A low-hanging secondary muffler and accompanying outlet can seriously hamper a vehicle’s departure angle, in turn worsening off-road capability. Big pieces of superfluous metal grab and get hung up on obstacles, preventing forward progress, simultaneously damaging vehicle and trail. The Lexus GX460’s stock exhaust was guilty of these sins, and the proliferation of the J150 Series as a daily-driver-meets-off-roader platform led the kind folks at RealTruck to graciously send over Magnaflow’s high-clearance Overland Exhaust to put to the test.

I’ve had a lot of aftermarket exhausts on my vehicles over the years. Some were great, some were terrible, some merely ho-hum. Sounding good without being obnoxious is a tricky line to toe and getting away with no drone makes it all that much more difficult. I knew my GX460 needed a solution for the departure-angle killing stock exhaust but didn’t want to go overboard on the volume, which eliminated the risk of a one-off muffler-and-pipe combo. Yet I felt chopping off the stock setup ahead of the final muffler was a half-effort and not the ideal solution.

Cue RealTruck, which sent over the Magnaflow Overland Exhaust to test and review. As it turns out, the Magnaflow exhaust is a near-perfect solution and a fantastic addition to any GX460, regardless of if it’s taken off-roading or not. We knew it would help with the clearance and came away happily surprised by the sound, too.

This is one of those situations where what you don’t see is more important than what you do. The real story here is the improvement in ground clearance. To give context, any low-hanging piece of a vehicle is subject to impacts when off-roading, and the bottom-most point inevitably takes the brunt of it. Off-roaders will be happy to gain an inch or two of ground clearance from a given upgrade as it pays drastic dividends for the departure angle. In the case of a factory exhaust system on the GX460, the secondary muffler that exits behind the rear axle and under the rear bumper was not only an eyesore but a piece of metal that sat so low it was only a matter of time before it and a rock had a battle of toughness.

To the numbers: With the stock exhaust, my lifted and 34-inch tire-wearing GX460 had 15.5 inches of clearance at the secondary muffler and 17 inches at the outlet. The new Magnaflow Overland exhaust increased those numbers to around 19.5 inches (the same across the whole exit area as there is no secondary muffler). That’s a huge improvement, and the first trip with the exhaust fitted saw some obstacles that would have severely impacted the factory setup. It also means peace of mind in not worrying about dragging the metal pipe across any surface. As for the muffler itself, there’s just less of it to worry about catching on something it shouldn’t.

Then there’s the sound: Though I knew the stock exhaust had to go for the sake of not removing it forcefully on a rock, my skepticism about whether the Magnaflow kit would make the truck too loud or not was extreme to the point that I literally held my breath upon the first cold start.

Those worries were unfounded: It sounds fantastic. You get a nice rumble upon startup, but it’s nothing ear-shattering or even significantly noticeable over stock. Think “OEM Plus” more than “very modified.” On the road, it’s definitely a step up in volume, no question about that, but the GX460 is so well insulated that the Magnaflow exhaust is factory quiet when you’re off the throttle. When coasting, the BFGoodrich KO2 tires are regularly heard over the exhaust. At low RPM highway cruising, the tires can usually be heard over the exhaust, too. But get on it, and it roars.

“That doesn’t sound like a Lexus” or “I’ve never heard a Lexus that sounds like that before” is one of the biggest compliments you can give a GX460 owner who cares about their vehicle’s sound. Magnaflow knocked it out of the park on this front, letting the 4.6L V8 announce itself with decent volume while keeping it restrained enough to never be annoying. Volume levels can go from mild to medium loud depending almost entirely on throttle inputs.

As for installation of the kit, it was easy and straightforward. We can’t say the same of the uninstallation of the factory exhaust; rusted bolts necessitated removal of the pipe via cutting rather than simple disassembly. The Magnaflow exhaust itself went on in less than 30 minutes with no hiccups whatsoever. You have to reuse the factory exhaust hangers and bolts for where the catalytic converter meets the first section of exhaust pipe that goes into the muffler, so be careful around those during disassembly, but Magnaflow’s gasket-less design makes putting things together as simple as tightening down the hose clamps.

All-in-all, the Magnaflow Overland Exhaust represents a big improvement over the stock setup in clearance and sound. It’s always best to approach an aftermarket exhaust with caution and skepticism, and even for this Magnaflow kit we still say “your mileage may vary,” but our experience with it indicates it’s a well thought-out and executed product worthy of a place on any enthusiast’s GX460.

Don’t just take our word for it, hear the improvement in sound yourself:

Thank you to RealTruck for sending over the Magnaflow Overland Exhaust supplied for this test and review.