New member from Victor Harbor SA

[lufkin]

Hi everyone

I'm new here, new to Toyota also. I've just stepped out of an old tired GU Patrol and a V8 statesman. I Never thought I would see the day of me being in a new car let alone a Toyota. But I’m not regretting it at all. Have only had the car 3 days now and absolutely loving it. The old patrol used 20-25L/100kms on a good day so weekend trips were far and few between. This thing just sips at the fuel. Can’t wait for the family adventures to begin.
I opted for a GX manual mainly for costs but at same time has more than enough features for me. Added extras like chrome bumper etc would have been wasted on me as plan on getting a bulbar soon.
The patrol and statesman are up for sale and then the modding begins
Future mod ideas at present are:
Bullbar
Towbar (going on this week)
Spotties
Winch
Dual battery
2” lift
Snorkel

Nothing too serious but I see great potential in this car.

Cheers
Josh

[Nick2000]

Congratulation on Your purchase. I have mine 3 weeks and i'm happy.

[Tuna]

Welcome,

I went from a GU Patrol to the GX Tuna too. Massive improvement in on-road handling and comfort and it performed really well the first time I took it off road too. Not quite the clearance of my 3" lifted patrol though and I was paranoid about scratching the mags

I'm loving mine.

[Jimmy]

Congratulations Josh, looking forward to seeing pics of the transformation with all the mods. I'm also new to toyota and am so excited to be picking up my brand spanka crusade next week. Enjoy your awesome ride !!

Jimmy

[Shaun]

Hi Josh and welcome to the Forum and I guess the Toyota family as well!

Glad you are enjoying the vehicle and hope it gets you where the patrol has taken you and more!.

Shaun

[lufkin]

so the fun has begun my brother inlaw/sister inlaw own their own auto electrics. Lastnight we ran a decent wire down to the rear for an anderson plug. This plug will be used for my compressor and also the winch on the boat. we then fed off of that to the rear cig socket for constant power for my engel

After that we mounted up a UHF he had laying around an iCom IC-440, so hid that under the seat and mounted mic up on dash. because i have no bullbar i didnt want a antenna flapping around on the guard so we decided to mount it up top. works a treat

[DaveC]

Thanks for posting this, always interested to see how people do things!
I get my GX on Friday, and running a heavy cable to the rear for a fridge will be my first mod.
Do you have any more details about the cable run?
Did they run it through the interior or exterior of the car?
Thanks,
Dave

[lufkin]

Thanks for posting this, always interested to see how people do things!
I get my GX on Friday, and running a heavy cable to the rear for a fridge will be my first mod.
Do you have any more details about the cable run?
Did they run it through the interior or exterior of the car?
Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave. They ran the cable through the interior. both myself and my brother inlaw were surprised. running the cable from front to rear probably took no longer than 10min. he said its like toyota want you to mod these cars. which i guess is evident with them adding in a fuse box for all your after market gear. I've ran cables myself through my old cars and yeh this was a piece of cake

[lufkin]

this is what was lined up in the workshop for the day Dave. so hes seen a few toyotas lol. it was his first fortuner to work on and he said give me a fortuner anyday

[DaveC]

cool, looks like a neat job.

I also did the wiring for my last vehicle (a Suzuki XL7) and it was fairly straightforward. I ended up doing a single cable run through the firewall, then added a little fuse box in the passengers foot well area to split things up (fridge, cb, extra 12v sockets). The fridge cable (positive only) then went up the passengers side tucked under the edge trim next to the doors openings etc. An existing negative (earth) was easily found in the rear. Sounds like the Fortuner will be similar?

Are you planning on installing a second battery? My zuke only had the one and I never flattened it and still got 48+ hrs of fridge time (engel 40L). I was careful though. Since there's a spot for it, I'll probably opt for a second battery in the fortuner though.

Dave

[DaveC]

Also, I'd never considered putting an antenna there, but it seems like a damn good spot reception wise...

[lufkin]

you'll be fine for the wiring then dave simple as and yeah we looked up batterys for it the other day. thats the route i'll be going down. it can also fit a full sized battery in there according to supplier

[lufkin]

Also, I'd never considered putting an antenna there, but it seems like a damn good spot reception wise...

yeah works a treat. because it clears the roof, there is no need for a larger antenna. gets plenty of range and screw on type. so i can remove if need be

[lufkin]

got the towbar fitted up friday and then took her out to stretch her legs for first time. must say I’m very impressed. absolutely love it. went every where my patrol used to go

[DaveC]

Looks like a nice spot! It should go alright in sand being a tad lighter than the big boys.

I picked mine up Friday (will post pics soon after I get the alloys fitted).
I got the tow bar as the only factory option, and they did a pretty rubbish job of it.
Left the trim loose all the way down the left-hand-side of the car, forgot to put the trim clips back in the bumper / mudflaps and didnt secure the wiring very well under the hood (or at the rear). They also buggered up the rubber wiring bung in the firewall by not sealing it up again! Pretty shoddy work, its a shame, the car is otherwise great.
Not sure why they needed to wire a new 12v from the accessory fusebox in the first place, there's no constant 12v in the 7-pin trailer socket.. Did they do that for yours?