TexGX

My 2004 GX with KDSS did not have the factory hitch on when I saw it on the lot. In the deal I requested the hitch be put on. When I recieved the GX the hitch was on and everything looked great. I later learned that they had taken my GX to a third party vendor to have it installed. I was going to complain, but the hitch looks just like the factory 6500 rated hitch. It was added at no cost to me. So in my case, the dealer had the hitch added.

It is a tough race. In cars : of 142 only 60 finished

http://www.dakar.com/2005/us/index.html

Lexus GX470 is listed under Toyota and has the name Land Cruiser most of the time.

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Here is a pic of the GX/Prado at the 2005 Dakar.

Hi

recently purchase a new GX but do not know how to drive off road

Do you know of any place around Houston where I can get instructions ??

Thanks

seatrout@sbcglobal.net

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Triet,

Keep a look at the web page. A group of us are planning on going off-road soon. We will post time and date. You can come with us. I do not know of a school in Houston.

TexGX

LC90-120,

Does the Prado come with KDSS in Iceland?

Tex,

I dont have a skidplate yet. Some guys have made their own and either Downey or Demello has made some for the 4Runner (should fit the GX), but they dont cover the tranny pan.

Trust me at some point (very soon I think) you will want to lift a bit and upgrade the tires to 32" or 33" :D

A good start will be the sliders. I will let you know once I have figured something more out about the skid plate.

Enjoy!!

PS: Once you start modding you just can't stop.

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I plan on doing most those type mods when the warnity exprires. I also have to keep the wife happy. It is "her" truck. I am happy with her letting me put the sliders on.

You can always have it modified a so 33" og 35" even a 38" tires for your GX.

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LC90-120,

That Prado is wicked. Where did you find that picture?

TexGX

Well you should be able to corrow a few things from the Toyota side of the house. The new 4Runner and GX is very similar in many ways, and also the Prado that sells overseas have the same body styling as the GX. Prado sells in Oz, homeland of ARB so they should be able to help you.

As i mentioned in another thread you can probably start by adding protection, bolt on sliders will be pretty good. See pics below. You might also consider upgrading the front skid plates to a more heavy duty single unit, this will add a lot more protection to the front, but will be a pain to remove for oil changes. There is currently no production skidplate on the market that will cover the transmission pan as well, so just be patient as they will come. Then next thing you might want to consider is to add a slight bit of lift for the GX, especially the front. The problem is that you probably want to maintain the current suspension so spacers will be the only way to go. The second problem is that if you add a heavy duty bumper like the ARB you tend to loose some lift on the front due to the weight. So you probably want to add 2.5" or so in the front and 1" or so in the back. You can contact these guys to see what they can do for you (I think we know each other from t4r.org I'm bulldog-yota there :) ) http://www.nitrousenterprises.com/

ARB will be bringing front and rear lockers to market this year as well, if you want to go that far. You can also inquire about a snorkel from them. Just contact their US office in Seattle.

Here are some pics of the sliders on a 4Runner, but should work perfectly with a GX. You can contact Ken Hanna for these http://www.hannaquality.com/

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bliksem,

The 4R looks great! I have contacted Hanna about the sliders, they want me to send them a picture of the frame. I contacted ARB about the GX and they told me that they did not know if the Prado stuff will work. The snorkel was for the turbo deisel. Where did you get the skidplate? I just went off-road in AZ and had no problem with the hieght of the GX(except the running boards). I am planning on a lift for the front, similiar to the TrailX concept after the warranty runs out. I have found a custom fabricator that maybe able to help if all else fails. Thanks for the info.

TexGX

Sounds great. Good to see some GX's getting out there. Saw some pix from aguy going to Hollister Hills in his GX as well.

Unfortunately I can't seem to open the attachments to see the pix properly.

I have a 03 4Runner, which I take offroad quite a bit. We are looking at probably getting a GX as well. This will allow me to mod the 4R more and keep the GX for "light duty". The drivetrain and chasis of these new vehicles are still really tough.

TexGX are you looking at getting sliders for your GX? I have ordered some from Hanna Quality which is completely bolt on, no welding or drilling of the frame required. SO you can swap them out for these excursions with the running boards.

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bliksem,

I will try and look up Hanna Quality. I am not finding a lot of stuff for the GX. Post a picture when you get them. If anyone can tell me the trick to posting pic's, I will try and redo.

Here are a few of the pictures I promised.

First,

Happy Holidays to all.

Second,

I finally got to take the GX off-road. We made a trip to Sedona, AZ were there are lots of trails. The first one ended up being the most extreme. The trail is called Broken Arrow. After a short drive on the trail, there is a sign warning that the rest of the trial is only for 4x4's and skilled drivers and towing will be at owners charge. Of couse I continued on. The trail got very technical. I was very impressed on how well the GX took charge of the trail. I passed several wide eyed jeep tour companies. No one believed that a Lexus had made it up to Submarine Rock. One guy asked if this was for a Lexus comerical. I only scratched one running board, that I am planning on replacing with custom sliders. The wife actually took it very well. All in all, I had a blast. If you are not using the GX off-road, you are missing out big time. I look forward to many more trails.

I will try to post pictures as soon as I get home. Any help in posting pic's welcome.

Worked great. I will say that you need to remove the first piece from the end not near the wood. I put in a switch that works the ground and the speed sensor, so it goes back to stock.

OK,

I finially got the GX back. They had problems getting the hieght sensors. As of now it looks like it fixed the problem. We made the drive to AZ with no problems. When I arrived, it still looked like it was level. I will let you know if things change.

