RIG TOUR: Our Overland Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier RV, "Troopy"

The 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier is full on overland camper that can take on pretty much any terrain with its 4x4 capabilities.

There’s no such thing as a perfect travel vehicle. It has quickly become a social media hot take to get those precious, precious clicks. Overlanding is a very personal type of lifestyle. No one truck, or setup, can be considered perfect for a wide swath of people with very different outdoor lifestyles, cultures, interests, or ways of living. Not everyone wants to rock crawl for endless miles to poop in a hole. Some prefer the calmer routes that lets them experience the world around them. Everyone brings something different to the table. Everyone has different needs, and check boxes. Just because the market is currently pushing everyone to own full-sized trucks with slide in, or flat bed, campers, does not mean that’s the way forward.

Whenever you see pictures of folks spending years traveling the globe, you see two vehicles that dominate the space: the Land Rover Defender, and the Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier.

In the summer of 2018, Karissa and I sat huddled together in the front seats of our Mitsubishi Montero deep in the woods of Montana. It was raining. It was close to freezing. It was my birthday. We enjoyed an uncomfortably chilly dinner and I blew candles outside under the awning before we quickly retreated to the front seats of our truck. As we enjoyed the chocolate cake, we both looked at each other and said simultaneously: “It’s time.”

Our Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier on a beach in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

We’ve been traveling around the country in our Montero for a good five years. We loved the freedom this type of lifestyle gave us while we traveled. We love being self-sufficient. We loved cooking our own meals. We loved sleeping in our own covers. We loved being around absolutely nobody. We were done with not having a place to be when the weather turned bad. We’re both self-employed photographers. Not having a place to retreat to get work done is tough when you’re on the road. Cafes and libraries become our temporary computer desks. But, what if we could stay at camp, and work from inside our rig. Interior space became our unicorn. Only one vehicle checked all our boxes: the legendary Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier, aka Troopy. 

Exploring around the Grand Teton National Park area, in Wyoming, with our Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier.

After we came home from that trip, the search started. We put feelers out to friends, and friends of friends that were vehicle importers. We originally wanted a left-hand drive one but quickly found that the combination of LHD and a six-cylinder diesel was near impossible to find. For a year and a half we had people help source us a Troopy. There were a few potentials but none of them were “the one”. Frustrated with not much to show after so long, Karissa turned to the internet. After a month of constant searching, she found it —on Facebook groups of all places. 

Kyia and Stella are living the van life by having a whole living space to romp around in the Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier

Money was wired overseas, then our importer took over. A few months later, it landed at the Port of Long Beach. It was a 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier RV from Darwin, New South Wales, Australia. It was right hand drive and we were more than okay with it because it came with the much lauded, and venerable, 4.2L straight six 1HZ diesel. It had dual fuel tanks from the factory (which gives us a total range of around 650 miles). It was clean, had very little rust, and had 334,xxx km on the odometer. High, but not super high. The previous owner did a bit of touring around Australia so it came with some modifications (many which we’re still using): a TJM bull bar with side bars, Tough Dog adjustable shocks, and Tough Dog heavy leaf springs.

Baja Design LP6 Pro LED combo driving/spot lights mounted on the front of the TJM bull bar on our Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier

The Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier’s insurance policy, the Warn Industries VR EVO 12-S winch.

Toyo Tires Open Country A/T III, 285/75R16 on the Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier

We chose the Troopy because of its legendary reliability, its smaller form factor, its ability to have interior space, and its ability to fit into a regular sized shipping container with no modifications.

Whenever you see pictures of folks spending years traveling the globe, you see two vehicles that dominate the space: the Land Rover Defender, and the Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier. We plan on traveling in the Troopy overseas so it’s incredibly beneficial for us to have, what I dub, “the F150 of the world”. Parts are everywhere because these vehicles are everywhere. NGOs have expansive fleets of these trucks. Countless countries use Troopies as ambulances, fire trucks, and police vehicles. Because of all these factors, it gives us great confidence that we can travel the world.

Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier’s interior space to get away from the weather, the bugs, or catch up on some work when the sun goes down.

After taking delivery of our Troopy, we drove it to Victoria, Texas to Karissa’s family’s car audio business HiPro Audio. Her brother, Justin, regularly makes custom audio boxes for their clients. So as Jeremy Clarkson would most likely say, “how hard can a few cabinets in a truck be?”

Three solid months is how hard it was. We completely stripped the truck. Laid down sound deadening, Havelock wool insulation, built the floor, and planned out the final layout.

The front cabin of our Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier features the stock dual tank gauge/button, and an upgraded audio deck with touchscreen.

We then flew in our good friend Ernesto Lopez of @overlandtheamericas to help us install the piece de resistance to the whole build: the Expedition Centre Mulgo Pop-Top. This single piece, like the Troopy itself, was imported from Australia, and would transform our mostly stock ugly duckling of a Troopy to become a full fledged swan of an overlanding, world traveling, production vehicle. With the pop-top, we can fully stand up inside, do inside things, and when it’s bedtime, we can bring down the bed and sleep “upstairs”. Coming from rooftop tent living to having a fully liveable interior space was a game changer.

Everyone has different needs, and check boxes. Just because the market is currently pushing everyone to own full-sized trucks with slide in, or flat bed, campers, does not mean that’s the way forward.

We used birch ply for the floor, cabinets, and benches. We found old restaurant tables at the local Habitat for Humanities which we repurposed as our countertop. The floor was protected from the elements by vinyl flooring. Everything was then painted white to create a visually bigger space inside. We were going for a Scandinavian interior inspired by our time in Norway. A Dometic drop-in cooktop was installed as well as a sink. We were quite happy with the size of our Dometic CFX3 55IM (IM stands for Ice Maker) that we had in our Montero so we got another for the Troopy.

