Apart from a few issues here and there the car is literally bulletproof. I can now keep up with our offroad-spec Gypsys and Jeeps.
BHPian abhayshanu recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Prelude
It all started in 2016 when I was in Manali for a vacation. My Qualis got stuck in the side of the road unable to get out for a couple of hours. A 4×4 in that situation would have meant me being stuck for a couple of seconds.
After I returned back home, I planned and plotted as to what should I replace my Qualis with. The planning and plotting continued for a year when I got a chance to pick up a Mobilio for a very good price. It had 7 seats, a capable diesel engine which gave class-leading mileage. It was too good a deal to miss out. So I convinced myself I didn’t NEED a 4×4 for touring and I already had a 4×4 for my offroading adventures. So went ahead and got it.
Fast forward to 2019, a good 2 years of ownership with 30k+ km on the Mobilio decided to take another trip to the North. Deja Vu and stuck in a similar situation, but this time I was carrying my recovery gear. Attached is the shackle, connected my tow belt, found a willing tower and we were out in a few minutes, much quicker than earlier but definitely much slower than just switching into 4×4.
After returning home I had all but dropped the idea of having a 4×4 tourer, was happy with how things were.
Towards the end of the year, I had 4 cars and 4 bikes while I was the only one who drove them all. 1 car was sold but the new owner hadn’t picked it up by then. I was told to reduce my total vehicles to 4 or park them outside the building compound.
Out of my 8 vehicles, I only daily drove 2, my scooter when I was alone and my Mobilio when I had to go with family. My Polo GT TSi was replacing my Octavia and was going to be primarily the next daily driver and Mobilio was going to be relegated to just touring. My Gypsy was only for the monsoons and offroading excursions. Onto my 2 wheelers. Apart from my access, all 3 we’re parked for a long time. My KTM 390 was parked since 2017 after getting prepped as a track bike. My RX was parked since 2017 just turning it on and taking it for small spins in and around the colony. My Pulsar 220 was parked since 2012 after I seized its engine and rebuilt it. So effectively I was paying for parking of 8 vehicles and using space for them but driving only 2. So I decided it was time to cut down.
I put up my Mobilio and gypsy for sale and waited. A nice lockdown 1.0 later and successfully sold 3 of my cars, the Octavia had been collected by the next owner in December 2020. Sold the Mobilio in June 2020, the polo which was supposed to be the daily driver and replacement for the Octavia was also sold for a bigger and faster car by July. End of august I had given up the RX and my KTM had changed its parking location. Luckily for me, the next owner of my polo hadn’t collected the car so I didn’t have to drive my Gypsy on a daily basis. End of July I went and picked up my daily driver – Superb. By mid-August, I sold my Gypsy which was the last piece of the puzzle.
Now I had 1 scooter, 1 car for daily driving and 2 parked bikes. The bike would go soon, but next was the tourer and offroad car. Which had to replace the Mobilio and Gypsy. Meaning it had to seat 6 comfortably while going over ANY terrain.
Interlude
After a lot of contemplating and deliberating finalized an old Fortuner. I wanted a white or black Fortuner which had under 1L km, Toyota maintained, single owner, being sold by the owner for lower than market value. From August 2020 till Nov 2020, I had just 1 car which I drove everywhere while I waited for a good deal. Then at the end of November, found almost everything I was looking for. The only tick it didn’t have as it was just over 1L km. 104726 to be exact.
Come June 2021, the Fortuner had proved itself a very capable tourer, by clocking a decent 5-6k km or so. It comfortably sat 7, had boot space even with the last row reclined. Milage too wasn’t that bad, 8-10 in the city and 10-12 on highways. It was almost half of my Mobilio but then it had double the cubic capacity too. Now it was monsoon, meaning this car’s first offroading season. Ordered 33″ MT tyres and a suspension lift kit from Dr Nano. Suspension. The suspension took a week to come in and I went for a Sunday offroading with a bone stock car, to know where I would be starting from. It wasn’t half bad. Didn’t do anything too serious and wasn’t much wet so didn’t get stuck much.
The following week the suspension came in and was installed the very next day. Mid-June 2021 was its first wet offroad excursion. Side steps were removed and the car was 2.5″ and 2″ raise from the front and rear respectively. Still, after all this, the front bumper scrapped everywhere, the car beached and got stuck nearly everywhere mucky. Needed to be winched out almost everywhere by much lighter vehicles who then had to anchor themselves on rocks and trees.
So then I decided I needed a winch compatible bumper and a winch to fit in it. Ordered a winch and got in touch with Bat4wd to build the bumper. The next Saturday evening picked up my MT tyres and wheels. Went to a local tyre guy as all good tyre shops were closed by the time I got the wheels and tyres together. Took some 2 hours to fit the tyres onto the wheels and then remove stock tyres and wheels and replace these. The front inner fenders were touching in full lock. The same went for wheel arches. So at around 12 am in the night, sat to remove both the wheels arches and the inner fenders. The next day the car performed much better. The car did get stuck in a couple of places, and it was because of lack of traction, but it wasn’t the tyres fault, it was because of the differentials. Whenever the wheels would open fully, 2 wheels would have no traction so they would just spin and I wouldn’t go anywhere. I would need to sometimes go into 2nd gear and launch myself and just power myself out.
It took the whole of July to use the car more offroad, break stuff and make better protection for it.
By the end of August, I was planning a Leh Ladakh trip and I had already fitted metal front and rear bumpers. Upgraded engine guards. Installed rock sliders and the winch had already helped me and my friends a lot.
There was only 1 point I was getting stuck at, no diff locks. I had decent travel, the compressed wheel didn’t have any more space to compress so the extended wheel wouldn’t touch the ground enough. The exact situation a rear locker should help in.
So talked to Lambda and they agreed to make their first manually locking rear differential for the Fortuner. Bought and sent a full diff tube and they got onto work. My trip and their working worked pretty well and by mid-October, the locker was all but ready. Actuation was something we took some time to figure out as I would prefer a button rather than a lever but didn’t want to spend on an air system. After a lot of research, settled for a lever system for now which will be electrified when I can find a powerful enough actuator/motor.
Postlude
This brings me up to today. Used the car for over a year. Clocked 20k+ km. Apart from a few issues here and there the car is literally bulletproof. I can now keep up with our offroad spec Gypsys and Jeeps. Sometimes I can go directly, sometimes I need to winch myself up, but I can go over ANY terrain while seating 6.
2 more random photos from our trip to Leh Ladakh
Keyword: Modifying my Toyota Fortuner 4x4: Suspension lift kit & more