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That is not a brake controller in there now, rather it converts from a 5 wire light setup to a 4 wire one. Its been a while since I thought about it, so I can't remember what its called though. 
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Apr 15, 2021 23:34
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I dunno how the availability is in the US but the Redarc Tow Pro is absolutely phenomenal as a brake controller here in Australia and is immensely popular
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Apr 18, 2021 07:47
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So Friday started out great. I was distracted all day at work because we were scheduled to take deliver of the Bean that afternoon. Everything went great. We inspected it all, went over some care/maintenance. I had already gone full geek mode and researched with reading their site/watching their YT channel to know a good portion of it. Getting to see our trailer in person was thrilling. The craftmanship is really amazing and the kind of thing that you get a better sense of with your own eyes. The doors are vault-like and the latch gives a very satisfying click open and that "ka-chunk" when you close it. Everything is tight like operating the blinds, the cabinets, window, rear hatch - just everything. It feels like it will last a lifetime.  Everywhere there are small details (that I will take real photos of when I have a day to spend with it). Nothing feels like they skimped or cheaped out on. The entire thing is so smooth with the gel coat/polish put on it. The coating on the front rack/sliders/fenders is done really thick and heavy. All the lights are perfectly positioned and all wiring is hidden.     It is small. Like adorably small. It is two feet shorter than the lexus, and with the hitch removed probably one foot beyond that. I can manage to dead lift and pick up the tongue to move it around on flat ground with a bit of exertion. There is a wheel for the front I can add, but I have just had the flat plate.  I feel like I have ACRES of space in my garage. Before I had a piece of firewood on the ground to bump my tire against that would give me about an inch clearance on the back of the lexus to the garage and a ~2 foot berth on the front to get to my freezer. I can do a break dance party now. Of course there was going to be something wrong during delivery. I had installed the 7 pin round (just for lights only) and tested everything with a volt meter prior to picking up and found it all good. When we connected the trailer of course the right light wasn't working. Saturday morning I found my crimp job to be less than adequate. Cutting off that connector and crimping on a new remedied it pretty quick.  Pulling the trailer didn't make the Lexus any slower and braking seems to be totally fine. I will still wire up the controller though and the pass through for charging the battery because why not. Installing the roof tent is going to be tight on fitting into the garage. I feel like the trailer sits higher than what they advertise. I think the suspension might settle in some and adding weight should bring it down. I am certain I will need to remove the ladder from the tent since I will need that ~3" of clearance. The plan is I will be taking it out for my anniversary next month while Gma and Gpa watch the kids. I am going to try and get out before then too. I didn't have anything planned since this was originally going to be an eight month thing that got pared down to 8 weeks (not complaining!) Somewhat Heroic fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Apr 26, 2021 |
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Apr 26, 2021 22:50
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That trailer looks pretty sweet, my buddies and I are trying to up our motorcycle track day creature comforts and now I know someone other than me needs to buy one. I hadn't checked in on AI in ages so it was nice to see that go from 8 months out to instant happiness. My ARB 2500 finally arrived months after it was ordered, but I ordered the wrong quick release mount for it so I wasn't able to use it for our last track day and two of us got sunburned. If anyone needs an arb quick release awning mount - style 1, let me know. Shipping may be pricey as it's fairly heavy, but right now it's just taking up space. My mount from Sherpa just arrived and I'm pretty sure it will work, but I dislocated my thumb and tore a bunch of tendons so I only have one hand at the moment and I can't try mounting the awning. I couldn't take the stock GX alrezza lights and forked over way too much money for the oem sport lights:   CBI had a sale so I also purchased their covert bumper:  It was supposed to ship in 6 weeks, which is right around now, but I wouldn't be shocked if I end up waiting another 6 weeks. I was really hoping to hit Moab at the end of summer, but work now has me in Bakersfield from July to mid-October and I'm not sure I want to come home just to immediately leave for a road trip. I guess if I put it off until spring 2022 I'll have time to finally decide what lift I want and get it installed.
