Ever since its inception in the 80s, the 70 series Land Cruiser has been a staple for the off-roading and overlanding community. The 70 series has undergone minimal changes over the years and still remains the utilitarian overlanding legend that it is loved for.
The series 70 has three distinct body shapes namely, the 76 which is a five-door SUV, the 79 which is the bakkie which is available in double and single cab guise. The third body shape is the 78 which is also commonly known as the troopy or the troop carrier. It is named this due to its distinct body shape which can be described as a single cab bakkie with a hard steel roof over the bed. The troopy also has two benches that seat its occupants perpendicular to each other like in a military troop carrier, hens the name troopy.
This vehicle sadly was pulled abruptly from the South African line-up back in 2014 and it left a gaping hole in the Land Cruiser line-up. The troopy has unrivalled utility and practicality and lucky for us during its absence it did not lose any of its overlanding charms. Now it is important to note that this is not a new vehicle and has not changed a bit during its time away from our markets. This however is not a bad thing.
Seeing as it’s a Cruiser it has unrivalled off-roading capability and reliability. The reliability is mostly due to its bulletproof engine in the form of a 4.2 litre in-line six diesel engine. The engine might be dated which means that it packs a modest but resilient 94 kW and 280 Nm of torque. Now, this does not seem like a lot but this means that this engine is extremely tough and even if you manage to break it parts are widely available and very affordable. This reliability does come at a cost, this being the fact that it needs a service every 5000Km and has an official fuel consumption of 12.2 l/100Km.
Remember, this vehicle isn’t supposed to be fast or sporty it just has to work and this iconic piece of kit will do exactly that time and time again. We are excited to have this old friend back.
