Throwback Thursday featuring one of our long time fans & his Toyota truck and our off road tires: Dear Yokohama Canada, I have a great story to share with you, I think you will enjoy it. In 1987 I was 16 years old and my dad bought a BJ42 Toyota Landcruiser – it was green, it was awesome – and it was going to be mine! Shortly after he bought it, Dad took me tire shopping for the ‘Crusher – as it was now known in our household. We looked at all tire manufacturers and went to the car show and spoke with many sales people. We needed a tire for off road and street as well, He bought Yokohama Mud Diggers – with raised white letters, of course! Over the next 5 years and 75,000km, we went all through the Manitoba, Minnesota and North Dakota wilderness – canoe strapped to the roof, Mud Diggers churning the mud through seemingly impassible portage trails and sandy hills alike. I even used it to take my skateboarding team to shows (kicker ramp hanging out of the back, of course), I towed the race car to the track as well. Dad would even drop me off at the snowboarding hill in the winter, a! nd then take it for back-country winter 4x4ing, (he has a story about that…). Our trusty Crusher and Yokohama Mud Diggers never let us down. Fast forward to 2004, I am married and have three sons of my own now – I needed a family support vehicle that would take us where we needed to go, reliably. It didn’t take much time to decide on another Toyota Landcruiser, this time a slightly more refined version, the FZJ80 wagon with 8 passenger seating. Not available in Canada anymore, I had it imported from USA. I was really excited to buy this truck – but I was more excited to take it in to get a new set of Yokohama tires just like the old days! The day I brought it home, I drove it over to get the tires put on – never felt better than to see my ‘Crusher with raised white Letter Yokohama Geolandar’s sitting in the driveway (truth be told, I asked for Mud Diggers and was a little surprised that they were no longer be produced). We took it everywhere, we went across Canada, through the Rockies, Down the Pacific coast to Mexico, through the Dunes of Oregon, crazy heat wave and California freeways, back to Moab. We explored abandon quarry’s and mines, timber line trails, tracked Bears and ‘Crushed over a good part of the Canadian Shield. We camped in it, towed with it, rescued in it, and ran from Tornado’s in it. We’ve had a Gravel truck lose their load in front of us and had the axle catch on fire as well, twice (melted the center cap of the wheel, but tire was fine – did you make them fire resistant on purpose?!) and much more – but the impressive part is the 3 more siblings in the family; my wife and I have had 2 more sons and a daughter during the Crushers tenure making us able to use every seat belt in the truck. A very important load for the Yok’s indeed. As I look out the window at the old girl in my driveway, just starting to show her age (but don’t say that out load!) – plugged in to keep her cosy on another still, clear and crisp -35 degree Prairie night, reflecting on the past 10 years I can’t help but be marveled by it; Raised White Letters on the Geolandars are bright as ever, ready for service and I know it’s going to start in the morning and take me to work without any worries in the world. Through the past 10 years we have put 180,800 Km (113, 000 miles) on this ‘Crusher and its Tires, but more impressive is the fact that I have never had a tire failure, ever. I’m still running the same set of Yokohama Geolandar’s I bought in 2004. Never had one lose tire pressure, never put a patch in; never had any issue under any circumstance ever. It’s the kind of tire performance we want but seldom get – but I’ve had it twice now and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Thank you, Yokohama, for helping defi! ne tire reliability – and providing all those memories, none tainted. Matt Corrie
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 16:00:01 +0000
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