Tow & Touring 200

While the dispute rages over what’s the best 4WD on the market, there are few people that can argue that the 200 series LandCruiser is one of the best tow vehicles on the market. Space, comfort, and an undisputedly powerful twin turbo diesel V8 motor that is capable of pulling the back side out of the sun. Like all standard 4WDs however, there is always room for improvement and you don’t necessarily have to go over the top to get your 4WD well set up for touring and towing.
When towing or touring, the first step we always recommend to our customers is to upgrade the standard suspension. Although like most standard 4WDs they are designed with off-road driving and towing in mind, they are first and foremost a passenger car and built for optimum handling with a few passengers and no load. Once you load them up and stick a big van or camper trailer on the back, you are now pushing the suspension to its limits, and that’s not where you really want to be!
We went with premium quality Fox suspension using the 2.0 Performance Series front struts and rear shock absorbers. This 200 series will eventually be getting a set of rear storage draws, so we also opted for heavy duty spring rates in the rear. For those trips where owner Brian will be loading up the camper trailer, we’ve also fitted a set of Polyair airbags to the rear to give it that extra bit of support when the back is under load whilst still retaining a comfortable ride when there’s nothing in tow.
For a good power supply on those extended trips we’ve installed the ultra-reliable Redarc DC-DC 25A charger and replaced the twin cranking batteries that come out standard on the 200 with a bigger single Century crank battery and 100A/h deep cycle battery to handle all the accessories.
While under the bonnet, we installed a Diesel Care pre- filter kit running 30 micron filter cartridges. This traps most particles before the factory fuel filter keeping the expensive genuine Toyota gear clean and potentially saving the life of the engine from damaged caused by dirty fuel or water.
The front sports the TJM T13 Outback bar, colour coded for that factory finished look. The first question we get asked a lot by our customers when it comes bull bars for the 200 Series is “do we do a bull bar that doesn’t involve a bumper cut?” The answer is… yes we do. For the earlier model 200 Series, our Outback bar is a full bumper replacement and for the newer facelift 200 Series, we have the option of either a bumper replacement or a bumper cut bull bar.
Brian’s 200 series is now well equipped to handle the towing duties that he has install for it and for us, well we are just happy to see yet another satisfied 200 Series owner drive out the door.