NEW LandCruiser Prado - Toughest Testing EVER Done

We just put the new Land Cruiser Prado through absolute hell. Scorching 45 degree heat, sand, on at deep water crossings, and it even played battering ram a few times. And somehow, it survived. They brought this decked out Prado with bar work, tyres and a few other mods on our latest desert run and it didn't back down once. But today we've got Dave's other modified Prado and we're putting it against a stock one to see just how much potential is locked away from factory and how a few key upgrades can turn it into an off-road weapon. Then we'll dive into how Dave designs and tests bar work to be strong, lightweight and look great. So under the bonnet of the new Prado, you've got the 2.8 litre diesel. It's the same motor, basically, you get in the Hilux and even in the 79 series. But just like the Hilux, it's got the mild hybrid system, which has got essentially a 48 volt battery system and mild hybrid assist. So it's got a little electric motor that helps on take off and things like that. It doesn't really give you any extra power, but it apparently helps with fuel economy. The battery pack does take a little bit of space out of your rear cargo area, when you're trying to put drawers and things like that in for touring, it's going to be a little bit of a compromise. This is actually the Altitude model. So it's an off-road variant. It's got a rear diff lock, anti-sway bar, disconnect, probably the most off-road capable of all the Prados, which we're going to test really soon. When we talk about this vehicle having poor clearance and poor approach angles, this is what we mean. This bumper really sticks out a long way. So you can imagine any rock that you're about to drive, unless you get the tyres on the perfect angle, it's going to be really hard to avoid damage. You'll notice it's quite a wide wheelbase and with not much clearance. So any rock and obstacle that we go over, there's a real chance that it's going to do a lot of scraping underneath. This one does have some basic bash plates from factory, but they are very thin steel. Both vehicles do have a tyre at the rear that also hangs down nice and low. I can see that being a little bit of an anchor. It's not really designed to go off-road, at least without some modifications. Now if you look at Dave's, he has some basic modifications. What you need to understand though, it's very mildly lifted. It's only got a 30mm lift, so the real advantage of this vehicle is going to be on its off-road angles and in particular, the approach angle. Let's have a look at that. So the approach angle combined with a better ramp over, a little bit more clearance and some underbody protection, rock sliders and all the is going to give this one a bigger advantage off-road. I've just been able to tackle those obstacles like rocks and ruts and things like that. But the best way to find out is actually get these things in low range and go test them out. I've got to say, for stock suspension in the Prado 250, it handles these dirt roads really nicely. It's one of the most comfortable vehicles probably ever driven on a dirt road and we're moving along at a little bit of pace at the moment, hitting little washouts and all sorts of stuff and the ride is superb. It's not bottoming out like I think it would. Even on the road, the suspension was quite hard and I thought this thing, unless it's loaded, it's going to be an absolute nightmare to drive on dirt roads, but I'm completely wrong. It's very capable and super comfortable. I've just got to the first little obstacle at the moment. I've just put into low range, got the centre diff lock on and that should be fine for this track. It's not very tricky, but let's give it a go, hey? It's a little bit steep, a couple of rocks in it and it's a little bit rutted out. Oh yeah, there's scraping. Oh, come on. There we go. A little bit of scraping, but not too bad. It's got plenty of traction. Now, let's see how Dave goes. With the stock Prado dragged its way up the track, Dave's car almost glides up. As we got further into the track, the ruts got deeper and the scraping progressively worse and eventually we found the stock Prado limits. These are the mildest ruts in the world, but we'll see how the big Prado goes. It's just carrying itself on that underbody. It's where just a little bit more clearance would make a world of difference. I can just feel it, sort of every metre it's hitting the ground. You can just feel that scraping in there. It's getting traction though, which is a good thing. I spoke a bit too soon. Here we go. I might have to use a little bit of momentum to carry me through here. Oh, there's a lot of scraping. The rear locker has helped tremendously there. Except for this bit. I think I'm just bottomed out. We've got that rut is like a little bit high. I'd need about an inch or two of clearance, I reckon, would make all the difference. You can see straight away on the rut where I've come in contact with the ground and that's just holding me up. I'm going to have to back out, unfortunately, and go around this obstacle. I didn't expect to see the limitations of the vehicle so quickly. Interesting to see how Dave's vehicle goes. Now, Shono did not make it up this little bit here, but as he's got the factory 32 inch tyres on it, I've got the upgraded muddies. I should have roughly about an inch under the diffs more than Shono had in his. So a bit of lift would definitely