Jimny in Canada

I brought my 2007 Jimny Sierra to Canada at the end of last year but hadn’t had a chance to see how she how she handled on our gravel roads. I took her out today and she got me there and back but she was really twitchy when driving over potholed sections. Have other drivers noticed this? I have an OME lift kit on order and the OEM shocks are kinda tired so I hope she’ll improve when the kit’s installed.
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I guess the most obvious question is did you have it in 4x4? We don't have the vast runs of unsealed roads you in the New World do but on the odd mile of farm track I have regular access to being in 4x4 makes a noticeable difference in directional stability and so does having suitable pressure in the tyres 23 all round seemed best on my last Jimny without the tpms.

Good question. It wasn’t in 4x4, I’ll try that next time and see if it helps. The reason I stayed in 2wd was that it didn’t seem necessary, it wasn’t steep or super rough.

I found the steering very light on my Gen 3 so fitted a steering damper, that made a huge difference to stability above 30 - 40mph, but that was on tarmac roads, not the rough stuff.

Tyre pattern, shocks and dampers all play their part in controlling stability especially over pot holes and then bushes, wear on the Kingpins and other linkages will all play their part.

New shocks will propable make a big difference, but if there is any wear in other components lifting it might make it worse again.

Robin

wrote:

I brought my 2007 Jimny Sierra to Canada at the end of last year but hadn’t had a chance to see how she how she handled on our gravel roads. I took her out today and she got me there and back but she was really twitchy when driving over potholed sections. Have other drivers noticed this? I have an OME lift kit on order and the OEM shocks are kinda tired so I hope she’ll improve when the kit’s installed.
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What vehicle do you normally drive - or - to ask the same question in a different way - how familiar are you with the handling of a short wheel base, live axle vehicle?

For people who spend most of their time behind the wheel in longer, larger vehicles, especially more modern vehicles with independent suspension, transitioning to a short wheel based, live axled vehicle, such as a Jimny, can be a rude awakening, on anything but the smoothest of surfaces, they can be unpredictable, and "twitchy" is a good description of that.

Because they are live axled, any pot hole, any unevenness in the surface affecting one wheel is transferred over to the other wheel on the same axle, and can cause whichever end of the car to skip sideways, because they are short wheel base, any skipping is immediately obvious, and gravel just makes it worse.

In short, what you are describing, is what I would expect.

When my wife & daughter wanted to buy a Jimny, I warned them about it, they went right ahead and bought one (a 2021), and the first time they took it on a long drive and hit an uneven surface (not gravel), they complained bitterly about having to slow right down, the vehicle I was driving (a 2005 Grand Vitara) had no trouble with it.

Thanks for the insight. The Jimny is my only car but my previous one was an 80 series Landcruiser which would just float over potholes. The difference between the two definitely made the twitchiness more noticeable.
I'll get the OME lift kit in and see how she goes. I'll also see what difference using 4x4 high makes.
Maybe I'll just have to get used to it...

Been driving lots of gravel roads here in Norway and Sweden following the TET: transeurotrail.org/

Using both my Jimny and also my T5 "overlander". Before I got the BFG AT tires on the VW T5 transporter it was sliding alot on the loose gravel. Now I find the car very stable and much nicer to drive on gravel than with standard road tires. The noise on tarmac is a pain however.
The jimny has allways had large BFG MT tires with lots of threads so I think it behaves nice. I Use a bit lower air pressure on gravel and bumpy roads.

Edit. Rarely use 4x4 on these roads though, they are mostly dry. If wet gravel or mud I might put the Jimny in 4x4, but never been an issue.