modify Landcruiser

To start with toyotas are pretty well designed in the gearing department.

they are generally designed so the engine is at maximum torque at arround 100-110...this will give best economy, gear it up and it will probably struggle on hills and get worse economy.

Remember this is nearly 3 tonnes tonnes ya pushing arround, its never going to run like a light weight pasenger car on the highway.
If you are expecting that sort of ride and sound you need to buy a 2wd ute in ford or holden

both the ARB and TJM bars are well designed, the tuff 5 poster is more of a cow catcher......they are known to be very strong but your approach angle will suffer off road
AND if you fit one of those you will have to wear a hat all the time, listen to country music and never wear any other footwear but boots.

cheers

Scoop,

I'm don't know much about changing the diff gears. However changing them on a new vehicle voids all warranty. I guess you have driven a V8 cruiser but from my experience of driving them since release and on a regular basis I personally don't think they over rev. But I could be wrong.

Re bull bars, I see a few station vehicles with the Tuff 5 posters fitted. From their point of view cattle strikes are highly likely. If lived in the bush i would fit a 5 poster, for sure mate. By the size and weight of them they seem to be stronger. However both are built in Australia. A great thing!!

Hope this helps

Matthew

Anything is possible but if you change the two diff ratio's to a lower ratio for lower RPM at highway speed the disadvantage would be when in low range unless you get a set of crawler gears for the transfer case.

If you want to get out of it cheaper maybe a taller tyre option is a better choice.

I would go the ARB bar..... it's not a matter of which one is stronger it's a matter of weight over the front axles..... The Tuff bull bar would be the strongest out of the 2 but how much more stronger do you need the bar to be over the ARB bar.

ARB bars are more then strong enough for 99.9% of hits.

It might pay to slow down if your travelling in Brahma country.

When you hit something if the bar folds doesn't mean it weak and hasn't done what it's meant to do.... if you go to ridged the energy instead of being absorbed by the bar is absorbed by the vehicle.

As others have said leave the diff ratios as they are. Toyota have always matched their cruiser diffs well. If you wish to travel at 130 kph in a 79 cruiser make sure you have deep pockets as they start to chew it above 100.

If you wish to change you ratios a little. There is the option to use a slightly wider tyre with a higher aspect ratio. I use this method on my old girl as I have a larger engine with a lot more torque than the old one.

As for the bullbar you can't go past an arb one for general use or even a smart bar.

The smart bars are light, well made and take quite a hit. They are more expensive though.

The tuff bars are great for what property owners, or station hands need but for the average traveller they are not needed unless you want to do lots of night driving.

Scoop have a think about what happens when you hit something solid. Something has to give so the big bar might be ok but something in the chassis will have to give.

Happy travels,
RA.

G'day Scoop
Are you a mechanically savvvy person and want to do this for a good reason or has someone suggested it and it just sounds good to do it?
If you want to gear it up then larger diameter tyres will do this far more easily and cheaper than changing diff gears. Doing the tyre change is also easily reversible. Added advantage of extra ground clearance too.
A lot of people have two sets of wheels.
Remember the diff gears both ends have to be changed so it will be very expensive. Probably double the cost of new wheels and tyres.


The V8 diesel and V8 petrol are both fuel guzzlers and if you don't need the torque and the heavy vehicle don't buy one.
Many people towing a small van with the current CRD 3litre engined vehicles are getting the same fuel economy as the Toyota will totally empty.
Be aware of the oil usage these vehicle have and the fuel economy. IMHO the advancements of the modern technology should be providing far better fuel economy than they do.
A friend has a 79 V8 diesel cab chassis. 16mpg empty Toyota says thats good and there is no problem.
I had a 4litre turbo 60 series and it constantly gave 23pmg when towing and an all up rig weight of 3 1/2 to 4 ton.

Buy the lightest bar for your purpose so your suspension doesn't suffer.
If too heavy you will be upgrading it too.

Ross M

What about towing. Will the 79 series tow small weights in 5th.

and was thinking we need to get someting happening to pressure toyota into adding a 6th gear to the 79 series for highway driving

The landcruiser was not designed to travel at 130 (not very slippery in the wind like a v8 commodore) so don't waste your money six gear and all !! As for bull bar's if you want to fit something that looks like it belongs in a cattle grid or fit something that that WORKS and makes the vehicle look the part ARB all the way!
Jeff

Thank You to everyone that had an input geatly appreciated