**The Toyota Land Cruiser: A Legacy of Reliability and Off-Road Dominance**

In the world of off-roading, few vehicles have earned a reputation as legendary as the Toyota Land Cruiser. For over 60 years, this rugged workhorse has been the go-to choice for those who demand maximum reliability and capability in the most challenging terrain.

**A Brief History of the Land Cruiser**

The Land Cruiser's journey began in 1957, when Toyota first introduced the J40 series, which was designed to be a versatile and reliable vehicle for both on- and off-road use. Since then, the Land Cruiser has undergone numerous updates and improvements, with each new generation building upon the strengths of its predecessors.

**Maximum Reliability: The Key to Success**

So, what sets the Land Cruiser apart from other vehicles? For Toyota, maximum reliability is the key to success. This mantra is reflected in the design and engineering of every component, from the engine to the frame. In fact, the 2UZ-FE V8 engine found in many Land Cruisers is renowned for its robustness and ability to withstand extreme temperatures.

**The Power of Oil Jets**

One of the most innovative features of the 2UZ engine is the use of oil jets to maintain a proper temperature. This ingenious design involves squirting oil upwards onto the piston head, cooling it down and preventing overheating. This clever solution ensures that the engine runs smoothly and efficiently, even in extreme conditions.

**Forged Internals: A Brilliant Successor**

When Toyota replaced the 2UZ with the 3UR-FE V8 engine, they made significant improvements to its design. The new engine features a forged-steel crankshaft, forged connecting rods, and aluminum alloy pistons coated with resin. These forged internals set the 3UR apart from its predecessor and ensure maximum reliability.

**A Strong Frame: The Foundation of the Land Cruiser**

The strength of the Land Cruiser's frame is another key factor in its success. For many years, Toyota used a steel ladder-type frame, which provided excellent rigidity and resistance to rust. In the J200 model, the frame was shortened by 20% and made even stronger with thicker, reinforced steel.

**Body-on-Frame Construction: The Secret to Flexibility**

The Land Cruiser's body-on-frame construction allows for flexibility on rough terrain while minimizing stress on the body of the vehicle. This design ensures that all driving stresses pass through the frame, rather than being absorbed by the entire body. As a result, the doors and hatches remain free from distortion, even in extreme off-road conditions.

**A Suspension System Designed with Both Worlds in Mind**

To achieve the best of both worlds on- and off-road, Toyota designed a suspension system that would provide excellent handling on pavement while maintaining articulation and clearance on rocks. The result is KDSS (Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System), which is specifically engineered to meet these demands.

