I just bought my first RC truck, used to fly RC planes several years ago. I figured it would be harder to crash something that doesn't normally leave the ground. Long years ago, when I was 22 (I'm 71 now) I bought a Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser. I owned it for 8 years and it seemed to spend as much time off-road as it did on-road. I regret ever selling it and have long wanted to get another, but practicality and the rising costs kept me from it. A few weeks ago, I saw this FMS version of the FJ40 and decided I had to have it. There's a lot to be upgraded, it's pretty basic, but the size of the thing and the body detail impressed me. It's advertised as 1/10 scale, but dimensionally it is closer to 1/6 scale. I'm looking forward to upgrading it and regressing back to my 20's driving it in the woods. Lots of youtube videos on it and all are positive reviews, so I don't think I went wrong. My own LC was forest green, this one is blue, so it will get repainted early on.

Well I have a winch on it now, and converted the suspension to leaf springs. I haven't repainted it yet, beginning to like the blue just fine, but I may repaint later. The model's front bumper does not extend as far as the full size, so I modified mine and the winch fits better. I also removed the step in the back, and put a dropped hitch on it that can be either a ball or pintle style. The rear bumpers are gone, those curved pieces of steel didn't last long on my Cruiser, got bent up pretty quick in the back country. The rooftop rack is gone as well, I'll keep it to make a smaller one and use the scraps for other projects.

New wheels and tires and new trailer.

The trailer box will have an elevated tent platform and I plan to extend the tongue an inch or so

New winch plus a tow chain

Extended the front bumper

dropped the hitch receiver under the frame rail, the hitch easily removes and can be used as a ball or pintle style. Removed the rear bumpers and added tow rings

Shows the hitch mount. It's all styrene but very solid.
I swapped the transmitter and receiver for a 7-channel system, changed to a 1080 ESC, and put different wheels and tires on it. The wheel inserts are brass and add a good bit of stabilizing weight to help keep it upright on slopes. I even have a trailer for it and am building a box and elevated tent platform for the box. Making progress.

looks great so far

Finished the trailer, at least for now. I will make some fuel can holders from brass soon and a few brackets for tools, jacks etc. at some point, and also some leveling jacks at the trailer corners. The frame for the elevated tent is 1/4" square brass soldered together. I also made a spare tire holder, like a hitch receiver that the bar can be removed from. The receiver is 1/4" square brass, the sliding inner mount is 7/32" square brass. The tent and platform I found on Amazon.

I improved the trailer a little, put same size wheels and tires as the FJ has. I also widened the stance with 14mm spacers and made it more stable, the trailer had a tendency to fall over with the smaller tires.