help, but this more looks like a diff situation here. So tyres, tyres, tyres. All right, we've made it past what Shono did and we're doing well. Few mods in your Prado. Mild mods too. And look how much better your car can go up the hill. A vast place to the It's pretty easy to see why I got hung up so easily on that bit of track. Now, when those tyres went into the ruts and having such a low-slung vehicle with limited clearance, I was scraping the way all the way up the bash plates and it was just killing all my momentum, as you saw, and all the suspension mounts at the back, like the control arm mounts, they've all got covered in mud. So they're sort of stopping me off road. And of course, the tyres wouldn't have been a huge help as well. You can see this demonstrated perfectly here as It gets hung up, stuck, and no matter how much accelerator or traction aid you use, it isn't going anywhere. Compare this to the modified Prado. Its additional clearance and better approach angle allows it to bump itself over the rock, regain traction, and continue down the track. That little bit of clearance, hey, it's not much, but it makes a big difference off-road. Another tricky section of track. It's a bit like what we've seen so far today. Kind of mild ruts, but this vehicle just lacks so much clearance. It's going to be a little bit of an effort to get through here. I reckon I'll drive this though. A little bit of momentum. Up we go. Big rock here, be careful of that. And, oh, it's off-cambered a little bit. Oh no. Bugger. Taking the flare off. Yes! Made that just. Bugger. Well, that's a bit unfortunate really. I've just slid into that bank a little bit. The flare's grabbed on the clay. There's no panel damage whatsoever, but it's just grabbed the clips and just pulled the flare out. So I'll be able to chuck it back on, no doubt. Look at that. You hardly know. All right, let's go. Well, there's no prizes for guessing what's happened right here. Obviously, I've scraped all the way up here. As soon as suspension unloads a little bit and you've got these ruts, it just scrapes the whole way. And this is actually where I ripped that flare off. Big day's up next in the Prado. Let's see how different this vehicle handles it. Here he comes. Okay, let's take it easy. Let's not damage our Prado like Sean did. Nice and smooth. Easy, easy. Oh, look at that. Come on, baby. That's it. That's a ticket. Having pushed the stock Prado a little too far, we decided to call it a day. And Dave took us back to Off-Road Animal HQ for a deeper dive into what made the Prado so good in the Simpson Desert and how he designs accessories for these complicated modern vehicles. Dave, thanks, mate. That was a lot of fun taking those Prados off road this morning. Sometimes you forget just how exciting it can be driving a stock standard car. Look, I've got stuck quite a lot of times. It's even a record for me, mate, the amount of times I had to reverse and get out of strife. But it goes without saying that the modified Prado really outperformed the stock one. We knew that was going to be the case, but to actually see it in real world example highlighted why you'd want to accessorise a vehicle. It makes it a lot easier on the vehicle, the track, and you just drove everything with ease when I was in second gear, revving it and even doing a little bit of damage. But we won't talk too much about that. So you've modified this Prado. You've seen its limitations in stock format. How did your modified Prado, do you think, go in a very wild Simpson Desert scenario? Probably the best of the bunch that we went with. For starters, the first week, super hot, dusty in the slow work up and down the dunes. I'm sitting there with cooled seats. I got my cooled box here, drinks on hand. The air con was working brilliant. And the car, while it's not a power beast, had plenty of go to get up the dunes. I never struggled. And then when the rain hit, the only problem was I didn't have a snorkel. You were talking to me before that trip and you said, look, Sean, do you think I'll need a snorkel for the Simpson Desert? I said, look, probably not, mate. Just wait till you get home, put one on, it'll be fine. But as it turns out, some of the most wild river crossings, I'm going to call them that because they're over a kilometre long, some of them, right? Yeah, I think the longest one was 1.3km long. It's a five minute actual drive through that one, pushing a four and a half tonne 79 Series. Let's talk about that for a second. You were actually pushing a 79 Series through a majority of these crossings for a whole bunch of them. What was the method behind the madness there? So sometimes there'd be this much mud to this much mud. And so when the car started bogging down, if you could just give it a little nudge, keep going, it would help the front car keep going. But also if you could stay close behind, the bow wave created by the front car would be enough that we could hopefully not get water in the airbox. I actually had to put my bullbar planted against his tray and just push him. How's that? And it made for great footage. And I've never seen anything like that before. Just thank goodness you had a bullbar in the front of the rig. A few scratches on a bullbar, a bit of a sand powder coat is a small price to pay for actually making it through because yeah, it could have gotten pretty serious. Absolutely. Now with that much water, obviously there was a few electrical dramas