#RLLC80 – The Black 1996 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser

Justin Robbins of Red Line Land Cruisers started his “Land Cruiser Life” at age 17 with an FJ40  Land Cruiser. Robbins centered his life around this model and in 2007 started his business Red Line Land Cruisers in his native home town of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Back in 2017, both Justin and buddy Jay purchased two 80-Series Land Cruisers. But we need to rewind in the winch line just a bit as somehow, over those previous ten years, their “Land Cruiser’tude” had changed.

Let’s recount how Justin and Jay viewed the “other” Land Cruiser brethren as told in their combo-blog post on the IH8MUD forum called, “Red Line Land Cruisers “The Tale of Two 80’s” Build.” Much of the beginning of the blog post is Jay’s V8 swapped Land Cruiser getting the suspension love, but it’s basically the same process they repeated for Justin’s 80-Series. While Jay’s Eighty Series has taken up long term residency in his garage undergoing extensive “research and development” beyond “standards,” Justin’s 1FZ-FE powered 80-Series Land Cruiser has and continues to see more daily and weekend adventure use with more commonly used items and services available to customers through Red Line Land Cruisers. But let’s read their theory of transformation of even accepting an 80-Series Land Cruiser into their personal lives…

“Jay and I had an epiphany last year. We used to make fun of guys just like us, when we were younger. We’d say things like,”He drives an 80-Series! Such a wuss!” If we’re being honest, we snubbed those guys big-time. They had the windows rolled up and the A/C on during a trail ride. They were softies. I’m mean, seriously… driving a 40-Series carries a bit of a man-badge. You’ll need a good chiropractor after about 3 hours on the trails in an FJ40 with stock suspension. 80-Series are one plush ride compared to an FJ40!

“In our FJ40’s we saw ourselves as Clint Eastwood on the trails, tackling massive boulders and taking the hardest routes possibly. Everyone else was Hugh Grant, decked out in their skinny jeans and hip plaid shirts, riding the trails in comfort and style!

“Middle age” hits you like Mike Tyson slugging Zack Galifianakis in The Hangover. thus the mission was to build the 80-Series Land Cruiser suitable for maintaining manliness while also allowing wifey the ability to enjoy daily use.

To be clear… everyone that knows us will understand that we still “love” the 40-Series Land Cruiser! We’ll never shy away from them, but if we’re being honest… we’re diggin’ on the 80-Series these days.”

The Original 80-Mission

The main goal for Justin’s 80-Series Land Cruiser is to have a “dual-sport” vehicle capable for everyday driving that can also do moderate wheeling in with the family. True crawling attributes will be relegated to their other builds. The goal for this to build this heavy beast into the most all-around capable rig that the whole family can enjoy. But first, this is what the 1FZ-FE powered 1996 Land Cruiser rolled into the shop with:

1. Low miles 136,000 👍
2. Previous owner painted ghost flames on the hood and front doors 👎
3. Hit an object on the right front and left front 👎
4. Act of god hail storm gave her many non-wanted dents 👎
5. Front axle needs full rebuild 👎
6. EX downpipe split 👎
7. Sweet aftermarket tires and wheels (from the 90’s era) 😬Build scope

1. Un goof paint
2. Un goof damaged front body parts
3. PDR hail damage
4. RLLC Front Axle Relocation Kit
5. Slinky Stage-4 75mm Kit / ICON Vehicle Dynamics
6. Prinsu roof rack
7. Rebuild both axles >Cruiser outfitters parts
8. Upgraded brakes all around> Red Line Front BIG brake kit, Powerstop rear D/S rotors with z23 Pads/US made D/S front rotors with pads/ powerstop e-brake shoes.
9. Upgraded steering. Red Line Prototype rods .250 wall, with 1 ton EMF rebuildable long travel tre’s on drag link, EMF rebuildable 1 ton Tre’s .250 wall Tie rod > Eventually going to ram assist. New Red Line cryo’d 105 shaft upgrade rebuilt by Red Head.
10. Upgrade axles>RCV front shaft set. Rear will have custom RCV’s with drive slugs
11. Upgrade wheel bearing hubs and slugs/ lock outs to 7/16 fine thread ARP shoulder bolts>
12. Slinky 75mm stage 4 Intermediate lift kit
13. Black Hawk adjustable panhards
14. Black Hawk adjustable upper rear control arms
15. Black Hawk 11mm longer rear lower control arms
16. 37″ yokohama Muds
17. Upgrade interior components and add some “DOODADS”
18. RLLC Lean Rear Bumper with Swing-Outs
19. RLLC Lean Front Bumper w/ ComeUp Winch
20. Slee Belly Pan
21. Delta rear panhard mod
22. Dobinsons rear VT heavy 3″ springs swapped into rear
23. Non US Headlight and grill update
24. 5:29’s with arb’s until 6.0v8 goes in this fall
25. On board air system, Twin ARB. -3 AN conversion to both axles
26. Engine cooling and alt Upgrades>  Red Line Blue Fan clutch hub, 150amp Seq. alt mod
27. Level 8 tracker pro wheels
28. Trans temp gauge mod installed
29. Remote Prototype fuel filter/ gauge kit
30. Radflo 2″ Hydro bumps in front with custom mounting cans
31. 6.0 v8/6l80e/atlas swap this fall
32. Anti-rock sway bars front and rear this fall
33. Radflo 2″ hydro bumps using King mounting cans in the rear this fall
34. Front and rear Kartek Limit straps this summer

