Brad's White 2010 Manual GX Diesel :-)

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Hi. Introducing my Prado. Bought it on Valentines day this year (A win for the blokes on this day for a change!)

I was specifically looking for a 5 seater and manual and I can tell you there isn't a lot of decent ones around second hand. Had 64,000klm on it when I got it, full Toyota service history and a little of the warranty left. It's an ex DPI car but it looked pretty clean and checked out OK. 8000 klm later and all is well.

Anyway, a pic of when I got it home:

How it is now, bonnet protector, slim tinted weathershields, windows tinted, spare wheel all naked....:


Some of the goodies collected so far:

I have upgraded most of the lighting in it to LEDs, have a Scangauge II which is a cool toy. Came with a towbar, brake controller, cargo barrier and the alloy bar fitted. I had the spare wheel cover off to clean behind it and decided to leave it off for the time being. Looks more 4WD and less Rav4 now.

Plans are to get the dual batteries setup, wire in some driving lights, a rear light off the spare wheel carrier, fridge socket for when we get a fridge, Anderson plug at rear etc etc etc.... it won't end.

It is my daily driver but we intend to get more into camping once the little one is a bit older, this summer. It's a great car, very happy with it and it should do us well for a few years.

Cheers Brad

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Dual batteries are go! I had a night off work so I have been working away in the shed on installing all the bits for my setup.

I have ran positive and negative 4AWG over the fire wall, all covered in split tubing then wrapped in PVC tape, put a 100A circuit breaker on each battery and found a spot where the isolator bolted to a couple of factory holes on the inner guard. Ignore the AUX battery I have in there now, a new one will be purchased next week. I had to get creative and make a bracket to bolt one circuit breaker to the side of the fuse box. It's a little rough but not visible once in position. Still not sure if the circuit breaker for the AUX battery will find another home or I might make a proper bracket to mount it when I get the new battery.

Made a bracket to relocate the air-con pipe too.

Hopefully there shouldn't be an issue having the isolator closer to the AUX battery than the main, time will tell, but so far it works as it should :-)

I will wire up a LED in the cabin but probably not the push button for jump starting.

Overall I am pretty happy with how it has turned out, especially not having to cut or modify anything on the car ;-)

Pictures:









Cheers Brad.

[Mudduck Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mudduck]

Looking good mate

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Probably not the best pic, but I was keen show off my 5 hours of hard work:

Lift in!

Dobinsons springs and shocks:



I have gained 50mm in the front and 60mm in the rear and now it is sitting perfectly level. They feel great, smoother than the stock stuff on normal roads and you can tell they are firmer on the bigger bumps. Only done about 20klm so far (to go get a couple of hard earned cans) but it feels good so far!


You can probably see the recovery points also.

Another interesting thing I never realised, my GX has 245/75/17 tyres on it, usually they have a 70 series profile from the factory.

Cheers Brad

[prado2004 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado2004]

lift looks the goods mate!

[chappy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close chappy]

G'day Brad, nice looking rig.
I've got the same bar on my 2012 GX and would like to know where you got the recovery points from?.

cheers,
Chappy.

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

G'day Brad, nice looking rig.
I've got the same bar on my 2012 GX and would like to know where you got the recovery points from?.

cheers,
Chappy.

The recovery points were from a seller on eBay. There are lot's of different sellers of them, just make sure they are in stock before you pay as I had to wait about a month.

They fit with no issues at all.

Cheers Brad.

[chappy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close chappy]

No worries thanks mate, the last ebay enquiry I made couldn't tell me if the recovery point he was selling was compatible with the Toyota bar fitted to my GX.
I'll hunt around ebay somemore.
cheers,
Chappy.

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Daytime pic with lift:



Cheers Brad.

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Now with added manly steel bar with approval from my little munchkin:




With the weight of the new bar I have bought a new pair of front springs to regain a little height lost. On the hunt for a winch now!

Cheers Brad.

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

Looks like you use the same method I do to cart the little tikes around...

I normally wrap them in shadecloth on the country roads though as it makes cleaning the bugs off easier...

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Looks like you use the same method I do to cart the little tikes around...

I normally wrap them in shadecloth on the country roads though as it makes cleaning the bugs off easier...

Do you leave an opening for their mouth so they get some nutrition? ;-)

I also now have diff breather kit, 60L Waeco and slide and a few other goodies that I need to find time to fit then I'll be due for tires. I am thinking of going to a 255/75/17 on the GX rims which will give me a 32'' tire. It is stretching it on a 6.5'' rim but I really don't want to fork out for new rims.... Depends on prices and availability on that size. Currently it has 245/75/17 which is bigger than the 245/70/17 stock size.

Cheers Brad.

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

Do you leave an opening for their mouth so they get some nutrition? ;-)

Depends on how long the drive is I suppose...

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Fridges/drawers build begins!



Plan is to make some fill panels for the side but have them removable to gain access to the space on each side and probably divide the right side into three compartments with two drawers or just two tall drawers. Undecided. Fridge is on it's matching slide. Full size cargo barrier will be behind the lot acting as the rear panel. It's all a tight squeeze, I'll lose the very two last reclined positions for the rear seats but they tilt back enough for the baby seat to work and further than needed for a comfortable seating position.

Will carpet the lot.

Cheers Brad

[ttmx83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close ttmx83]

Storage sorted, cost me nearly $500 all up. Expensive but cheaper than off the shelf and with bonus added self satisfaction!

That's a 65L Waeco. It all fits with a full size cargo barrier. Had to make up new longer top brackets for the barrier. The whole unit bolts into four threaded M10 inserts on the floor that are part of the cargo barrier mounts. I have lost the very last two reclining positions for the rear seats, but the baby seat still works and it's not uncomfortable for me to sit in. (No, not the baby seat ;-)) To the left of the fridge it a hinged door section that swings to allow access to the jack. Pretty happy with that!

I want to change to a folding half barrier later on, when I find one to chop up as I can't fit long things in with the full barrier.

Also made a battery clamp/circuit breaker holder. Bit of angle iron and flat bar held in by some Toyota hooks from an old car. Using a plastic battery insert thing, the same as the one on the starting battery as per factory. Currently still have an Exide car battery in there but it claims to be 60Ah and the Waeco claims it can be ran from a single battery and I have two. Will see how it goes before upgrading.

Ran all 8b&s twin core double insulated cabling. The fridge has it's own dedicated cable and the towbar mounted Anderson plug, another Anderson plug, USB, CIG, (mounted inside rear door compartment, pics when finished) and rear worklight share another. Should look trick! Just have to cover the ends of the wire with more split near the circuit breakers. I used 8b&s because it was cheap and fit under the scuff plates really well.







Cheers Brad