“Imi’Ola” 2012 Toyota 78 Series Land Cruiser 1HZ

 
 

about

I’ll be completely honest, Imi’ola, which means “to seek our best life” in Hawaiian was a very unexpected purchase. I found Imi’Ola while scrolling on Facebook for a too good to be true price, at a local wholesale dealership in Cape Town, I immideatly called a friend for them to go and check it out, after finding out it was in excellent shape for its age and was already very modified, I sent the money to buy it.

I haven’t regretted that decision at all, Imi’Ola is extremely comfortable and a lot more modern than my other overland trucks, the engine (1HZ diesel) is a reliable workhorse and will rarely ever give you problems. Having been toyota guy when I lived in the USA I knew I made a good decision when it came to reliability and comfort. Also, since its a 2012 it benefits from the facelift that the 78 series received in 2008, making it look even more sleek. Below I listed some of the notable features of Imi’ola.

  • 180L long range dual fuel tank

  • Full Old Man Emu 2” suspension and load kit

  • Gen 1 AluCab Hercules pop top conversion

  • Fully outfitted AluCab camper interior

  • AluCab 270 Shadow Awning

  • National Luna dual battery system

Imi’Ola has a very comfortable interior, and very little has to be done to make Toyota Land Cruisers comfortable- if anything at all, Interior wise the only items I added were a locking center console for important items, seat covers, and a custom dash cover. Aside from those items, unless you have a bad back and require orthopedic seats, its totally turn key and don’t have to change a thing for comfort.

I changed out the original suspension or Old Man Emu HD suspension, having run lots of suspension setups on multiple vehicles and having claim warranty issues, OME has by far been the quickest to help with anything. Going as far as overnight shipping a new shock to middle of nowhere Mexico for free to get me sorted.

The OME rear leaf springs are designed for a 400kg constant weight which helps with body roll and corrugated road driving, makes it smooth and tolerable.