**The Conclusion**

In conclusion, the Toyota Land Cruiser is an iconic vehicle with a rich history of reliability and off-road prowess. Its legendary status stems from its robust design, innovative features, and commitment to maximum performance in all conditions. Whether on pavement or rocks, the Land Cruiser remains the go-to choice for those who demand the very best.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Toyota has been killingthe SUV game for years.They got the 4Runner, theSequoia, the Prado, and at the topof the proverbial totempole, the Land Cruiser.The LC's been a globalfavorite since 1957,and let me tell you, I love these things.My mom used to have one and shewould drive me around in it.Here's a picture of us init, and it's a real picture.So I have a certain amount of nostalgiafor these off-road legends,and if anyone were totake that away from me,I don't know.(phone rings)Sorry about this, very unprofessional.Oh, hello?- Hey, Jeremiah.How you doing?- Mr. Toyoda, how are you?(Mr. Toyoda mumbling)It's Mr. Toyodafrom Toyota Motor Company.We're friends. (laughs)Yeah, sir, I'm actually in themiddle of filming an episode.Can I call you back?- No, no.(Mr. Toyoda mumbling)Okay, yeah,well, what do you wanna tell me?- Well, Ijust wanted to call youand let you know that,the Toyota Land Cruiser,we're gonna discontinue it.- You're discontinuing the Land Cruiser?- Yeah.- Hold on, hold on.No, no, no, no, no, no.You can't do that.- I gotta go.I got business I gotta-- No, no, no, don't do that.No, don't do that.(Jeremiah screams)After 60 years, Toyota isdiscontinuing the Land Cruiser,and while that sucks,it did get me thinkingabout why these trucks are so good.From sand to snow, mud to sea water,the LC has built up a reputationof being able to handlethe toughest of terrainthat Miss Mother Nature could throw at it.So today on B2B, we're gonna pay homageto the best SUV ever made.We're gonna look at why it's so goodand get the inside scoopon how Lexus might be front and centerof this legendary model'soff-roading future.(rubbing hands) Let's go.(smooth music)You can find a Land Cruiserin just about any part of the world.Whether it's the Sahara Desertor the middle of Siberia,there's at least one LC inevery country in the world.I fact-checked that, that's a fact.You don't need to look it up,but after 60 years, Toyota has decidedto discontinue one ofthe most esteemed namesin off-roading, but why?Why is Toyota discontinuingone of their longest runningand bestselling models?Well, last night, I flew to Plano, Texasand snuck into Toyota headquartersto get you guys the insidescoop, and let me tell you,it definitely involvesa sneaky little planfrom their rich younger brother, Lexus.(group gasps)(laughs) That guy isjust a hedge fund manager.(phone beeps)(man mumbling)(footsteps tapping)(tool clinks)(man thuds)(door creaks)(flashlight clicks)(dramatic music)But before you can understandLexus's role in this,you need to understand why theLand Cruiser was so admiredin the first place, and thatboils down to one single word,maximum reliability, anda major component you needfor reliability is your engine.The 2UZ-FE in the J100and J200 is a 4.7-liter V8,and it is so good that Toyota put itin many of their othervehicles like the Tundra,the 4Runner, the Sequoia,and the Lexus GX 470.I got one in my Lexus GX 470.The 2UZ, from the get-go,was engineered to last,and one of the mostimportant things you can doto make an engine last iskeep the temperature down.Toyota used lots of methodsto keep the engine cool,but one of the features they employed wasthe use of oil jets.Picture a piston in a cylinder.As that piston goes up anddown during combustion,it heats up and, inturn, heats the block upand the rest of the engine components.So to cool down the pistons,Toyota utilized something called oil jetsto maintain a proper temperature.It's a funny design, but atthe base of the cylinder isa little jet that, yeah, youguessed it, it squirts out oil.That jet shoots oil upwardsand hits the bottomside of the piston head,cooling it down.That oil then runs backdown to the cylinderand is cycled throughto be shot out again.So you've got suck,squeeze, bang, blow, squirt.We're gonna have to change up the song.Joe, can you get on that please?♪ Suck, squeeze, bang, blow ♪♪ Gas it up and off you go ♪♪ Squirt, squirt, squirt, squirt, squirt ♪♪ Everybody, squirt ♪- The 2UZ finally came to an end, though,and Toyota gave the J200what we have now, the 3UR-FE.This engine, it's a 5.7-liter V8,and it brought the Land Cruiserthe same Toyota reliabilitywith some added torquefor a little bit more fun.It features its ownforged-steel crankshaft,forged connecting rods,and aluminum alloy pistonswith a resin coating.The forged internals in the 3UR really setthis engine apart, interms of reliability,and it's a brilliant successor.If you really wanna learn whyforged internals are so great,check out this video here afteryou're done watching this,and while you're at it, hitthat Like and Subscribe button.That really helps us out,lets the algorithm knowthat we're doing a good job.Now, like all beautiful art,it starts with a good canvas,and all great cars startwith a good frame, as well.The Land Cruiser, it's no exception,going back to the J80 series Land Cruiser,which featured a steel ladder-type framethat was great for off-roadingand was reinforced inthe later J100 model,reportedly being 50%stronger and more rigid,using reinforced galvanized steel,which stiffened up the chassisand helped prevent things like rust.Toyota, at one point, had ahistory with rusty frames.I don't wanna throw them under the bus,but I had a truck that(laughs) had a rusty frame.Toyota switched it upwith the J200, though,and shortened the frameand made it 20% strongerwith thicker, reinforced steel.Now the important thingthat all these frames share,however, is that they're all assembledin a very similar way.Take the latest Land Cruiser, the J200,which flaunts a welded steel body shell,combined with a full-sizesteel-ladder frame.That's a mouthful, so let me explain.The J200 is a body-on-frame construction,which means the body sitson the frame of the car.Now this is different fromthe more common unibody frame,where the body and chassisare one cohesive piece.All the driving stresses passesthrough the entire vehicle on a unibody.With a body-on-frame construction,all the stress runs through the frame.The unibody is more rigidbecause the whole bodyabsorbs the flexing,but this becomes a problem whenyou take unibodies off-road.The whole car gets put under stress,including things likethe windows, the doors,and the hatches.With the entire body flexing,these doors and hatches become distorted,which sucks, because thenyou can't open or close them,so for extreme off-roading purposes,this frame has a little flex,which offers a goodamount of