My Other Car Hobby - Tall n Slow

[suprarx7nut]

Living in Colorado means you're not far from stunning scenery. Here's some examples of the places you can get with a basically stock 1999 Land Cruiser that not many others travel to. More to come in the future.

Kingston Peak, above timberline. Very cool to see for tens of miles and not see a single other soul. Very serene.

 

[max-89supra(t)]

Cool pics man. I had a 94 land criuser, and now a 2000. What great suvs. Ultra reliable and will go just about anywhere.

 

[GreenChevelleSS]

Ive been wanting to do some overland trails. Have you done the alpine loop? or know of any other multiple day trails?

 

[te72]

Western Colorado is a beautiful part of the world, for sure. Drove VERY out of the way on our way to a Rush concert in Denver one time, just so we could drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. I had no idea the views we'd see, all I cared about was how twisty the roads were!

...that quickly changed once I saw the depth of the fall and lack of guard rails haha.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Ive been wanting to do some overland trails. Have you done the alpine loop? or know of any other multiple day trails?

I have done part of the Alpine Loop, but not as a weekend adventure kinda deal. I forget which trails are a part of that.

One of my favorite multi-day trips was a mix of trails pretty close to the Metro area, actually. It included Kingston Peak, where the Post #1 pics were taken. There are lots of trails in that area. A buddy and me just looked at a map and connected a bunch of trails and camped just below timberline on Kingston Peak.

**ninja edit: I should add, Kingston Peak might kill a stock SUV. Probably ok with big tires on a Wrangler, maybe a lifted and locked 4Runner, maybe a Ford Raptor or something, but not much else. Lots of real sharp rocks, plenty tall enough to puncture an oil pan. The Cruiser on 33's was fine, but it required a lot of careful driving.

If you can spend time near Telluride, though, that's were the good stuff is. Hard to find a bad trail out there and plenty have some dispersed camping nearby. Ouray has hotels, too if you're feeling really luxurious, haha.

Western Colorado is a beautiful part of the world, for sure. Drove VERY out of the way on our way to a Rush concert in Denver one time, just so we could drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. I had no idea the views we'd see, all I cared about was how twisty the roads were!

...that quickly changed once I saw the depth of the fall and lack of guard rails haha.

Yeah, haha. I did some canyon runs in college that were a little stupid on roads somewhat local to Boulder. Once you get deep into the Rockies though, that can be flat out suicidal. There are highways near Ouray/Telluride that have no guardrail, a man-made cliff (90 degree drop off), zero shoulder (the cliff is 1-2 feet from the white lines) and a solid 100-500' drop. Certain death for anyone and everyone that goes over. I call it the "Natural Selection" portion of the Colorado highway system. Distracted driving could kill you real easy. I think I took some pics. I'll see if I can post any.

 

[te72]

What bummed me out about RMNP was that the fun, relatively safe portion of the road was cursed with poor visibility. Trees man... trees everywhere! I'm not used to that in southern Wyoming haha. Lot of blind corners, behind which the occasional idiot in a minivan or SUV is pulled over in the middle of the road, because there's no shoulder. Yeah, it was a headache.

By the time visibility opened up, it was cliff city, and besides traffic was thick enough that fun driving wasn't on the table. Plus, scenery man... I can drive fast in better places, that was just a fun visual experience.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Had a pretty cool '91 FJ80 for a while and did a bunch of work to it, ended up selling it to Stanzaspeed who then did a bit more before deciding to sell it to fund more Supra-friendly activities. Still, it was a great truck. I would very much like a SWB 70-series at some point in the future. I'll try to make that happen.

Jeff

 

[te72]

Any reason not to get an LX versus a 90/100 Cruiser? I find that I rather like the Lexus cars I've been in over the years.

 

[max-89supra(t)]

Any reason not to get an LX versus a 90/100 Cruiser? I find that I rather like the Lexus cars I've been in over the years.

