"Mild" off-road plans for Jimny commuting and playing - Opinions welcome :)

Thanks again Bosanek,


1. Tow/recovery points. - I am just choosing between Wizerd or JimnyBits for the recovery points depending on shipping costs. I will ensure I am also equipped with an equaliser strap and suitable shackles. We ran short of straps last time we were out and needed to recover someone in an awkward space. Made it a much longer recovery, but all the more fun for it too
As the points all seem to bolt on the outside of the chassis rails, having an equaliser would presumably pull "in" and the rails would provide better support to the recovery points.

2. Speakers. - I found the holes for the rears, and the fronts are due for replacement too. I need to dig through my supplies for some suitable speakers and get them fitted. See #16 as well

3. Install a steering damper. - Kudos to your wife - mine has only been in it once so far, and was mainly worried that someone might see her (how rude)! I think the steering is a little vague on mine, so am planning on checking/replacing bushes as we tweak the suspension. I was seeing a lot of talk about steering dampers, so it is on the list about half-way down at the moment, once any current wear is dealt with. Thanks for the suggestion of the Disco one - I will look for that one.

4. Install axle breathers. - On the list Again, thanks for the comprehensive instructions. My daughter wants a snorkel. I don't intend to go to that depth (interior is currently too nice for that!), but it looks good so I am not arguing These go hand-in-hand.

5. Coat the underbody of the vehicle with good anti-rust material (bitumen). - On the list, along with Smoothrite-ing the chassis and suspension, especially before covering them all with mud-trapping guards.

6. Watch out the front bumper - the 2nd generation front bumper (2006-2012) is quite deep (very unthoughtful from Suzuki). - Already lightly damaged and had to bend the brackets back. Nothing serious. I do like the look of the later bumper fully intact, but we will have to see how much of a pounding it takes! The planned 2" lift should help a bit.

7. Install guards for the radius arm mounts, the transfer box and the rear shock absorbers. - Transfer box done, radius arm mounts planned when the suspension is tweaked. I will look at the rear shocks.

8. Learn the skills of tyre pressure management. - I already bought an electric tyre pump to allow me to play with pressures easily. Up until now, the Jimny has not faltered on traction apart from when a wheel is hanging in mid-air! I will drop pressures when off-road next week and see how it changes the feel.

9. Buy and use five same tyres! - Done I have the central plastic spare wheel cover so it still fits! I see tyres encourage all sorts of debate. I went for Grabber ATs for the on-road mix. They are no louder then the old tyres, so maybe next time I go more aggressive with muds.

10. Use original tie-rod ends. - Noted.

11. Consider installing mud flaps if you intend to use wheel spacers or offset wheels. - Offset wheels are a possibility once lifted to retain stability. Looking at the arches, I will probably have to consider whether I need to extend the arches slightly at the same time for spray/legal reasons.

12. Consider installing side windows wind deflectors. Very handy items! I suggest using original ones. - Not sure I have reached speeds requiring them yet And it has been a long time since I had any hair-blowing issues!

13. If you recently bought the Jimny, change ALL oils and filters. - Engine done. Axles and gearboxes - oil bought, handy pump thing bought, 10mm internal sump plug (and 3/8" adapter) lost, cursed and replacement ordered. Other on the list.

14. In the rear wheel arches, there are metal lips which were meant to be mounts for the inner plastic wheel arch covers. - I see those now (went to see what wheel articulation did to my new tyres at lunchtime). I have a little clearance still, but the mounting hole parts look ripe for removal. In the meantime, it is on my list of areas to ensure stay clean, or get scrubbed and re-sealed for now.

15. Paint your front and rear differential housings in a striking color (mine are yellow). It will make you smile more often. - Always a good thing! I shall give my daughter free reign on colours!!

16. Factory radio-CD player in Jimny can only play audio CDs. - I went a bit further and installed one of these (well, the same model, rather than the exact link, but you get the picture) - www.amazon.co.uk/NAVISKAUTO-Touchscreen-...-Black/dp/B01CGA5DIU. So, I now have GPS nav, all the music I want on a USB stick, USB dashcam recording, reverse camera, etc etc! I still need to finish the install, but a huge improvement! The dashcam gives some good videos of off-roading (mounted behind the rear view mirror). There was yet another video input, so I have a camera on a long lead and fitted with magnetic mounts, so that I can view the car underneath, behind etc from all sorts of novel angles on the display! Recording from that is not so straightforward, so is a task for the future!

