New JB74 from Brazil (replacement for my 3rd gen)

Hello everyone,

Less than 2 months ago I made a post  here about my 6 year old 3rd gen Jimny. As I had mentioned on it, a few weeks later my JB74 arrived so I switched rides. My new Jimny is a kinetic yellow (or would it be green?) 4th gen I call Wasabi - it is the auto top trim level in Brazil, with LED height adjustable headlights, cruise control, rearview camera, digital air conditioning and a JBL head unit (the speakers aren't JBL). It doesn't come with other features available overseas such as ACC, lane departure assist, heated seats (this one wouldn't make much sense in Brazil) or curtain airbags.

I've already put it to test on a long (2,600 km travel) to Brazil's central, savannah-like region, reaching the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park where I tested it off road on some mild difficulty trails. To me it feels as capable as the 3rd gen off road. On road, I'm impressed with the comfort the JB74 provides on long journeys, it hasn't made me tired by the end of the day at all! The engine noise is much less noticeable than in the 3rd gen, specially given its engine doesn't have to rev as high as the M13A to cruise at 100-110 kph. I could notice some whine probably from the transfer box when accelerating/coasting though - from other members' posts it seems to be not so uncommon. Another thing I find worth pointing out is that (maybe because I got used to it?) the increased body roll I noticed during test drive is pretty much gone and the suspension feels much softer on rough terrain without numbing the off road experience.

 
Going around Brazil central region with my JB74.


The owner of the campsite where I stayed wanted to have a picture of my JB74 with their alien mascot.

As for mods, I have a lot of plans but I haven't done much yet. The first thing I did after taking the Jimny out of the dealer was to add paint protection film to the front body panels and Clearplex film to the windscreen, as from my experience with the 3rd gen paint chips and windscreen cracks appear sooner or later when driving on Brazilian roads. And soon I might replace the original speakers and add tweeters subwoofer to improve sound quality, as well as soundproof the cabin floor to try to minimize the transfer box whine getting into the cabin. I've been to the dealer already to talk about the whine (which actually isn't so loud in my opinion) but as other members mentioned, they considered it normal and told me even their own JB74s have the same "characteristic". I think maintenance induced failure is a good argument against insisting on doing something about it like having mechanical parts disassembled early into the car's life so I will try to work a solution out with soundproofing.

For future upgrades I intend to make it a micro overlander as others have done, but with minimal, purposeful mods. I don't want to add unnecessary weight or too many comfort items. For example, I have already slept inside the cabin using an inflatable mattress and the comfort is pretty good, so I'm not going for a heavy-bulky rooftop tent. I already have a small fridge and I'm considering installing a dual battery system to supply it plus a small air compressor and a water pump. At some point I might add a winch as some insurance against getting bogged down - after a shovel and maxtraxs -, but I won't add a steel bull bar as it weights a lot, it could easily void insurance coverage in Brazil and it is actually forbidden in Argentina, one of the countries I plan to visit every now and then. As always, the information in here will be extremely useful in my journey with Wasabi!

Proper Jimny country, the roads could have been made just for you. Fantastic photos keep them coming.

Hi Lambert, the tyres are the same 205/70/R15 Dunlop Grandtek as the JB74s from abroad. The previous gen was subject to factory mods by the Brazilian branch but the 4th comes nearly untouched from Japan. From what I've heard, just a few parts in the fuel system are replaced to comply with the Brazilian petrol standards (which is actually a mix of about 73% gasoline and 27% sugar cane alcohol).

It's in my plans to get tyres with bigger diameter and width in the future, nothing excessive though. I've heard in a video from Roam Overlanding that 215/75/R15 BFG ATs - my favorite model, but perhaps one of the heaviest - have a noticeable impact on performance. I might get lighter wheels to try to keep the wheels/unsprung mass as low as possible.

What a strikingly good colour you chose!

I liked the Gen3 Brazilian Jimny so much I made a similar bodykit.....M16A solved the lack of power issue.


 

Interested to see what mods you make for it's intended use!
 

Thanks DrRobin and Keithy! I will add new pictures once I get to travel again.
That's a very distinctive looking 3rd gen Keithy! Has it evolved from the one on your profile pic? I see you had the Brazilian front bumper installed previously.

wrote:

Thanks DrRobin and Keithy! I will add new pictures once I get to travel again.
That's a very distinctive looking 3rd gen Keithy! Has it evolved from the one on your profile pic? I see you had the Brazilian front bumper installed previously.
 