The hill start feature only works for five seconds. It is ment to only hold the truck during the time it takes you to release the brake and apply the gas. It should stop the truck from rolling back at all for that brief time. If it is not, check with your dealer.

Hey Guys,

The GX looks great with big rims, but I am more interested in making my GX perform better off-road. Anyone make mods to the GX to make it better where the black top ends. I am not finding alot of information on the web yet. I have personaly added a grill guard so far. I am thinking about a ARB Sahara bar, removing the running boards, roof rack, and adding a snorkel. Lets get these things dirty!

My 2004 with KDSS leans left.  After speaking/arguing with the dealer, I was put in touch with Lexus cust service that told me that they are aware of the leaning in some vehicles, that is does not affect performance, and that it is withing their "spec" if the leaning is less than 1/4" either way (I believe that was the measurement, but it could be 1/2 or 1/8).  In any case, I was with in the "spec" and there was nothing that could be done.

I have had the car since 3/04, and other than the annoyance of seeing the unbalance, I have not noticed any performance issues.

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DMW,

I had to fight with the dealer to aggree that there was a problem. Do not let them use that "spec" line. You should not be able to tell the truck is leaning by looking at it from behind.

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TexGX,

The dealer fully agreed that the GX was "leaning" and that there was nothing they could do. I didn't like that answer so I went to the service mgr and my sales rep. Eventually, they put me in touch with Lexus cust service, they are the ones that ultimately told me there is nothing "wrong" with the car because it is within spec.

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DMW,

I will let you know if the hieght sensors fix the problem so you can use me as an example. It is amazing that different dealers can get different results.

My 2004 with KDSS leans left.  After speaking/arguing with the dealer, I was put in touch with Lexus cust service that told me that they are aware of the leaning in some vehicles, that is does not affect performance, and that it is withing their "spec" if the leaning is less than 1/4" either way (I believe that was the measurement, but it could be 1/2 or 1/8).  In any case, I was with in the "spec" and there was nothing that could be done.

I have had the car since 3/04, and other than the annoyance of seeing the unbalance, I have not noticed any performance issues.

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DMW,

I had to fight with the dealer to aggree that there was a problem. Do not let them use that "spec" line. You should not be able to tell the truck is leaning by looking at it from behind.

TexGX,

Did having the height sensors replaced do anything? 

DMW

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DMW,

The height sensors come on Tues. and I have an appointment Wes. morning. I will post the results.

The dealer has my GX now. I checked in with him today and he said that they are going to replace the hieght sensors. The only thing is they are on national back order. Has anyone had these replaced.

Has no one done this to thier GX. I would like to do it, but I have not talked to anyone who has done it. I just want to make sure that I do it right.

I forgot to mention that the GX's were 2005's. They had a the upgraded engine with 270 hp. I did not really notice a difference between mine and the new one, but we were on a short track. All the GX's had KDSS.

I've driven all of those as well, although not in an off road setting. I also had an LR3 for a couple hours last week, I wrote about my impressions of it in another thread here. All in all, I havn't seen a competing vehicle that I like as well as my GX.

Do they hold those "Lexus taste of luxury" thingys around the country?

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From what I understand, they do. I got the invite from my lexus sales person. I would check yours to see when it is in your area.

I went to my local Lexus Taste of Luxury today. I got to drive all of the car and SUV's from Lexus and many of thier competitors. The best part was the off road sections for the SUV's. Sec ond was the sportcar sections. The GX was the best out of the SUV's I drove(Range Rover, LX470, Escalade, ML300, and X5). I was disapointed the LR3 was not there. The Range Rover was nice on the offroad portions but, had a lot of body roll in the other sections. I will say I like the interior in my GX a little better than the Range Rover. The LX is very close to the GX. The main difference was it did not have KDSS. I thought it had a lot of body roll. It did have more ground clearence. The Escalade was the worse of the bunch. Nothing good to say about it. The ML300 drove well on the road sections, but not an offroad SUV. The X5 was about the same. The GX did everything well. I have been wanting to take my GX offroad, so this kinda helped out. It was a great event. I even got to scare the hell out of my wife in a E500.

I saw another similar post in another section, but they did not answer the question if the fix worked on a 2004 GX. So, has anyone been able to have a DVD playing while driving. I will be making a long drive to Arizona and my wife would love me if I could get this done.

I had a chance to see a LR3 today and I did not like it. Ford is doing the same thing with Land Rover has it is doing with Jaguar, cheaping it up. The inside of the car looked very plastic. The woodtrim option consist of stick on wood like the other ford products. The overall quality of the car looked the same as an Explorer. It does not even compare to the looks of the GX. The one thing I did like was the rear door. It opens similar to the Land Crusier, one part up, one part down. I have always like Land Rover because of thier history and off road performace. I was very disapointed with the new LR3. I would love to see a head to head between the two.

TexGX.....I don't know where you live or take your vehicle for service...but I have had very good luck with Park Place Lexus in Grapevine.  The service guy I have used before is Butch Shank.  http://www.parkplacelexus.com.  There should be a link to the Grapevine dealership and some phone numbers on the web site.  I have noticed a significant difference from service at one dealership as compared to another.

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Thanks sgriffith,

I take my GX to Northside Lexus in Houston. They still seem to be working with me on the problem, so I am not ready to give up on them yet. I will keep Park Place in mind. This is not the first time I have heard thier name. I mainly want to know if anyone else has had the problem fixed so I can tell my service guy. Thanks for the information.