My business Metal Tech 4x4 which you can see the sticker on our cage that was installed in Hammond's FJ40 were down there as vehicle consultants. Mark Hawley and myself Travis Telleria (see ending credits). Mark was apart of the first half in the jungle and the big build up of the 3 trucks. I came down at the beginning of the road of death, did the build and continued on to Chile with the crew while Mark flew home after the big build.
The elevation is true, they did get up to 17,000ft, I wasn't that much further down below at roughly 16,000ft while they filmed up there. It is rough not being acclimatized to the altitude. I was always short of breath, feel like you have a hang over, and a constant runny nose. Just basic movement feels like you are doing a marathon, it was a challenge but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?
I can also tell you that there wasn't much scripted during my time down there except for a few bits and pieces. Most of it was on the fly as trucks broke down, getting stuck, etc. It was a great experience to witness this and see some very beautiful scenery along the way. I won't be revealing too much about what happened behind the scenes since we are going to write an article and submit it to a magazine.
The '74 FJ40 did live a rough life, far worse than the other two. It had a lot of bad fixes, mechanical failures, etc from poor maintenance and just the over all use of the vehicle in that area. The Land Cruiser hands down was the 4x4 that most Bolivians drove in La Paz and in the jungle. To purchase one down there they are just as much in the states which is about $5,000. The people do whatever they can to keep them in their families and pass them down because of their reliability. The FJ40 Land Cruiser did fight till the end, as poor of shape as it was in it still ran at 65mph with 35" tires with the stock 1f straight 6cyl motor and 4.11 gears. It had water get into the engine through the carburetor, oil was pumping out the pcv valve into the carb and all around it, oil was in the radiator fluid, and it still started up every time and kept on ticking. It also ran on the front end alone for 600 miles doing highway speeds.