The lexus uses a air/hydraulic suspension which to my knowledge is not ideal for off-road. Also, most of these rigs have 200+ miles on them, and that seems to be the time where a lot of the lx suspensions start failing. At that point they are expensive to fix. People swap to a Land cruiser suspension often times. For those reasons i didn't get an lx.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Any reason not to get an LX versus a 90/100 Cruiser? I find that I rather like the Lexus cars I've been in over the years.

The lexus uses a air/hydraulic suspension which to my knowledge is not ideal for off-road. Also, most of these rigs have 200+ miles on them, and that seems to be the time where a lot of the lx suspensions start failing. At that point they are expensive to fix. People swap to a Land cruiser suspension often times. For those reasons i didn't get an lx.

I actually wish I got the Lexus version, LX470. The lift in my garage dictates I can't do much of a lift so the hardcore suspension systems are out of the question either way. The AHC system is roughly a 2" lift on demand. It's expensive to fix, but so is a complete aftermarket lift kit with equivalent, non-adjustable shocks. I think of it just like a turbo system over an NA engine. It's more expensive to fix, maybe, but that doesn't mean I don't want that turbo.

The LX has a ton of upgrades all over the cabin. Better sound deadening on virtually every panel. Option for an acoustic windshield, memory seats, power folding mirrors (HUGE benefit in tight parking like my garage/lift space), AHC system, improved headlights (projectors vs reflectors in the LC), etc... The list goes on and on. On the newer model years I think some of those differences drifted over to the Toyota LC as well, but not all.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Had a pretty cool '91 FJ80 for a while and did a bunch of work to it, ended up selling it to Stanzaspeed who then did a bit more before deciding to sell it to fund more Supra-friendly activities. Still, it was a great truck. I would very much like a SWB 70-series at some point in the future. I'll try to make that happen.

Jeff

Nice, I like the idea!

What bummed me out about RMNP was that the fun, relatively safe portion of the road was cursed with poor visibility. Trees man... trees everywhere! I'm not used to that in southern Wyoming haha. Lot of blind corners, behind which the occasional idiot in a minivan or SUV is pulled over in the middle of the road, because there's no shoulder. Yeah, it was a headache.

By the time visibility opened up, it was cliff city, and besides traffic was thick enough that fun driving wasn't on the table. Plus, scenery man... I can drive fast in better places, that was just a fun visual experience.

Yeah, RMNP, and many other CO mountain roads, can be better for touristy sight seeing than canyon driving. Gorgeous scenery all over.

 

[te72]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm honestly not in a market for a truck, but the LC has always appealed to me, as have the LX. Just seem like nice vehicles all around.

I try to avoid the idea of buying a truck, because then I might end up doing "truck" stuff, and I don't have enough time in a week as it is haha.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm honestly not in a market for a truck, but the LC has always appealed to me, as have the LX. Just seem like nice vehicles all around.

I try to avoid the idea of buying a truck, because then I might end up doing "truck" stuff, and I don't have enough time in a week as it is haha.

I can very much relate. I just spent a grand on a bumper for the Cruiser. I won a base rear bumper at an event and paid an extra $1000 or so to outfit it right. That could have been enough to jump start the engine build on the Supra, or buy a Kaminari wing and a lip.

Time sink aside, though, I must say that Land Cruiser has been an absolutely amazing car. It's an ideal daily driver (aside from a premium luxury sedan maybe - cough Lexus LS, cough...) and has created lots of great memories with my wife, friends and hopefully my children in coming years. The Supra is awesome, but the enjoyment with that vehicle has been 100% me. The Cruiser is a far more practical hobby and attracts a much more friendly crowd, IMO. I hope as the Supra crowd ages it attracts a similar kind of dedicated and welcoming crowd. I think it will and that's a part of why I want to start a Supra club or organization in the Rockies.

Next spring, Brad, we'll have to set up something and see if we can bribe a few other folks in the area to bring their Mk3's for a BBQ or something. Hopefully I'll have a freshly painted chassis by then!

 

[te72]

I'd be on board for a meet, weather permitting. I know the Colorado Supra group has an annual meet, but I'm not on Facebook so I usually miss the timing on it. You're right on the LS being a good daily though, just picked up a 2000 IJM LS400 after thanksgiving. Fantastic car to pile on the miles.