Well, that certainly didn’t go as expected…
We love, love, love us some off-roading here at the TFL base. How could you not, when the Colorado Rocky Mountains are within such close reach? Every once in awhile, we’ll pick up a more affordable, classic off-roader like a 100 Series Toyota Land Cruiser, as the guys just did (even taking a road trip to Aspen to pick it up). The premise is perfectly straightforward: Can $12,000 secure you a solid, dependable Toyota that’ll last you for years to come?
Um…well, not this one, it seems. So, the guys went out to buy this 20-year-old and 241,000 mile example of the legendary, larger-than-life Land Cruiser. At first, the times were happy: mechanical low-range, a lockable center differential, full-time four-wheel drive and a good-old 2UZ-FE 4.7-liter V8 engine. While you don’t get additional lockers from the factory this late in the run (Toyota deleted the rear locker from 2000 onward), the later 100 Series have the original iteration of Toyota’s A-TRAC (Active Traction Control) system. This system independently controls engine output and brake hydraulic pressure to rein in wheel slippage detected by the ECU when it’s activated — a function several all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive vehicles have today.
This particular 2005 Toyota Land Cruiser is bone-stock, with its former owners just enjoying the V8-powered comfort for the equivalent of nearly ten trips around the Earth (or one trip to the Moon). While Roman and Tommy are aiming to build up this LC with crucial upgrades like all-terrain tires and may go a few steps further, the idea to to keep it fairly close to stock so you have an affordable off-roader that doesn’t blow the budget.
A noble idea…but there’s just one problem. Head into the video below, and apart from this old battle wagon having appropriately creaky suspension, Tommy tackles some rocks to test out the A-TRAC’s capability to offset an open front differential when…bang.
Sad (and expensive) times ensue, and you can see what happened in its entirety below:
