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LOADED 007: FJ CRUISER
Sav’s FJ glided up. Honestly, we
could have both been drinking
a double shot espresso and not
spilt a drop, and for the life of me
I can’t work out why we weren’t;
just another lost opportunity
along the road of life.
The secret to this smooth
riding FJ is, of course, its
suspension, and it took Sav some
time to get it dialled to his liking.
The big-ticket mod is a full set
of custom Kings off-road racing
remote reservoir shocks. Sav
originally bought the King’s gear
off-the-shelf, but he packed it all
in a suitcase (seriously) and flew
up to Queensland to have Brad
from King Shocks rebuild them
to suit his specific requirements.
In addition to the Kings gear, Sav
has fitted a Superpro diff spacer
kit that lowers the front diff
30mm, enough to keep the CVs
playing nicely, which combined
with some adjustable upper
control arms, makes a 4” lift with
85mm of down travel possible.
The rear axle has been hooked
up to a set of King’s shocks
sporting 738mm open lengths
and 512mm compressed lengths.
Working in combination with a
set of Icon ‘Slinky’ long travel
springs, 50mm longer sway bar
extensions, offset control arms
and an adjustable Panhard rod,
the FJs rump has maintained
stock up-travel and gained 75mm
of addition down-travel.
“Forget farting on
the couch; this
FJ is as close as it
gets to riding on a
cushion of air.”
Sav’s currently running 35”
Mickey Thompson tyres on a set
of 17X8.5” Walker Evans racing
wheels that he’s imported from
the USA, and he’s had both diffs
rebuilt and re-geared to suit the
larger diameter wheels.
A 127-litre long range tank
has been fitted, in addition to
the factory 72-litre tank, bringing
total fuel capacity up to around
200-litres.
Up front there’s an ARB
Deluxe bullbar in silver, that’s
fitted with a Warn XD9000
electric winch and synthetic
rope. Sav says the silver bullbar
is a ‘classic FJ thing’, much like
the white roof. It hasn’t stopped
him contemplating hitting the
Above: That’d be the ‘recovery
gear’ drawer, not the ‘pantry’
drawer. Left: 4.0 petrol V6
Below: The FJ loves lifting
wheels but that doesn’t stop it.