17. If you need more cargo space, buy roof racks and a roof box.

18. Although Jimny can be used for deep wading ... use a Defender, Land Cruiser, Patrol, G-wagen or something else that was 5-10x more expensive than a Jimny when it was new. Or be ready to become a trained expert at working on Jimny's front wheel assembly. - My daughter can reach all the controls easily on a Jimny, which is why we bought it! Plus, the Jimny just does it all with a bigger smile anyway! I doubt we will ever go more than axle deep.

Also,
My recommendations which you have already done (I am mentioning them just for the sake of completeness):


1. Use tyres in size 205/75/R15. I recommend that as the best "sensible" upgrade to the factory size of 205/70/15
- Grabber ATs have been a great buy in 205/70/15. They fill the arches better than I thought a 5% profile boost would (squarer section helps).

Here is my own list of all brand-name HT, AT and MT tyre models which I have found on the market:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jFMegEyy...ml?gid=1&single=true
Wow - comprehensive doesn't begin to cover that! Excellent job!

2.
If you decide to lift the vehicle up, then it would be a good countermeasure to widen its stance by installing wheel spacers or using offset rims. - I am pretty much decided on the Trailmaster 2" lift, for cosmetic as well as clearance reasons. The times I have beached, a little extra clearance under the chassis and radius arms may have just made the difference. Plus, this car is a project with my daughter who wants to learn about cars, and she has never wavered from wanting a snorkel, a lift and a roof bar with four KC Daylighters on!!! I just need to work out what Sport and Comfort options might mean on the Trailmaster!

I do agree that I enjoy the challenge of picking my way through sections that a taller car just powers through. More power, bash plates and protection are one thing, but following them without all that is just as much fun. If I can find the best way to share video on this forum, I will post some of following the blue lifted, spring-dislocated Disco pictured earlier in this thread but in my road-tyred, standard-height Jimny


I hope that my experiences help. - hugely! Many thanks for the comments. I hope I can repay it in some way in the future.

Nick

unless you can get two jimmy owners together with 2'' trail master lifts i don't think you will ever know the difference in sport and comfort i think for your on and off roader the comfort that most people go with would be a better choice, i purpose the compression rate on the springs are different but I'm only guessing maybe Martin Bigjimny shop could get some info from Trail master for you if you ask nicely and as for the speakers i would fit component speakers to start with they sound great and the tweeters mounted on the dash board bring the music to a better level for your ears and you probably won't need the rear ones but the front footwell speakers for the component is a little bit more tricky to fit

looking forward to the evolution of your jimny

p.s great info Bosanek

Hi there Nick!

I won't have much advice to offer, but thought I'd post anyway to share my Jimny with you.
I use mine as a daily driver, so have to be sensible - I just primarily wanted to make the car my own, and individual, more than anything else - perhaps the occasional greenlane?

I had 215/75/15 General Grabber ATs fitted with the car otherwise completely standard. I haven't noticed any rubbing or catching at all, and felt that they just looked better than the standard size! The only downside is that mudflaps can't be fitted as there is no room, but that doesn't bother me!
Four driving lights were mounted on the roof (courtesy of my boyfriend and his Dad!). I've found them fantastic. I love how you've mounted your lights by the vent. Looks very smart!

I too am tempted by a snorkel. I'd never use it, but the temptation is still there

Aaand a photo. Just because.

@Daniel30 - to save Martin the trouble, I will try Trailmaster myself first and post any info here...
Much as I like good audio, I shall start with some decent speakers in the standard places first - I am not sure how good the hardware is inside the Android head unit yet, let alone the less-than-optimal listening conditions in a Jimny!

@hannah-jg - I will take any advice and photos - it all adds to my thoughts The extra tyre size definitely improves the look of the car, and I will try maximum axle articulation next week to see how close the tyres get! That roof bar arrangement is just what my daughter wants (maybe with round lights! I want a more subtle look for them, but apparently, what do I know!!) - do you find that it is far enough forward for the front of the roof not to shadow the area in front of the car too much?
I haven't tried actual green lanes yet, but I highly recommend going for a play off road somewhere, if you haven't already. Very addictive, but you may end up wanting more and more fitted to your daily driver! You will be surprised how much you can do with no mods and even road tyres!