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Apr 27, 2021 01:04
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Somewhat Heroic posted:bean trailer stuff That thing is so f'n cute - your stoking my fire for a vintage teardrop... are all the interiors spec'd the same? got any shots of yours? MomJeans420 posted:
night and day improvement - this has always been one of the things I disliked about the GX - I didn't know this was a thing..
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Apr 27, 2021 04:28
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Some people use red film over the lights or other methods but I'm not a fan of that. I wasn't sure it was going to be worth $900 to replace the lights, kind of a lipstick on a pig thing as the GX is never going to win a beauty contest, but once I did it I decided it was worth every penny. The problem is the GX really only gets decent looking when you lift it, get new wheels, chop off the rocker panels, and ideally do something with the front bumper. And also do something about the chrome, of which there is tons.
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Apr 27, 2021 16:15
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That front bumper helps a lot with... that face. Particularly that GRILLE. Anything that makes that smaller is appreciated.
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Apr 28, 2021 23:12
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MomJeans420 posted:I couldn't take the stock GX alrezza lights and forked over way too much money for the oem sport lights: Those lights were worth whatever you paid. Totally transformed. The front bumper will be sweet when you add it on. A front bumper is last on my list of things I will ever do but man - every time I see one in person my loins burn. So remember my cool fridge I bought a while back? The one on sale from Costco? It is too tall to fit the Bean (I knew it would be). I was not expecting my rotomolded Camp Chef to not fit. It is too wide by a couple inches. My scenario was tough, that meant always taking my cool trailer with a stupid cheap cooler and having the nice cooler in the Lexus or the fridge in the Lexus. The most ideal would be to have a fridge and rotomolded cooler. I found Engel makes a perfect fitting cooler but it is $250, then I end up with yet another cooler in this mix (dumb and wasteful). So Costco had the fridges on sale (again) and they have a smaller version that would be a perfect fit in the Bean; $250 after the discount. I never used the fridge originally purchased; plastic is still on the buttons, accessories in the little packaging but original box is long gone. Costco has their generous return policy and you can see where this is heading. I do not like to return things - ever. I grappled with the idea for a while, but the sale ended on the 27th (the day I learned my campchef cooler wasn't going to fit). It came down to: I have never abused the return policy, I pay for the membership which includes guilt free returns of anything so while on my own personal morals I think it is stupid that is probably my own head getting in the way. It yields the best outcome though; fridge in the bean, rotomolded cooler for any other time. I don't know. Goons - am I stupid for returning a fridge I bought ~6 months ago? Or no big deal?
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Apr 29, 2021 22:49
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Somewhat Heroic posted:So Friday started out great. I was distracted all day at work because we were scheduled to take deliver of the Bean that afternoon. Everything went great. We inspected it all, went over some care/maintenance. I had already gone full geek mode and researched with reading their site/watching their YT channel to know a good portion of it. This trailer is great. How are you liking it now that you've had it for a couple days? I assume you've spent approximately 1/2 your time just playing with it.
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Apr 29, 2021 22:54
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If it still has the plastic, Costco will toss it right back out on the floor for sale.
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Apr 29, 2021 22:55
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It’s Costco. The whole point of paying membership fees is to get cheap hotdogs and easy returns guilt free. Return the fridge, grab a hotdog, and never think about it again.
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Apr 30, 2021 07:10
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The fact you even considered if it's bad makes it fairly obvious you're not abusing the system, just return it.
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Apr 30, 2021 17:54
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red film is the way to go imo. it works great on the subaru wrx tail lights and it saves you a good bit of coin edit: probably traumatized by BMW experience with having to serialize tail lights though
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Apr 30, 2021 17:58
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Why in the everliving gently caress would you need to pair taillights to a car? It's a few light bulbs. Oh wait... BMW, the company that makes you serialize your motherfucking BATTERY to the car.
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Apr 30, 2021 18:21
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You can't risk having some 3rd party battery bad actor injecting malicious voltages into the car, now can you?
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Apr 30, 2021 19:10
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STR posted:Why in the everliving gently caress would you need to pair taillights to a car? It's a few light bulbs. Oh, look, yet more reasons I will never own a "modern" BMW.
