Old Landcruisers are not prepared for large screens, but it is quite easy to get a 2 Din player in both an 80 and a 78. You just have to be willing to cut a little in the dashboard. A 2Din player is twice as tall as a regular car radio.
Depth is not a big problem either. A player with a CD is about 18 cm deep and it will fit even if it is a bit cramped for cables. But it will be easier to go for a so-called mechless player who does not have a CD player. And that’s just fine since most people use their mobile phones, SD cards or USB memory sticks for music or audiobooks.
A mechless player is not that deep, about 7 cm. This gives much better room for cables behind the player.
Currently (as of 2019), mechless players are more expensive than those with CD players, although they are cheaper to produce. But as the Chinese change production, they will become cheaper.
2 Din players are fine for us with old cars. They include radio, playback of external Bluetooth devices like a mobile, USB memory sticks and SD cards. And then they have GPS navigation and not least a rear view camera which is nice on a big car.
In the 80’s I have over 3 years had 3 different players. First two no-name Chinese, and now a Pioneer. Most players are made in China, but of course there is a difference in quality. If you buy a no-name player on Ebay, you do not know what you get. If you are lucky, it works well. No-name is not completely precise, they are called something fancy bu the seller. So the same player may have many different names. The first no-name I bought was a tragedy. The FM radio barely worked and the sound was lousy. The GPS part worked fine, but the map view was extremely slow due to weak processor. So I ended up buying both an external DAB radio and an external amplifier. A cheap device thus became quite expensive.
Devices from the big brands, such as Pioneer, are quite expensive, but you get what you pay for, and no hassle with quality. And you can get used ones. Only downside is updating maps. You have to buy maps from Pioneer, and it’s expensive, and there are no maps for more exotic destinations. So I use a tablet for maps when needed.
Android players
When I bought an LC78 in 2019, a lot had happened with players. Android operating system had become commonplace. This is ingenious, because now you can load apps just like on a mobile phone. I bought one, not directly from China, but from a Norwegian importer, Graviton. It will be a little more expensive, but if it is a serious importer then you are guaranteed help and have a working guarantee. Returning a player to China is just to forget.
The player runs Android 7.1 which is a fairly new version. The map app that came with it was hopeless to download maps for, so I installed the free Maps.me app instead, in addition to Mapfactor Navigator. And then I use Locus maps for off-road / off-road. Read more about maps and apps here: Navigation apps for car and mobile – overlanding
The device contains a wifi receiver, so if you have a network that reaches the car, you can in principle install apps and maps via wifi. In practice, this works poorly. The wifi antenna is inside the dash, there is a lot of steel and poor reception. Even though I placed a router inside the car, there were constant breaks in the download. Then it is better to install as much as possible before installing the device in the car. The easiest way is however to use APK files for new apps. These can be downloaded to a PC, copied to a USB memory stick and then installed on the device with an APK installer.
Similarly, you should use map apps where you can install maps from a USB memory stick. This is especially important when traveling. Then you can go to a cafe with wifi, download maps and copy into the device when you are back in the car.
My China player works fine except the screen could have had better contrast and been brighter. It is difficult to see details in the map in bright light. Next time I will check this better.
Installing in LC80
The 80 is ready for mounting two 1 Din players, or 1 player and a CB radio. To make room for a 2 Din player, you need to cut away some of the plastic. To get into the dash unscrew the upper part of the plastic around the instruments. There are 4-5 screws that need to be removed. And then you have to take out the switches. This is very simple. Tilt them out of the plastic and pull off the plug on the back. Remember to squeeze the lock on the socket.
Then you can either remove the plastic cover completely, or turn it up as shown in the picture. The mounting bracket that comes with the player will probably fit directly on the screw mounts that sit there, so it is easy to fix the player. And then you have to saw and file a little to make the frame fit around the player. Although 2Din is a standard, and the dimensions of the player’s box itself follow this, the size of the front varies a lot. So I have had to file a bit for each new player I have installed.
Power to the player can be taken from the wires that are already there for the radio. It is also possible to connect the built-in speakers in the dash, but these are very bad. See below for speakers in the door.
