Volvo C303 Portal Axles under 1996 Toyota Land Cruiser Offroad Military off road
Sale price: US $16,000.00 Make an Offer
| Condition: | Used | Model Year: | 1996 |
| Make: | volvo |
Shawnee, Kansas, United States
Vehicle description
Lots of love in this rig!
Both of my kids learned to drive on her, and she has never left us stranded. Wheeled in many states on many adventures and she is ready to take you and your family places you never imagined.
Foo is a 145k mile 1996 Land Cruiser that has become quite the legend in our little Toyota world. Of course, FOO is named for the best band ever, the FOO Fighters!
It started as a perfectly fine Land Cruiser, not wrecked, not trashed, that I was daily driving to work, and I decided I really wanted more open air and to start making it an off-road beast. I love driving my FJ40, so it just needed to be more like that. . .The top was cut and full roll cage installed all the way to the A pillar, but we retained the sunroof area so the driver can stay mostly dry (or mud free) when stuff is falling from the sky. The sunroof is siliconed in place, so it does not open up.
Fenders were clearanced last year to allow for the new huge tires. I just added a new storage compartment in the back under the spare tire that holds three DeWalt boxes, which are included as part of the vehicle. I will take my tools out of course!
I originally made tube doors for this, that I will sell to the purchaser for an extra $500. I have not used them since I made the half doors. Custom fabric bikini top made to cover rear seating area. The front and rear bumpers were custom made as tight to the body to increase the approach angles. Custom sliders bolted to the frame. Solid 1/4 belly armor for tranny/transfer case. Exhaust is over frame as well to protect from damage.
Seats are PRP suspension seats, low and tight, work great for 6’2” person, and are about ½-1” lower than stock. I had these custom made with orange piping and seat bottoms are made to allow for water to drain right through them. They also have seat heaters on them for cold mornings! Rock lights, interior LED lights, front LED lights (2 choices), and monster rear lights give you all options to night wheel. I put in some heat and noise reducer on the floor of the cab from Al’s liner and covered with raptor liner. So, no carpet to worry about getting wet. Rear heater was removed as well.
Front winch is HF 12.5. has Factor 55 thimble. Rear has custom recovery point that mounts in the 2” tow hitch receiver with laser etched FOO on it.
Engine is pretty much stock, with the exception of the power steering system. The steering reservoir capacity was tripled due to the hydro assist that was added. The steering box was drilled and gone through, cylinder is in front of axle, well protected on the portal axle. Of course, we added the snorkel too for clean air. A Larger cooler was added for the power steering and an accessory fan was added that is switch controlled in the cab. I also tapped in a sensor to the engine so you always know the exact engine temp, although never had an issue with it running hot. A/C is fully working. New compressor and parts as of a couple years ago. On hot wheeling days, I wanted some coolness, so it works great. Relocated dryer up by battery too, so out of the way.
The car is fully painted with monstaliner (a type of truck bed liner) that puts up with all the damage you can imagine. We chose the orange/white as a nod to the old classic FJ55 Land Cruisers with the same color scheme. The half doors were designed by my son, and each one has custom interior aluminum card and includes pockets to hold stuff and drink holders. These allow you to see exactly where the driver front tire is headed. There is backup reverse camera and front pass tire camera that shows you exactly the path of that tire. Stereo with Bluetooth and has Subwoofer to keep you sounding good playing the Foo Fighters of course! I will be pulling the HAM radio out to put in my next rig.
At some point in time I read about how all over Thailand and parts of Europe there are people putting portal axles from a Volvo 303 military vehicle into Land Cruisers and make them into non stoppable beasts. I put some feelers out and it took a year, but I had my hands on a set that came from a European decommissioned military vehicle. I say that with certainty as 1. That is what the guy in Grand Junction Colorado told me, and 2, the condition of everything was perfect with the bolts cut off just like the pictures of the crated up decommissioned that were brought in to the US in the mid 2000’s. The great thing about this is that nothing was broken, nothing was worn badly, everything works great! Vacuum lockers operated perfectly. Bearings were all perfect. Seals were all great. Brakes were great. Really a perfect set of locked axles. The only issue was that they were stock drum brakes. Nothing wrong with drums… they are not disc brakes though. I decided to convert to disc, so all the machine work was done to convert to Toyota brake rotors and Wilwood big old 4 pot calipers on all corners. We added a huge 1 1/16 master cylinder to allow this thing to stop on a dime. The axles are linked with the original Toyota springs and body mounting spots to maximize articulation. 39.5” tires on beadlockers with hot orange powdercoating. The axles give you about 4.5” additional clearance with no body lift. You can drive over a 5-gallon bucket. With the lower center of gravity as compared to an 80 with a 4 or 6” lift, you can do so much more comfortably. Gear ratio is 5.99. That is pretty awesome crawling speed. Top speed is about 55mph though…. lockers are actuated through electric valves opening the vacuum to the axles. Work perfect and are Toyota valves even!
Figure that the axles alone with 4 wheel disc are worth $13-$15k, beadlockers and rubber are $2-$3k, so you are getting the rest of the beast for next to nothing. You are welcome to fly out to KC and give her a spin. I have given her lots of love, hoping she finds a good new home. You can view all 43 pages of the build. . forum.ih8mud.com/threads/what-the-foo-is-this.674113 I am a long time ebay member, look at my feedback and how long I have been here and bid with confidence. I am a very honest person, nothing to hide here, the build thread shows you every step of the way of how this was built.
