New boy alert!!

Hey all,

As with many others I've been lurking for a while and doing some reading up on the Jimny.

To Be Honest I never though about buying a Jimny till recently

I've been thinking about a 4WD motor for a while.
Initially I was thinking about ruffin it in a Defender, this was after using them for years on shoots and fishing and found them to be indestructable and unstoppable.
But as I'm not getting any younger I started looking for a more comfort and warmth based 4WD.
This lead me to the Disco, but as there rot boxes and having enough to do on my track car, the Disco was dicsounted.
So further to a conversation, drunken, which involved a Suzuki Vitara the suzuki wheels were in motion.

Currently I'm in Angola and with the state of the roads there are many 4WD motors here.
They are mostly Toyota's but there are Suzukis too, especially Jimny's.
On our staff house street there are 6 Jimny's, all looking fresh.
Due to the climate rust isn't a problem out here.

Anyway, after some serious lurking it sounds like the Jimny is the one for me.
I'll save you the usual questions, as I've done my home work.

But

I have found it very difficult to find much about the OEM specification Jimny on here.
I have been on a Seat forum for 8 years which has taken my Leon from a 'I'm not doing anything to this car' to a fully stripped out heavily modified track beast, lol.
So I fully expect the spending rot to set in quickly but for now the plan is OEM.
How capable is an OEM Jimny with decent MT?
Will it take me places that others fear to tread?

I fish, I shoot and I snowboard.
I'm hoping the Jimny will be the perfect partner for me in my hobbies.
I'm in North East Scotland and have been used to bad conditions all my driving life.

I have already been looking into the snowboard racks.
Can a Jimny handle a 4 snowboard rack?
I see there is one for sale but fail to see how a Jimny has the space for one?

Do all Jimny's in the UK come with roof racks?

Anyway, its refreshing to see such a friendly forum. When doing my research into Landies I found one that was positively brutal.
Amazing to see guys designing and selling engineering solutions to issues too, don't we all like to improve and fiddle with our toys.

New too! As you might guess I love bees. My jimmy is brilliant for my bee keeping, bought it 18 months ago, second hand. It is absolutely brilliant, love it almost as much as my bees. Can get 4 hives in the back (with the back seats out) and can go over field and Dale to where ever my hives may be. Good in the winter too ( especially last year in the snow). Can I ask a quick question here - payload. Safe to put about 700lb of boxes laden with honey with me driving??

As far as i am aware, all jimny's have roof rails... but don't actually come with the crossbars/roof bars.

As for fitting 4 boards in the back... i'd say it will be tight... and there is no way you'd fit the four people in to ride them!
I use a towball mounted rack to haul my powerkiting gear around with me. Buggy on the back, with my board and kites in the boot... and one passenger.

The roof will be the best place to stick the boards, they should fit side by side. Might be worth buying an expedition roof rack type thing.


That could work quite well.

A standard Jimny with AT/MT's will go where defenders won't... in most cases. Although, after being a young Jimny owner, a Defender is where i'm going next. Just using the Jimny to see out the silly insurance price stage.

@ Bees and Bobs 700lbs (320kg ish) is a fairly serious amount of weight

all hardtop jimnys come with roof bars, none on the softop version.

I don't think you would get many snowboards inside, certainly don't think my wakeboard would fit and snowboards look a fair chunk longer.

In standard spec they are very capable off road but struggle a little on ground clearance and width if you are using tracks well worn by bigger 4x4s. (otherwise no problems)

@bob 320kg is a fair old amount but its only a little more than 3 large adults which most people wouldn't think twice about. Bet it effects performance somewhat!

Hey Adam,

Thank you for the info.
If I was carrying 4 boards it would be a park and freeride board each for two people.

Many of the Jimny's I see in Angola don't have roof bars and some even seem to not have ever been fitted with them. Perhaps there a dealer fit option over here.

So is it not possible to seat 4 adults in the Jimny?
My Jimny will probably end up van like.
I doubt I'll use the rear seat much and not one for dragging about things I'm not needing, extra weight = less speed + less MPG.

Hey Goatboy,

Thank you for your reply.
I hadn't thought about the track width.
Having looked at the Jimny's out here I thought the ground clearance looked very good for a road vehicle.
Way better than my track car and Audi A4 family car.

My snowboards are 1.60m long.

As goatboy said, only hardtops have the roof rails... i forget Jimnys are available with the soft top lol

The jimny is a very capable off-roader and one of the best ways to improve it is to fit as you said proper 4x4 tyres. I would in that respect go for a bigger size 215/75/15, I had no problems with this size on standard suspension with 32mm spacers. this will give you better clearance and will impress and surprise you over and over again.

CUJimny wrote: Having looked at the Jimny's out here I thought the ground clearance looked very good for a road vehicle.

Indeed it is, but if you are going on off road sites where the serious guys are playing in their modded landrovers you will find the ruts they make will have you bottoming out quite quickly.
but this will only be a problem if you are driving heavily used tracks. It will still clear an awful lot of stuff with ease.
£200 will sort you with a spring spacer lift kit and add and inch or so of clearance, coupled with some slightly larger than standard tyres you would see a reasonable improvement in ground clearance for not a lot of money.

MigCooper wrote: The jimny is a very capable off-roader and one of the best ways to improve it is to fit as you said proper 4x4 tyres. I would in that respect go for a bigger size 215/75/15, I had no problems with this size on standard suspension with 32mm spacers. this will give you better clearance and will impress and surprise you over and over again.

I know I'm in the minority but never been a fan of spacers, TBH they scare me.
This is largely due to most of my knowledge of vehicles being performance ones.
I have never and will never run spacers.
Perhaps in 4WD where the speeds are not so high the consequences wouldn't be so vast.
I've been reading about the modular wheels, these would be the way I would go for MT that will give the ability to run wide tyres if need be.
For Pure road driving I will be trying a narrow winter/mud tyre, always for the narrower the better in the snow and ice for traction.
Thank you for your advise, I'm not knowing it and I'm sure many will go this way.

goatboy wrote:

CUJimny wrote: Having looked at the Jimny's out here I thought the ground clearance looked very good for a road vehicle.

Indeed it is, but if you are going on off road sites where the serious guys are playing in their modded landrovers you will find the ruts they make will have you bottoming out quite quickly.
but this will only be a problem if you are driving heavily used tracks. It will still clear an awful lot of stuff with ease.
£200 will sort you with a spring spacer lift kit and add and inch or so of clearance, coupled with some slightly larger than standard tyres you would see a reasonable improvement in ground clearance for not a lot of money.

The current plan is not to get into offroad track driving.
I will do enough of this whilst shooting, fishing and boarding.
I have access to many off road tracks that no one goes down and you don't have to pay to play on these, this will be where I'll get my kicks if need be.

Apart from that I have plenty other ways to raise the adrenaline levels with snow boarding, Thai Boxing, Tarmac track days and working in Africa, ha ha.

For me most of the time the Jimny will get tested on snowy roads, it'll be set up to get the best out of it there. This will be a back up to my Audi.

Sounds like standard set-up with some AT or MT tyres will suit you just fine then!

you work in Angola and live in north east Scotland... would I be right to guess you work in the oil & gas industry?