70 Series Toyota Land Cruiser: Our Next Vehicle?

The results are in from our poll "What Should Be Our Next Vehicle?"  I forced you to answer one of four:

1. SportsMobile
2. Jeep JK Rubicon (4 door)
3. A Mid-Size truck w/ FlipPac
4. None - Think Greener (whatever that might mean)

SportsMobile in Baja Mexico - a rockin adventure parent vehicle
I watched the answers daily; the Jeep and SportsMobile went neck and neck serveral times, and ultimately the SportsMobile won with 41%.  Makes sense.  Sweet machine. Here's one on the right. In a nutshell: a 4WD converted Ford van (ideally with the 6.0 liter Power Stroke turbodiesel motor), with a host of cool stuff like a galley, fridge, freshwater system with heat, penthouse bed, custom bumpers, and that über cool unique mystique about it.

It's got huge appeal for me.  Brooke, for some reason, isn't as crazy about it as I am. We're not ready for the next adventure vehicle, but you've got to plan this stuff out.  A new decked-out SportsMobile is over $100,000. I've got my work cut out for me.

This weekend we got to peek around a couple of other choices.  Namely a Four Wheel Pop Up Camper "Eagle" model.  It's a slide-in camper with a lot of the same comforts found in a SportsMobile: fridge, comfortable bed, seating, quality galley with propane stove, freshwater, propane heat, etc. etc. etc. Add a truck, hit the road.

So check this out.  We're camped in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge this weekend - way the hell back there near Castle Dome.  I was lazing around in the afternoon wondering if it's okay to crack a beer yet, munching on a peanut butter and honey sandwich.  Then I heard the rumble of a diesel engine, and looked up to see Jan waving his hands in the air and dashing toward the road (which is more like a track through the desert).  Two 70 series Land Cruisers cut a standard plume of dust along the horizon.  What's not so standard is that 70 series Land Cruisers have never been commercially sold in the United States.  The 70 came about in 1984 as a replacement for the FJ40 when Toyota retired that jersey. A solid axle rugged workhorse so immortal that it's pointless to sell them in the U.S.  They're for the Third World.

You'll see HZJ70's doing laps around Africa with smiling Europeans at the wheel "on holiday" for a half-decade or so. As an example.

At our back country camp on the way to nowhere interesting to mainstream modern Americans, a pair of European imported 70 Series Cruisers with custom camper conversion just happened by.  Just a simple trio from the Netherlands had popped through the Kofa on thier on one-year tour of the U.S.A  and luckily passed right by our camp just as boredom was about to drive me to the bottle.

The 70 Series ain't much to look at.  Unless you know what you're looking at.  For those of you who know, you'll enjoy these pictures: