Busta's comment that Snowbum does the same sort of thing that he does is well of the mark as getting lost in the outback is not just a short walk to a local farm asking for a tow out, it really is a matter of life and death which is why Snowbum wants to build the ultimate " get me out of here" Jimny.
Roger
What's your experience of working and travelling in Australia Roger?
When I was out there I learnt pretty quickly that there was a lot of merit in keeping things simple, as often the modifications were the things that caused failures. We even stopped fitting snorkels to the work utes because they were sucking in more dust than the standard intake, not less. I toured Western Australia on dirt roads in a 20 year old Volvo estate and a completely standard 20 year old Nissan Patrol. The Patrol was overkill tbh, I wish I had kept the Volvo, but I would have loved a Jimny back then. Unless you're going out of your way to seek a challenging route, you'll be sharing off-road touring routes with grey nomads in standard doublecabs, familys in SUVs and backpackers in Toyota Hiaces. It's not all as extreme as the Youtubers make it out to be.
There are also universal alternatives that better solve a problem than a modification does. E.g. having a good battery compressor (e.g. Makita, Milwaukee etc) rather than having one bolted to the car somewhere getting full or dust, cooked by heat off the engine and shaken to bits even when you're not using it. You'll use the cordless one much more often.
A "winch in a box" setup rather than a winch permanently fitted to the front of the car means you can pull anything from any direction. This is much more useful for general farm and trailer jobs, and gives you more options during a vehicle recovery. Going forwards is rarely the best way out of trouble! I've sold mine due to lack of use but I had a 4,500lb winch on a towball bracket that would sit neatly in the rear passenger footwell, out of sight and away from harm. The long cables with crocodile clips that powered it doubled up as jump leads.
A Jackaroo type powerpack powers all your accessories in the car and your camping gadgets at camp and your house during a power cut. That's much more useful than an extra battery in the car. And Noco type jump pack removes and worries about flat batteries.
Regarding trailers, I know standards are different in Aus, but in the UK we have 50mm tow balls and over-run trailer brakes and honestly they are more than adequate for off-road towing behind a Jimny. I'm sure a simple electric brake setup would also suffice. A sensibly sized single axle trailer, loaded correctly, will go wherever the Jimny goes and you'll barely know it's there. Mine is around 1,300kg loaded, about 70kg nose weight and I sit very comfortably at 100kmh. If you can get a trailer with Jimny wheel fitment that's great, but it's not a common tyre size or bolt pattern for trailers. I wouldn't get too hung up on this.
