2024 Toyota LandCruiser 79 GXL: Ironman 4x4 protection and recovery gear

A key component of any 4x4 build is protection equipment. Be it for outback touring, challenging offroad tracks or just working on the farm, you will want to protect your vehicle from the hazards of life on the roads and out in the bush.

Animal strikes, stones rocks and scrub are all out there to clash with your vehicle, be they bouncing out in front of you, sliding down the side of your guard or scraping under your sills or sump; there’s always the potential for damage and sometimes it can leave you stuck, or worse, be life threatening.

Driving in the bush is nothing new for Australians and thankfully we have a buoyant aftermarket industry busily designing and fabricating world-class products to protect our 4x4s and their occupants. For our VDJ79 build we were very happy to team up with the crew at Ironman 4x4 as we know they have all the protection gear we need for the LandCruiser.

In fact, it was actually Ironman’s magazine ads featuring a white facelift-model 79 just like ours that convinced us that was the gear we were after, as not only is it well-engineered but it has the desired look.

The equipment fitted to the front of the Ironman LandCruiser, and now on our one, consists of a new Apex bull bar which was specifically developed for the facelifted 2024 70 Series Cruiser; premium steel side steps/sliders with side rails; a Frontier 12,000lb winch; Cube lights in the bull bar that replace the factory fog lights; and a pair of Ironman Scope nine-inch LED driving lights.

It’s a comprehensive package that will protect the front and sides of our Cruiser as well as supply much needed recovery equipment for getting ourselves and others out of sticky situations.

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The facelift on the 2024 70 Series LandCruiser is a bit of a back to the future change with a return to round headlights, but they are now LED units with daytime running lights, and there are a few other design elements and vents that hark back to LandCruisers of old. It might be new for this year but the overall front-end of the vehicle remains essentially the same, just revised.

So when it came to creating the Apex bull bar, the design team at Ironman didn’t need to stray too far from what they already had. The full hoop bar is taller in line with the higher bonnet, and the hoops are made big with 63.3mm tube and a more detailed lower channel section with provisions for the latest LED cube lights for the purposes of park and turn signals, fog lamps and additional lighting.

Of course, the Apex bull bar includes a cradle to mount a winch on, and in this case we’ve fitted Ironman’s Frontier 12,000lb unit. Another new product to Ironman 4x4, the Frontier takes over from the Monster range of winches that the company has sold in the past.

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The Frontier takes lessons learned from that experience and the new winch is rated to IP68 for being submersible to one metre for 30 minutes, and it has a breather to allow the heat that builds up out of the housing while keeping water out, thus protecting the internals. This durability allows Ironman to offer a five-year mechanical warranty on the Frontier winch.

The motor is a proven 6hp unit and there is now a controller that can be used either wirelessly or with the supplied cable. We chose the option of synthetic winch rope as it is lighter than steel cable, meaning less weight over the front axle. Synthetic rope is also easier and safer to work with when performing vehicle recoveries.

Fitting the Frontier winch in the Apex bull bar required the winch housing to be ‘clocked’ to get the clutch release lever closer to the front where it is easy to reach. Clocking is simply a matter of undoing the housing and turning it around until the lever is in the best position before buttoning it back up.

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The Apex bull bar has provisions for mounting extra lights on the main channel and antenna tabs up on the hoop. We particularly like that the antenna tabs are at the furthest reaches of the hoops to get the antennas as far out of the driver’s line of sight as possible. There’s also a pair of rated recovery points under the bar along with a 4mm-thick protective bash plate.

The Ironman Scope nine-inch driving lights are a premium product, but at $349 each they don’t come with a premium price tag. The Scope lights are an all-in-one lighting solution as they have two modes for output so that you can dim them down when you have reflective signs on the road and they are a spot and spread combo. In addition, the side lights work as DRL/positional lights when the spotties aren’t in use. The driver can adjust from the full beam to the 80-per-cent dimmer mode via a two-way switch; in our LandCruiser we have mounted this switch in one of the factory blanks on the dash.

At full power the Scope lights punch out up to 1 lux at 1770m, and with a 5700K colour rating the light is claimed to be easy on the eyes. We’ll bring you a full review of the Scope lights and the Frontier winch once we get out in the bush for some night driving.

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We’ve run a set of Ironman side rails back from the hoops on the Apex bar and down to the side steps. Side rails not only protect the front guards from rubs and scrapes but they also brace the bull bar in the case of a heavy animal strike. As the side steps are mounted to the chassis rails, the side bars triangulate the mounting of the bull bar for greater strength in an impact.

The standard aluminium side steps Toyota fits are as consumable as brake pads and tyres; one decent scrape on a rock or log and they are easily busted up, so steel replacements are always a worthy addition. Ironman’s Premium side steps not only give folks an easy step up to get in and out of the cabin but add valuable protection to the sills and side of the vehicle; like a bull bar and side rails, they provide peace of mind when you are driving in the rough stuff.

The Ironman 4x4 kit comprising the Apex bull bar, side rails, Premium side steps, Frontier winch and Scope lights has given our LandCruiser a comprehensive package of vehicle protection, self-recovery capability and forward lighting, all things we’d recommend for any 4x4 vehicle heading bush… and that’s just what we’re planning to do.

Pricing

• Apex bull bar kit (includes Cube lights and bull bar plug-and-play patch loom): $3424
• 12,000lb Frontier winch: $999
• Premium side-step and rails: $1580
• Nine-inch Scope driving lights: $349 each
• Driving light wiring loom: $229