New to Pradopoint.

[Rokhound Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Rokhound]

Hi guys and gals,

I may be new to prado point , but have been lurking around NZ 4wd forums for a while.
I have a 96 Jap import 90 series that has been getting some basic club truck treatment over the last month. Usual stuff, 2" suspension, 2" body lift, 285/75/16 BFG MT's, PRS (uhf) radio, breather lines to diffs and transfer case, newly fabbed side step/rocksliders, and just finished a 3" steel snorkel and auto sump bash plate.
I have had the the playdoh for a couple of years, and it's main off road useage was for towing my dedicated toyota rockcrawler. The rock crawler had an unfortunate rolly polly at the beginning of last year, and I haven't got around to rebuilding it yet (but almost all the bits are here now, so i will start soon).
Any way, here's some pics of my playdoh, and i am enjoying looking around here, good to see some 90 series rigs getting used.




And snorkel......


Side steps.....


And bash plate.............

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: New to Pradopoint.

Welcome Rokhound.
Great to have another 90 series on board

Great job on that snorkel... looks very neat. Look pretty handy with the welder too

Enjoy Pradopoint... but don't forget to put your location in your profile.

[jcas24 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close jcas24]

Re: New to Pradopoint.

Thats one very nice 90 you have there. Do you have any more info on the sliders & bash plates.

Cheers
Joel

[Rokhound Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Rokhound]

Re: New to Pradopoint.

Bash plate is probably an overstatement, more like deflection plate I reckon. It is made from flat 3mm sheet that i plasma cut and bent to go around the sway bar and is attached to existing rear mounts of the diff guard, and the auto's cross member. It is really only to stop the stones or sticks puncturing the auto pan.

Sliders are 50 x 50 500 grade box section with 40 dia pipe and 3mm alloy chequer plate over. they really should be a little wider than they are, so the truck can deflect off rocks, banks and trees, but at this stage the playdoh is not for any serious 4wd work, just nice cruisey club truck trips :wink: . I made the same style of bars for the rockcrawler, and they have taken a hell beating and still come back for more, so they should be more than sufficient for the Prado

Here is a pic before they were fitted

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

Re: New to Pradopoint.

Great looking truck there rokhound, gotta love a blue jap import prado

[Christopher Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Christopher]

Re: New to Pradopoint.

Hi guys and gals,

I may be new to prado point , but have been lurking around NZ 4wd forums for a while.
I have a 96 Jap import 90 series that has been getting some basic club truck treatment over the last month. Usual stuff, 2" suspension, 2" body lift, 285/75/16 BFG MT's, PRS (uhf) radio, breather lines to diffs and transfer case, newly fabbed side step/rocksliders, and just finished a 3" steel snorkel and auto sump bash plate.

Hi,

your rig looks great ... I was just wondering what is your experience with 2" suspension lift AND 2" body lift ..... I have a 2" suspension lift and would like to add that extra lift on the car .... have you modified your cv's, sway bars, etc or not? Have your experienced any problems/damages?

Thanks

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

Re: New to Pradopoint.

nice ride mate.

[Rokhound Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Rokhound]

Re: New to Pradopoint.

Hi,

your rig looks great ... I was just wondering what is your experience with 2" suspension lift AND 2" body lift ..... I have a 2" suspension lift and would like to add that extra lift on the car .... have you modified your cv's, sway bars, etc or not? Have your experienced any problems/damages?

Thanks

Hey Fella,

If you already have a 2" suspension lift, then a 2" body lift will not affect the drive train in any way at all. Cv's, sway bars etc are all mounted to the chassis and don't alter when you lift the body. What you do need to do though is alter the radiator shroud height and bumpers/bars. You also need to make a 2" spacer block for the steering arm to rack.
I have come to the conclusion that without decent selectable traction aids, the 90 is not up to any serious work, and even then, I don't think they are the go with the standard transfer case. The centre diff is piss weak and seems to be a major weak point.
I still don't understand why there appears to be so many problems with the rear 8" diff, as this is the same unit I run in my 300hp rock crawler and have never had an issue with it. Maybe the Prado diffs were outsourced to another country, but I am not sure, and it is disappointing that this should be the case.

Still, if you are not a nutter who loves the loud pedal, the Prado can be a reasonably competent truck.

I know there are a lot of people here who may disagree with me on what I have written, and that's cool, but the above is my experience with my Prado, and I will not trust mine to be able to complete what I consider to be grade 3.5 and above trips, but as I said that is just my opinion.