with some of the vehicles on that trip. How did the Prado go with all that much water? It's a new car. It's got a 48 volt, you know, semi-hybrid or mild hybrid setup. Surely there's some sort of electrical gremlins. I mean, what was it? The Ranger did one alternator, the 79 series did two alternators, the older Prado did an alternator, but I'm happy to report the only damage the car had was the inner liner on the bonnet had so much water on it and it fell off. But on that, that's not one other issue with the car. That's pretty mild in the scheme of that trip. Made it out on its own steam. That's absolutely remarkable. Another thing I noticed with this Prado, it obviously takes AdBlue. I was a bit shocked about that. Tell me about your experience. Like firstly, could you get AdBlue everywhere and how much AdBlue did you use? So I used a third of a tank driving from Melbourne to Nindigali. Oh wow. Right then and there, that was at 12, 1300 k's and I was just like, wow, this is a bit of an issue. And then I found as you got more remote, there was a lot less chance that you actually could get AdBlue to the point I got a little bit worried that I bought 10 litre bag in a box, you know, like a casket. I'm glad I bought it because in the middle of the desert, in the rain, I had to use it to fill it up. It was the biggest surprise for me when you opened the back of your Prado up and I had to look inside. You're losing so much space. Now the seats, you've got rear seats, it's always going to take up a bit of space, but compared to like an old 100 series or even some of the older Prados, I feel like you've got a smaller cargo area. Yeah, definitely. 100%. It makes it harder and harder to put all that stuff in, which makes a roof rack also more important so you can put your longer stuff on top so you can actually get more room. Because while it's a big car, dimensionally, inside it's just really not. One thing I was genuinely fearful of today was bending the side steps on that stock Prado because they're not even alloy. These things feel like they're very plasticky, right? And I was really worried that going over a rut, I was going to fold those in half. Now I notice you're running rock sliders on yours. Do you mind if we have a quick look at those? Because I love that they're just tucked up so nice and you get a lot of extra clearance. Yeah, let's look. One of the hardest sections to actually repair if you have damage is your seals. We've designed them to be strong enough that you can actually rest the car on it and still be airbag compatible. And to get up on the roof as well makes it really handy to be able to step up into your four-wheel drive, there's no doubt. Dave, one thing I really like about the design of this bar is just how you've managed to angle these wings into the profile of the vehicle so it doesn't stick out and it looks really good. It looks like you didn't need to cut the bumper too. So you get a little trim on the flare and a little bit on the grille. So the bumper, you can still use the bumper if you later don't want a bull bar anymore or something like that. So it's quick on and off which makes install super easy. Obviously you've got an eye for designing bars. You make all your bars look really nice in my opinion, which is it's an art in doing that because at the end of the day the front of the vehicle is what people see. They're obviously very strong as well. You've tested that in the Simpson Desert. I've been using one on foot now for a long time and I've been absolutely punishing that thing. One of the other things I've noticed is there's a lot of inclusions on your bar that a lot of other bars you'd have to get extra. So we're talking about bash plates and things like that. You look around here, obviously they're the standard fog lights from the vehicle and you manage to retain those so you don't need to go buy something extra. That's exactly right. They save you money. So when you buy an off-road animal bar right away, you can put a winch in the car straight away. So it comes with the cradle. Comes with the cradle, there's nothing extra you need. So you've got the bash plate, comes standard. Okay, what about recovery points? Standard. Standard as well. Okay, and obviously places to mount, you know, your lights, your UHF, all that sort of stuff. All standard on the bar. Now obviously when you're designing a bar, a fair bit of consideration needs to go into an amount of airflow. Now this one looks like it's not really restricting any airflow. Obviously a fair bit of thought's been put into that. Modern cars with high power motors, they really need good airflow, especially if you're towing. We put grilles pretty much everywhere to allow a lot of airflow to go through to keep those inner coolers and those radiators cool by still maintaining some strength in the bar. Yeah, it's super important. And the other thing I've noticed, it's quite a slim line bar. You must save a fair bit of weight by making it such a tight fit. Oh yeah. Look, a lot of competitors' bars would stick maybe 100, 150 mil further out than ours. Yeah. And that's just a lot of added steel or alloy for some of those people, which just adds weight. So this one, for example, here is only about 63 kilos, and the full hoop version is I think 74 kilos. So when you take the factory bumper off, you're really only adding between 40 to 50 kilos putting one of our bars on, which for the amount of protection that it offers, really