Kirkynut's Jimny (aka Daddy's Tractor) - The Evolution continues...

My mistake, it was Bighorn's 764's I was looking at.

I'm used to tyres that are so noisy that they compete with the radio with some success, so the Maxxis are unlikely to be too loud for me. Seriously, people some way ahead of me are turning round to see what's coming down the road, so inside is just so loud much over 30 mph! As for wet grip, the amount of tread touching the road when my Kaimans were new was minimal but now some blocks are shorter than others it's even less!

I'd still recommend the Kaimans to someone who wants to do what I used to do as they've been through hell and back and are now really old, probably getting on 9 years old.

The Bighorn's have been tested by my off road testing team too - aka Dave and Brett!

I've looked at the Toyos but I'm not enamoured with them and they're a little more expensive. Cooper don't do them in this size.

Kirkynut

We have bighorns as well, previously had trepadors on another Jimny. We like Maxxis tyres

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Also running Maxxis 764's, recommend them. Fairly quiet on the road for what they are. Haven't got stuck yet. They seem to be holding up well against any damage.

Thank you chaps. As and when I sort out some wheels - which is money dependant as the Mrs road car needs new tyres and a few other bits - I shall order up 5 x Maxxis 764's in 235/75/15 flavour.

Kirkynut

I fitted a new stereo to my Jimjam today. It was a simple case of pull out the old Sony and pop in the new one. All the plugs are the same so what could go wrong? Several things it seems!

So the first issue was that it sounded bloody terrible as soon as I turned it up past a low volume, distorting terribly.

As a result of this I whipped it out to see if there was a bad connection and plugged it back in without pushing it back into the dash. Now nothing. Not a light or sound out of it. It was just at this time that I needed to take a friend and her son home, so I couldn't sort it out but I had established that it was not getting an earth and that the earth pin had pulled out of the original Suzuki plug and disappeared to bugger knows where!

A temporary earth to a dashboard bolt, held in place with a crocodile clip didn't solve it. I was baffled.

After dinner and putting the boy to bed, making tomorrow's lunch, shaving and showering I commenced battle again. I rigged up a proper temporary earth with a proper connector to a proper earth point. It worked!

Now to see why it sounded so crap, which was why I pulled it back out in the first place!

I could see that for reasons that escape me now, I had joined the rear speaker output wires from the head unit to the front speakers, along with the front speaker output. The result was the crap sound I had with my old head unit and really crap sound with the new one!

So I cut that off, taped the rear outputs up and boom! Quite literally boom! It sounds awesome!

All this time I've been suffering from crap sounds and I cannot for the life of me think why I connected them together!

So I've got larger front speakers. I know they are Pioneers but I'm not sure what size, possibly 13cm. It's been a while since I fitted them.

With good quality rear speakers I reckon it would be really good, especially if I upgrade the fronts to something special too.

Once I've got my new tyres the Jimjam will be really useable. I've quietened down the Rocklobster transfer box a bit with some Lucas gear oil that promises to quieten whining diffs. It's now a bit like a Classic Mini's gearbox. I think my stereo can overcome it now.

That brings me to the point of the new head unit! Bluetooth! I can listen to my music off my phone without getting my phone out of my pocket and won't forget it when I get out. I can also receive and make phone calls hands free. This is something we take for granted these days but I'd not caught up with technology in the Jimjam until now.

Now I planned to get new wheels for my new tyres when I order them but I'm not sure if I can justify the cost. I might just give mine a rub down and some silver wheel spray instead. I'm really looking forward to getting new quieter tyres too. Also ones that don't make the car go up and down as it comes to a stop where they're so aggressive that they're like driving on 50p's!

I need to order up some balancing beads and then I can get my local tyre shop to get the Maxxis in stock. They've priced them up to be competitive with online suppliers once you've considered the postage and fitting. A little dearer but far more convenient.

Kirkynut

I took my boy to the local airport to watch the planes take off and land today, which he loves and he sat in the driver's seat pretending to drive Daddy's Tractor.

It's great he loves the Jimny.



He had a go on the CB too as no other Bugger was on the air!



Then we drove a short local lane, which he calls "Driving through the trees".

We've had a great day.

Kirkynut

Sounds like quality bonding time. In a short while he will be wanting to do steering while on your lap as you drive!

Lambert wrote: Sounds like quality bonding time. In a short while he will be wanting to do steering while on your lap as you drive!

We're there already Lambert!

He talked his Mum into driving her car around her Mum's field with him on her lap the other day when I was at work and ge sat on my lap when we put the Jimny in the garage and then my BMW back on the drive this afternoon!

Kirkynut

You need to bring him in October, he can show us how off roading should be done! :laugh:

Lambert wrote: You need to bring him in October, he can show us how off roading should be done! :laugh:

Work stops that I'm afraid Lambert!

Kirkynut

N/S kingpin bearing replaced this afternoon due to the classic leak coming and as I had the hub off I changed the wheel bearing for one I already had pressed into a hub, ready to go.

I changed both on the driver's side last year I think it was. It's documented above anyway.

Getting the boy to work on the car has started. It might only be doing the wheel nuts up finger tight but he's been asking to help me fix the cars and Daddy's Tractor!



Kirkynut

Yesterday we went green laning! Woo Hoo the Jimny has been used properly!



This was the first laning trip for our boy and I'm pleased to say that he loved it - especially driving through rivers (fords).



We stayed relatively local in view of it being our boy's first laning trip and we didn't know how he'd be but he loves "driving through the trees" etc.

We went to a lane over Great Dunmow way where there is the Nuclear Bunker we went down before as it would be something to get our boy out of the car and would be interesting for him.








This was the toilet area. I can only assume they had a chemical toilet or something. I could not get a photo of the main room as I only had my phone with me and not a proper camera and it was pitch black. You can see my photos from the first time we visited here though: www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/8-my-ji...-continues?start=132


This is the top of the ventilation shaft.

We also did a bit of Geo-Caching too to give him a treasure hunt.



A nice cup of tea was made at lunch using my trusty old Coleman stove but with 5 year old petrol! It took a while to boil! I've been shown some funky little gas ones that are quick to boil a kettle that China pump out, so I might get one of those rather than have a petrol stove.

Kirkynut