@bigleonski this is my opinion on the matter - of which you will understand much of what I am going to say as I note that you have a lifted 200 series.
The LC200 is marketed in OZ as "The King of the Road" - however in its standard form, you have to ask "which road"
It standard form, it is King of the blacktop. When I got my first LC200, with the family in the car, the "truck" was dream to drive and effortlessly consumed the country kilometers.
If you are just interested in this kind of driving, then it was a great truck - and forget what anyone else says - this is what it is designed for, as this is what 95% of people use it for.
However - basically the truck is only 5% designed to cater for the other 5% of road conditions/uses, although it is marketed as being able to handle "anything". Obviously compromises need to be made, and the compromised issues come come when you try to add touring weight, or tow weight.
This is why the aftermarket have the plethora of GVM upgrades, Lift Kits, Airbags all to try and compensate, which is great as this is what the aftermarket guys do well - however as you know this doesn't come cheap - and starts to cause other issues. I wont address the KDSS issues, as thats another long thread, and I won't address the issue with trying to match springs with your intended usage - as thats another long thread, and I wont address the LC200 payload issues, as that's another long thread (but payload is certainly related to the issue at hand)
However the issue I will address is the one about driveability once said lift kit has been fitted, and the effect on vehicle dynamics - which I think you are touching on.
I put an ARB OME GVM upgrade in my first LC200, and a LOVELLS GVM upgrade in my second LC200. My brother in law also had the same issue in his LC200.
Due to the IFS nature of the LC200, once you lift the vehicle 25-50mm at the front you lose the ability to regain a correct caster adjustment in the front end. This then leaves you with a twitchy front end which is mighty unpleasant - and makes the truck now a chore to drive.
Now you can put aftermarket upper control arms into the front, and do other tricky things to try and improve this, but as soon as you add any non OEM part, or a part that is not listed in the GVM certification, then any GVM certification that you received is now invalid.
So the inherent problem being, that to use the LC200 for the purposes that we use them for, we need to try and fix them aftermarket, but the fixes to try and improve the cars payload capacity can take you into an area whereby you end up with in my opinion a car that is very difficult to drive, and one that cannot be fixed legally - if you have gone the GVM upgrade route.
Now some drivers may never notice these problems, but once you do notice them , it will drive you crazy. I cannot count how many trips I have made to Toyota, ARB, Suspension specialists, wheel aligners to fix the problems.
The LC200 is not built for the purpose that we are looking for, as it is not built to carry the payloads that we are looking for on this forum.
This leads me to the Grenadier.
This car has been specifically built for purpose, to carry payload (of which it kills the LC200/300), with solid axles front end and custom designed Eibach springs.
In its raw format, with not much payload in it, with Light Truck AT tyres, it may indeed not be as good as a standard LC200, however I would expect that it is going to be far better when you start getting 500kg of weight in and on the car, off the blacktop roads, as it wont NEED any modifications, or compromises to do the job that we want it to do.
We have to bear in mind too, that all of these drive experiences are done with very little weight in the car, so this may well alter people's feedback to you.
. The centre screen is good and I was surprised as how good the visibility is from the drivers seat over the corners (similar to a Defender/Disco 4), and you sit nice and high vice sitting down in it like a Cruiser with just lots of bonnet. Lots of steering wheel adjustment, but the seat just went forward/back *edit: seat also goes up and down - I just didn’t realise*. No rattles and it seems really well built, all the switch gear and panels are solid and it feels right especially on the suspension side. The paint already had some pinstriping which is making me reconsider my Donny Grey order, and maybe getting a lighter colour. It is a very handsome car in the grey though and it looks very nice in the sun - maybe I’ll just get a wrap. Watching it on the track it reminds me of a G Wagon from the front and a Defender when it’s driving away, but certainly has a unique look as it drives around. The DRLs look very good too. I wasn’t 100% sure up to this point but am now very confident in the vehicle and also Justin Hocevar and the team. They were excellent today and answered all of my naff questions, especially re dealers, after sales support, contracts, etc. Looking forward to getting mine!
