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Most photos were taken by me.  I usually allow people to use my photos for personal use or websites.  Simply Email me.  
Last Update:  February 16, 2010
Welcome to my Expedition Land Cruiser Interior page.

This page is linked from our main Expedition Land Cruiser Page, which is all about our new to us, 1995 Toyota Land Cruiser
FZJ80 and our modifications to make it a capable vehicle for our local expeditions, travels and trips.

The page covers all of our interior and cargo area modifications.   For other sections, see the below links.

Our Expedition Land Cruiser Action photos page.
Our Expedition Land Cruiser Exterior page.
Our Expedition Land Cruiser Engine page.
Our Expedition Land Cruiser Spares & Gear page.
Our article regarding how and why we bought a Land Cruiser.
INTERIOR
The interior of our Land Cruiser is highly modified with the intention of increasing storage, increasing utility and increasing the
navigational and communication capabilities.

The Land Cruiser was built to be an 7-8 passenger vehicle.   This included three rows of seats, with the rear most seats folding
up and out of the way for normal use and cargo storage.    I removed these 3rd row seats completely, as they would serve us no
purpose and take up too much room.  In addition, one 2nd row seat was removed to allow for extra, more efficient storage of
gear.    Today, the Land Cruiser seats 3 people.  1 driver and 2 passengers.    The other seats can be installed if ever needed,
as all modifications are reversible, but the 3rd row seats will very unlikely to ever be used again.

Rear storage modifications include an African Outback drawer system and custom cargo barrier.   Where the 2nd row left seat
used to exist, I installed our Engel refrigerator.  A storage bin can also be used to store other items that we would like to quickly
access by simply opening the rear left passenger door.

The front interior has numerous navigation and communication modifications.    The most noticeable is the center console, which
I custom built to completely replace the stock console.  The center console houses the laptop mount, rechargeable flashlight,
Ham and CB radios and switches for the duel battery, engine fan and auxiliary lights.

I was surprised to find that even with the massive size of the Land Cruiser and my removed of 3 of its seats, I still didn't have
enough room for all of our gear on an extended trip, so creative ways of storing gear were needed.  This involved numerous
interior configurations.   The below photos show both past and current configurations for the interior.
Communication, Navigation and other front Cab Accessories
Rear Cargo Storage Modifications
The center console is a modular design that was put together using parts that I had lying around the garage.    Rather than design and build from
scratch, I sort of made it as I went along, hence its unusual design.  But despite it's strange appearance, it works perfectly.    The stock console was
removed and in its place using the factory bolts this console was installed.

A flat piece of aluminum comprises the base, which several X braces are bolted to make up the frame.  The frame is designed to be extremely sturdy
and stable because a laptop mount is bolted to it and with the leverage of the laptop arm, it needs a strong mount.     Bolted to the front of the frame
is a custom switch box.  

The switch box houses two DC power plugs, a volt meter for my auxiliary battery and switches on top that control the duel battery system and a
master switch for the interior accessories that run off of the auxiliary battery.    The switches on the side control the auxiliary engine fan, rear flashing
warning lights, and auxiliary rear back up lights.

in the middle of the console are housed two radios.  The first is an ICOM IC-V8000 75 watt 2 meter Ham radio.   The 2nd is a CB radio.   Next to the
radio on the passenger side is housed a rechargeable mag light.    Behind the mag light is a single plug AC inverter.

On the rear of the console is a DC power plug box that houses 3 additional plugs with a drink holder bolted to the top of that.

Not shown in these photos is an additional switch panel that was added to control the amber strobe lights and other exterior lights.   That switch
panel can be seen in the first twos pictures of this section.
Prior configuration with the laptop mounted up front.  This set up had it's advantages and disadvantages.
In the rear, one of the rear seats was removed for additional storage.   This still allows us to carry a 3rd passenger and if required, the seat can still
be bolted back in, in a matter of a few minutes to carry a 4th passenger.

In place of the seat, we mounted an Engel refrigerator and a storage basket, which can house a number of different things, including a plastic bin,
like you see here or our emergency Honda generator.    The floor behind the driver's seat also has ample room for additional storage.   

The mini-barrier is a custom set up that is temporary in nature, designed to replace the barrier on the driver's side that was removed when the
passenger seat was removed.   Eventually, this barrier may be replaced with an African Outback half-barrier when one can be sourced, however, I'm
pretty satisfied with the current configuration.

