SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS

MODERN vehicles are appealing due to driver aids such as ABS, traction control, hill descent control and vehicle stability control. Despite their naysayers, these systems can make a 4x4 safer on- and off-road, and considerably more capable. Removing or bypassing these systems will make your 4x4 illegal, not to mention worse in almost every situation.

To get around this, workshops have gone to considerable lengths to retrofit newer safety systems to live axles. “A simple, reasonably priced conversion kit is available to restore ABS functionality to an LC80 axle when fitted to late-model vehicles,” Bud said. “But this kit cannot be used in later vehicles with active ABS sensors that are also used for the stability control and traction control systems. We’ve recently developed a solution and have one on the road in an FJ Cruiser. We believe it’s a world first, which should also work in LC200S.”