Installing in LC78
There is plenty of room for a 2Din player in my 2001 LC78. As the pictures show, the width and height are ok, and the depth is good. A bit cramped for cables so my 18 cm deep Android player sticks 1 cm out of the dash. A mechless player would have been perfect.
Unlike the LC80, it is very easy to get access to install a player. You unscrew 4 screws to remove the cover, and then you have to cut off some plastic to get the player in place.
Power to the player can be taken from the wires that are there for the radio. It is also possible to connect the built-in speakers in the dash, but these are very bad. See below for speakers at the door.
My player has an USB connection, and it is very nice both for playing music and for installing apps and maps. The USB connection is via a cable that came with it. This can of course hang dangling somewhere, but I rather made a plate that I mounted in the ashtray opening. Here I also got space for a 3.5 mm jack connector for line input to the player, ie I can connect for example a mobile with cable from the headphone output, and 2 USB 5V charging points. The connectors are the connectors that came with the player plus standard extension cables glued to the aluminum plate.
The other 3.5 mm jack input and switch is for the intercom system. Read about it here (coming soon).
Speakers
The speakers in the dash are lousy so external speakers are recommended. Loose boxes are dangerous if you do not get them securely fixed .The best place to mount the speakers is in the front doors. In both the 80 and 70 series it is possible. I would recommend a two-part speaker system, ie the treble element is separate from the bass / midrange. This is because the bass element comes far down the door, especially in the 70 series. The treble is directive and will not sound good if hidden away. The bass element can be nearly anywhere. In the doors of both car types, there is a large recess with space for at least a 6-inch element, in the 78 down by the floor, and a small recess at the top of the door where the tweeter fits perfectly. The crossover filter can also be mounted in a third recess.
When choosing speakers make sure it is a bass element that is shallow. There are only about 7 cm available on a 78. At 80 there are more, up to 12 cm. I use MAC audio in both cars. These are quite affordable and are only 53 mm deep.
On an 80 you can let the wire to the speakers go together with the wires for the central lock, but for a 70 series without a central lock you have to drill holes in the door and A-post. Drill in a place that that is as close as possible to a straight line between the center pin of the hinges. Use rubber liners.
To utilize the Toyota speakers as well, I connected these to the other speaker output of the player. Most players have output for two sets of speakers. But to load the speaker as little as possible with bass, which gives distortion, I connected a capacitor of 250 microfarads in series with the speaker. This filters out the bass, making it a midrange speaker. It worked very well and gave better sound especially for speech.
Rear view camera
There is poor visibility to the rear in an LC, especially when it is fully loaded with tour equipment. So an important part with a 2-Din player is that it can also be connected to a rear view camera.
There is poor visibility to the rear in an LC, especially when it is fully loaded with tour equipment. So an important part with a 2-Din player is that it can also be connected to a rear view camera.
The location of the rear view camera is important. On the 80 I first had the camera in the plate frame. This was a good location. The camera stayed relatively clean of dirt and gave a good picture when you backed close to something. When I mounted the spare wheel on the rear bumper, this shaded the camera so I moved it down into the bumper. It gave a good picture, but unfortunately the camera was very quickly covered by splashed dirt. So now I have moved it to the top of the back door, and use the hole for the window washer to pull the wire through. This gives very good visibility to the rear, the camera stays clean, but it is difficult to see straight down. But for anything other than backing close to something, this is the best location. I attached the camera with Tec 7. The camera cable was routed together with the other cables for the door. Use a thick steel wire to pull the wires. You may need to cut the RCA connector of the camera to get the cable through, but the cable can be soldered back together. Power to the camera can be taken from the plate lights, or connected to the backup light. The 2-Din device needs a 12V signal to activate the camera when backing, and this is most easily done by connecting to the backup light wire in the wheel arch on the left side, and then a cable to the player. Alternatively, connect the cable from the back up light switch on the gearbox, but this is difficult to access.
All cameras I have bought directly from China. And they have worked well.
On the 78, I went straight for a large camera mounted on the ceiling.
In the 80 I made a circuit for switching on the rear view camera when I drove forward, and a selector for a camera mounted in the front as well. Fine for cramped parking and off-road driving. For those interested in electronics see below. The camera selection is controlled with two switches and a relay. I used a shielded relay since these are high frequency video signals, but not sure it is needed.