Not shown in these pictures is the box bolted to the middle rear passenger seat area, containing the laptop computer, which feeds the front
touchscreen monitor.
LED interior lights
After reading the rave reviews on www.ih8mud.com about the custom interior lights from www.taskleds.com I decided I had to give it a try.  And I was
seriously impressed.    They are not cheap, but are extremely well built and are specifically designed for the 80 series dome and map lights.    The
advantages of LEDs are a much whiter and more natural light, virtually no heat, but most importantly, they use very little current.  The lights can be left
on for days at a time, with little affect on the battery.   The map light is particularly bright and nice using two high power LEDs, although its actually too
bright when used while driving.

In addition to the taskleds, the door lights were replaced with LEDs sourced from www.superbrightleds.com.    These provide the same advantages.  
 Now all interior lights are LEDs, which means little chance of ever running the battery down and much brighter and better lights.

The above photos show the Taskled map light.    I later rigged a rotary switch which turns the light on/off and controls its brightness.  (see above)
These photos show Taskled's dome lights.    The photo at the far left shows the Taskled light installed in the foreground and the stock incandescent
light installed in the background for comparison.
The door lights were replaced using superbrightleds.  These use a fraction of the power of the stock incandescent light, but put out a much brighter  
and cleaner light.
For the rear, a 1 watt LED was RTV'd to the rear hatch glass facing down when the hatch is open.  This lights up the tailgate when its down and
inside the drawer when opened.  The tailgate is used as a table when camping, so this light comes in handy.    Accent LEDs were also placed
inside the drawers and on the left hand side storage pocket.     Normally, the LEDs come on automaticly when the hatch is lifted along with the rear
stock dome light, but a switch was installed, which can turn these lights off, while leaving the rear hatch open.
Power outlets
You can never have enough power outlets.  The interior has a total of  10 DC and 2 AC power outlets.

In the front cab is located 1 stock DC outlet and 2 additional outlets.   In the middle compartment is located 3 DC outlets and 1 AC outlet on the floor,
plus 3 more near the cooler.    In the cargo compartment, 2 DC outlets exist.   A second AC inverter is stored as a back up, allowing for another AC
outlet.
Another photo showing the white LED door lights, as well as the rear LED license plate lights and LED tail lights.
Rear passenger compartment
Rear window covers
Being able to dark out the rear of the vehicle serves a number of purposes.  First, in the hot weather it keeps interior temps lower.   But it also keeps
prying eyes from easily seeing what's inside and giving undue motivation to break in.   Most people tint their windows, but this is expensive and
somewhat permanent.   Toyota has some tint in the rear windows, but not enough.    My solution was these very cheap black mesh covers.  They are
attached by suction cups and easily removable.   The mesh allows them to be seen through from the inside to the outside, but gives the appearance
of tinted windows from the outside.   While they do not cover the entire window, when in combination of the stock tint, they make it very difficult to see
inside.

These were later replaced with stick on tinting with mix results.    The cling style tinting material would not work on a window that needs to be rolled
down but the rear windows rarely are rolled down, so that was not a problem.   The new tinting is limo dark so it truly tints the rear windows to almost
black, which makes seeing inside impossible and significantly reduces heat build up.  However, air bubbles are hard to get out of the tinting and are
noticable from the outside.  It doesn't look perfect, but it does the job as a temporary and cheap means of blocking the rear windows.
The left dash switch panels.

On the main left panel, the top left rotary switch controls the LED map light (see below for more info on this light).  This switch controls the light on/off
and dim setting.

The two aftermarket switches below the map light dimmer control the front fog/off road lights.  The left switch is a 3 position switch and controls the
fog lights.   The up position allows the fog lights to be turned on and off via a button switch mounted on the shifter (see right photo).  This allows the
light to be turned off quickly so as not to blind on coming traffic as the fog lights are very bright.   The middle position is off.  The lower position turns
the fog lights on manually.

The switch to the right controls the off road lights.   The upper position allows the off road lights to be turned on/off along with the high beams and the
high beam switch.   The middle position is off.  The lower position turns the off road lights on manually.

The dial switch to the right is a factory front/rear locker switch.   However, my LC didn't come with lockers.   This switch instead is rigged to power the
front and rear ARB lockers.

