Why This Supercharged Toy FJ45 Is the King of Shop Trucks

When you think about the ultimate shop truck, most of us picture something practical - maybe a beat-up pickup with decent towing capacity and enough bed space for parts runs. But the crew at LCS 4x4 took that concept and threw it straight out the window. Their shop truck is a blown LS3-powered FJ45 that’s been stripped down to its core and rebuilt into something that looks like it crawled out of a fever dream.

This isn’t just another engine swap project either. Lori from LCS 4x4 explains that this build represents over a decade of evolution. The chassis started life as a $2,000 FJ80 that was supposed to stay stock - you know how that story goes. Four different body swaps later, including multiple FJ40 cabs, and they’ve landed on this wild creation that houses a supercharged LS3 under the hood of a 40 series cab sitting on an 80-series chassis.

The front end alone tells you this isn’t your average weekend warrior. That custom LCS bumper integrates with the tube work to create a protective cage around the entire front section. When these guys say they build their rigs to roll and drive away, they mean it. The steady rock lights aren’t just for show either - they’re positioned specifically to illuminate the winch area during night recoveries, because apparently getting stuck in daylight is for amateurs.

That Warn winch up front is fed by a 24 volt system powered by four massive batteries in the rear. Most of us struggle with 12 volt electrical systems, but LCS went full send with dual voltage setups that’ll pull anything short of a semi truck up a hill. The footage of this thing dragging other rigs up technical sections at walking pace is genuinely impressive.

The engine bay is where things get really interesting. The LS3 wears a Harrop 2300 supercharger that’s fed by its own dedicated heat exchanger up front. They’ve separated all the cooling systems to maximize efficiency - the supercharger gets its own radiator with twin 12" fans, while the main engine cooling happens out back. It’s the kind of thermal management you’d expect on a race car, not a trail rig.

Behind that blown small block sits a Turbo 400 with a manual valve body and an Atlas four-speed transfer case. The Atlas is the real party trick here - it offers everything from 1:1 high range down to something ridiculous like 10:1 when you stack the planetary gears. You can run front-wheel drive only, rear-wheel drive only, or lock everything together. It’s overkill in the best possible way.

The suspension setup is where this build really separates itself from typical Toy swaps. Instead of just throwing some coilovers at the stock suspension points, they’ve designed a complete 5 link front end with parallel arms and a panhard rod. The rear gets a triangulated 4 link setup. Both ends run King 2.5 coilovers with 14" springs and hydraulic bump stops.

But here’s the clever part - they’ve clearanced and modified the chassis to gain an extra 200mm of uptravel while only raising the ride height by 75mm. They’ve also stretched the wheelbase 150mm for better approach and departure angles. The result is a rig that sits at a reasonable height but has massive suspension travel when you need it.

The attention to detail extends to parts commonality too. The front and rear suspension arms are identical lengths, so you only need to carry one set of spares. The front and rear driveshafts are the same length as well, with a spare that works in either position. When you’re planning thousand-mile adventures through the outback, this kind of thinking makes the difference between a good trip and a long walk.

Inside, the cabin keeps things relatively simple despite the complexity underneath. The custom dash houses a Haltech ECU system that controls everything through CANbus - no fuses or relays anywhere in the car. You can tune the engine, adjust the suspension, control the winches, and monitor every system through the digital display. The fact that they can troubleshoot and adjust the tune remotely via Bluetooth is pretty wild.

Even the creature comforts get the full treatment. Those Mastercraft seats are going through the engineering process to be street legal in Victoria. The door cards are custom-machined ABS plastic instead of the typical vinyl that gets destroyed by muddy boots. The textured paint on the floor helps with sound deadening and heat management.

The rear end packaging is equally impressive. Those four 35 kilogram batteries for the 24 volt system are mounted as low and central as possible for weight distribution. The fuel cell and surge tank setup with dual pumps provides redundancy - if one pump fails, the ECU automatically switches to the backup. The twin 3" exhaust system tucks up tight to avoid trail damage while keeping noise levels reasonable on the highway.

That rear winch isn’t just for show either. Having a winch on both ends opens up recovery options that most of us never consider. Instead of just pulling yourself forward or backward, you can vector forces sideways to avoid obstacles or extract yourself from situations that would normally require multiple anchor points.

The weight distribution tells the whole story about how well this build was planned. At just over 2.4 tons, it’s remarkably light for something with this much capability. More importantly, they’ve achieved nearly perfect 50/50 weight distribution front to rear. That kind of balance is what makes a rig feel planted and predictable in technical terrain.

What really sets this build apart is that it doesn’t sacrifice the classic FJ40 aesthetic for all this modern capability. Those custom side panels from Rob Soy at Soy Metalcraft are hand-formed pieces that maintain the original Toy lines while hiding all the modern hardware underneath. It’s the kind of attention to detail that separates a professional build from a backyard hack job.

The LCS shop truck represents something bigger than just another engine swap or suspension upgrade. It’s a rolling R&D platform that’s helped develop products and techniques that benefit the entire off-road community. Every time they break something or find a better way to package components, that knowledge gets passed along to customer builds and product development.

This is what happens when you combine unlimited creativity with the skills and resources to execute at the highest level. The LCS shop truck isn’t just a tool for hauling parts or impressing customers - it’s a statement about what’s possible when you refuse to accept limitations. Whether they’re using it to drag broken rigs off the trail or bombing across the continent on thousand-mile adventures, this thing represents the absolute pinnacle of what a shop truck can be.