Off-road tips

Hi all,

Hoping to get some tips to get the Jimny ready for a bit of off-roading without doing too much to it.

I took the Jimny down some tricky lanes today and due to the little floor clearance I ended up scraping the underside a fair few times. First off, can someone please advise what the parts are that I've highlighted/circled in my photo... Is this the suspension arm? Pretty sure the part circled blue is what was hitting the rocks/floor on steep declines as one of them had a dent on the very bottom. Are these easily replaced if damaged? Looks like it's welded to the chassis.



So got me thinking... what's the easiest way to get some height on the Jimny? Thinking a 2" lift and some mud tyres. How difficult is the 2" lift kit to fit and are there any other suggestions?

Cheers

They are the 'Radius arms'. The part circled blue is the mount welded to chassis and not a spare part as such. Guards are available for the mounts.

2" suspension lift would make the radius arms sit lower and be much less likely to catch these parts. Easy to fit, just swap springs & shocks. May need extended brake lines. Like everything, you get what you pay for, so dont expect a super cheap lift kit to be all that great

Try just the tyres first, these make more difference than anything else. 215/75r15 is as big as you can sensibly go before the gearing needs altered.

Thanks Riccy. Gonna get some guards for the mounts!

I'll also look at getting the 2 inch lift as well as the 215/75r15 tyres!

Hi, just be aware that a suspension lift will not give you increased ground clearance, it will give you more clearance to fit bigger tyres which will increase ground clearance

Yep thanks. Do you think the 215/75/15 tyres would fit without the 2 inch lift?

apayne wrote: Yep thanks. Do you think the 215/75/15 tyres would fit without the 2 inch lift?

That size will fit no problem without the lift (unless using offset wheels or wheel spacers, some have slight issues with remould tyres, which are slightly bigger than stated).

235/75r15 is the next logical step from that, but as said it will mean gearing needs to be altered (especially if off-roading).

kirkynut wrote:

wombat wrote: Hi, just be aware that a suspension lift will not give you increased ground clearance, it will give you more clearance to fit bigger tyres which will increase ground clearance

It will give the radius arm chassis mounts more clearance but not the diffs, which are the next thing to catch. Bigger tyres then give better clearance for everything.

Kirkynut

Kirkynut

How strong are the diffs to taking a small beating on rocks? I've noticed you can buy guards for them as well, worth getting?

Part of me is thinking to just get the 215/75/15 tyres without the lift at the moment, but would those give me much more clearance? Not too keen to go down the route of having to adjust the gearing when putting massive tyres on.

With 215's you get about 2cm of clearence. Not much, but it's something.

When looking down under my Jim on 215 and friends Patrol on 33" I have more clearence than him. And it's much shorter and narrower car. So if you dont plan on going hard, dont bother with large tyres. Stock Jim goes places