2008 Land Cruiser: Winner of Peterson's 4x4 of the Year!
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hubbabubba
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Sweet! To celebrate, I will buy my LC a full tank of $3.43/gallon Premium.
Thanks for posting this Thai
Thanks for posting this Thai
Thai
Elite Member
josh220 said:
Each year, Petersons (and FourWheeler) compares new vehicles introduced to market and/or vehicles with significant changes...and then rank them. Therefore, for example, the 4runner has no changes in 2008...this is why it is not included in this year's comparisons. The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is new for 2007 and is, thus, included in the above comparo. The Hummer H3 has a new V8 (Alpha model) and is thus in the comparo.
I was a little surprised that it won, given the focus of the magazine and the competition. The H2 was in there as well (I think because it got a new motor). The LC won every category of 'Interior', but that only counted for 5%, so it wasn't just the comparative luxury that put it over the top. Seems to me that if I were a guy who wrote for 4x4 magazine, and Wrangler or a Hummer would have won, which probably makes the LC's win that much more meaningful.
Which brings me to another point - I found it interesting that they didn't really address the comparatively crappy off-road dimensions (other than one glancing comment about the clearance), particularly the departure angle. That may be because the departure angle isn't as crappy as Toyota says it is. I was looking at it the other day, thinking that it just didn't look like 20 degrees. So I remembered that the brochure has a pure profile shot, and I measured the angle in the picture and came up with about 25 degrees. The front looked about right, at 30 degrees. Did the same thing with the LX brochure and got basically the same angles.
Pictures can be deceiving. If I could figure out an easy way to do it on the actual truck, I would.
Which brings me to another point - I found it interesting that they didn't really address the comparatively crappy off-road dimensions (other than one glancing comment about the clearance), particularly the departure angle. That may be because the departure angle isn't as crappy as Toyota says it is. I was looking at it the other day, thinking that it just didn't look like 20 degrees. So I remembered that the brochure has a pure profile shot, and I measured the angle in the picture and came up with about 25 degrees. The front looked about right, at 30 degrees. Did the same thing with the LX brochure and got basically the same angles.
Pictures can be deceiving. If I could figure out an easy way to do it on the actual truck, I would.
Thai
Elite Member
In the FourWheeler 4x4 of the year comparo this year, the Hummer H3 Alpha won. That magazine did mention the low clearance of the rear bumper of the TLC. In the above comparo, what was interesting is that the ground clearance noted was only 8"??!!
In BOTH comparisons (Peterson's and FourWheeler), they mention ROCK SLIDERS on the Land Cruiser. These sliders are available from Toyota. Do you guys know about them???
I have never done this, but what you can do is pump your tires up to factory psi. Then use a string to go from the center point where your rear tire touches the ground up to the bottom surface of the rear bumper/spare tire carrier/whereever lowest point. Have someone else with a protractor laying on the ground and measure what degree the string is at. That should give you the departure angle...i think.
It would be interesting to find out. The wheelbase on the '08 TLC is the same as the old TLC. However, the rear overhang has gotten longer, which means departure angle suffers. However, the wild card here is that the new TLC has slightly taller tires (0.5" increase in diameter = 0.25 inches taller tire). I don't think that 0.25" increase in ride height can compensate totally for the longer overhang. The other possibility is that Toyota raised the suspension (a lift if you will), which is a distinct possiblity. The only thing going against this is that overall vehicle height has not changed much (74 vs. 73.2") and ground clearance actually went down a little bit (9.8 vs. 8.9").
I would be interested in what you find if you do measure the departure angle.
In BOTH comparisons (Peterson's and FourWheeler), they mention ROCK SLIDERS on the Land Cruiser. These sliders are available from Toyota. Do you guys know about them???
I have never done this, but what you can do is pump your tires up to factory psi. Then use a string to go from the center point where your rear tire touches the ground up to the bottom surface of the rear bumper/spare tire carrier/whereever lowest point. Have someone else with a protractor laying on the ground and measure what degree the string is at. That should give you the departure angle...i think.
It would be interesting to find out. The wheelbase on the '08 TLC is the same as the old TLC. However, the rear overhang has gotten longer, which means departure angle suffers. However, the wild card here is that the new TLC has slightly taller tires (0.5" increase in diameter = 0.25 inches taller tire). I don't think that 0.25" increase in ride height can compensate totally for the longer overhang. The other possibility is that Toyota raised the suspension (a lift if you will), which is a distinct possiblity. The only thing going against this is that overall vehicle height has not changed much (74 vs. 73.2") and ground clearance actually went down a little bit (9.8 vs. 8.9").
I would be interested in what you find if you do measure the departure angle.
Thai said:In the above comparo, what was interesting is that the ground clearance noted was only 8"??!!
In BOTH comparisons (Peterson's and FourWheeler), they mention ROCK SLIDERS on the Land Cruiser. These sliders are available from Toyota. Do you guys know about them???
The clearance is definately not 8 inches. This I have measured, by hand, and it's a bit more than 9 inches from the rear diff to the ground, so about the 8.9 that Toyota claims. Everything else is higher.
About the sliders - yep, Petersen says they are available from Toyota. They are not, however, on the website; nor are they on the Aussie website (where they have bullbars, etc). I haven't actually contacted Toyota, but short of doing that, I haven't found them. I'd like to - it's the only mod I think I'd consider.
If I get around to measuring the clearance, I'll let you know. The only thing I had around here was a goniometer, not a protractor, which works great on a picture but no good on the garage floor.
