Marlin Crawler fitted into older Hilux pre 1998

[BIG HILUX]

Yes I have fitted this awesome Marlin Crawler kit into my 1992 Hilux, basically you buy this adapter plate from Marlin direct in America, it cost me R8 500. for freight as well as tax and the actual kit, to fit it you have to split your std transfer case, remove a few shafts and the add a few gears and then take another complete transfer case, split it and use one section of it that you then connect to the other end of the adapter plate, thus with the extra gears you now have a super low range.

This is awesome stuff, with this Marlin fitted to my vehicle, I can now select low range 4x4, turn up the ideal control knob so that the engine revs are at 2000 and then remove my foot from the excelerator pedal and the vehicle will move along very very slowly, this set up is excellent for rock crawling, the speedo does not even indicate any speed it is that slow, want to use the GPS and see what it reads the speed.

I then took a front double cardan jointed propshaft which is normally used at the front of the hilux and fitted it to the rear of my vehicle, I chucked out the two piece propshaft with the centre bearing, to be able to fit the front propshaft to the rear you also have to change the rear output flange of the transfer case, you have to fit a front transfer case output flange, some modifications to the front and rear propshafts are required, in their length.
But as an option, I also fitted the twin stick gear levers, thus my vehicle now has four gear levers, the normal long stick for 1 to 5 gear selection, then another gear lever, if it is back the vehicle is in High range and as soon as you push it foreward the vehicle is in low range, you can select low range in 2wd as well, then the other two levers give you a variety of gear selections, I can have low range front and rear, high range front and rear, low range at the front only, low range at the rear only and high range at the rear only, but no high range by itself at the front, it does get confusing.......

[BIG HILUX]

When out 4x4ing and you have to show your buddies that you know have this awesome vehicle and that it can basically go anywhere, well I can tell you very truefully that no matter how many mods you have done to your vehicle you will still get stuck somewhere, with this Marlin fitted it is manufactured more for rock than for driving through deep sand or mud, when I have to drive sand dunes or on the beach or through mud, I then select high range, which is in fact like a middle low range, I can select 2nd or even 3rd gear high range and this vehicle still has lots of torque left over, I have the 4Y four cylinder petrol engine fitted, okay it does have branches and a free flow system as well, but considering that I have those 33" x 1250 x 15" tires fitted onto those 8J rims, I find that this vehicle is excellent on tar roads, I get about 110 to 130km per hour checked with a GPS but like to drive at 110km per hour, this is comfortable.

Getting back to The Marlin, when I fitted the kit I had the std Hilux gearbox completely overhauled by a specialised and then had the transfer case overhauled as well, thus at the end of this modification this whole bang doo cost me
R25 000.00 not sure how muxh that is in Australian dollars.

R8 500. marlin kit
R6 500. gearbox overhaul
R5 000. transfer case overhaul
R1 250. to buy the extra transfer
case.
R1 000. for the extra front
propshaft
R 800. for the new clutch kit

And then all my free labour and some other hidden costs, had to fit single seats as well, so that I could fit the twin sticks between them. Will post some photo's for you guys to enjoy oh sorry if there are any ladies for you as well.

Have any of you or your mates done this mod to your Hilux and if so please contact me by my email
Nomad@xsinet.co.za and we can share pic's and info as well.

I still want to sort out some under belly plates to protect the transfer case as well as a straight cross member.

[BIG HILUX]

I see I can not upload pic's here will send them to Dave to post for me.

[Hilux Max]

Big Hilux....

I just found this thread and well done mate! Not sure if your still a member on here or not?

I too have fitted marlin Crawler to my hilux, and yes it is a great improvement to its ability offroad.

If your still a member here, let me know...I got a few questions bout your hilux and the 4Y