Introducing My New PNW Adventure Vehicle
After retiring my 80-series Toyota Land Cruiser and Jeep JLU Wrangler, I’m introducing my new vehicle for my Pacific Northwest adventures.
Daily Goal: To Drive from Babyshoe Pass (on FS-23 near Mt. Adams) to Cle Elum, Washington (I-90) via Bethel Ridge and Manastash Ridge.
When I purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, I knew there issues with the power windows. Except for the drivers door, all the windows rolled up and down, not perfect but they worked. Then one rainey day last Fall, I rolled down the rear door window and pop, the window would not roll up any more. Luckily, I wasn’t too far from home.
My goal was to have have a place for my dog to ride as well as having quick access to tools and equipment without unpacking everything I had strapped down. I also needed a place to house an auxiliary battery since its not an easy task to locate a spare battery under the hood of an FJ80 powered by the 3FE engine.
Today was going to be a very long day. Not only would I be attempting to reach my destination in Packwood, I would also have to include the drive from my home in the middle of Washington state to the southern border near Oregon to start the tour of the Washington Cascade Mountains. My goal was to complete the drive from the Oregon border to the British Columbia in four days.
When I purchased my 1992 Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, the previous owner informed me that the four-wheel-drive system did not work. I knew the transfer case was a rebuilt unit so I figured it would be something simple such as a switch or a relay. Little did I know that I would spend hours trying…
Having recently witnessing first hand what a deer can do to a full size vehicle at highway speeds and considering the locations I travel to and from, I decided it was time to add a little protection to the front of my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser.