My Chiffon Ivory JB74 SZ5 - blog/mods/build thread

The next mod was long over due. Over 3 years ago, I bought some mud flaps for the Jimny. They were actually one of the first things I bought for it. But for a myriad of reasons, they never got fitted until now.

They are not factory ones, but from eBay. Although the plastic flaps themselves look very high quality. And it wouldn't surprise me to find they are indeed from the same factory that makes the factory ones.



The fitting kit was a bit of a mismatch. And maybe seemed not to have quite the right numbers of parts and bits in it. There was also no fitting instructions included, apart from a general how to fit mud flaps with pictures of some random car and different mudflaps.



A quick Google and viewing of a YouTube, plus some creative thinking considering the supplied bits and on they went. Not too bad really, I did drop the rear wheels off to make it a little easier to access. But the fronts can be fitted by turning the wheel to create room. A littler fiddly here and there, but on they are!

Tried the caravan out behind the Jimny last night. Just a road test prior to taking it away.

Overall I was quite impressed. It clonked less than towing with my p38 and generally felt pretty stable at 50mph. Although wanted to move about a bit at 55mph, which is as fast I's probably go to be honest.

Power wise, it would be nice to have more grunt. But it generally pulled very well. I went up over the steepest hills in the area to try it out. I did have to drop to 1st on the steepest incline which is a 1 in 4 (25%), but seemed to have enough power in 1st to not be a problem.

Not entirely happy with the extended mirrors still, need to find something that fits better to the Jimny's mirrors. But they are usable at least.

Over Whitsun it was the Land Rover National Rally, this year it was in Ebbw Vale South Wales. It is a multi-day event with a number of off road and other events occurring over the duration. Most notably are the off road trials events of the RTV and CCV.

I know this isn't Jimny related in terms of off roading. But it is a big National level off road event of the Association of Land Rover Clubs. RTV numbers have dwindled from the haydays, but I think there were still in the region of 60-80 competitors and even more for the CCV.

My 88 pickup hybrid Land Rover wasn't quite ready in time, so I ended up double driving my brothers Ninety in the RTV. I also used the Jimny to tow the caravan to the event in the absence of the 88.

Overall I was quite impressed. I eventually got my extended mirrors to fit to an acceptable level. And the Jimny towed better than I thought it would. I was right up to the Jimny's tow limit pretty much, as I had to take some provisions with me in the caravan.

Ebbw Vales is approx 140 miles from home, so it made for a good test with the caravan on the back. Although we did encounter some steep and long drags. While the Jimny's 1.5 litre coped admirably, there is no denying a bit more grunt would have been nice. Nearer to home you release just how much flatter the landscape is with the Jimny quite happily pulling 50mph in 5th. But in the Welsh hills I was flat out in 2nd gear and making no progress at all on more than one occasion.

Overall though, I'd give it a thumbs up. It went well enough and felt nice to tow with otherwise.

MPG dropped to 23-24mpg which wasn't unsurprising. Although at this sort of mpg it really does highlight how small the fuel tank is and how rubbish the onboard fuel gauge and range estimate are.....

30 mile range on 1/4 tank?


Campsite is only 36 miles away!


We didn't stop for fuel with the caravan on the back.

Early arrival meant first choice of pitches.


The CCV looked fun, but quite brutal.


And the RTV was a complete riot, probably needed a roll cage for some of it. Certainly not the sort of terrain I'd have wanted to have driven the Jimny over without a big lift, tall tyres and flexy suspension. Plus lots of body protection.



Also a bit muddy...

No individual trophy for me this year, but placed well inside the top 10 overall. As a club we did bring home some silverware.



Then another 140 miles back in the Jimny and home.



All in all a cracking weekend with lots of beer and a bit of sunburn.

I heard that peak and dukeries did quite well at the nationals......... shame it's alrc
I RTV in open class with P&D 

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Decided to have a go at a Tyro Trial with the Jimny. I've been a long term trialer with Land Rovers in RTV events (26 years...), but thought it'd be fun to try the Jimny out.

RTV's while they shouldn't be damaging, they always have the potential, so I opted for the Tyro event as my local club was holding one.

The weather was lovely with bright sunshine the entire day and a really good site for a tyro event. The club, CVLRC is a Land Rover club, but most events are run on an open permit to allow non Land Rover's to compete. We had a good turn out with 15 drivers and a variety of Land Rover vehicles, from very old to not so old ones. I was the only non Land Rover in the event however.

I would say, coming from the world I Land Rovers I do miss having a centre diff lock. Being a Tyro the sections were not overly difficult from a terrain point of view, the ground was hard too. So running in 4wd wasn't the best thing in the world and certainly increased the turning circle of the vehicle. But the low speed control of low range is pretty essential and as the Tyro was mostly on the side of a hill, low speed control via engine braking (or hill decent control) was also very sensible. Hill decent control needing 4wd, be it high or low range.

Either way, we finished the day on clears for a joint 1st overall with a 90 that was also on clears. Although if I'm being honest, it did rather feel like cheating using such a small vehicle.







I would say, you can't beat suitable gearing. I've driven the Jimny off road quite a bit, but when you have a course marked out by gates that you need to drive without touching or stopping. You do appreciate time to think. Low 1st just isn't as slow as Low 1st in a Land Rover. And while Hill decent control helps reign it in a bit, it just doesn't drive as nice with HDC, as sometimes it feels overly aggressive, but also sluggish to react, especially when first pulling away, it takes a car length in this situation before it really activates. But then comes in very sharply if you want to use a trailing throttle and lift slightly.

You can work round it and it isn't all that bad, but an area where technology isn't doing quite as a good a job as older tech IMO.