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BigJimnyMeet (North) 2024 (12 Jan 2024)


BigJimnyMeet 2024

14th July 2024
Parkwood Nr. Leeds

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It doesn't flex as well as a Land Rover...

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22 Feb 2020 17:20 #218890 by 300bhpton
Apologies, bit of a click-bait title... :silly: :silly: :silly:

It was quite bright out earlier, so I thought I'd have a bit of a play with the Jimny.

First off was to try it up on the ramps. Simple test, one rump under a diagonal wheel and drive up. In low 1st it drove up with ease, although gave a faint scrabble from the passenger rear and a wobble at the top.



Overall pretty good for a stock vehicle.

Although while it does look like it has all it's wheels on the ground, the rear passenger wheel isn't really making contact:


In fact you could put you hand on the roof and easily rock the vehicle back and forth, which lifted the rear passenger wheel an inch or two off the ground.

Not unhappy though, I have watched enough YouTube vids and seen them lifting wheels quite readily.






My brother turned up too, so for a bit of fun, we thought we'd see if his Renegade Desert Hawk would drive up onto the ramps. I tried it the other year with a Td4 Freelander 1 and it wouldn't drive up the ramps like this. It either smoked the clutch or wheel span. I think the TCS on it would have got it over them if they were an obstacle, but lack of low range in the Freelander gave the feeling you'd end up going to quick to stop at the top. And I didn't fancy bending the sill on the ramps as I careened over them.

The Renegade is all independent just like the Freelander, but it does have a low mode (not a true low range, but it has 9 gears and first is super low giving a respectable crawl ratio). It is also automatic.

In the end it drove on fairly easily, the traction control on it worked brilliantly, with some slip from the front drivers wheel and the rear passenger way in the air. But it was slow, steady and very controlled. It was also nice to see the Renegade had enough ground clearance for the ramp under the sill also, to even allow this test to be tried out.






Makes for quite a nice comparison of live axles vs fully independent.

The live axle vehicle is clearly the much more stable option, but modern electronics do allow independent suspension vehicles to conquer terrain you wouldn't think they could.

So where is the Land Rover you may ask? Well today there where none. I just wanted to see how the Jimny coped on the ramps, as I feel it is a good way to see how the suspension and balance of the vehicle is likely to be when off road. I have however put many a Defender and other Land Rover products up on these ramps. And when equipped with live axles, they all keep all 4 wheels firmly on the ground. Even my old leaf sprung 88 did.

So blatantly to get the chance to post a picture of a Land Rover in a Jimny forum. Here is my 'other' off roader. As you can tell by the paint, it isn't my tidy daily driver. It isn't exactly standard either. And you may note that the ramps I'm using here are much taller.




Anyhow, I'm digressing. We all know this is a Jimny forum... :side:

As luck would have it, I have access to a spot of land to go and play on with 4x4's. So we headed over to give the Jimny a bit of a baptism.



As you can tell from the video, I was rather please with how it went off road. Very capable indeed.




Although I was surprised to find the front bumper had impacted with the ground. The approach angle looks good, but clearly not on par with a standard 90. Undoubtably a lift kit and some slightly taller tyres will help here, but maybe an after market bumper will need to be on the cards at some point also?? The front recovery point also looks highly vulnerable and was clearly digging in quite a bit.



And a few low points underneath that also came into contact with the ground:

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  • Andy2640
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22 Feb 2020 20:21 - 22 Feb 2020 20:21 #218909 by Andy2640
Replied by Andy2640 on topic It doesn't flex as well as a Land Rover...
Great video and right up. Can i ask a noobY question: what is that componant on the left which dug into the earth?? Is it the transfer box or??
Last edit: 22 Feb 2020 20:21 by Andy2640.

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23 Feb 2020 11:07 #218932 by kirkynut
That's not bad for standard. I wonder if a shock 1" longer would cause the springs to fall out or the shocks to compress on themselves?

The old rear shock extenders give an inch and a half on the Gen 3, I wonder if they can be fitted to the Gen 4 for some experimentation on the rears?

I'd so buy one of these if I had the money. Perhaps one can be a retirement project in just over 13 years!

In the meantime, please can all Gen 4 owners get busy with the underseal to give me some choice then? Thanks in advance!

Kirkynut

The underdog often starts the fight, and occasionally the upper dog deserves to win - Edgar Watson Howe.

My Jimny Thread Here: www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/8-my-ji...on-continues?start=0

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23 Feb 2020 15:46 #218945 by Busta
Good to see someone testing this sort of thing. Disconnecting the anti roll bar will make a big difference to articulation, and will definitely allow you to have all 4 wheels firmly on the ground on those ramps. On the gen 3 you can just remove the drivers side drop link which is a 5 minute job. I'm not sure if that trick would work on a gen 4. I understand most of the chassis is the same or very similar.

kirkynut wrote: The old rear shock extenders give an inch and a half on the Gen 3, I wonder if they can be fitted to the Gen 4 for some experimentation on the rears?


An inch and a half down travel at the expense of up travel, hence the many instances of bent of broken shock mounts! On standard suspension with the anti roll bar disconnected my gen 3 rear springs were at the point of coming loose, so I don't think more down travel help much.

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24 Feb 2020 08:31 #218992 by kirkynut

Busta wrote:

kirkynut wrote: The old rear shock extenders give an inch and a half on the Gen 3, I wonder if they can be fitted to the Gen 4 for some experimentation on the rears?


An inch and a half down travel at the expense of up travel, hence the many instances of bent of broken shock mounts! On standard suspension with the anti roll bar disconnected my gen 3 rear springs were at the point of coming loose, so I don't think more down travel help much.


That's why I say it needs a bit of investigation to see if the shocks will bottom out and collapse.

This can be overcome with extended bump stops. When they reach the bump stop the axle is forced to push the other side down into the ground with some leverage, giving grip to the tyre on that side. It can be a good thing as long as you take measures to stop the shock from being crushed or the spring dislocating to the point of falling out!

Kirkynut

The underdog often starts the fight, and occasionally the upper dog deserves to win - Edgar Watson Howe.

My Jimny Thread Here: www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/8-my-ji...on-continues?start=0

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24 Feb 2020 09:53 #218996 by 300bhpton

Andy2640 wrote: Great video and right up. Can i ask a noobY question: what is that componant on the left which dug into the earth?? Is it the transfer box or??

Yep it’s the transfer box. I believe there are skid plates available to protect it.

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24 Feb 2020 10:15 #218998 by saxj

Busta wrote: Good to see someone testing this sort of thing. Disconnecting the anti roll bar will make a big difference to articulation, and will definitely allow you to have all 4 wheels firmly on the ground on those ramps. On the gen 3 you can just remove the drivers side drop link which is a 5 minute job. I'm not sure if that trick would work on a gen 4. I understand most of the chassis is the same or very similar.

kirkynut wrote: The old rear shock extenders give an inch and a half on the Gen 3, I wonder if they can be fitted to the Gen 4 for some experimentation on the rears?


An inch and a half down travel at the expense of up travel, hence the many instances of bent of broken shock mounts! On standard suspension with the anti roll bar disconnected my gen 3 rear springs were at the point of coming loose, so I don't think more down travel help much.


Removing one side of the link does work on the Gen 4. I have removed mine completely, It makes a huge difference to articulation. The Gen 3 and Gen 4 flex about the same with the anti-roll bar removed (Both had 50mm lift with heavy duty coils in the rear).

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