Published: 12 August 2017

Our Toyota Landcruiser Prado

Initially we purchased the Prado when planning the Terra Australis-Girt by Sea project.  At the time we were considering Toyota's trusty 100 Series Landcruiser but as time went on and the enormity of the budget requirements became apparent we knew we would have to compromise.  A low kilometre 100 Series would leave us scrimping in other areas such as food, which in spite of the weight loss benefits was never going to be a good option.  So after a little research the decision was made to look for the 100 series smaller sibling, the Prado.  Whilst we would be making a sacrifice in terms of space, it appeared as though we were going to get a much later model with far fewer k's for far less money, winning.

So after many months scouring the internet and many of the dealerships lining Parramatta road we ended up finding a late 2006 build 2007 model 120 Series within walking distance of our home.  With 150,000Klm's on the clock and a full service history, the D4D 3.0 litre turbo diesel equipped Prado was certainly one of the better ones we had seen for our $30K budget.  Another bonus with this particular vehicle was that it came with many of the basic off road mods already done.

Suspension:

The Prado had been fitted out with Old Man Emu Spings and struts when we purchased it which gives the vehicle a 2inch lift as well as greater load carrying capability and comfort when the going gets rough.  Due to the severe loads that we were carrying we fitted a set poly air bags in the rear.  The bags are inflated to around 30psi and help significantly in reducing rear end sag.

Up Front:

The Prado came fitted with an ARB clour coded, airbag compatable steel bull bar and Warne Magnum 9,000Lb winch, as well as IPF lights, one drive and one spot.  The Warne winch failed to function as intended due to what I suspect was a faulty solenoid.  The decision was made to replace it with a Grande 12,000lb unit from Superior Off-Road 4WD at Smithfield in Sydney's South West.  It was a far cheaper option than getting the old Warne unit repaired and meant that the old steel cable and roller fairlead were ditched to accomodate the the new winch's 30 metre Dyneema rope and plate style fairlead.  The Grande comes with both a traditional style hard wired control and a remote control, or wireless unit.  The winch has never been used out of necessity but I do run it out a few metres and back again every now and then along with a squirt of Inox just make sure that it functions should it ever be needed.  The antenna for the GME UHF radio is also mounted on the bull bar.

Since purchasing the Prado we have replaced the IPF lights with a Korr Lighting Systems light bar.  The 20 inch XD Series bar looks much neater than old IPF's and the light quality is pretty intense.  The headlights on the Prado are getting on a little and starting to get that 'brassy' kind of light quality as opposed to the brilliant white of the Korr light bar.  We mounted it on the top bar due to the winch control box interfering with it going anywhere else and we did so by utilzing a couple of stainless worm drive hose clamps.  Doesn't look as pretty as it should but we were unable to source correct mounts to suit our 'bar whilst in Cairns were we had the light fitted.  We made the decision to just keep the old IPF on off switch in the vehicle and adapted the wiring to suit the plug style on the Korr light bar, it was the easiest solution and the IPF switch is a fairly tidy affair anyway.  I'll write up a product review on the Korr light bar sometime and you'll be able to find it here. It's been on the vehicle for about 10 months and 30,000klm's now so it's interesting to see how it's stood up to the test of time.

On Top:

The Rhino Tradies rack on the roof of the Prado is a great piece of kit and being made of alloy means that it doesn't consume too much of the vehicle's 2900GVM, 100kg's of which is allowed to be carried on the roof.  We mounted a couple of Explorer awnings to the rack, one rear and one on the left hand side and for big trips we carry three Rhino space cases up top.  The cases weigh 14Kg's each and when combined with the rack and it's associated mounting hardware the available carrying capacity is reduced down to a minuscule 20.5 Kg's and we haven't even taken into account the weight of the awnings.  We tend to use our space cases for blankets and pillows and the like.  We have since replaced our Explorer awnings with Kings units from the 4WD Supacentre.  The explorer units worked well and the quality was what you would expect for awnings costing about a hundred bucks each including freight.  They copped a work out on our lap around Oz and I couldn't tell you how many times they were set-up and packed down on the trip.  The rear awning got destroyed by a gust of wind one evening in Lake Argyle in Western Australia and one of the locking mechanisms on the leg of the left side awning stopped working.  Once we have used the Kings units we'll put a review up here. 

Firstly we decided that we needed an easy to erect tent and the fact that the Prado came with the Rhino rack meant that fitting a roof top tent would be a snap.  We decided to go for an Adventure Kings tent purchsed through 4x4 Supacentre at Smithfield.  To be brutally honest this decision was based purely on price.  During this expedition we estimate that the tent will be set-up and subsequently packed away about 230 times.  Whilst we certainley contemplated the quality of the Adventure Kings tent compared to something from some of the other suppliers, we just couldn't get past the huge price difference.  We ended up paying $899.00 for our tent and it came with everything you see in the image on the left, a similar set-up through ARB would have been about four times the price, and as I mentioned, we know the quality may not be as good but we can easily afford to replace the tent in the event of a failure and still have some change left over.  The biggest headache with fitting the tent was design of the Rhino rack, meaning that part of the mounting hardware supplied with the tent would be redundant but a trip to Bunnings soon had the issue sorted.  Once I made up the new brackets putting the tent on the rack was a fairly straight forward, albiet fiddly affair.  It took about an hour to line it up and bolt it in place and we were good to go.