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Apr 30, 2021 19:11
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Plus their new DLC "features"
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Apr 30, 2021 19:24
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MomJeans420 posted:The fact you even considered if it's bad makes it fairly obvious you're not abusing the system, just return it. TheMadMilkman posted:It’s Costco. The whole point of paying membership fees is to get cheap hotdogs and easy returns guilt free. Return the fridge, grab a hotdog, and never think about it again. STR posted:Oh wait... BMW, the company that makes you serialize your motherfucking BATTERY to the car. It me! The BMW haver with a funny battery protocol!  My 2011MY M3 has never had the battery replaced because it lives in a garage on a tender when not being used even for more than 2 days at a time First camp in the Bean is tonight! 
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Apr 30, 2021 20:17
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STR posted:Why in the everliving gently caress would you need to pair taillights to a car? It's a few light bulbs. much like with any modern car there's a light control module. you have to make sure that the LCM and the lights know what each other are. It's not technically serialized on the E39, you just have to program the LCM to understand which revision of tail lights you have or else it will return a fault.
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Apr 30, 2021 22:42
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Somewhat Heroic posted:First camp in the Bean is tonight! Great weekend for it. The weather is so good right now.
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Apr 30, 2021 22:54
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Somewhat Heroic posted:These posts make me feel a little better Dinner for the first night in the bean should be beans. Break it in IN STYLE. 
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May 1, 2021 20:10
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Incredible trailer, much nicer looking lights. Return the cooler.
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May 2, 2021 18:43
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How was camping in the bean? It looks so tiny from the outside.
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May 3, 2021 18:45
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I have acquired so much stuff, and along with your Bean purchase, looks like I am going to attempt to build my own teardrop style camper. Will post a thread once it is well under way and I have CONTENT. Also, I happen to have a 92 Cruiser, lifted (huge rear end truck) 169k miles, that I absolutely do not want. I think after I sell this for ridiculous going to get a JDM stock Cruiser to keep.
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May 3, 2021 19:26
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everdave posted:I have acquired so much stuff, and along with your Bean purchase, looks like I am going to attempt to build my own teardrop style camper. Will post a thread once it is well under way and I have CONTENT. 80 series are like gold mines now - especially with under 200k - make sure you have that stocker in your sights before you sell, the market on these cars is white hot right now
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May 3, 2021 21:43
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everdave posted:I have acquired so much stuff, and along with your Bean purchase, looks like I am going to attempt to build my own teardrop style camper. Will post a thread once it is well under way and I have CONTENT. MomJeans420 posted:How was camping in the bean? It looks so tiny from the outside. I loved it! For sake of brevity and time I will       Pocket projector is aces!  Morning; breakfast time  Drove some toy cars.    Clean Bean
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May 3, 2021 23:00
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Your Bean looks very cool! I am thinking if I do build I’m going to stretch it out and not have a “galley”, hopefully can cram me and my 2 giant kids in to one. I cook almost every night I think we’d be fine just grilling. everdave fucked around with this message at 13:13 on May 4, 2021 |
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May 3, 2021 23:43
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That Bean looks pretty cool. I've been going down the rabbit hole of toy haulers but thankfully I don't have room for one right now so I'm just window shopping.
