LandCruiser 79 Series (Single & Dual Cab) Upgrade Guide

The Toyota LandCruiser 79 Series is the ute body of the 70 Series range, sold in two cab configurations: the single cab, with its long tray and short cabin, and the dual cab, with a second row of seating and a shorter tray. Both share the same dashboard, the same front doors, and largely the same electrical architecture, so the great majority of interior and front-end upgrades are common to both. The differences appear at the rear, where tray length, rear doors, and rear seating change what fits and what is worth fitting. This guide is organised by upgrade area so you can work through the ute one section at a time, from the head unit and audio through to lighting, steering controls, and mirrors, and find the right collection for each.

Where an upgrade touches the dash, the airbag system, the lighting, or the driver's field of view, it can also touch the Australian Design Rules. We flag those points as we go and link the relevant compliance reading rather than repeating it here. The aim is a practical map of the 79 Series, not a legal opinion, so confirm anything that needs certifying with a licensed automotive engineer in your state.

Single Cab vs Dual Cab: What Actually Differs

Before spending money, it helps to know which upgrades care about your cab choice and which do not. The front half of the vehicle is shared, so anything that lives in the dash or the front doors is the same part for both. The rear is where the two bodies diverge.

Multimedia and Head Units

The factory head unit in the 79 Series is the most common first upgrade, and for good reason. A vehicle-specific unit drops into the original dash aperture, keeps the screen low and central, and brings wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, navigation, and a reversing camera input to a cabin that was never built with them. Because the dash is shared across the 79 Series range, the same units suit both the single cab and the dual cab without any change to fitment.

A vehicle-specific unit matters here for two reasons beyond looks. First, fitting the screen in the factory location keeps it out of the driver's forward field of view, which a tablet-style screen perched on the dash does not. Second, a unit matched to the vehicle retains the factory steering wheel controls, so volume, track, and phone stay on the wheel. Both points are covered in our compliance reading on ADR compliance, which is worth a read before you commit to a screen size.

Browse fitment-matched units in the LandCruiser 70 Series head units collection, which covers the 79 Series ute as part of the 70 Series family. The broader head units range and the head unit add-ons collection cover cameras, antenna adaptors, and the extras that complete an install. If you are adding wireless smartphone integration to an existing screen rather than replacing the unit, the AutoKit CCPA wireless CarPlay and Android Auto interface is the simplest path.

Audio and Speaker Door Pods

The 79 Series cabin is a working environment with hard surfaces and plenty of road noise, so the factory speakers are usually the weakest link in the audio chain once a new head unit goes in. The constraint in these utes is space: the doors were not designed around generous speaker pockets, which is where door pods come in. A door pod is a moulded enclosure that mounts to the door card and houses a larger speaker than the factory location allows, giving you a proper upgrade path without cutting the door.

This is the one area where cab choice changes the parts list. The single cab has front doors only, so it is front-staged: a front pair of pods carries the whole upgrade. The dual cab adds rear doors, so you can run a front and rear set for a fuller stage and rear-seat presence. The front pods are identical between the two bodies.

Pair the pods with speakers and any amplification from the audio and car audio collections. As a rule, get the head unit and the front stage right first, then add rear pods on a dual cab and any subwoofer or amplifier once the front is sorted. A front-staged single cab built well will out-perform a poorly matched four-speaker setup every time.

Lighting: Headlights, Indicators and Tail Lights

Lighting on the 79 Series falls into two camps. The front-end lighting, headlights and indicators, is shared across both cabs and sits squarely within the Australian Design Rules, because headlights, indicators, and reflectors are all regulated for output, colour, and aim. The rear and tray lighting is where the single cab and dual cab diverge, simply because the single cab has more tray to light.

If you are upgrading the headlights, the front-end parts are common to the single cab and the dual cab. Browse the 70 Series headlights collection for fitment-matched units, or the broader headlights range. Any headlight upgrade should keep the correct beam pattern, colour, and aim so the vehicle still meets the relevant ADR for forward lighting; a high-output globe or LED that scatters light or dazzles oncoming traffic is a compliance and safety problem, not just an inconvenience. The same logic applies to indicators, which must stay amber and flash at the correct rate, and to any added reflectors.

For tray and rear work lighting, the single cab's longer tray gives you more length to cover, while the dual cab trades tray length for a second row of seating. Work lights, reverse lamps, and tray lighting are practical additions for either, but plan placement around your tray length and keep any rear-facing white work lights wired so they only operate when appropriate, not as a permanent rear light.

Steering Wheel and Controls

The steering wheel and its controls are identical across the 79 Series range, so nothing in this section depends on your cab. The key point when fitting a new head unit is that the factory steering wheel controls should be retained, so volume, track, phone, and voice stay on the wheel and the driver keeps both hands in place. A vehicle-specific unit is designed to integrate these controls as part of the install; a generic unit may leave them dead, which pushes the driver back to reaching for the screen.

If you are going further and changing the wheel itself, or anything that touches the airbag and the clockspring behind it, that is a safety-critical job with its own ADR considerations. We cover that separately in the steering and airbag reading linked from the ADR compliance hub. For the common case, simply choosing a head unit that retains the factory controls keeps the wheel working as Toyota intended.

Mirrors

The door mirrors on the 79 Series are common to both cabs, and mirrors are a genuine ADR area because the vehicle has a minimum standard for rearward vision that must be maintained. A reversing camera fed into a new head unit is a useful aid for low-speed manoeuvring, but it supplements the mirrors rather than replacing them; the factory rear vision requirement still applies. If you tow, carry a wide load on the tray, or fit accessories that block the standard mirrors, plan your mirror upgrade so the vehicle still meets the rearward vision it was built with. The detail on what mirrors must achieve is covered in the ADR compliance reading.

79 Series Upgrades by Area

The table below maps each upgrade area to where it is the same across both cabs, where it differs, and where to start shopping. Use it as a checklist as you work through the build.

A Sensible Order of Works

If you are building the ute up over time rather than all at once, a practical sequence keeps each stage useful on its own. Start with the head unit, since it changes daily driving the most and unlocks CarPlay, navigation, and a reversing camera. Add the front speaker door pods next so the new unit has something worth playing through. On a dual cab, follow with rear pods; on a single cab, look at a subwoofer or amplifier from the audio range instead. Lighting is independent of the audio chain and can slot in at any point, with headlights the highest-value front-end upgrade and tray lighting a function of how you use the tray. Mirrors and steering are usually addressed alongside the relevant job rather than as standalone projects.

Throughout, favour vehicle-specific parts over generic ones. The 79 Series is well supported, so there is rarely a need to compromise on fitment, and a part made for the vehicle is the one least likely to raise a field-of-view, lighting, or rear-vision question down the track.

Related guides

For the compliance side of any upgrade that touches the dash, the lighting, the steering, or rear vision, start with the ADR compliance hub. To shop by area, head to 70 Series head units, the audio and car audio collections, and the 70 Series headlights and headlights ranges. The head unit add-ons collection covers the cameras and adaptors that finish a multimedia install.