Anyone do it?
despite all the plushness of the LX570, underneath the skin is a toyota land cruiser, one of the most able off road vehicles.

i was wondering who has been off roading with one?
any tips or tricks.
No skid plates on the LX, do you need them? I was wondering how serious a trail i can take with just the stock LX570 before i pushed it too far.

 

Plenty are taken off road...check the 200 series tech section on ih8mud.com.

 

Yes, of course. I take it offroad. Why would I purchase an SUV with body on frame and a solid rear axle if I did not need it for offroading? O.K., maybe also for towing. It would make no sense if you don't need its offroad capabilities. And yes, you are right, LX is Land Cruiser! And this name means something.

 

Mine has skid plates and they are well used. I will be taking it on a trip to SW Colorado to do some trails in Ouray at the end of the month.
It has been on many trails in the Vegas/SW Utah region over the last year.
I did replace the side steps with a set of Rock sliders because that is one of the most vulnerable areas.

 

Have lightly off-roaded my 2020 a few times. It’s a beast. Also it tows amazing. The AHC is the real winner.

 

did you put the skid plate on yourself, or buy it that way?
was wondering what plates to add, and who to buy them from,

yeah those nerf rail steps are handy for my wife to climb in with, taking them off will probably set her to howling

 

there IS a third reason....the ride.
we looked very seriously at the expedition max, the bmw x7, and the mercedes gls450.
we PREFERRED the ride of the LX.
the bmw x7 was a disaster...despite all the hype, it was a wallowing rolling beast. my wife was getting sea sick from the test ride. we BOTH wanted the X7 to work, but it just was not in the cards. I suspect the bmw lovers go for the smaller X5, which is tuned better. the x7 is tuned to keep granny happy on the highway. And i am talking about the BMW in the "sport suspension mode" setting...in the comfort setting it was even worse.

the mercedes gls450 was 50% better than the bmw. and we seriously were thinking it was the one, but it also had significant roll. not nearly as much as the X7, but damn, it was rolly. i think they just make these things as smooth as possible for the highway,, and that makes them very floaty.

tried the lexus GX 460, and it really was not big enough for the wife, the dog, and all the camping/hiking/fishing gear we would need on our long road trips. i was driving an Rx360, and did not see a whole lot of difference between the RX an GX.

the ford explorer max was tight on the highway. no roll. but you felt the bumps in the road...not refined. we found the ride acceptable.

then on a hunch we tried out the LX470. and we pretty much fell in love. it handled very much like the RX350 (although obviously bigger). the LX had enough safety gizmos to help with the bigger size. and there is PLENTY of room inside.

so, believe it or not, we chose the LX for the ride quality (and the known lexus reliability). it helped that it somewhat drove like the RX350.

the fact that i can take it offroad, or tow something big someday, is just gravy train.
all i will be towing is my garden trailer loaded to maybe 1000 lbs, at least for now.

i was going to try the lincoln navigator and the Yukon Denali AT4 off road, but did not bother once we tried the LX, do i can not report on their rides.

it came down to a Ford expedition max offroad, or the LX470, and all the features in the LX won us over.
i am whining that it has the old style nav system, and no apple car play to replace it with. oh well, first world disasters i guess.

if anyone out there is thinking of buying a BMW X7 or the Mercedes GLS450, make sure you do a long road trip, and change lanes a lot. make sure you can live with the roll and floaty handling.

 

Skid plates are stock. If you don't have any the previous owner took them off or if new, your dealer screwed you.
The run from the front to the transfer case (but not the transfer case itself) and the gas tank. They aren't anything great but help for most basic off-roading. There are several companies that make skids for the LX: ARB, BudBuilt, Dessent etc.

The rock sliders I installed are replacement steps. I think they function better than stock.
https://sleeoffroad.com/products/sok1329/

 

Your LX570 and the Lanc Cruiser 200 with european spec. are pretty near. Both have a hydraulic suspension with AHC (active height control) and adjustable dampers, crawl and some luxurary stuff - and are pretty heavy. Just mine is a diesel, yours a gasoline based car.

Landcruiser
286 PS, 640nm Diesel V8, 8 Seats, AHC (Active Hight Control), Adaptive Variable Suspension (AVS), Crawl, JBL 14-Sound-System, Iphone Integration, USB Connection, Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Navigation, Roof Window, 11 Airbags, Pre Crash Safety System, 4 Zonen Aircon, Traktionscontrol (A-TRAC, ESP).

I did overland travel 70`000 miles (120`000km) and pretty much offoad in the past 10 years with the rig above. Like you can see on the map above.

The Pictures are taken out of my Traveblogs:
Blog Overlanding and Shorttrips : 4x4tripping
Transafrica Blog (20`500km) 2012: Trans-Africa
Iceland (6000 km) 2014 : Reisetipp: Island mit dem 4x4
Southamerica Blog (36`000km) 2015: Adventure-Overland
Europe 2019 (7000 km): Reisetipp: Osteuropa mit dem 4x4
Sweden 2020 (6000 km): Overlanding in Sweden

Your rig is very capable too in stock conditions.If you mount some MT Tyres and 33" tyres you can easily travel the world and hit some serious offroad tracks. With 3tons we are not the best on offroad conditions in direct comparison, but at least we drive with the most comfort.

It has a reason that the Land Cruiser 200 - is nominated as best used Overlanding car at 2019.

If you read my article "Mods I would not do again" it may help you to avoid "overprepping" for your car. Keep it lightweight and simple.

I did wrote about my trip at clublexus too: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lx-...-and-next.html

Enjoy your rig! It is a beast!

So true! To have additional height - if you need it - is just perfect.

Surfy

 

I would love to do similar trips, but so far it is not my highest priority, maybe later in some years. Will read through your shared links

 

Those are some really fine trips!

i wonder what Lexus was thinking when they put that thin plastic bumper on the back????

 

Haven't towed yet with my new-to-me '14 but yes I went mudding an hour after I bought it. That was months ago lol and there's still dirt on my undercarriage, it just hasn't rained enough to wash it all out driving. Who buys a 12MPG truck engineered for off roading to NOT go off road??

I do agree about the AHC as it is simply amazing. The truck senses when you're crawling/scaling/whatever something and raises AHC automatically off road, that's pretty neat. People seem to think AHC is fragile. It's fully ready to go to the Middle East and attack sand dunes and whatever else they throw at the LXs or LCs with AHC over there. It was made for abuse. Just change the fluid every 60k.

It's also been a godsend with the easy-in access how it lowers, as I've been recovering from surgery.

 

My lx is stock, been to beach dunes, camping at places where only serious suvs can go. Been in crazy snow/rainy weather. Cross country 4000 miles trips I was in the back roads(if you call thise roads) in state up state ny and went to a remote camping spot. Family loved it.

at one point i had 2 of these at the same time!!
this suv is basically unmatched at capablities; i dont go off-roading but having this suv i know i dont really need roads and hang with the lifted truck crowd.

i wished it came with 18” bbs wheels and thicker tires.

its so hard to like another suv that check all these boxes and being insanely dependable/comfortable at the same time

 

Heard all that. Even on the factory rims and Michelins it's still plennnnnnty capable. I may pick up some 18" Tundra rims to swap, or go A/T tires for the stock rims if they aren't loud when the time comes.

OP, there are skid plates where they need to be. Don't worry about it.

 

As often as possible