My New 2024 Land Cruiser

Y'all hiring by any chance? LOL....
@memario1214 walked away from all that..... and started his HotShot Offroad.....

 

They are hiring, upjobs.com. Different areas have different contracts, so pay can vary some, even within in the same company. Luckily here in Tucson, we used to be Southern Pacific. And we have great Western line contracts.

UP and BNSF pay the best. CSX, NS, CN, and KCS are the other class 1's (big railroads). However they pay less.

Colton was a manager. Those jobs suck, haha. Many, many guys go to a management spot, then come right back to their trainman seniority. That's if they started on the ground. If you first enter the railroad as a manager, you're screwed. You don't have seniority to go back to.

 

I believe that's why he left.....
Houston is UP and BNSF, I think.....

 

Ha!! Cool postings and nice light show to boot!!
I’M RICK JAMES :/?)@ !!!! Hilarious!!

looks like a nice ride

 

I’m interested in this just from a sheer learning pov

 

Colton?

I knew a BNSF Trainmaster by that name who left and went to Montana Rail Link. Might be the same guy. He used to drive a blue Toyota Tacoma if memory serves.

He was one of the decent ones.

You should PM him and ask him if he worked with a fat miserable hot dog inhaling cocksucker by the name of Jxxxx Stanley at Donkey Creek? Seriously fuck that guy. Edgemont, Gillette, and Sheridan crews hated him.

If it’s the same Colton I hope he’s doing well!

 

I know BNSF has operations in Houston.

 

Haha, he owns Hotshot Off-road now. @memario1214

Most of the good managers don't last long!

 

Yep that’s him.

He did what he could, he had to push a lot of stupid bullshit coming down from his bosses.

Not an enviable position to be in.

 

Yeah still out here. Your buddy Joe finally got the axe too. His constant state of cluelessness finally caught the attention of some higher ups.

Old Hot Dog Stanley man got sent to Murray Yard in KC to be a mechanical supervisor. I heard the diesel shop guys more or less kicked his dick in every day until he got canned. So there is some justice in the universe.

 

I don’t think Logan is around anymore. They have drastically reduced the number of front line supervisors in the entire Powder River Division. I would venture a guess none of your former Gillette/DC Trainmaster colleagues still remain.

You’ll be pleased to know that Scott is still around though, and he’s probably yelling at someone right now. I keep waiting for him to either get so mad he strokes out, or at least pop the dent out of his forehead.

 

OK, somewhat back on topic (feel free to go off topic Colton and Billy).

For those wondering what DIY maintenance might look like on the T24A-FTS it’s a mixed bag.

1.) Coil packs and spark plugs should be easy. Not much to say here just be ready with 6” worth of extensions plus a 3” long spark plug socket to get down into the cylinder heads.

You can also see the high pressure fuel rail feeding the direct injectors.



2.) Next I went searching for the port fuel injectors just to see how hard they are to get at if a guy needed to. To access them the intake manifold will for sure have to come off.



3.) All the hoses are pretty strait forward, the boost tubes to and from the air to air inter cooler are nothing super fancy, just rubber. If tuning for big power is a goal an aftermarket solution will be mandatory here.

 

Took a trip down to south Denver yesterday and back. About 700 miles total. Made for a long day. Heavily used the driver aid technology to fully give it a chance to prove itself.

1.) Lane keep assist is pretty good, not something I will use all the time but at times it can be pretty damn helpful. I know I’m beating a dead horse with this one but I’m genuinely surprised how functional this feature is.

2.) Adaptive cruise control is very nice in heavy, traffic takes a lot of workload off the driver. The automatic braking is a game changer in heavy traffic. If you want regular cruise control it’s easy to change cruise control modes.

3.) The distracted driver sensor is annoying as hell, I will be deactivating it.

4.) Seat comfort and driver ergonomics are great this is a very good all day comfortable vehicle at least up front.

The reason for my day trip down and back was to pick up these:



18” wheels off of a Land Cruiser First Edition. No TPMS sensors, so I will have to buy those. On the plus side no lame stock tires to get rid of. I paid $400 cash for the wheels and 24 spare lug nuts.

Now to select appropriate all terrain tires that are 3PMSF rated.

