they’re the next best thing.’

The axles themselves are both standard, but each has a story to tell. Up front, it’s the same unit that left the factory, but Shaun soon plans to replace the electric locking hubs for manual ones off an earlier Land Cruiser. That’s just a pre-emptive move, in anticipation of regular dousings at Tong and Cowm getting to it.

At the back, the axle is completely standard. Except that it’s completely standard on another vehicle. A long-wheelbase 78-Series Land Cruiser, to be exact, which came with disc brakes and an electric diff lock – both excellent reasons to swap it in. ‘It’s factory,’ Shaun says of the diff. ‘It’s a Toyota part. It’s not like fitting ARBs, where you need to fit a compressor too. It’s standard Toyota and it all looks like it came out of the factory that way.’

Also standard, albeit again on a different Land Cruiser, is the intercooler that helps coax a bit more torque out of the engine. The 3.0 turbo-diesel didn’t have this in the early days, but gained one in time for the arrival of the 90-Series Colorado model, which is where Shaun’s comes from. ‘Being basically the same engine it just bolts on,’ he says, though the intercooler itself is top-mounted and therefore needs a bonnet scoop. Until he gets round to fitting one, he’s put the bonnet hinges on blocks

4x4 to give it enough clearance, which sounds like it ought to look a bit sketchy but actually doesn’t detract at all from the truck’s appearance.

And keeping it looking right definitely does rank high on Shaun’s list of things that matter. ‘I know it’s an off-roader, but I still like to keep it nice looking. I like to keep it clean, so it doesn’t look like a battered old nail. It gets well serviced and greased. You need to keep on top of it. If you’ve got something you love, you like using, look after it and it’s always going to stay well.’

Quite right too. That’s one reason why, having lifted its suspension and body alike and gone up to 35” tyres, he widened the Cruiser’s track with a set of 40mm wheel spacers. It looks better with them on, and it’s a lot more stable.

Also taking care of the big tyres are lowerratio diffs from an early 78-Series Land Cruiser, and keeping them legal is a set of wheelarch extensions from… a three-door Discovery. ‘The front ones virtually just screw on with self-tappers. The back ones I had to chop, and on one side I had to heat it up and bend it to get the fuel filler cap to open, but a little bit of shaping and bending and we were there. It doesn’t look out of place.’

Anything else he’s planning to pilfer from the Land Rover accessories catalogue? A Defender ladder, he told us, so he can access his roof rack ‘without jumping on the back wheel and nearly breaking your neck!’ That rear bumper was set to be fabbed with recovery points, too, as well as a step. ‘To make it easier to get get my tow rope for dragging the Defenders out!’ Uh-oh…

Shaun’s regular off-roading mates all drive either Discos or Defenders, so it’s all just banter. ‘I like to drag them out then drive through the bit they got stuck in to show them how it’s done! They all say Land Cruisers are rubbish, the parts are expensive, and yes they are but they just don’t break down.

‘Don’t get me wrong, though, I think Land Rovers are brilliant. They’re basic and they get the job done, the parts are really cheap and whatever you want you can get it in under a day. And you can get loads to choose from to modify them.

‘That’s where Land Cruisers are a little more difficult. But anything that I think will go on anything that was made for a Defender or Disco, I’ll have a go and I’ll try to make it fit.’