BlakMoth's money pit 120

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

this is gonna take me a while....
this is what it looked like when I bought it in Sept last year.
its changed a little bit since then.

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It was a bog standard 2004 GXL 1KZ-TE with only 121000 KM on the clock. Ex farmers town car or something so had a bit of red dirt under it but no signs of being off road at all.

[Mattfunk 120 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mattfunk 120]

Nice one about time mate 😆

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

It's in good nick for a 10 yr old car Blake. Can't beat a cocky's town car for a second hand buy!

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ok so here we go. I have an hour to burn so ill see how fast I can type

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as luck would have it, the 4wd show was on not long after we bought the car so the first order of the day was a roof rack.
ended up getting a very good deal on a Pioneer Tray, Sunseeker 2 Awning and a lockable shovel holder to go on the rack.
I wish I had listened to SWMBO and got the Platform instead (which we have now, after I grovelled and begged forgiveness for not listening of course)

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next up was the first of many trips to ARB in Wangara. I may have a relative there so he looks after me a bit
Redarc BCDC 1225 with solar input all wired in for later, second battery in an ARB battery tray, ARB compressor behind the drivers headlight, turbo timer aaaand some power sockets in the boot. which are in the back left corner. kind of in the way of the fridge opening but easy to get to. I
nice bill that one haha.
im sure some of you will notice the battery is only a standard n70 wet cranking battery. they told me at the time that they don't install deep cycles under the bonnet due to over heating. seems like rubbish to me, especially after reading the monster 150 dual battery thread. its still going strong though after a year so all good. ill worry about replacing it when it dies.

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somewhere around this time I bought some recovery gear too, just a basic kit for now as no winch yet. snatch strap, shackles, maxtrax and a hitch.

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next on the list was a sand flag, fishing rod holder for the bullbar and a bag for the back tyre.....

I don't have a pic for the bag, but its an Ironman one. 80L I think. so plenty big enough for all our rubbish to bring home.

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finally got around to buying the solar panel.
got a Redarc one to go with the charger in the car. 150W fold up jobbie that comes with cables and a regulator in a padded bag to protect it. gave the regulator to a mate as we already had the BCDC in the car. works well. only used it a couple of times but will get a work out next year when we go to Exmouth for two weeks.

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changed the tyres around that time too. I wasn't allowed to buy the ones I wanted as money was tight and the Grandtreks needed to go. so we ended up getting Continental Cross Country AT's. still a 265/65/17 though. pretty good tyres in the sand, which is where we spend most of our time off road. the tread almost looked like an imitation of the BFG but they were only a 2 ply sidewall so not as tough.
got a split in one from a rock when they were only a month old. only went through the first layer so was still good.


kept them on for a fair while but have since changed tyres

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suspension time!
another trip back to my cuz at ARB and left with an empty wallet again.
OME all round, went for the setup that could handle a winch and steel bar later on with up to 400kg in the back.
the Sovereign bulbar that I bought off Gumtree didn't come with all the bolts and as it mimics the shape of the bumper the approach angle could be improved with a different bar. just wanted to be prepared so I didn't have to replace the suspension when I got a new one.
also seemed like the time to get some new underbody protection too. much better than the tin Toyota put under there.
I also ordered a safari snorkel to go on at the same time without telling the wife. I tried to tell her that it was a really good deal that we got but no, I was in big trouble yet again...

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as most of you know, storage is an issue when travelling so I spent a bit of time looking at water tanks and bladders.
there is a bladder for a 120 that goes in the cavity on the rhs of the boot which holds 20L but in order to put it in there you lose the little storage compartment and have to move the power socket.
I ended up buying a Long Ranger 21L water tank that goes underneath between the rear fuel tank and the bumper. the tap sits just behind the left mudflap and the fill hole is directly under the little cut away panel on top of the bumper. which is where you access the wind down mechanism for the spare tyre for a European Prado with only one fuel tank.
took a while to come in as they didn't have any in stock but at least I know I got a new one. easy to fit too, couple of u bolts on the left and a special bracket on the right which is screwed into the chassis holes above the exhaust pipe.

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need more power sockets so I moved the fridge sockets to the drivers side near the factory socket, and then turned the two on the left into plain ciggy sockets. also added one in the rear of the centre console at this time too. I then drilled a big hole in the console next to the gear stick and put a Baintech dual volt meter in. which I shorted out six months later I have a new one in the shed but yet to install it.
mounted a small fire extinguisher on the rear right passengers step too

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had a headlight restoration done, which improved them heaps! but still I wanted more light.
found a guy on Gumtree over here selling some so I bought a couple (there's now hundreds of people selling lights, its ridiculous)



40" 240W LED light bar to go on the roof, 2x 70W 7'' HID's on the bulbar and 2x 27W work lights for the rear.
had to make up some brackets for the light bar as the feet didn't match up with any, took me a while but I got there. the rear work lights I just used the Rhino Pioneer spot brackets.







the switch for the work lights is next to the gear stick so its easy to turn on when reversing. the roof light switch is next to the 2nd start button and the spots are under the turbo timer on the right.


its not quite like MUMSRIG but close ha ha