William's 150 GXL D4D

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

How's the bar treating the vehicle when you brake? do you feel a bit of nose diving? Any noticeable changes to the driving patern?

With the firmer suspension, the car does not dive forward upon braking - not that I notice anyway. Driving feels a lot sturdier (maybe it's just a mental thing) and as I said the front end feels heavier and you can feel it when you make turns (not that noticable though). All in all, the driving experience is far different from before the lift and bar.

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

So I took the car to get serviced today and got them to do:
- The 1,000km service
- Window mod
- Mudflap fix


Apologies for the poor quality, it was taken with a phone behind a somewhat dirty window.

Most of it went well. The window mod was successful, and for those who are curious, here is a video of how it works:
Prado GXL Remote Control Window Operation

As for the mudflap fix. They couldn't do anything about it and filed a Dealer Product Report. I asked when I would hear back, only to be told "how long is a piece of string?". Not the answer I was hoping for, but what could I expect? I'll be bringing it up with my dealer later, and see what he can do about it.

Update 2: I've opted to go for the larger compressor with the Airlocker fit-out this Wednesday. More pics to come soon...

[mudeye Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mudeye]

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Hey William

Many thanks for the photos of the bullbar setup on your rig, much appreciated before I go in. Gives you a little more confidence going in to having your pride and joy cut up.

Cheers

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Hey William

Many thanks for the photos of the bullbar setup on your rig, much appreciated before I go in. Gives you a little more confidence going in to having your pride and joy cut up.

Cheers

No problems mate, anytime. Where are you getting yours done?

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Hey William

Many thanks for the photos of the bullbar setup on your rig, much appreciated before I go in. Gives you a little more confidence going in to having your pride and joy cut up.

Cheers

Hi mudeye, here's even more confidence for you.... When dropping the car off today at the workshop I asked whether they could widen the gap between the bullbar and the bumper (on the sides) as I was concerned that the vibration in the bar may scratch up the paint to bare metal, like I have seen in other threads on PPoint. The reply I got was:
1. ARB supply a "template" which the mechanics use to cut the bumper
2. Any rework will have to be cut by eye and could look weird and uneven. Apparently they've had people come in from failed DIY bar installations that went so wrong that they either had to order a new bumper or had to leave it with a huge gap - which would be a shame for something you forked out $2k+ for.
3. Since there is no damage, any labour costs cannot be claimed under warranty and will have to be paid out of my own pocket. Fair enough, they are a business and I can see that it's not a quick and simple job to remove the bar and cut off some excess plastic.

So I've yet to ask about the warranty on the bar, but I'm expecting it to be at least a minimum standard of 12months. This should give me plenty of time to take it out bush and see if there's enough vibration on the bar to cause the damage. When driving on the bitumen, I don't actually notice any vibration. Whereas when driving my friend's 150 with the toyota genuine bar in the same conditions, I can clearly see it vibrate up and down.

[mudeye Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mudeye]

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Hey William

Many thanks for the photos of the bullbar setup on your rig, much appreciated before I go in. Gives you a little more confidence going in to having your pride and joy cut up.

Cheers

No problems mate, anytime. Where are you getting yours done?

Getting mine done through ARB in Thomastown as its in the area and my brother had work done there and was happy. All booked in and ready to go on the 14th, Winch Bar, Tow Bar and Snorkel. Will see how the stock suspension holds up under the weight before making a decision on upgrading. Need to get tyres but cant justify it at this point given you get bugger all for the stockies and would need to run it past the FC.

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Getting mine done through ARB in Thomastown as its in the area and my brother had work done there and was happy. All booked in and ready to go on the 14th, Winch Bar, Tow Bar and Snorkel. Will see how the stock suspension holds up under the weight before making a decision on upgrading. Need to get tyres but cant justify it at this point given you get bugger all for the stockies and would need to run it past the FC.

Without the suspension upgrade you'll notice the front end dip and bounce more when you brake. I drove my brother's Jeep when he had the bar on both before and after OME upgrade. It made a huge difference.

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Got the Prado back from the workshop today for the airlocker and compressor fitout. Took some of the advice given and opted for the larger compressor for airlocker activation as well as tyre inflation. Some of you wanted photos of the compressor fitted in the 150D4D so here they are:







The magic switches. Apparently the ARB switches are bigger than the stock ports provided so they had to make the hole a little bigger, which worked out very well!


It came with a hose and some fittings and I bought an ARB inflator with gauge to go with it

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

looking very tidy there. also, go to bunnings and get a pack of 4 chair leg rubber bung/stoppers. get the 22mm ones, and it will fit on the hose outlet very neatly keeping mud and stuff out. (i think i have a pic of it in my build up) if you lose it, you have aother 3!

and make sure you clean out all the steel swarf from where the holes were drilled.

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Hi 8608,
Thank you for your valuable tips. I was actually concerned that the hose port was so exposed and was in the thought process of getting something to cover it. Your idea sounds perfect!

Cheers

[woody50 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close woody50]

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Hi William

Been following your Rig Build up with great interest - great job -
Just ordered 150 GXL D4D Glacier White - ETA end Jan 2011. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Just done first posts today - Couldn't call myself a prado owner till this week.
Will continue follow your Rig build up to the finish.

Cheers
Woody

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Hi William

Been following your Rig Build up with great interest - great job -
Just ordered 150 GXL D4D Glacier White - ETA end Jan 2011. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Just done first posts today - Couldn't call myself a prado owner till this week.
Will continue follow your Rig build up to the finish.

Cheers
Woody

Thanks mate. Congrats on ordering the new car - exact same as mine! haha :lol: You won't regret it I haven't! I'll be pretty busy for the next couple of months so I don't plan on getting much else done aside from installing the tow bar which is collecting dust in the garage.

Cheers

[Melbo Member Find all posts View Profile Close Melbo]

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Will continue follow your Rig build up to the finish.

The more you are on pradopoint forums, there is no end. There will always be an interesting mod available for the cycle to continue :lol:

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

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

Will continue follow your Rig build up to the finish.

The more you are on pradopoint forums, there is no end. There will always be an interesting mod available for the cycle to continue :lol:

Melbo is so right! There is no end, but like any hobby the limiting factors are time, money and desires. We'll see which runs out first

[dug75 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close dug75]

Re: William's 150 GXL D4D

hi william i was wondering how you went about activating your automatic window feature on your new prado i myself have just purchased a new gxl and spoke to toyota here and they dont know anything about the automatic window feature i would appreciate it if you could help me out
thanks doug