The Wagon Way

Curiosity or friends got you here so just what are we about. The Wagon Way site is two guys sharing and giving back to the wheeling community. We have been there, done that and are willing to tell you about it. We both owned FJ40’s at one time but these days we just happen to enjoy wheeling in wagons, wagons that are also daily drivers. Our wagon of choice is the 60 series Land Cruiser. Reliable, durable, easy to modify and built like a tank.

The site is about rock solid advice on what you can do with and in a wagon. It's a source for information, answers or a link to what you need. Technical know how that can be trusted without question. Inspiration for your own adventures, as you won’t believe the places you can put a wagon.

This is not a forum. While forums are full of good advice, they are also a risk for bad advice. The anonymity allows someone to spew out garbage all day and no one knows who they are and just what they really know. Here it is only real people with real names and years of practical experience. Everything on the site has been done to one or both of our rigs. And even though we both drive 60's you will find they are very different.

No one pays their way to get on here. We make mention of companies and individuals that we have dealt with and received good to great service from. And if we have been shafted by someone we will tell you that too. But probably with kind words so they don’t sue us. We will even give them a shot at redeeming themselves.

What’s in a wagon? Family, friends and my dog (who happens to be both). Wagons have plenty of room for others, they are inclusive, rather than exclusive. And to be honest you don’t even have to drive a wagon to find something of interest here on the site. Be sure to check back often for updates, edits and additional articles.

The Wagon Way is a mindset, a way to wheel and act, a philosophy if you will. But not one that is in your face.

There is a right way, a wrong way and The Wagon Way.


Eric Burch and Tony Konovaloff


-New Articles-

Lilly Re-powered Part 6: Gauge swap

IMG_6142-0.PNGSpent the night swapping the diesel gauges over to my 62 dash. The important one I needed was the tachometer due to how the diesel reads RPM. On the 62, the tachometer gets the RPM signal from the ignition coil.  Since the diesel engine doesn’t have an ignition coil, you have to get the RPM’s from either the alternator, fuel injector lines, or by the factory setup, the flywheel. It uses a Hall effect sensor which is a type of transducer that varies its output voltage to the tachometer in response to a magnetic field. Basically it detects the teeth on the flywheel as they pass the sensor and converts that signal to the dial you see on your dash.

Get more from your torque wrench!

By Eric B

While doing my 2H diesel swap, I had to remove the timing gear cover and that involved removing the crankshaft pulley. Removing the nut was easy with an air impact gun. Once time to install the nut, I checked the torque required, 325 ft lb, and realized I didn’t have a torque wrench that size. I didn’t want to pay the costly amount for one that size and attempts to borrow or rent one failed. After a few days of thinking about what to do, I realized I can use my 150 ft lb wrench and multiply the torque using an extension.

Lilly Re-powered Part 3: Making things fit

As with all conversions you will eventually have to fit something somewhere or adapt something to suit your liking.  No different here.  Took the afternoon to address some location issues for a few components.  One was fitting the battery switch and isolator I am wanting to move into the engine bay from the glove compartment inside.  One of the things that I removed that will no longer need is the bracket for some of the vacuum/EGR emission components mounted to the fender.  It looked like the perfect place to mount both switch and isolator.  With a few modifications it was good to go.

Extra! Extra!

In case you haven’t seen them, more Wagon Way write-ups have appeared in TLCA’s Toyota Trails!
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Lilly Re-powered Part 2: 3FE comes out

In preparation for pulling pulling the engine, I started removing what I could until the hoist could be picked up.  The fun part about this was not worrying about labeling vacuum lines or wiring in fear of not knowing where they went upon reinstallation, it all wasn’t getting reinstalled.  I basically made two piles, the reuse pile and the discard pile.  The discard pile was winning in size.

  • Write Ups:

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  • As seen in Toyota Trails!


    Various articles written here have been published in TLCA's Toyota Trails magazine and on their website. After roaming around our site, click on the magazines to visit TLCA.


  • Shop Corner:

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    • Ben’s FJ60 Build
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