We went for a modern Scandinavian inspired interior design for the van life camper build out of our overland Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier

We have a fully working sink, with hot water, inside the Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier.

We also carry a Kovea slim twin burner stove that goes onto our GP Factor universal drop down table. The inside stove is there for days where the weather is bad and we have a strict no meat policy as we don’t want the interior of the truck to smell like meat for days. We prefer to cook outside anyways.

The back bumper of the Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier becomes the porch for all weather hang out sessions.

Being photographers, having the ability to charge all our gear was paramount. We went with two Battleborn 100ah lithium ion batteries, which are then charged via DC-to-DC via the engine, or via the Rhino Adventure Gear Merlin 240W solar panel coupled with a Redarc BCDC1225D and Victron Energy MPPT 75V 15amp charge controller. All of our 12v electronics then go through the Renogy 2000W inverter. This is a relatively simple electrical setup but we’re able to stay out pretty much endlessly as long as we have food and water.

The Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier’s most important feature: Linhbergh’s spice rack. Van life at its finest!

The Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier GP Factor Folding drop table for the rear door.

We then added in two creature comforts that we consider luxuries: a Planar diesel heater, and an Elgena 12v electric water heater. Two things we never thought we’d have and now love, and appreciate every time we use them. 

A very special thanks needs to be extended to Justin, Matt, Henry, Janet, Megan, and Erwin from HiPro Audio for all their help with our build out. Without them, we wouldn’t have what we have now. 

The Troopy gives us great confidence that we can travel the world.

Back home in Los Angeles, CA, We had Zak over at Coupler Creative create a custom bed slide-out for the bench via CNC. This slide-out system gives us a twin sized bed “downstairs” for those rare camp days where the wind is so hellacious that we can’t leave our pop-top up, or if we wanted to stealth camp somewhere in town. The slide out also allows us to create a U-shaped seating area so Karissa and I can share the slide out table for dinner, or for work. It’s a really nice quality of life addition. In a vehicle this small, it's wonderful to have things designed to be dual purpose.  

Exploring Grand Teton National Park, in Wyoming, with our friends Bound for Nowhere in with 2019 Toyota Tundra with Four Wheel Camper Hawk Flatbed, and our Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier

We kept the engine 100% stock. We didn’t want to touch the legendary reliability of the 1HZ —an engine that produces a whopping 130HP and 210 lb-ft of torque. The only things we did to the exterior was add a set of Volk Racing TE37x 16x8 +0 wrapped with Toyo Tires Open Country ATIII 285/75 R16, replaced the stock headlights with Trucklite 7” LED rounds, and replaced the HID spots that came with the truck with Baja Designs amber LP6 driving and spot combo LEDs. We also replaced the old and rusty winch that came with our truck for a Warn Industries VR EVO 12-S. We have since used it once to get someone unstuck at a beach. For extra storage, we installed a set of Frontrunner cross bars to mount a Pelican 1745 Air, and a set of Maxtrax recovery boards.

We also had onboard air installed with the ARB Twin Air compressor. Previously in our Montero, it would take about 15-20 minutes to inflate a 33” tire from 15 PSI to 55 PSI. Now? Five to seven minutes a tire.

Sunrise with our Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier on a remote beach in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Overlanding is an incredibly personal lifestyle. Karissa and I took the time to go fully custom with our Troopy to accommodate our photography work and pursuit of an outdoor life. With everything we’ve done, we can stay out longer, work on the road more comfortably, not have our travels fully dictated by the seasons, and have a place to just be whenever the weather takes a turn. The Troopy is far from perfect, and it has its compromises, but, for such a small package, it’s very close to having an overlanding unicorn.

And, well, that’s as perfect as it’s going to get for us.

Very few campsites can beat the grandiose views of the Grand Tetons, in Wyoming, with a Toyota Land Cruiser “Troopy” Troop Carrier

FULL SPECIFICATIONS LIST:

SUSPENSION

• Tough Dog Adjustable Shocks

• Tough Dog Heavy leaf springs

LIGHTS

• Truck-Lite 27270C 7" LED Headlights

• Baja Designs LP6 Pro, Driving Light combo, Amber

• Baja Designs LED Rock Lights, Amber

WHEELS & TIRES

• Toyo Tires Open Country A/T III, 285/75R16

• Volk Racing TE37X, 16x8 +0

POWER

• Redarc BCDC1225D

• Victron Energy BlueSolar MPPT 75V 15 amp

• Renogy 2000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter

• Rhino Adventure Gear Merlin Solar 240W solar panel

• 2x 100ah Battleborn Batteries BB10012

INSIDE

• Expedition Centre Mulgo Pop-top

• HiPro Audio custom camper interior and audio

• Coupler Creative custom bench-to-bed slide out

• 2x Scheelman Vario F Seats (Brown)

• Dometic CFX-50W, Dometic Drop-In Cooktop

• Elgena 12v water heater

• Planar 4B-12 Diesel Heater

• ARB Twin Air Compressor

• Connect4x4 Armrests

• Doug’s Tub glove box container

OUTSIDE

• Warn Industries VR EVO 12-S winch

• Frontrunner cross bars

• Blueridge Overland Tire Storage Bag XL

• GP Factor Universal Drop-Down Table

• GP Factor Spare Tire Maxtrax Mount

• 2x Maxtrax, Orange

• Pelican 1745 Air