Yes it's had a few facelifts since I got it

I'm sure I'll change it again at some point!

Superb photos from Brazil. Love your new Jimny, ours is the same colour and gets a lot of attention!

My Jimny is about to reach 10,000 km and has accumulated a few mods - all of them internal - that I would like to share with you:

• Small additions from AliExpress: cargo attachment rings, cargo net fitted to the rear (I noticed I needed one last time camping when my towel fell on the dusty rear bumper) and plastic covers for the rear window wiring.
• Audio modifications: I asked a car audio store from here that I have know for over a decade to work on Wasabi's sound system and the results were pretty awesome; they soundproofed the rear of the cabin and the doors (both inner and outer panels to make them good quality speaker boxes); the original speakers were replaced by 5" mid-range Audison speakers sitting on custom wooden baffles that allowed them to be installed in the original door mount without modifying the door plastic cover or the door frame; those speakers came in a kit with tweeters that were installed on the plastic cover on the door near the A pillar; an 8" Hertz subwoofer was installed on the rear wooden deck (more on the deck in the next post) and a Hertz processor and an amplifier were installed under the passenger's seat (they were bolted on pieces of wood placed under the floor carpet; the wood was glued to the metal sheet of the floor, so no drilling was required); the amplifier draws current directly from the car battery - the wiring goes through the passenger side firewall grommet and has a waterproof fuse placed next to the battery (they also reinforced the battery grounding by adding a second ground wire from the battery's negative terminal).

 

Soundproofing doors and rear.


Tweeter installed on the door A pillar plastic cover using the mount that comes with the speaker kit; the mount's base has two holes through which it gets attached by screws onto the cover.


Hertz processor (closer to the camera) and amplifier installed under the passenger's seat; it is a vulnerable position if I were to do something like a deep water river crossing, but I don't plan to go that far when off roading. I considered having them installed under the rear deck, but I was told they wouldn't have proper cooling there and could shut down during long trips.


Small remote controller for the audio processor added between the 12v and USB ports. An L shaped bent piece of plexiglass and double-sided tape were used for mounting.

For the rear deck, I initially had plans to keep the rear seats and had clever ideas for attaching points to hold cargo/fridge from Soeley and wjamieson , but I noticed the fridge weight would deform the rear seats plastic panels over time. Also, tbh after owning a 3rd gen Jimny for 6 years I could remember of only 3-4 occasions in which I actually used the rear seats. So in the end I decided on replacing them by a wooden deck, which I had the same shop from the car audio to fabricate for me. I wish I could do it myself, but not only I don't have a garage and tooling that allows me to do that as my woodworking skills are somewhere near zero.

So using the commercially available rear deck and some ideas from the internet (such as lookonimages ') as a reference, my passtime for the last 1-2 months was to make a virtual model of such rear deck. I wanted a deck that would make a single level surface with the wheel arches and that would be sturdy enough to stand the weight of a person on each side so I could sleep on the passenger side and have my fridge on the driver's side. It shouldn't extend too far to the front so it would allow the back of the front seats to lean back flat. It should also allow access to the space under it for storage - a part of such space would be used by the subwoofer box so I wouldn't have to worry about placing it above the deck.

I thought about making the deck tall enough to fit an aux battery under it, but that would make it taller than the wheel arches, with the need of additional supporting structures that would increase weight and reduce the rear cabin height. I gave up on that idea - I will either use an aux battery slim enough to fit under the deck or - most likely - I will place the battery behind the passenger's seat.


Rear deck model.


Rear deck model supporting structures; I initially thought about having them made of steel, but I would have to go after a second shop for that so I resorted on having everything made of plywood.

 
Rear deck with subwoofer; cargo net and the cover for the rear window wiring can be seen as well.

 
Rear deck with access panels removed.

That looks very neat, great job. Only concern I'd have is the subwoofer being exposed like that, any plans for a protective cover/grille?

Hi Gadget, thanks! Yes, the exposed subwoofer is also a concern to me. A protective grille was ordered but it hasn’t arrived yet.