In my set up, position one turns on the ARB compressor and rear locker at the same time.   Position two turns on the front ARB air locker.
I rigged up several LED lights around the center console.  These lights can be turned on by a switch and allow me to see the lower console,
switches and storage area, without affecting my night vision while driving at night.
The scangauge is one of the neatest products I've ever purchased.  This little scanner reads off of the OBDII part of the computer and only works on
1996 and later models (and some 1995 Land Cruisers like mine).  It plugs into the OBDII port and can read and display numerous information, not
the least of which is exact water temperature, exact air intake temps, fuel economy, horsepower, exact voltage, rpms, speed and much more.   It
displays four parameters at a time.   

I typically have it always displaying water temperature, exact voltage, air intake temperature and fuel economy.   But this can vary.
A new outside temperature gauge was installed.  This comes in most handy during the winter months to determine if the outside is below freezing or
not, but is also useful during the extreme hot summer months.   The gauge is mounted high and out of the way.   It features and hi and low temp
recall ability and can be turned off, if driving at night at the gauge is too bright or annoying.  I have it wired into the stock map light switch.  The map
light, which now has LEDs is wired to a new switch on the dash with a dial switch to control brightness.

On the right is a VDO transmission gauge that measures the tranny fluid in the sump pan.
Rear storage configuration is a constant evolving process.  The one constant is the African Outback drawer system.   How it's laid out, does change
from time to time.   This currently how the drawers contents are set up.    The drawer, which is lockable contains mostly high value items, such as
CO2 bottle, shop manuals, numerous tools, some spares and various electronics.

The upper deck is currently configured to hold four 2.5 gallon jerry cans of spare fuel (a 4th can is stored in the corner next to the drawer system) and
can store numerous boxes.   The view here shows the configuration used for camping, where a bed is set up on one side and storage boxes and
sleeping gear are stored on the other.  Normally, the bed and sleeping gear not carried in the rig, when not needed.   Storage boxes are carried as
needed.
A rear view camera system from Audiovox was installed.  This set up uses a new rear view mirror with a build in LCD screen.
Rear water storage
To store and dispense water, I came up with a simple system using a suspended Koplin water tank.    The plastic water tank is made for ATVs and
carries about 3 gallons of water.   I built a bracket to hold the tank securely in place, but is easily removable to refill to just remove from the vehicle.

Being slightly tilted, water concentrates at the forward low end where I installed a hose connected to a copper pipe system that flows water to the
rear of the vehicle.  Running off of gravity, the system is as simple as can be.  A pipe is added to extend the water spicket beyond the tailgate and a
simple hand valve controls flow.    I've used this system while camping with great success and it's highly convienent.   I generally only use this water
for washing and not drinking.  For drinking I carry bottled water.   On long trips, the water tank is generally refilled or topped off at camp grounds or
gas stations when possible.
The heart of the navigation system is a laptop computer/gps/mapping system.   Having a laptop computer allows us to use the best maps available
for historical research purposes, which are USGS maps.  I use TOPO software to obtain USGS maps.   When the laptop is hooked up to a GPS, it
can provide real time navigation.    My original set up (see below) was having the laptop itself mounted up front in the cab.   I later moved the laptop
computer (a Thinkpad X31) to the middle rear compartment where it was stored in a lockable container bolted to the floor.   The laptop then powers a
smaller touchscreen monitor up front.  

Advantages of this system are that the expensive laptop is always secure and only the relatively cheaper monitor is exposed to easy theft.  The
smaller touchscreen monitor is lighter than the laptop, takes up less room and is far less imposing up front and doesn't block things like the stereo
and heater control panel.   Disadvantages are that the monitor is actually a bit small and makes navigating on the go harder.   The light output of the
screen makes it extremely difficult to read in almost all but shade and night conditions.  And to turn on the computer, one has to access the laptop
directly.  It can't be turned on from the monitor, although it can be turned off from the monitor.  A GPS mounted near the lap and with an external
antenna mounted on the roof rack supplies GPS coordinates to the laptop and TOPO software.
The front interior has been modified with numerous communication and navigation systems as well as switch panes to control everything from
various lights to the duel battery system.
The heart of the navigation system is a permanantly installed computer/gps/mapping system.   It's an Asus Eee Box B202.  Specs on this computer
is Intel Atom N270 1.6 Gig processor, 1 GB of DDR2-533 SO-DIMM, 80 gig hard drive.   Monitor is a Xenarc 800TSV.  Keyboard is a Fentek
mini-keyboard, with included optical mouse.