The instructions that come with the tent claim that you can set it up in under two minutes, this would be a bit of an exageration based on our trial run. It took us 45 minutes to have it sleep ready but to be fair it was our first time and their was a little bit of head scratching at times, I think a realistic gaol would 10-15 minutes from the time you get out of the vehicle until your ready to crack your first cold one.  Probably the biggest disappointment for me was the amount of aluminium swarf inside the tent and the protective vinyl cover.  We had only driven a couple of kilometers before setting it up so no harm was done but it could have potentially rubbed through the canvas of the tent had we driven a considerable distance, or maybe even stuck into the bottom of your feet or worse, the first time you climbed into bed.

These couple of niggles aside, the Adventure Kings roof top tent is a great set-up and it's quality of manufacture seems at odds with the price.  We are sure the tent will pay for itself in convenience once our journey begins, or will it?

Apparently not, we have since been on a camping trip to properly trial the tent and have realised that we have made the wrong decision.  Why? I hear you ask, well for a start after setting it up a couple of times there is no way it is an easy set up.  With everything being up on the roof it makes it extremely difficult to tension straps and the like, you spend most of your time climbing all over the side of your vehicle trying to reach this strap or insert that pole.  Then there's the issue of climbing into and out of bed, what a nightmare and should you require a 'comfort break' you find yourself trying to find the ladder beneath you while sliding backwards out of bed, all at 3:00am in the morning.  So the decision was made to put the tent on Ebay and we would simply buy a dome style tent, it's light, roomy and easy to set-up.  When you consider that you can pick them up for under $300.00 the cost difference is massive and add to that the fact that your not carting the thing around on top of your vehicle whether you need it or not and the whole decison starts to make more sense.  They might be fine for you younger folk out there but we'll leave that for you to decide.

So the roof top tent was sold and replaced with a Diamantina Fraser 4, which we are sure our backs will be happier about and so will our fuel budget we are sure.  Pity about the nine hundred bucks we've torn up as part of the learning process!

Under the Bonnet:

The Prado is fitted with Toyota's legendary 3.0litre Turbo Diesel D4D enging coupled with a 5 speed automatic.  Our GXL is fitted with two 90 litre fuel tanks as standard and in an unladen open road situation I got some 1350klm's before stopping for fuel.  The low level fuel light hadn't even come on!  This robust power plant produces 127Kw of power and 410Nm of torque and towing is something that it seems to take in it's stride, well almost.  We towed our tandem jet ski trailer from Sydney to 'The Cape' then back down to Cairns beforte heading west for Perth via Darwin.  We had the the three Rhino cases on the roof so it was like pushing a block of flats through the air and of we course we never exceeded the vehicle GVM or it's 2.5 Tonne towing capacity, it would of been a line ball call of course.  We consistently seen the low fuel light come on below the 700klm mark, a that's almost double the unladen fuel consumption rate.  I'm not heavy on the throttle when it comes to pulling away from a stop but I do let the vehicle build up momentum and sat on or as close to 100km'h as possible where ever possible.  Knocking a few K's off the cruising speed would have helped the fuel economy.  I've never calculated the litres burned per hundred, I guess when we are travelling I'm too busy enjoying the moment!  

Adjusting tyre pressures to suit the terrain is a snap with an ARB under bonnet compressor mounted on the left hand side just in front of the firewall.  The airline supplied reaches all the way around the vehicle and using a combination tyre gauge/inflator means you don't have to take the hose off to check the pressures. Very handy.  The compressor has stopped working over the last couple of weeks and as yet I haven't had a chance to check it out, the fuse is fine.

In the event of a deep water crossing the engines intake is taken care of by way of a Safari snorkel, good piece of mind as sucking water into the engine is a real show stopper.  It has to be said though, we are 4WD tourers not 4WD adventurers and anything above the door seals is probably not going to be tackled anyway.

What's Inside?

With our vehicle originally intended to be a support vehicle for the aforementioned Terra Australis-Girt by Sea project it was only ever travelling to some of the more accessible regions of the Terra Australis-Girt by Sea journey, planned modifications were aimed more at support crew comfort, storage capability and of course safety.  We were lucky in that the vehicle we purchased had pretty much everything it would need to get to the areas the crew would be taking it, which of course allowed us focus on the rest and save some of our megre budget in the process.

