Thread: Just how much better is a Landy than a Toyota Troopy?

Originally Posted by roadkill

I know its a contentious issue but where are Landys stronger mechanically?

other older models of the same time frame are interesting as they both have competed for military contracts for many years

What other features does a landrover have against the Landcruiers troop carriers?

i think they are pretty much the only two fourbys that could even be considsered in the same league

.....this should be interesting

OK
my twopence worth:

Defender: Constant 4wd with CDL and coil springs alround
Troopie: Lock the front hubs and leaf springs on the rear.

landcruiser rear leaf springs???

when the 110 was introduced into the army the troopie had front leafs as well,

no competition

i'm not sure that land rover are stronger, i think the 110 is ahead of the troopis because of there off road ability, aluminium body and as mentioned before constant 4wd with cdl

i had an 82 cruiser trayback and never broke or replace any of the driveline, i have certainly replaced bits and pieces of my 110 driveline

my 110 wiith open diffs gets a whole lot more place than my cruiser ever did

long live the defender

Now if lr could combine the ability of the defender with the quality engineering and reliability of the toyo troopy we would have a winner. They may be in the same market space but are worlds apart.

I have driven both quite a bit on and off road as we use Troopies in the SES.

First thing we do with our SES Troopies is have the rear springs replaced. Put a decent trailer on and a few people in the back and the standard springs have the front end pointing skyward. Only trouble is that unladen they now have a terrible ride.

Handling of the Troopie on the road is woeful, they define the word understeer, to the point of being dangerous in the hands of an inexperienced driver.

Seats are also woeful. I get backache just looking at them. Drivers footwell is cramped with nowhere to put your feet if they're not on the pedals.

1HZ is a good motor off road, particularly in low range, however it is gutless on the road, especially when towing. Any sort of hill will have you changing down. A hill which I tow a laden horse float up in the Defender in 4th gear at 70kmh will have the Troopie in 2nd gear and 30kmh with a similar load.

Have a look at the chassis on a Troopie, they are nowhere near as solid as the Defender.

Newer Tojos are starting to have drivetrain issues as Toyota are putting substandard components in, older ones are stronger.

Off road? Well I have always been surprised at just how far the Troopies will go. The main limiting factor is wheel travel, where a Defender will beat them every time, and of course TC helps as well. They are also top heavy, easy to roll if you're not careful.

For sheer interior space you can't beat a Troopie.

Overall I think they are a great vehicle, most of the negatives I have mentioned are minor, and if I wasn't a one eyed LR fanatic I would probably own one.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

Now if lr could combine the ability of the defender with the quality engineering and reliability of the toyo troopy we would have a winner. They may be in the same market space but are worlds apart.

Agree completely.

Defender has alum body, coil springs and good looks going for it. Not much else if you only listen to your head, listen to your heart and things might be different.

As to chassis size, yes Defender chassis is deeper, it has to be because the steel is a LOT thinner (and more prone to rust than a Toyota chassis)

My experience with Landcruisers is somewhat dated - I have not used them to any extent for nearly forty years - then their major advantage over the Landrover was power to weight ratio - they had no advantage in quality or engineering - semifloating rear axle, only a three speed gearbox, frequent electrical problems, broken wheel studs, collapsing seats, carburetter problems (no diesel available). The FJ45V station wagon that was my company car at the time had the worst ride of any vehicle I have ever travelled in - and in a working environment (Simpson Desert) the body just fell to pieces. And despite the fact that an FJ40 soft top with the windscreen down was capable of topping 100mph, the handling was truly appalling (and rapidly deteriorated in use due to the awful engineering of the steering linkage), even by the standards of Series Landrovers.

But what Toyota have done since then is to improve rapidly (at least until fairly recently) in response to user complaints, something Landrover have never really done except in the very early Series 1 days. By the time Landrover went to coils in 1983, they had lost almost the entire Australian market to Toyota's improved quality and better power weight ratio. Although the 110 has mostly been ahead of the Landcruiser on both on and offroad performance, it has made little inroads if any on the Landcruiser market, largely because Landrover have been unable or unwilling to put in the needed effort - Toyota has a vastly better dealer network, which they share with one of the best selling ranges of cars and trucks in the country. At least in theory, Landrover could now make use of the Ford network, but they show little interest in doing so. Although my local Landrover dealer is the Ford dealer, they know little about Landrovers, stock virtually no parts, and appear to care even less (and even when they do try to care they get no help from Landrover; I can get parts quicker, more accurately and cheaper (genuine) from non-franchised Landrover specialists) - you would not find a Toyota dealer with this attitude!
John

I had a company Crusier for 10 yrs (2 cruisers in that time)and on both of those we had to change the rear springs because when Toyota changed from the 75 to the 79 series(Ithink I got them right)The rear leafs where made longer and where nothing short of cheap crap.
Although I was carrying around 1ton in weight we had to becareful of gearboxes as well as they were prone to flogging out trying to pull the weight of the start.
The other thing we had to do was change the rims and tryes to wide ones to compansate for body roll with that kind of weight.

Compare all this to a bloke I saw up near Wiluna wa,had a defender ute with more weight and no modification to the Landy at all .Everything was standard and had it for just over six months with no problem at all.


p.s.When I asked the state manager to change to the Defender,I got a swift kick in the ass.Then found out he was getting a kick back from Toyota for buying 10 odd of them a year.

So in my personal experince the only good thing that Toyota has going for it is if you breakdown theres heaps of them around for spare parts

Originally Posted by Bully

p.s.When I asked the state manager to change to the Defender,I got a swift kick in the ass.Then found out he was getting a kick back from Toyota for buying 10 odd of them a year.

That's called corruption.

Ron