April 2015 our Landcruiser 200 series arrived, it immediately went into the 4WD accessory shop to have a gvm upgrade and a hundred other things changed or added. Compared to the 79 the 200 was sheer luxury and tows the van effortlessly but it lacks the practical feel and toughness of the 79 for full time touring. Everything is a compromise and this is suiting us for our trips away and a town car when we are home. It has extensive modifications, not all have been plain sailing with more than our fair share of hassles, hopefully all that is behind us. Some things that have been done to the 200 are the suspension and GVM upgrade this enables us to carry a reasonable payload and really is very necessary when extras such as bull bar and winch, long range fuel tank and dual wheel carriers etc are fitted. The car has had an engine remap, the 3rd! The first two caused problems the worst having the engine go into limp mode when towing and overtaking, quite a dangerous situation and one time we were extremely lucky not to cause an accident. I learnt a lot about trusting ‘experts’ and who not to deal with. It also has a torque converter lock up kit fitted, mine is a Stocklock and can recommend the system, just have it fitted by someone who knows what they are doing.
We have now travelled 90,000klms with the 200, I’d say around 80,000 has been towing, we have been to Tasmania and return, Queensland and return, up through the Kimberley and across the Gulf and up and return from Cape York returning back to Perth through NSW and SA. Plus it’s taken us to Ningaloo twice, Esperance and trips out around the granite country of WA.
Do I like it as much as the previous vehicles? That’s not an easy answer to say, each vehicle we have had to tow the Bushtracker have had good and bad points, had I not had so much trouble with the 200 from mechanics not knowing what they were doing I’d probably say the 200 ticks all the boxes. How long I keep it is up to Lotto because if money was no object I’d probably build up a dual cab 79 series with auto conversion.
 |
| Nullabor Black top |
 |
| Coorong SA |
 |
| Tasmania Lake Pedder |
 |
| Tasmania |
 |
| Kimba Silo's |
 |
| Umagico Camp Ground Cape York |
 |
| Roper Bar NT |
 |
| Wheel travel on the Simplicity load sharing suspension |
 |
| Tasmania |
 |
| Seisa Cape York |
No comments:
Post a Comment