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May 4, 2021 15:55
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I forgot to add that I decided I need to get everything heavy on my GX that I want before I do the suspension, so I just ordered RSG's flat sliders with the kickout. I went with flat over angled because I wanted a more usable step for my daughter + others, and for the trails I want to hit that little bit of clearance lost won't make a difference. I still have to figure out the spare tire situation, ideally I'd avoid a tire carrier on the back but the stock spare location doesn't have a ton of room for larger tires, especially since I have the full weight hitch receiver. Around town I can just call AAA but I plan on having a full size spare for off roading. I've been doing a ton of reading on the various lift options but while everyone seems to have strong opinions, it's hard to find an actual consensus on what's best. I may just punt and do Dobinson's MRR setup, but I'm not sure. Not my GX but here are the sliders:  
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May 4, 2021 17:28
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Throw a lift kit, bumper, sliders, winch, and rack + lights on then add $30k to the price, got it  
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May 24, 2021 18:45
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MomJeans420 posted:Throw a lift kit, bumper, sliders, winch, and rack + lights on then add $30k to the price, got it I mean at least it looks good but come on! That has to be 100% mark up. I have some content! What I noticed on the rock/dirt road in the first outing with the Bean was a lot of clunking seemingly coming from the front suspension, drive side. I had replaced the front upper arms, then the whole front lift kit stuff. I began to think lower ball joints may be the culprit. I checked those and they were tight (annoyingly) as well as the upper arms all looking good. Shocks are still in good shape, sway bar links have already been replaced. Then I checked my front diff support arm. This was one I thought seemed alright when I swapped the front diff bushings. It is the thing attached to the SLEE diff drop bracket on the right side  I could stick a prybar in there and give it a good wiggle. The bushing seemed torn and spent. So I emailed my buddies at Cruiser Outfitters to get the arm. They offer a whole front diff bushing kit on their site conveniently  for about $300, but I had done all the other ones. I needed just that arm. They told me it would be $220. I gave them first crack, but Partsouq had it to me, shipped, for $120. It took about 7 days from order to delivery. I got it done in my driveway in about an hour which included running to help my daughter who crashed on her bike and had a bleeding nose that was rather impressive. Proud dad moment for sure! She was wearing a helmet. Good kid.  Old and not exactly in the middle. Also note: I had a breaker bar but didn't do anything else. No penetrating oil or heat needed. Rust free cars are life, friends  There is a little corrosion on the bolts so I hit them with a wire wheel and put a little penetrating fluid to keep from future corrosion. They went back in with the new arm and torqued to 137 ft-lbs  This changed so much. My forward/reverse "clunk" is gone. So much drivetrain lash is minimized now. I still annoyingly have the "clunk" kind of sound coming from the front. The ride is pretty harsh. I think that just might be a combination of the OME torsion bars, just the torsion bar style suspension in general and not having a ton of weight up front with a bumper etc. That harshness is ultimately what will push me to a 200 series I think. Bonus Bean content: Went camping this weekend with  MY WIFE to celebrate a dozen years married. We did not end up in the camping place planned and there is a long story but I have some fun photos.    Just behind the trailer where all the bushes growing is a meandering little stream that was so nice to listen to. This was on public land and available for dispersed camping. There were TONS of spots. Things I love about the Bean: The bubble level located on the tongue of the trailer. Sleeping dead flat on any surface rules. Cooking with the kitchen. The Cook Partner is an amazing little cooktop. Having the stainless counter, the sink, the cabinets all in arms reach is so easy. Breakfast was a nice hash of baked yukon golds/peppers/onion/eggs cooked in a bit of the bacon grease that was getting fried in the cast iron and some strawberries. It was  The size. It is so small, it is adorable. Pulling it is easy, setup is quick.
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May 24, 2021 22:58
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That thing is so loving cute.
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May 24, 2021 23:50
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After the first Bean outing are you happy with the purchase? I am hemming and hawing on whether to start a build…for you yes a camper is no questions. Just trying to ask myself if that would really suit my needs or if I should just put the money towards the jdm Cruiser I want as my second keeper vehicle
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May 25, 2021 03:41
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builds character posted:That thing is so loving cute. If my wife wasn't such a minimalist I could sell her on one from that alone. It looks small from the outside, but according to the specs online the bed will fit a pretty tall person. I'm just lucky that the time I'd most want one is when I'd be towing a bike, and I can't do both at the same time, so I don't have to spend too much time considering it. Somewhat Heroic posted:That harshness is ultimately what will push me to a 200 series I think. everdave posted:if I should just put the money towards the jdm Cruiser I want as my second keeper vehicle I've already decided that at some point before 2030, I'm purchasing a Land Cruiser that I plan on owning for a very long time. Are there any discounts to be had by going jdm? I do appreciate that they hold their value so well, but I'm still shocked by some of the prices I see for fairly old / high mileage LCs.
