Toyota HiLux AT35 is a $100,000-plus monster ute

Bigger, wider, stronger, tougher and with upgraded off-road capabilities, the new Toyota HiLux AT35 is arguably the beefiest factory-backed Toyota HiLux yet.

Towering over Toyota Australia’s locally-developed dual-cab ute flagship, the circa-$70,000 Toyota HiLux Rugged X, the UK-only AT35 tough truck looks like a genuine Ford Ranger Raptor rival with its re-engineered chassis, lift kit and upgraded diffs, to name just a few of the mods.

But it’s a pricey machine.

The total cost is around $105,000 after the $34,000 (£18,780) AT35 upgrade price is added to the cost of the range-topping Toyota HiLux Invincible X, itself a $71,000 (£40,000) proposition.

Built by a company called Arctic Trucks and sold through official Toyota UK dealerships, the trail-ready pick-up is backed by the full five-year factory warranty and gets a significant suspension overhaul starting with a lift kit that adds 40mm of height at the front axle and 20mm at the rear.

This increases ground clearance by an extra 65mm to 375mm while approach and departure angles increase by nine and three degrees to 38/29 degrees respectively.

New Bilstein front springs and dampers are added, as is anti-roll bar adjustment along with new rear dampers with extended shackles.

All of this connects to terra firma via 35-inch BFGoodrich KO2 all-terrain tyres (315/70) fitted to 17-inch ET-25 Arctic Trucks alloy wheels.

Buyers can also tick the box for optional BFGoodrich KM3 Mud-Terrain tyres, which come with an on-board 12V compressor fitted inside the engine bay to inflate/deflate the mud-plugging tyres.

It doesn’t stop there. Arctic Trucks says it has also re-engineered “key elements” of the HiLux’s ladder-frame chassis, plus the inner wheel-arches and other parts of the body to add strength and resilience.

The beefy Toyota HiLux AT35 also gains regeared front and rear differentials to optimise torque and driveability, according to the car-maker.

The HiLux tough truck’s striking visuals are set off by 90mm-wider wheel-arches and 110mm-wider front and rear tracks.

There’s also reinforced side steps, heavy-duty mud flaps, a height-extended rear bar with an integrated 2.0-inch multifunction receiver hitch “for quick and easy deployment of tow balls, winches, steps, gear carriers or other accessories”, according to Toyota.

The changes add an extra 72kg to the vehicle’s kerb mass (2272kg total), but towing capacity is not affected by the changes and remains at 3500kg, while tray payload is up by 43kg to a claimed 1053kg.

Arctic Trucks has made no changes to the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine (150kW/500Nm).

As the wait for a more muscular twin-turbo V6 diesel-powered Toyota GR HiLux continues, the jacked-up, go-anywhere HiLux AT35 looks like a good stop-gap measure – for the Brits, at least.  

It’s unlikely to be spotted Down Under any time soon, but the engineers at Toyota Australia’s R&D and vehicle conversion centre are sure to be looking at something to match the AT35 in the near future.