The Cheapest 70 Series Land Cruiser Centre Console Upgrade
You do not need to spend a stupid amount of money on a centre console upgrade for the 70 Series Toyota Land Cruiser with (what we believe to be) the cheapest best value for money centre console upgrade.
The 70 Series Toyota Land Cruiser range is not known for having a well thought out, practical, or comfortable interior. Let’s face it, they are not built for comfort, they are built to last, perform at everything thrown at them, and provide a bunch of aftermarket accessory companies a massive amount of business. All non 70 Series Toyota Land Cruiser owners reading this will shake their heads at the ridiculous modifications required, but hey you either love the 70 Series or you hate them. If you are the later then this post is probably not for you, or it is to chuckle at the things we must do.
The One Cup Holder Problem
So, the 70 Series Land Cruiser comes with one cup holder! Yes, that is correct one cup holder. Of course, the reasoning is that either you have no friends so one cup holder is plenty, or you just don’t have any money left so you will be sharing. Either way, one cup holder is ridiculous, and you are going to need to do something for the driver and passenger somewhere to store their drinks while driving.
No Useful Storage
The other problem with the 70 Series Land Cruiser is the lack of storage up front. The centre console is tiny and sits low with hardly any storage inside. Other than the small glove box, plus a small opening on the passenger side and another behind the single cup holder that can’t really fit anything, that is about it for storage. It is a dumb design and not practical when touring or even driving around the paddock checking your cattle.
Expensive Aftermarket Solutions
There are plenty of aftermarket options to deal with these issues. The most common and popular modification with 70 Series Land Cruiser owners is to spend a fortune replacing the tiny centre console with a large aftermarket option. There are a few companies that make these aftermarket centre consoles being Cruiser Consoles (just outside Toowoomba and the company we would choose to support) and Consoles Online. There are a few different options with these upgraded centre consoles ranging from $650 to well over $1,000. These centre console upgrades look great and offer a range of different storage options, cup holders, switches, and electrical outputs. But they are all ridiculously expensive. If you don’t have the budget or would prefer to spend that money elsewhere, there are far cheaper options that can give you everything that you need.
The Most Affordable Centre Console Upgrade
Our recommendation if you want to save some money, is to combine the Mullet Mods cup holders with a plastic centre console storage tray. Both are extremely affordable and easy to install. The total cost of this upgrade will be under $125.
Mullet Mods Cup Holders
Mullet Mods are based in Queensland and started 3D printing a range of different storage accessories for a few 4WDs that have similar storage problems. The Mullet Mods front cup holder for the 70 Series Land Cruiser costs only $84 and works perfectly.
This cup holder is 3D printed and is easily connected to the front of the factory centre console. You simply remove the factory centre console by removing a few screws, and then add the Mullet Mods cup holder to the front of this. It takes about 15 minutes to complete this straightforward job. The Mullet Mods cup holder is available in either black or dark grey. We would recommend the dark grey option as it matches the interior of the 70 Series. The Mullet Mods cup holder can hold two large water bottles as well as a phone.
Mullet Mods also make a rear seat cup holder if you have a 79 dual cab or 76 wagon. You can read our post here that shows you how easy this cup holder is to install. This only takes a few minutes with two screws.
Plastic Centre Console Tray
Combining the Mullet Mods cup holder with a plastic centre console tray is a great option. On eBay if you search for “centre console tray 70 series” you will find a bunch of black plastic trays for around $35. These plastic trays are easy to install in front of the gear stick. There are other companies that sell these for closer to $100 that come with the correct clips for securing them. However, we recommend buying the cheaper eBay ones but also a set of car fender plastic rivets to install them correctly. We wrote a post a while ago going through how we installed our centre console tray which you can read here. At the time when we did this upgrade Mullet Mods as a business did not exist, so we made our own cup holder. Since then, we have upgraded to the Mullet Mods cup holder as it gave us two cup holders and looks far better.
Adding 12V Power Outlets
One benefit of the expensive centre console upgrades is that they can come with different switches and 12V outputs. That is great however it is extremely easy to add a 12V output to the plastic centre console tray. We stole this idea from a mate. But basically, there is enough space on top of this tray to add at least one round 12V output. As the tray is plastic, you can easily drill out a hole big enough to fit any 12V output. We chose to add a double USB port for charging our phones, Zoleo satellite communicator, and iPad that we use for navigation. The wiring for this output goes to our second battery so that it constantly has power which is far better when charging devices. If you are after additional switches, Mullet Mods do a great little 3D printed switch panel that replaces the useless ashtray.
Factory Centre Console Issues
One problem with doing our recommended cheaper upgrade is you are still left with the factory centre console. For some this is an issue as they do not like how the centre console sits so low. This is a problem if you like to rest your arm on top of the centre console while driving. Replacing the factory one with an expensive aftermarket option solves this problem as the centre console is raised. However, for us this has not been an issue. We found that when we did have an arm rest in previous vehicles, we tended to slouch when we drove. If you struggle with lower back and neck issues, as I do from previous injuries, slouching causes a whole bunch of pain issues for me. By not having a centre console that I can lean against, I sit upright with a good posture. The 70 Series is the only vehicle I have driven where I have not suffered back or neck pain even after a big day of driving. Posture is pretty damn important when suffering from lower back pain.
For Us It Has Been a Great Upgrade
Overall, for us this cheaper centre console upgrade with combining the Mullet Mods cup holder and the centre console tray has been great for us. We have got enough cup holders for the both of us. The centre console tray has provided a few additional storage pockets for phones and other little things. Adding the double USB outlet to the console tray has been fantastic as we use it constantly on every trip to charge both our iPad for navigation as well as our mobiles and Zoleo satellite communicator. We also added a Grab Me Gear dash storage pocket which has give us a few more storage options for our gear that is easily accessible while driving. With these few updates we have more than enough storage up front in our 76 Series Land Cruiser. The only issue we see with these upgrades over an expensive centre console replacement is the height of the factory centre console. If the low centre console is an issue for you and you want something higher, then you will probably want to spend the money and go with an expensive centre console upgrade. An expensive centre console upgrade will look a lot better, no denying that, so if looks are what you are going for then spend the money. If you are simply after something affordable and practical, our recommendations in this post will do the job perfectly.
All products mentioned in this post we paid for. For more information on the Mullet Mods 70 Series Land Cruiser cup holders, you can find them here on their website. While there you might as well look at their rocker switch panel that replaces the ash tray. To find the cheap centre console trays, search for “centre console tray 70 series” on eBay. Make sure you read our posts here to see the fender rivets we recommend purchasing when fitting the centre console tray. To see the Cruiser Consoles centre console options, you can find them here on their website.
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Thanks for reading.
The thoughts of Peter.