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May 25, 2021 07:15
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MomJeans420 posted:I've already decided that at some point before 2030, I'm purchasing a Land Cruiser that I plan on owning for a very long time. Are there any discounts to be had by going jdm? I do appreciate that they hold their value so well, but I'm still shocked by some of the prices I see for fairly old / high mileage LCs. Not exactly. You go JDM because you can get cool diesel versions, or even versions of Land Cruisers we never got here in the USA (Prados, 70 series) or manual transmissions. You can pull fantastic condition ones out of Japan but the reality is that you are going to pay for it, JDM or no. I suppose you could argue there is a discount going JDM because of the condition (fantastic) and mileage (absurdly low) aspect, but expect at the absolute minimum $15k for anything worth owning out of Japan and that's doing it yourself. Plus the 25 year rule means the newest Cruiser model we get is the second gen Prados (came out in 1996) which start going toward Lexus GX (which is, itself, a Prado) away from the 70 series it was originally based on, or the 80 series for the big comfort Cruisers. 100s and 200s imported are right out unfortunately. We've have had 15 Land Cruisers (and three more this week  ) since 2018 and every single one has made us go "yes, this is the best engineered vehicle ever built." Personally my wife and I prefer the 2-door short wheelbase first-gen KZ Prados and I will sing praises for them wherever I can squeeze in a comment. Turbo diesel 80s are torque monsters, and the 'true' 70s always are the most stylish. Basically, I would get one sooner rather than later as everyone wants a Land Cruiser and the prices keep moving up to justify it.
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May 25, 2021 07:37
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If you think the HDJ80 is a torque monster you should find a HDJ100 and have a spin in that.... more torque than the 80's at full song from 1200rpm to 3000rpm. Its not a torque curve, its a torque line. And they tune up to north of 400hp/1200nm of torque too, while still returning better economy than the TDV8 in the 200.
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May 25, 2021 14:19
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MomJeans420 posted:I Are there any discounts to be had by going jdm?. Not really but the way US prices are climbing maybe? I just look everyday at the auctions so I have the luxury of bidding somewhat low and trying to get lucky (what I could have got for 8-9k tho is 12-15 now). I just specifically want a diesel vacation package model or trim they have. But I’d settle for a low km completely stock diesel or gas in the right color, or go after the rare 5 speed 80s there.
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May 25, 2021 15:16
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KakerMix posted:Basically, I would get one sooner rather than later as everyone wants a Land Cruiser and the prices keep moving up to justify it. I don’t want anything luxury or powerful, I just want a nice FJ62 
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May 25, 2021 16:36
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Advent Horizon posted:I don’t want anything luxury or powerful, I just want a nice FJ62 Only the most expensive model of Land Cruiser currently! Gotta point out that the 60 series IS the luxury Cruiser within context of the time. The 'real' Cruiser was the 70 that replaced the 40. The 'best' 60 is going to be the late model HJ80s, the ones that have this style of decal package:  Why settle for the thirsty FJ engine when you can get a cool 12H-T and get close to double the MPG? Seriously though any 60 is just going to go up and up and up, I can't see any future where these prices come down, and if they do we probably all have many other things to be worrying about. KakerMix fucked around with this message at 18:46 on May 25, 2021 |
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May 25, 2021 18:43
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hello ai overlanding thread! I was sent here from the great outdoors RVing thread. Here's what I posted there:Bloody posted:Hi RV thread. I have recently been infected by some sort of brainworms about turning my truck into Camping, but Better, for myself, partner, and dog. We're both tall people (6'6" and 6'3") but our truck is a 2008 tundra SR5 long bed (8'). We live in the pnw and like to play outside - I like kayaking and birding, and she likes hiking. We've had some pleasant car camping adventures, but it feels like we should be able to be substantially more comfortable without that much trouble, given that a queen mattress fits comfortably in our truck bed.
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Jun 3, 2021 20:18
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