Justin’s 1996 FZJ80 is dubbed the #RLLC80 

Because we are Red Line Land Cruisers (RLLC) and this is Justin’s 1996 FZJ80 / 80-Series Land Cruiser, it needed a suitable, simple short “hashtag” for social, hence the #RLLC80!

#RLLC80 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/rllc80/
#RLLC80 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/RLLC80/

80-Series DIY Front Axle Relocation Kit – RL1080

We’ve developed the 80-Series DIY Front Axle Relocation Kit to better aid in tire clearance while attempting to maintain a lower Center of Gravity (CG) for better control and handling characteristics of the 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser.  Everything is a “sliding scale of sacrifice” when you are modifying your FJ80 / FZJ80 to be more suited for off-road use by fitting your rig with larger diameter tires.

While the “favorite first mod” of adding big grippy mud or all-terrain tires to the 80-Series raises your center of gravity, doesn’t mean you have to jack your rig up to the moon to gain tire clearance! Keep your 80-Series Toyota low as possible, stretch it out instead! This will help you achieve better on-road handling with your recent addition of “moon balloons” and keep “GC-low” over the rocks! The 80-Series DIY Front Axle “ReLo” Kit allows you (the fabricator) to push the 80-Series front axle out *33mm to allow for better tire clearance.
Read more: 80-Series DIY Front Axle Relocation Kit – RL1080

PREPPING FOR WEEKEND FAMILY WHEELING

Weekends are for wheeling and with the Robbins family being just that, a family of four plus dog, the 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser simply fits the bill WAY MORE SO than the family’s FJ40. They do love and still use the FJ40, just not for 1,800-mile 9-day family trips dubbed the Spring Epic among Justin and a couple of his buddies.

The Red Line Land Cruisers Spring Epic Overland Trip 2022

For a few years now, Justin Robbins (owner of Red Line Land Cruisers) and his family along with his buddies Jay “BOING” Allen and XJ-Bryan have annually gone on a springtime 9/10-day offroad camping trip. Typically this happens each year during Colorado Springs School Districts “Spring Break” as the trip is a full family affair for the Robbins. DAY-1 of the SpringEpic22

The time between the SpringEpic22 and the SpringEpic23 flew by SO FAST! The only real change from the previous year was start location change as different areas wanted to be explored. For 2022 the start was just outside of Hurricane, Utah and for 2023 the start was in Escalante, Utah. Additionally was two new guest for the first time ever. Any early Ford Bronco and a Lexus GX470 added to the eclecticness of the group; Justin’s ’96 FZJ80 aka #RLLC80 / Jay’s 3rd Gen. 4Runner / Bryan’s “Built-Not-Bought” Jeep XJ.

Spring Epic 2023

The “full report” from the Spring Epic 2023 has yet to be posted, but in the meantime, we posted quite a bit into our Stories within Instagram during our trip. While “Stories” disappears after 24-hours, they can be saved within “Highlights”. How do you view these? Visit the Red Line Land Cruisers Instagram page and see the two “Highlights” shown at the bottom our Profile. SP23 is the first group with SP23.2 being the second group. This is a MOBILE DEVICE ONLY feature as you can not view Highlights from a desktop computer.

It was another EPIC Spring Epic trip with over 1,800-miles covered over the 9-days. Lots of dirt roads, epic camp locations; chilly nights, warm days, snow covered mountains, spots of rain and everything in between!

While the trip was epically fantastic awesome, the RLLC80 will have some fixes to fix, but never left us stranded!

• Broken, Bent, Scratched during the Spring Epic 23
– Door Scratched while wallowing in a big mud hole that was snow covered.
– Broken Shock Cap on the driver side rear shock
– Welded the track bar mount / front
– Popped a fuse two days after the big winching session
– Two ARB compressors went dead

Looks like AWESOME ADVENTURE to us! RLLC80 driven to desert studio labs and posed just for this image.😁