Gen 3 - New tyres / lift / suspension upgrade

Hi guys. Im new to the forum and the new owner of a Generation 3 Jimny from 2000 that Ill be upgrading to prepare it for the hills and dirt roads that will be its primary habitat for a while.

I hope you guys can share of your knowledge can help me select size for new tyres and a lift for this car. I am looking for better grip on the hills and clear treeroots and rocks etc. Now and then the roads around here get really muddy too, possibly a lift might make it clear that dirt when it gets deep. I will upgrade the suspention as well.

Most urgent are the tyres and that will require spacers and a lift I assume. So far I got this info here to start with and would like your opinion on this. Tire SizeNotes205/75R15Slightly larger than stock, minimal rub. Can work stock or with 25mm spacers.215/75R15Needs minor lift (1.5") or fender trimming. Spacers (25mm) help clear coil spring struts.235/75R15Popular aggressive size. Needs 2" lift, 30mm spacers, and possibly bumper/fender trim.30x9.5R15Close to max practical size. Requires body lift + spacers and possible gearing adjustment. What should I go for to get the max lift for performance without getting to heavy into modifying this car? And what suspention upgrade should follow?

I bought it to have as a car designated for the dry roads and more importantly go up hills where there are no roads as I prepare a building site.Thanks for any input!
 

First off welcome to the forum.

Ideal upgrade size for most serious predominantly off road use is either 215,75r15 or 235.75r15. However these will fit on standard wheels without really badly affecting the gearing.

I'm interested in where you have got the list of fitments especially the idea of spacers being required?

Tyre size is a tough one tbh. Pros and Cons to all sizes, but the bigger the more they impact things like body clearance, road performance, crawl speed and braking. But bigger tyres will generally roll over objects better than smaller ones.

On my JB74 (Gen 4) I had 215/75 on, which where fine, but I did get beached a few times on the diffs and even with a 2" lift the breakover angle was never great. So it could get hung up on the transfer box or suspension arms. I'm now on 235/75's and overall I'd say they are an improvement. But it does impact on road performance a bit (likely more with the 1.3 in the Gen 3) and the low speed crawl is IMO too fast in stock trim, so taller tyres don't help here.

If I was building this as a more dedicated off roader I'd go for 3.0.9.50R15 or maybe even 31.10.50R15 but you'd 100% need to address the gearing with this size. Although personally I like tall skinny tyres more than fat ones, but there are limits on what you can get. If you don't mind going 16" rims then a 205  x 16 would probably be my preferred choice over the 235/75R15's, as they are the same height but more narrow. But swapping to 16" rims was prohibitively expensive. In some markets outside the UK you can also get 6.50 x 16's which are taller and more narrow than the 205's.

My Jimny is my daily driver and does a lot of road miles, so I run AT's. I've got on really well with the Maxxis AT980. Cheaper than BFG's and just as good IMO. Surprisingly good in the mud for an AT and very good on road. However, if you are doing more off road use and more extreme terrain, a good set of MT's is the way to go.


Back to tyres sizes.... this is my Land Rover. It actually has a shorter wheelbase than the Jimny (just). In this photo I'm running 33" tyres, so massively bigger than the 28.9" 235/75's on the Jimny.

 

Hi 300bhpton, thanks for your feedback. Ill review this all in more detail later. But I prefer to keep the current 15" rims and this is not a daily driver for me so off-road performance is the priority.

You mention issues with gearing. I dont know much about that but I see there are "Transfer Case Gear Set" etc for these cars. Can you enlighten me a bit here.. I prefer to keep the car fairly stock. That being said I expect to do a service on the gearbox anyway so...

Thats a serious looking Land Rover

Thanks for the welcome

Well that list of fitments come from ChatGTP, do you think it make sense?

I used it to understand the Jimny issues, engine variants and evaluating different 4x4 cars for my specific use (I already have a few). I was looking at torque at low speed etc. I was considering a Wrangler 4.0L but that AI convincingly pointed me towards the Gen3 Jimny for being lighter, better turn radius, easier to recover if stuck++ And a more narrow and short body is what I want for moving around these hills. And I like to see it got such an active community and plenty after-market part.

I have a Ford F150 that I use offroad but its way too big of a beast and heavy for many tasks. I also have a Montero/Pajero 4x4 from the 90s, quite happy with, its light and brutal power in L4, but its the long and tall variant and not ideal either. And the carburator is a constant pain.

Ah that would explain it. If you have a look at the sticky posts in the technical section you'll find a comprehensive guide to suitable sizes though I'm guessing from you have an f150 that you are new world somewhere, so not all sizes are available in all markets. Also the ai is confused as it mentions suspension struts which ok but jimny are live axle. Then there is the issue of gearing, standard you can realistically use 235.75r15 but it's really on the limit. The ai also goes on about needing spacers this is not advisable on a jimny as it renders wheel and kingpin bearings to such a short service life it's not funny like every 6 months or less in serious off road use which is fine if you like that kinda thing. To that end when you start getting into big tyres you will start to need to look at trussing the axle as they have a habit of cracking on the welds if they are working very hard. Also the half shafts and cv joints become fragile as tyres get bigger. It's also worth noting that the jimny wheel is only a j5.5 so anything much wider than the 235.75r15 is asking for the bead to get pulled off. That's not saying you can't fit anything you want but it's going to get expensive to get it all to work properly and be something like reliable.