As with the Ford Everest and Ranger, the Fortuner is the vehicle a lot of people who got a HiLux and tub-topper-canopy should have bought. 

It’s comfier, roomier and just as good as the HiLux on the rough stuff. The only real downside is the lower towing capacity. 3100kg sounds okay, but with a GCM of 5500kg and a few aftermarket accessories thrown on, that capacity gets eaten into fast, but as I’ll get to in a minute, there are ways around that.

I’d go for the low-spec GX, mainly because there’s really no tangible or mechanical advantage to stepping up a model. I don’t need luxury trim or courtesy lamps in the doors. I mean, sure, that stuff is nice, but I’m already spending $58K.

Anyway, as I was saying, my near sixty-grand Fortuner has a gross vehicle mass of 2800kg and a tare weight of 2175kg, giving it roughly 625kg of carrying capacity. While this ain’t bad exactly, by the time I add barwork, the kids, a full cargo area, some bigger tyres, a water tank, a long-range fuel tank and hitch up 250kg of ball weight, that number starts looking pretty skinny. So, before I even get it registered I’ll be dropping in to Terrain Tamer for one of its GVM upgrade kits – $4000 later I’ll be ready to start carrying up to 3510kg safely.

This vehicle is designed to be more of a family truckster than a wild-eyed, mouth-frothing barbarian track-killer, so the big lifts, chunky sidewalls and 1000Nm aren’t really a goal with this one. Instead, I’ll be looking for an alloy front bar, some high-quality driving lights and a slimline alloy roof-rack for the kids’ swags. I’d also invest in a good 270º awning to keep the sun and rain off when we pull over for a cuppa or for somewhere for the family to sit while I’m setting up the camper.

Given towing is a priority, a Wholesale Automatics transmission cooler is a must, followed by a dyno tune which’ll give a usable 20-per-cent increase in power and torque without taking a bat to reliability. Fuel economy will also go up, which these days is a huge bonus – it’ll be a couple of grand well spent.

From there it’d be a mild 30-50mm lift with the best shocks I could afford, and then move up one size in the tyre department. If the budget extends, I’d be looking at throwing in a long range fuel tank to give more towing range over the stock 80L capacity, as well as a set of drawers to keep the cargo area as organised as possible. 

Overall, I’d be the proud owner of a nicely modified rig to comfortably tackle some long distances in.

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