articulation,while putting zero stresson the body of the vehicle.Of course, the frame is doinga lot of work down there,so Toyota, they didn't spare any expenseand made the whole thing steel,and if that wasn't good enough,the body is fully steel, as well.Now body-on-frame vehiclesusually have higher centerof gravity, which offersgood clearance on the rocks,but it isn't so great forhandling on the pavement.So leave it to Toyota todesign a suspension systemthat gives drivers the best of both worldson and off the road.Enter in KDSS."So what is KDSS," you ask?Well, it stands for KineticDynamic Suspension System.Sounds pretty fancy, right?Well, yeah, it is, andit's one of the reasonsthat the J200 is such a powerhouse.In order to understand how the KDSS works,we need to understandwhat a sway bar's rolein a car is first andsee why that's important.See, when you turn or swerve a vehicle,the weight is being shiftedto one side of the car.The heavier the vehicle,the faster you're going,or the tighter the turn,that's gonna influencehow much weight is beingshifted to one side,so if you make a hard right,a lot of the weight is getting thrownto the left side of the car.This causes the outside,or in the case, left side,suspension to compress.The sway bar's job isto control the body rolland help minimize that.Since the sway bar is linkedto the wheels on both sides,it helps compress the suspensionon the wheels inside the turn,which prevents rolling during a turn.Stiff sway bars aregreat for the pavement,but when you're off-road, sway bars becomemore of a hindrance than they are a help.See, in off-road scenarios,tires need as much movement as possibleto gain as much traction as possible,but sway bars aretraditionally fixed to your carwithout any room for adjustability.Now this is where the KDSS comes in.The folks at Toyota decidedto replace one of those fixed pointswith a cylinder that has apiston in the center of it.These cylinders areconnected to each othervia two little hose linesthat run along the chassis.Each hose line has its ownindependent oil reservoir,so when one piston gets pushed up,the other one gets pushed down.The more compressed the cylinder is,the more stiff thatsway bar is going to be,and likewise, the lesscompressed a cylinder is.The less engaged the sway bar is,you got more room forthe tires to droop downand find something to grip.So how does KDSS functionduring turns on pavement?Well, let's say you're makinganother right-hand turnand all of your weight swings to the left.The left-hand side suspensionis going to compress,and the right-hand sidesuspension is going to expand.Since we have cylinders inboth the front and rear,both pistons will be sending each otheran equal amount of oil,canceling each other out.So this stabilizes both cylindersand allows our thicksway bars to do their joband keep the car straight on the road.Now for an off-road scenario,let's imagine your back tire loses gripbecause it's floating overa little divot in the dirt.Naturally, your front tiresare gonna wanna compressin order to carry that extra weight,and your front piston isgonna send that oil pressureto your rear piston,which is gonna push downand loosen that sway bar,allowing for more articulation,get you moving forward.Now getting that forward movement isa full-time four-wheel drive,powered by a front, center,and rear differential,so when you make a turn,each wheel has to travelat different speeds.You can see this in thetracks your car makeswhen you turn in mud or snow.The differential, it allowsdifferent amounts of powerto be delivered to each wheel,and generally, mostfour-wheel-drive cars havea front and rear differential.The central differentialis the icing on the cake,where it allows the front and rear axlesto turn at different speeds,while the front and rear wheels also getto turn at different speeds.The center diff is prettyessential to this car,since it is a full-time four-wheel drive,and it allows it to deliver powerto front and rear axlessmoothly on the pavement,all without damaging its own gears.This is just another great featurethat the Land Cruiser's versatility hasfor extreme off-road capabilityand being able to go getsome sweet groceries.They're the grocery-getter now, guys.That's just what they are.So now that we know whythe Land Cruiser's so good,I can let you in on a little,tiny secret I discoveredwhile I was in Plano, Texas.See, Lexus is planning tosteal the Land Cruiser.(exclaims)That's right, we all knowthat the Lexus LX 570 is,basically, a slightlymore hopped up versionof a Land Cruiser, and it'sonly a few thousand dollars morethan the Land Cruiser.So Toyota thought, "Hey, ifa buyer can spend $85,000,"they can probably spend $90,000."No one is hucking this thingthrough the desert anymore,unless you just got money to burn.They're dropping Susie offover at soccer practice."Bye, Susie, good job,hope you score a goal,"but if you don't, it'sokay, you have a trust fund."So yes, it is sad to see the nameplate go,but there's more to the story.Now I don't know exactly how,but someone at Lexus found outI was at Toyota headquarters.I carry around my birth certificate.Call me crazy, but yes, I know.You're all wondering, "Hisfirst name is (beep)?"Yeah, it is.It's amazing, isn't it?And they told me about asuper secret concept projectthat they thought couldbe a real successorto the Land Cruiser name,so they invited me out toJoshua Tree to check it out.This is the Lexus J201,Lexus's concept of aready-to-buy off-roader,built on the LX 570 platform.The J201 is supercharged,it makes 550 horsepower,and it's got some crazy upgrades,like aftermarket control arms,which help with off-roadarticulation and handling.You can drive this thingpretty much under water.It's like a submarine.It's got a front bumper,which looks fricking sick,and it's got a winchto pull out your dumbfriends when they get stuck.Now the J201, it's justa concept right now,but really, I think Iknow why they built it.As a Lexus guy, we're a bit enviousof all the TRD editions that Toyota get,and while us Lexus boys,we don't get anything.So this is Lexus dipping their toesinto the high-end off-road gameto compete with, I don'tknow, cars like the Defender,and what better way todo that than build a carthat could come from thefactory looking like this,but with a warranty.I don't know, we're inthe speculation zone.Lexus hasn't told us any ofthis, but I put money on itthat they're gonna build a car like thisthat you can buy from your dealership.And then the great thingis, 20 years from now,you and I can buy oneof these things used.Thank you guys so much forwatching this episode of B2B.Follow us here on Donut, @DonutMedia.Follow me on Instagram, @JeremiahBurton.Follow me on TikTok on SuckMyTruck.I just bought a new truck.Maybe I'm gonna do a build series on it.Until next week, bye for now.(smooth music)