Not sure if this will work, but this link should be a video from my Jimny following a modified Discovery. It is easy to forget that the camera was attached to a standard-suspension mixed-road-tyre Jimny
Video link

Nick

NickR wrote: @hannah-jg - I will take any advice and photos - it all adds to my thoughts The extra tyre size definitely improves the look of the car, and I will try maximum axle articulation next week to see how close the tyres get! That roof bar arrangement is just what my daughter wants (maybe with round lights! I want a more subtle look for them, but apparently, what do I know!!) - do you find that it is far enough forward for the front of the roof not to shadow the area in front of the car too much?
I haven't tried actual green lanes yet, but I highly recommend going for a play off road somewhere, if you haven't already. Very addictive, but you may end up wanting more and more fitted to your daily driver! You will be surprised how much you can do with no mods and even road tyres!

I've had both round and rectangle lights on the roof (the round ones weren't wired up, they were just there "for show" until the LEDs were bought). It took me ages to decide on what shape to have - eventually I decided on rectangle. The subtle look is looking very nice. That said, lights on the roof are very cool
I haven't noticed any shadows at all - I've got four floods on mine. I'm not sure whether floods or spots that would make a difference, I don't imagine it would.
My boyfriend's Dad has a Jimny, so I'll think we'll be going on a "Jimny day out" soon. The closest mine has come to being off road is a slightly pot-holed track but hopefully that'll change soon! I spend my time being passenger rather than driver, so I haven't had to be brave and take mine yet!

Here's a couple of Andrew's Jimny.

Well, forget my encouragement, looks like you are on a slippery slope anyway

I wonder how much further that Jimny can tip! Looks very tidy

Thanks for the light feedback. Flood and spot will make a difference to the beam pattern. Two of each would be ideal to give distance and fill-in closer to the car. Your bar looks nice and low profile - is that a bought or made one?

Nick

Many thanks Martin!

That helps a great deal! Comfort sounds the way to go for me. Speed is not the reason for this car

An early Christmas in the not too distant future for me

Nick

Only problem with roof lights are they are easy to damage offroad from low hanging branches.
I found this out the expensive way on my Shogun. Most of my driving is in dense woodland.
That's why I fitted my lightbar in the front bumper.

Hi, I'm Harry, Hannah's boyfriend, the light bar on both her jimny and my old silver one were homemade the silver one bolts into the roofbars, but Hannah's is a bit special as it has no drilling at all to mount the bar, there is one hole for the light wiring to enter the cab.
Ideally we would have fitted two floods on the outside positions on the bar and two spots in the centre but..... the ebay supplier didn't have spots in stock, but to be fair they are that bright its not too essential.
That silver jimny will lean loads further than that yet , its only on a 3 inch lift in total, with offset gv alloys and running almost 31's (245/75/16) so has a very low centre of gravity, combined with a lift made up of homemade parts inc greasable lower shock relocation/ articulation brackets, its nowhere near as unstable as some of these ones running huge lift kits with rock solid hd springs & body lifts (no disrespect to anyones trucks btw) .
You'll start with something that you say will be lightly modded but trust me..... it gets addictive, that silver one has had loads done underneath, know it doesnt look as monster truck like as some on here but its a beast, front and rear lockers getting fitted eventually too Anyway hope that answers your question

Thanks Harry,

Looks like a very neat installation. I will see what appropriate bars I can find to fit between the roof bars neatly like that.

You're right - I can feel the want-list growing! I like the look of your silver Jimny - not too overt but looks extremely capable.

Nick

Just an update - took the Jimny off-roading on Friday and the Grabber ATs proved an excellent upgrade. Definitely gave me the edge over a fellow standard Jimny running Duellers. I dropped the pressure as per Bosanek's suggestion, and the comfort and grip improved considerably

They got me up a slippy clay-mud slope that defeated the Duellers!!



And no issues with rubbing, on standard suspension with no mud-flaps.

Nick