isn't that much. And a place to mount all your accessories, which you need anyway. When it comes to the technology on a new vehicle like this, how do you go about incorporating like your parking sensors? There's a camera right here, for instance. How does that all work in the design process? Experience, trial and error, basically getting out and just fitting it, make sure it works. We pull the sensors apart, we scan them, we figure out the best way to mount them, we make our own mounts and refit it in the bar and then test, test, test. There's just so much detail to this bar when you start to look at it. Must be a lot of design goes into it. You know what? Let's head in the office. You want to see actually How cool is this? We've just walked into the design room here and Leon's actually designing a brand new bar for a BYD Shark. Leon here, he does a great job in designing the bars and you know what? He custom makes the design for every model. It's not just a one-size-fits-all, he really needs to get in there and the nitty-gritty of all the sensors and the safety tech as well as the styling. So the process really is you'll get an actual vehicle in, you'll scan the front of this vehicle, by using that technology you can get not only a really strong bar but you can also contour it to the vehicle so it looks the part as well. Yeah, 100% so we can still keep it nice and compact and a bit smaller so we can save a lot of weight. Yeah, quick question, if you're saving a lot of weight, isn't that going to make a bar weaker? Not at all. We can prove that by taking you to our crash test rig over there and we'll actually crush your bar and show you how lighter does not mean weaker and can actually be stronger. Well this is a very impressive bit of kit, I didn't realise you'd have this sort of testing on hand here in Victoria. Can you explain, obviously it's to test destruction test bull bars, what are you simulating or how does it work? So this is what we call a quasi-static test, can emulate a low speed impact test. So in this case, instead of using a pendulum or a sled, we can use basically a big hydraulic ram to push into the bull bar here and what we can do is we can test the energy absorption and how much pressure it takes to basically deform our bar. We take the factory setup off and we put it in here and we test that as well. So we compare the two to know that your vehicle's airbags are going to still work like the factory, so we're not going to be too strong or too weak. So that's the compromise when it comes to designing a bull bar, if you're too strong then your airbags won't work when they're supposed to. It won't be ADR of course. And if it's too weak, you can't even take a roo. Yeah, that's right. We can actually make a bar lightweight yet strong. Now we also use this rig here to test the pull of our recovery points, so to make sure they're not going to rip off the car. So they're loaded rated and all the rest of it. Correct. So the bar is the strong bit, it's the mounts you want to actually deform. Right, that's it, you're actually designing for that. We could use that bar again if you wanted. Wow. Well, I've learned something new today, there's no doubt about that. I didn't realise, Dave was just telling me and explaining how the bars are designed on purpose, where the mounts are designed to crumble and give way before the bar. Because the bar's got basically zero damage whatsoever, so it's been designed like this on purpose, right? Yeah, so we actually want the mounts to take the brunt of the force. So we put ripple strips or energy absorption designed into the mounts, so that way when you have an accident, the mount crushes in and it absorbs some of the energy before it's transferred to the chassis, which is then transferred to the body of the car and to you. And to the person. Yeah, so we want the mounts to fail first. So we do this test here and we can see if our crumple zones that we are putting into the bar still work the way they're supposed to. That way, if you wanted to and you had an accident, you could really pull the bar off and change the mounts. Reuse it. And reuse it again. Yeah, absolutely, there's like zero damage on this bar. Your recovery points, you want them, we still put them on the mounts, but we put them behind the energy absorption section, so that way it's still on the strongest point. Of course, you don't want those guys giving up at any stage. That's right. Exactly right. Well, I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with that new Prado 250. I mean, it was about as capable as you can imagine being so low slung to the ground. It had the diff lock, it was built for off-road stuff, and it got places, but we certainly found its limitations pretty easy. It goes without saying, the modified version was heads and shoulders more capable, and it's easy to see why as well. You put two next to each other, you can see a way better approach angle, way better off-road angles all around, and of course, a heap more clearance. Now, as a tourer, I think it'd be absolutely perfect. The one thing I did learn today is how much goes into designing bar work. It's not just slapping on some metal on the front of a vehicle. There's a lot of testing that goes in behind the scenes, and I was absolutely blown away what we saw today. But the big question I want to ask you guys, would you own a 250 Prado? Let us know in the comments below. Don't be shy, tell us what you really think.