The Beginings

​Back in March of 2008, 4 wheeler & off road magazine wrote an article about Aqualu’s Custom built FJ40 made to run with the Kelowna Snow wheelers. This machine was a beast! With front and rear independent suspension, rear steer and Joystick controlled air ride all powered by a supercharged Cadillac 540 big block. It was an aggressive snow hurler that proved itself not only in the snow but in any off road situation as well.
The only terrain this monster hasn’t tamed was the street. That sparked the idea for the new build.

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Make a street-able, big powered, head turning little brother to our already popular ‘Grey Cruiser’.
Aqualu Industries builds light weight aluminum replacement bodies for Jeep, Landcruiser and Samurai bodies so naturally our only decision to make was, which one do we want to build?

We decided to base this build off of a Toyota Land Cruiser FJ45 long box truck. Something reliable enough you could drive everyday but on weekends could tear up the trails. For reliability, we chose a 6.0litre LQ4 engine and 4L80E automatic transmission out of a 2006 3/4ton Chevrolet truck and an NP205 T-case. To dominate off road we went with the same independent suspension and military Gamma Goat diff’s as our old ‘Grey Cruiser’ except this time the rear steer is self centering.

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Every week we will be updating our blog with progress updates on our 'Shop Truck' build starting with this picture below, you can see we started with our #4580 1965 - 1978 FJ45 long box frame and we added our own special touches Like one off differential carriers, upper and lower A-arms for the independent suspension as well as the 37" tall Mickey Thomson Baja MTZ's.

Check back next week for phase two of project 'Shop Truck'.

*Disclaimer, Aqualu only builds vehicle for in house abuse, we do not offer build services.*

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