chassis durability of the patrol/LC

cassis in the l/c stand up well its just the panels, brakes, springs etc that rust

What are you planning on doing? They are durable enough for 10,000s of people to travel aussie for yrs without issues.

theres 40 series/G60s still going strong, so I dont think you will have any issues with current cars..

Mining ones are a whole different story, they are not washed and are in different areas/terrain to what you will be in.

Whilst I've never had the opportunity to "belt the living daylights" out of my current LC TD100 series - YET - I have done worse to my old 1989 Ford Maverick diesel trayback ute.

It was used almost totally as prospecting vehicle and never let me down chassis wise in 10 years and 220,000 kms of rough bush work. These included, bogged up to belly plate in Goldfeilds salt pans and mud time after time, driving at night in the Pilbara in an unknown bush area and over a 3 metre drop at 25 kms/hr into a rock strewn creek bed at 3 o'clock in the morning! Nothing broken, except my cigarette!! Amazing! It towed my bobcat and trailer with an all up trailer weight of about 3.0 tonnes at speeds of 110 kmh and though bush and rocks ( a bit slower, but) - all with a fully loaded tray. It was "unburstable".

My gut feeling???,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,from an old mechanic's perspective - the LC is quieter, smoother and more powerful but I doubt it would do what that "Mav" did and come out of it "unbroken".

Bilbo

The ladder design of the patrol chassis isnt as ridgid as the land cruiser chassis, which shows by the nissan issue of breaking body mounts when worked hard.

The patrol chassis is also a little more vulnerable in the section below the firewall than the cruier, where the cruisers are all double thickness through that section.

Any outback travel will show what most stations, travellers, mining companies drive, on roads most likely to destroy vehicles when living thier life on those roads, and not just chassis strentgh is involved there, but design, ride, parts, ease of maintenance, tools required to fix, etc etc.

I do drive the pants off my vehicles, and I can tell you the nissan in 6 months broke the steering box off the chassis, broke the front panhard rod mount, broke all except one body mount off the body, broke the sway bar mounts off, bent the rear control arms, broke the engine mounts off and cracked the front spting towers.

My cruisers, one of which had done 2 Aus safari's, leading one yr till fan ate radiator, and finished 2nd the next yr, even after I spent more time in winch challenges and rallies,a nd other event, with standard chassis, with roll cage attached [though the body did stress carck in afew spots] along with my other troopy, and even my current prado, are standing up well with no chassis problems in any of them I have owned, even the 430hp 454 fitted 40 series I had, with 38"s and 98" wheelbase, most of which were bashed, driven fast, jumped, 4wded, and generally worked hard....

KF,

I've been in the u/g mining game for 15 years and have been running underground mines for about half that time. I have run both Nissan and Toyota fleets.

What you say certainly fits in with my observations. The toyota chassis is very resilient (sp?) to the underground environment. Patrol chassis are not a patch on the toyota ones. Most underground Patrols literally fall in half and are therfore dead. This is even with some stiffening/strengthing work done to them. This upgrading work will usually add a few months to the life of a Patrol.

However, other issues such as the Patrol driveline being superior are also true. The patrol drivelines wil outlast the toyota ones, however when a tojo driveline is damaged, it is "easily" repaired - the truck itself is not dead.

Something else that is really handy on a Patrol in an underground environment is a handbrake that actually works for a while after a service. This contrasts the Tojo ones that do not (although it forces you into the good practice of "turning into the wall" when parking on a decline/incline to prevent an unattended runaway vehicle incident). In any case I'd prefer a reliable handbrake on a Tojo (if they could ever get around to it).

When all is considered - the overall ownership and running cost of Tojo's in an underground environment is cheaper than Nissans. That is why MOST (not all) underground mines run Tojo Light Vehicle fleets.

The implications for the average 4WD buyer however are probably NIL. I would doubt that very many people subject their "pride and joy" (or their vehicles for that matter) to the sorts of environments and workloads that underground vehicles constantly endure. That being said, I did hovever purchase a 100 series LC myself and one of the considerations (one of many) was the strength of the chassis. However, I've yet to see any normal Patrols (owned by Mr Joe Public) fall in half - so my experience of seeing dozens of them at minesites do exactly that; is not applicable to the average owner.

Kind regards
Stephen J.

Do you think this is due to inferior corrosion protection in the Patrol chassis, or is it the fact that the Toyota chassis is thicker/more robust?