Landcruiser Colorado with Off-Road/Expedition Preparation

[Gav Peter]

Truck looks great Ste Personally I like the black modulars & the fatter rubber on the green machine but would be interesting to see how the silver ones look when you swap them over

I had a set of the 5-spoke OEM alloys powder coated black once & they looked really nice in black:





Or perhaps these will help you on photchop if its raining down there like it is up here!!!

 

[sae70]

Thanks for all of your comments chaps, I'm very happy with how she looks Need to find a new name for the Green one There are currently three in the offing with one being a stronger contender than the others, according to the kids

Love the look of those alloys Gav The trouble with OEM alloys is that depending upon what size tyres I go with changes the wheel choice and depending upon what wheels I go with changes the tyre choice. For example if I go with the 285's then a set of 80 series alloys would be perfect as they match the modulars for size 16x8 ET0, but if I go for another set of Collie rims (available on eBay for around the £75 mark for a set!!!) the 285's are not a good fit and I'd also need some spacers There is a cross over wheel width that will suit both tyre sizes and that's 8" the same as the modulars and 80 series alloys, I think I actually have no idea what width 80 series alloys are, I'm just assuming that they'd be 8" due to the size of the vehicle.

 

[Gav Peter]

Aye, the 5-spokes are only 7" wide aren't they... The 80 alloys are a good way to go but I still like the look of the modulars B-)

 

[sae70]

I don't dislike the modulars, but they could do with being Satin Black rather than Gun Metal Grey for me They would certainly suit both tyre widths as the ideal rim width for both sizes are either side of 8" 255's 7-8.5" and the 285's are 8-9.5". So I guess the modulars have it for now and I may get them refurbished in Satin Black when I have the sliders powder coated after shortening them.

Wheels sorted for now then so 255 tyres or 285 tyres?

 

[Gav Peter]

I hadn't noticed they weren't black I'd get the sliders done to match them

285's

 

[Ben]

Looks great Steven.

Have you got to sell Fiery now?

Every one to their own but I'd have the silver alloys every time. I can't see the point of steel after market steels. I haven't seen any pics yet of broken Toyota alloys which couldn't handle abuse.
Great looking Collie though. I hope it's everything you want from it.

Andy

The reason I like after market steels is because you can get them with much more off set than the standard Toyota ones.

They say you should go out with the wheels (wheel spacers or a negative increase in wheel off set) when raising the suspension and/or body to maintain vehicle stability.

 

[sae70]

Yes Fiery needs to go She's been a great companion and given me and the boys a lot of great times and I'm sure will give the new owner an equal amount of fun and good times. I spent all of yesterday removing all my bits and bob, I found no less than 11 pens and four highlighters clearing her out yesterday, no wonder there's never any in the house I also removed all of the storage box and off road kit yesterday and put it into the new one. This morning I've cleaned out the interior and hoovered her through and removed the CB and blanked the hole. Just left to remove the 80 series springs and fit the original IM springs as without the 200Kg in the boot she looks absolutely ridiculous as she's come up a good couple of inches. Then just need to remove the winch and winch tray, fit the new second hand bumper and then off for an MOT as her ticket runs out in a couple of months, so need to get that done before I transfer the insurance over to the new truck. I took the spare tyres from off of each truck yesterday to my local tyre fitters and had the tyres swapped over, now Fiery has a 285 on a silver rim and the new truck has a 255 on a steel rim to help me make my mind up what tyres to go with The jury's still out on this one although I am leaning more toward the 255's for the new truck, controversially As I know most seem to prefer the look of the 285's

 

[AndyCook]

i need to start removing stuff from my Colorado too
not sure whether to sell it with warn winch and winch tray or not
as i wouldnt be putting either on a new vehicle.
and you dont see narrow-body FX front bumpers for sale 2nd hand very often and i would need a bumper if i remove winch and tray

 

[sae70]

It took me seven years to persuade my good lady that a winch was a good investment, so there's no way mines going with the truck Or the next truck come to that I'll be leaving my winch to Robert in my will

 

[sae70]

Here's something I thought I'd share with you all

Yesterday I took one wheel and tyre from each vehicle to my local tyre fitters and had the tyres swapped round from rim to rim. Here's the photos of them back on the trucks

Interestingly wall to wall the 285 measures about 11" and the 255 10", but the 285 has an 9" tread footprint and the 255 a 7" tread footprint.




Here you can see that the 255 is taller than the 285. It's actually 15mm taller in this photo, but the 285 has only 11mm of tread and the 255 has 14mm of tread. I'll let you do the maffs thing


A small pile of wheels and tyres


255/85/16 tyre on a 16x8 ET00 wheel. I actually think that this option looks very well as the slightly different wheel offset has improved the look compared to when it was fitted to Fiery on the ET15 rims making it look far more tucked under.








285/75/16 tyre on a 16x7 ET15 wheel. Again here because the tyre is wider it fills the space far better than the 255 ever did and the other odd thing is that its further away from any rubbing than the 255 was because of its smaller diameter. Infact the green truck would need some work to stop the 255 tyre from rubbing! I put this all down to using the Camber and Caster adjustment on Fiery to move the hub forward 10/15mm as suggested by KZJ90 back in the day.






I've prety much made my mind up what tyres I'm going to have on the new green truck, but just thought I'd let you all in on what I've been up to

 

[sae70]

Actually I've been a bit stingy with the photos, so here's the lot I took

 

[cavanmick]

Probably on my own here but it's got to be the 285s for me,chunky looks better me thinks....


Mick

 

[fridayman]

I like the chunky look too. Around here I do more sand than mud, so the bigger footprint is also better for me. If I did more mud I would prefer the taller/skinnier tyre.

 

[chadr]

Regardless of which is better in reality for the typical UK terrain, I think that the majority would agree that the chunkier 285s look better on the car.

 

[mrdelmonti]

Chunky looks better but for me on the off road sites I visit I find skinny tyres perform better. All depends on where you plan on using it really.

 

[sae70]

Since Fiery's MOT I've been busy getting her ready to sell and she's almost there

 

[sae70]

I've also spent some time doing a few bits and bobs to the new truck

Fitted some crystal clear side repeaters with silvered lamps and silvered lamps in the front indicators









Also done some work on the center console, fitted the CB from out of Fiery and am in the process of relocating the ARB compressor and front locker switches to a more discreet position.





Storage box is now in the new truck



Look at the space I now have between the back of my storage box and the back of the rear seats It's more than 400mm







I also fitted my new Numax Deep Cycle battery and cleaned and regreased all of the connections



And I've removed a pile of redundant and unused wiring from under the bonnet and the second Odyssey battery for now