Both of my kids learned to drive on her, and she has never left us stranded. Wheeled in many states on many adventures and she is ready to take you and your family places you never imagined.
Foo is a 145k mile 1996 Land Cruiser that has become quite the legend in our little Toyota world. Of course, FOO is named for the best band ever, the FOO Fighters!
It started as a perfectly fine Land Cruiser, not wrecked, not trashed, that I was daily driving to work, and I decided I really wanted more open air and to start making it an off-road beast. I love driving my FJ40, so it just needed to be more like that. . .The top was cut and full roll cage installed all the way to the A pillar, but we retained the sunroof area so the driver can stay mostly dry (or mud free) when stuff is falling from the sky. The sunroof is siliconed in place, so it does not open up.
Fenders were clearanced last year to allow for the new huge tires. I just added a new storage compartment in the back under the spare tire that holds three DeWalt boxes, which are included as part of the vehicle. I will take my tools out of course!
I originally made tube doors for this, that I will sell to the purchaser for an extra $500. I have not used them since I made the half doors. Custom fabric bikini top made to cover rear seating area. The front and rear bumpers were custom made as tight to the body to increase the approach angles. Custom sliders bolted to the frame. Solid 1/4 belly armor for tranny/transfer case. Exhaust is over frame as well to protect from damage.
Seats are PRP suspension seats, low and tight, work great for 6’2” person, and are about ½-1” lower than stock. I had these custom made with orange piping and seat bottoms are made to allow for water to drain right through them. They also have seat heaters on them for cold mornings! Rock lights, interior LED lights, front LED lights (2 choices), and monster rear lights give you all options to night wheel. I put in some heat and noise reducer on the floor of the cab from Al’s liner and covered with raptor liner. So, no carpet to worry about getting wet. Rear heater was removed as well.
Front winch is HF 12.5. has Factor 55 thimble. Rear has custom recovery point that mounts in the 2” tow hitch receiver with laser etched FOO on it.
Engine is pretty much stock, with the exception of the power steering system. The steering reservoir capacity was tripled due to the hydro assist that was added. The steering box was drilled and gone through, cylinder is in front of axle, well protected on the portal axle. Of course, we added the snorkel too for clean air. A Larger cooler was added for the power steering and an accessory fan was added that is switch controlled in the cab. I also tapped in a sensor to the engine so you always know the exact engine temp, although never had an issue with it running hot. A/C is fully working. New compressor and parts as of a couple years ago. On hot wheeling days, I wanted some coolness, so it works great. Relocated dryer up by battery too, so out of the way.
The car is fully painted with monstaliner (a type of truck bed liner) that puts up with all the damage you can imagine. We chose the orange/white as a nod to the old classic FJ55 Land Cruisers with the same color scheme. The half doors were designed by my son, and each one has custom interior aluminum card and includes pockets to hold stuff and drink holders. These allow you to see exactly where the driver front tire is headed. There is backup reverse camera and front pass tire camera that shows you exactly the path of that tire. Stereo with Bluetooth and has Subwoofer to keep you sounding good playing the Foo Fighters of course! I will be pulling the HAM radio out to put in my next rig.
At some point in time I read about how all over Thailand and parts of Europe there are people putting portal axles from a Volvo 303 military vehicle into Land Cruisers and make them into non stoppable beasts. I put some feelers out and it took a year, but I had my hands on a set that came from a European decommissioned military vehicle. I say that with certainty as 1. That is what the guy in Grand Junction Colorado told me, and 2, the condition of everything was perfect with the bolts cut off just like the pictures of the crated up decommissioned that were brought in to the US in the mid 2000’s. The great thing about this is that nothing was broken, nothing was worn badly, everything works great! Vacuum lockers operated perfectly. Bearings were all perfect. Seals were all great. Brakes were great. Really a perfect set of locked axles. The only issue was that they were stock drum brakes. Nothing wrong with drums… they are not disc brakes though. I decided to convert to disc, so all the machine work was done to convert to Toyota brake rotors and Wilwood big old 4 pot calipers on all corners. We added a huge 1 1/16 master cylinder to allow this thing to stop on a dime. The axles are linked with the original Toyota springs and body mounting spots to maximize articulation. 39.5” tires on beadlockers with hot orange powdercoating. The axles give you about 4.5” additional clearance with no body lift. You can drive over a 5-gallon bucket. With the lower center of gravity as compared to an 80 with a 4 or 6” lift, you can do so much more comfortably. Gear ratio is 5.99. That is pretty awesome crawling speed. Top speed is about 55mph though…. lockers are actuated through electric valves opening the vacuum to the axles. Work perfect and are Toyota valves even!
Figure that the axles alone with 4 wheel disc are worth $13-$15k, beadlockers and rubber are $2-$3k, so you are getting the rest of the beast for next to nothing. You are welcome to fly out to KC and give her a spin. I have given her lots of love, hoping she finds a good new home. You can view all 43 pages of the build. . forum.ih8mud.com/threads/what-the-foo-is-this.674113 I am a long time ebay member, look at my feedback and how long I have been here and bid with confidence. I am a very honest person, nothing to hide here, the build thread shows you every step of the way of how this was built.