The Prado also came fitted with a Milford cargo barrier which ensures that everything stays where it's meant to in an event where emergency braking is called for.  The fitment of some Titan rear roller draws. again from the 4WD Supacentre for the tidy sum of $850.00, has meant that the cargo barrier needed some modifications.  The draws are about 20mm to long to fit in so I have simply cut out some of the mesh in the lower section of the barrier.  Now we're sure the manufacturer would say we have compromised the integrity, and anoraks everywhere may be inclined to agree but we chose the cheaper option rather than forking out another $500.00 for a half barrier. Hopefully we never need to test out who was right and wrong.

On the subject of the Titan drawers we'd have to say the build quality is amazing for the price and we're sure they'll last the lifetime of the vehicle.  After removing the rear seat mounting system we chose to simply bolt the mounting rails to the floor of the vehicle and then place the draw unit on top and line up the holes and fasten it all in place.  The instructions suggested measuring the mounting points and bolting the mounting rails to the draw unit in the correct location and lifting whole lot in in and bolting it down.  Knowing our deficencies when it comes to accurate tape measure usage, our method was far easier.  Being a universal set-up there are no wings on the side of the draws although they do come with the brackets, we will need to make up the timber tops if we decide we need them.  For the time being we have just left them open, doesn't look very pretty but it's just as functional.

We have since added a Waeco CFX 65 litre Dual Zone fridge onto the standard fridge slide on the left hand side of the Titan draws.  It works extremely well, is large enough for extended trips and so far appears to very frugal with it's power consumption.  We won't know for sure how good until the heat of the Australian summer arrives in force.  We have added an insulated cover which should help with keeping the fridge cool and the very dark tinted windows of the Prado will also assist in keeping the heat down in the vehicle. You can read about the Waeco Fridge in more detail in review here.  After two years of extensive use it makes for interesting reading.  

To power the fridge we went with an Ark Pak battery box that we squeezed a 130Ah AGM battery into and on first 5 day test of running the fridge set at 0c, the battery was at 40% when we packed up and headed home.  The voltage reading was about 11.6 volts from memory.  We probably helped it by not keeping drinks in the fridge as experience tells me that the constant opening of the fridge to get drinks through out the day makes the fridge work pretty hard causing unnecessary drain on the battery. An Evacool 45 litre ice box works a treat and holds more than enough of the brown bubbly stuff to keep you cool on the inside. 

Mechanical Problems:

At the time of writting the Prado has clocked up some 210,000Klm's and in my opinion they've been relativley stress free.  We had to replace a waterpump in Cairns.  It wasn't consuming a lot of coolant but there were signs of weeping and the last thing we wanted was a total failure as we headed to the more remote regions of our journey.  The mechanic informed me that about 150,000K's is about right for a water pump failure, ours at the time had 170,000K's on the clock.  We replaced the front discs and pads at 200,000Klm's as the discs had warped severely, almost reefing the wheel out of your hands when slowly from open road speeds.  I don't consider this as a failure more just normal wear and tear these days.  The big issue is that we purchased the brakes from Supacheap Auto and whilst they do what they are designed to do they also provide a lovely accompaniament in the form of a horrendous squeak.  I'll try and find out the brand and amend this article to reflect that as they don't come recommended.

We had an oil leak develop on the way to Lake Argyle with the tell tale signs showing up on the trailer coupling when we stopped for the night in Timber Creek.  We took it to a mechanic in Kunanurra who stripped it down as far as he could and still couldn't find it, he wanted to keep going and informed us that once he found the problem it would take a week to source the parts.  Now I don't know if you've ever been to Kunanurra be we decided to run the gauntlet to Broome.  We checked the oil level at the end of each day and it got us the 1,044 klm's without needing topping up.  The mechanics at Broome, Salty's Diesel Mechanics traced it too a spilt rubber hose at the intercooler, they trimmed 5mm off it and re-connected it.  Sorted.  We got them to do an oil and filter change whilst they were there, they also changed the fuel filter, air filter and cabin filter and all for around the $300 mark.  Good blokes.

The car has started to develop a problem that I suspect is worn starter motor brushes.  It's intermittent but starting to occour with a little more frequency, effectivley you turn the key to the 'start' position and nothing happens.  If you hold the key in the 'start' position the car will fire up in anywhere from 5-10 seconds.  It's going in for a long over due oil change and diagnosis on the starting issue so I'll update this article once it's done.

Overall:

We've had the Prado since June 2015 and have added about 60,000Klm's to the odometer.  We've done some really big days behind the wheel covering in excess of 1,000klm's in a day multiple times, the vehicle is comfortable, easy to drive and very reliable.  Negatives?  The Prado is a very small car internally, plenty of room for those up front but carrying capacity is fairly limited and hampered even more so with the addition of the cargo barrier.  Would we buy another one? Sure.  It's a great compromise vehicle if your on a budget, good fuel economy provided your not pulling to much weight.  It's comfortable and relaible and handles mild off-road work easily.  In short it's probably one of the most enjoyable touring vehicles I've driven.