Side notes. I had a chance to use the cool box center console, the damn thing actually chills drinks. Not a feature that is going to be useful everyday, and it cuts down on internal capacity for crap and nic-nacks, but damned if it doesn’t cool down drinks.



I cruised at speeds from 70 MPH to 85 MPH, and the trip average is 21.4 MPG on the stock 20” wheels with Dunlop GrandTrek tires at 34PSI.

 

One other note the wheels I bought were easily accommodated by stacking the boxes two high side by side in the back, and placing the 5th box upright in front of them with room to spare and closing the hatch. Still ended up below to the top of the rear seat backs. They’re slightly larger than a carry on suitcase, so plenty of crap can be chucked in back for long trips with the family.

 

I have no use for this, but you're making me want one.

 

Update

We continue to be pleased with our purchase. Earlier I took a photo of the high beams at work, and per a request on the Land Cruiser forum took some images of the low beams with and without fog lights. It seems the rectangular triple beam LED headlights of the Land Cruiser trim outperform the round headlights of the 1958 and First Edition.

Here are the low beams by themselves:

Low beams with yellow fog lights:

Lastly we have the low beams with fog lights in white:


The throw of the fog lights is nice and wide. Light output on them is quite good.

 

I also installed a Diode Dynamics receiver hitch mounted running light and reverse light. Simple install, reasonably priced, and pretty effective.

In reverse displaying the back up camera now with a floodlight mounted in the hitch:



Rear view of the running light:



This is so easy and reasonably priced I’m going to buy another one for my old Tundra.

 

I think by summer if 2025 you and your Mrs will have a good opportunity to directly compare the new 4Runner and Land Cruiser side by side as inventory fills out on the ground.

Looking at the photos and spec sheets I think the LC was the better choice for us.

 

Congrats on the new rig, and love the color!

Our Lexus dealer shares the building with Toyota, so we went with the cousin for the wife’s new rig. Fixes every issue / gripe we had with her old 2020 4Runner Pro. Could not be more impressed with the rig (except for no roll down rear window, lol).

 

Sadly the nearest Lexus store is about 5 hours away so a GX550 is not a realistic option for us.

Is that Nori Green? Good looking rig.

 

Yup, Nori. Was a tough choice between it and Incognito.

And if I’m being honest, do have a couple minor gripes.

- Barely 300 mile fuel tank, as rig get 17mpg. Liveable, but would love more range,

- Not a lot of interior storage compartments up front. Found aftermarket storage deals that go between the seats and center console off Amazon that look pretty factory tho, and work great,

- Roof rack does make a decent bit of noise beginning at 45mph. Such is life with that style of rack tho. Looks cool, and stereo is great, so not a major issue,

- Took a bit to find all the Driver Assistance Monitoring Nannie’s, and get them all turned off.

Things I’m most impressed with:

- Motor / trans combo is butter smooth, and very powerful. Would trounce my Tundra, and infinitely superior driving experience.

- Torsen / OT Package with Toyo OC AT3 tires has been an absolute beast the last 6 weeks of ownership here in our winter conditions. Will not be needing studs.

- Love the KDSS suspension / 33” tire with 18” wheel combo. Rides extremely smooth, and meshes well with how quiet and refined the vehicle is as a whole.

 

You’ll have fun with the 4X4 system.

You can run around in low range with the center differential unlocked. It’s kind of wild.

I’m sticking a set of Michelin X-Ice Snow 265/70/R18’s on the set of 18” First Edition wheels I snagged for $400. Tires show up early next week. My OEM TPMS finally showed up so I’m all set. Should make it quite the snow tank if we get any significant snow accumulation this winter in the Black Hills, very mild weather so far.

 

The standard package GX starts at $85k CAD and, from the way the website is written, apparently doesn't come with tinted rear windows.

 

After looking at a 1958 edition tonight my wife is torn between one or a used 22-23 GX460, same price for either one. We are planning on keeping it long term so the 250’s drivetrain is worrisome.

 

I’m not that worried about the T24A-FTS it’s a refinement of the proven 8AR-FTS which is also a turbo I4. The hybrid system is also proven Toyota technology.

We also looked at a GX460 a few years ago, but it wasn’t the right vehicle at that time. Nothing bad to say about them though. For us a Lexus is a non starter due to being so far from a dealership.