Suspension upgrade advice

I have a rear LSD and it makes a noticeable difference on and off road. Ideal for the type of usage you described.
As for the rest of your list, I'd go for a good set of tyres and leave it at that. You'll be familiar with small tents- a regular tent stored in the back of the car is a much more versatile and useful option than any roof tent. If you're in a hurry the Decathlon 2 second tents are great.
You usually don't need a suspension lift to drive on public rights of way. You don't say where in the world you'll be travelling though.

Busta wrote:

I have a rear LSD and it makes a noticeable difference on and off road. Ideal for the type of usage you described.

Gen 4 has traction control. Now I'm all up for ATB diffs. But we have been playing about with some vehicles recently.

I have my Gen 4 with open diffs and traction control (and a p38 Range Rover with traction control).

My Uncle has an old Defender 90 with open diffs and ATB diffs front & rear. He also has a newer Defender 90 with traction control and twin ATB diffs front and rear.

We also have a number of open diff Land Rovers to compare too.

The non traction control ATBs do give an advantage over open diffs, but you really have to drive it harder to make them work, they also need quite a bit of left foot braking. If you get cross axled and stop, they are unlikely to get you moving again. There is no down side, bar cost. But they weren't as transformational as I thought they would be on technical off road terrain. I think they would likely shine best on more level slippery train, rather than lifting wheels. Such as snow, wet grass and dry sand. Even more so if you plan on some drifting or rally style driving.

Traction control on the other hand is in my opinion a complete game changer. It really will let you drive through things you couldn't have before. In the Jimny you do need to make the traction control work and give it some revs, but it is capable. The only downside is the relatively tall gearing in the Jimny (yes in low range) and if you have a manual it is very easy to stall it. However, for technical off roading I would say traction control is superior to ATBs.

Now if you add ATBs to traction control it should be better. I understand the physics, but the reality was somewhat underwhelming. From the drivers seat on technical terrain I really couldn't tell it had ATBs, as the traction control is so good. The ATBs won't make it kick in any quicker or sooner, although in theory may rely on less braking pressure. Again on slippery surfaces, the ATBs are likely to play some bigger role for the right driving conditions.


If you'd asked me a year ago, I'd have said go ATBs in a JB74. But I think I would actually opt for a full locker in the front and an ATB in the rear. So you'd get some ATB advantages on road in 2wd and it won't impact your turning circle off road, but should you need more traction you can lock the front up.

But you've got to be doing some pretty extreme off roading really or rock crawling. For normal muddy or undulating terrain the traction control is more than up to the task. Even if heavily cross axled, you just have to accept you need some wheel slip to make it work, where fully lockers don't need any slip, hence why lockers are great for rock crawling.


This aside, a Jimny still limited suspension flex and ground clearance. Something like a 2 door Wrangler Rubicon (JK or JL) is hugely more capable out of the box and arguably still hugely more capable than even a modified Jimny.

This isn't to knock the Jimny, while it may be less capable. It is still highly capable in a lot of situations.

Lambert wrote:

Ah I had assumed you were talking about the gen3. I have both and believe me distance in a gen 4 is a much less appealing prospect. Yes they ride softer, have cruise control and get more mpg but they are noticeably louder inside which some might say turn up the stereo but that just makes more tiring. I have done all day 10 hour driving in both of mine and in the new one I feel like I need a couple of pints in the pub to recover whereas in the older one I just want to keep going and see what is round the next corner.

This is I believe a "trim level thing" - if I'm not mistaken Bellerophon started life as an LCV, the lowest of the trim levels available in the UK and a manual transmission.

In the Caribbean our trim levels are identified differently and we get GL & GLX, manual transmission vehicles are only available as a GL, automatics can be had as a GL or GLX.  I've driven the three door as both a manual transmission GL and an automatic transmission GLX, the GLX is very quiet.

The GL (which we own) is quite a bit noisier and benefits from "noise deadening", there is literally nothing between the carpet and the floor.  We have a five door GLX, automatic, which is a fairly quiet car from the factory, and I've also driven my son-in-laws five door GL, manual, and that is nowhere near as noisy as the three door GL, manual.

On a jimny that raises an interesting question especially if thinking in terms of being an overlander, is the weight penalty of sound deadening to make driving more pleasant a reasonable payoff against the 20 to 40 kg of lost cargo capacity for things that make living out of the car easier? I have the same question with regard to armour on the under side of mine given where I have to go on my farm vs the payload for sheep food/water/maintenance equipment vs the peace of mind that dragging its guts on the floor isn't going to snap a transfer box mount or something leaving me with the walk of shame.

Can't say I've ever thought my JB74 was noisy inside. In fact I'd say it is rather quiet and refined, even with the catback exhaust. If you are into the throttle or cruising at higher than normal speeds you now hear the exhaust, but in stock guise you could very easily listen to the radio or have a conversation while sat at 70mph on cruise control. Mine is an SZ5, so maybe this makes a big difference vs the LCV.

When I put the rear speakers in I did put some sound proofing in the boot and rear area. But the weight penalty must be negligible really. Certainly many times less than 30kg! I'd guess more like 3-5kg tops.

As for under body protection/amour. I think it is a good trade off really. I fitted aluminium skids, so again not really a huge weight penalty. And you certainly don't notice the extra weight on road.

Pretty sure my sound mats did not exceed 5 or 6kg.

And after some trips you start to leave all the unnecessary stuff and camping gear at home.

Note to self: drive by a weight one day soon.