Urgent Advice - Would you buy this 4WD?

Do not buy MTs. They will hammer your fuel consumption, wear out fast on the coarse S Island chip and cost more to buy.

Use the ones you have until they have ~5mm of tread. Then buy a sensible mid-range set of ATs like Khumo, Maxxis, Hankook, whatever. With the stage you are at in experience and probably life in general you will be doing the vast majority of mileage on the black top and you do not need to be wearing out an expensive set of proper off-road tires.

As you start to explore off-road the only thing you need for that vehicle is a compressor and tyre pressure gauge. Buy a half decent one that can pump a 17” 265 tyre reasonably fast. When you get off-road - as in properly off-road - drop the pressure in your tires. Have a look at some of tyre pressure charts for different conditions, and have a copy with you.

Appropriate tyre pressure for the conditions makes all the difference. It is a critical element of successful, enjoyable 4WDing. Thing is, as soon as you hit the blacktop, you need to return them to normal highway pressure.

When I first started getting into the serious stuff in Africa I was schooled by a chap in Cape Town who had driven the length and breadth of the continent. He had a little ditty he used to kind of sing / shout, over and over… WEIGHT IS THE ENEMY, DA DA DA… [Repeat]

My advice would be to resist the urge to fit things like roof racks and fill it up with heavy stuff. Roof racks also kill fuel consumption. Rather spend that money on good quality, robust but lightweight and low volume camping gear, and scale down, you don’t need as much stuff as you think you do. Ideally, fit a cargo rack and work out a modular packing system. It is great fun (I’m a packing nerd) and a good system makes travel and camping an awful lot more enjoyable. I use Frontrunner Wolfpacks. You would be amazed how much gear you can fit in a Prado, but there is nothing worse than an overstuffed chaotic 4WD.

Do you have kids?

Brilliant… thanks so much, again!

No kids at this stage, although we do have a Rotty and a Bulldog with us. The first thing I did was pull out all the seats except the front two… so now trying to figure out how to make the most of the space, whilst leaving just enough room behind the front seats for the hounds.

Could you please clarify what you mean by a cargo cage?

I see myself needing to become a ‘packing nerd’ also…


Cheers,
Mitch

Sorry I meant to say cargo barrier. One of these:

Attachment 183466

if you pack unwisely and then have an accident where you suddenly decelerate, your luggage will remove the back of your skull unless it is safely contained. You also don’t want your gear crushing your dogs.

Ahh OK I’m with you. That makes sense… I can set the cargo barrier back a bit to leave room for the dogs (and build some kind of platform to level it out)… and then just get good at packing the heck out of the cargo area.

Ironman 4x4 are about to lose a chunky payday… woops. Will get the compressor and Wolfpacks on the go.

Thanks again Flyblown and MSL.


Cheers!
Mitch

Thanks Mauser… I was actually going to ask you guys a question along these lines next… I figured it might be worth doing one of the 4WD courses out there just to nail down the basics. If anyone has a recommendation along those lines it would be appreciated. I can go anywhere in the South Island to do it.

It might be overkill, but I’m keen to understand the fundamentals… even if I rarely need them.


Cheers,
Mitch

I see… cool, thanks for the insights.

Mitch

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mauser308

Investigate the 4x4 drawer systems, you can make them yourself out of ply and marine carpet with the appropriate hardware - they seriously work well and keep everything secure and down low. Aussie 4x4 forums are your bible for this sort of thing. A cargo barrier can go from them up and do the safety thing, but as others have suggested unless you need it avoid the roof trays as the weight is right where you don't want it up high.

You don't need a huge lift or a massive set of knobblies - learning how to drive the thing will make a massive difference. An example of this, when I first got my Ranger I stopped in a farm gate on clay I found out. No go in 2 high, slide towards a post in 4 high, fark. Scratch head, scartch balls, hmm 45min walk out and back just for coverage not waiting 1.5 hours. Hmm, what about 4 low and the electronic torque wheelslip doohickey in this thing? Nothing to lose, don't reckon it'll do shit. Into 4L, into gear, bit of a weird Grrr from the abs as we drive straight out of the clay... I walked back onto it after I drove off the clay pad to close the gate scratching my nuts thinking I must have missed something and promptly slipped over onto my arse and slid down into the gate. This was on the factory AT22 tyres which everyone scoffs at as crap (fine by me as I pick them up unused at $50-$100 a corner on rims).

Lesson there, is learn what works for your rig and what it can do and how to get the best out of it and you'll be surprised and surprise a few people in turn.

You don't need a flash front bar if you have underbody protection with front and rear tandem recovery points, as with the addition of a narrow drum winch and a power cable install you can recover yourself from either end and don't end up carting all the extra weight of the front axle.

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Mauser, excuse my ignorance… but could you point me toward the right information regarding the winch setup you refer to here? That makes a lot of sense to me, so am going to do some homework once I know exactly what I need to be looking in to. So far I just keep finding stuff about marine winches that dont look all that useful.

Thanks in advance,
Mitch

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mitcho

Hey guys,

For anyone interested, we got a 2006 Prado, petrol, auto with 105k kms. Absolutely love it. In mint condition apart from some cracks on the dash… no towbar and never had one, and according to the mechanic it doesnt look like its ever been off-road.

Continuing on the theme above, what mods do you consider crucial? We need roof racks for storage, but aside from that, what do we need to be doing given we just want a really capable vehicle that can take us all over the South Island camping… the more opportunities to go deep off road, the better.

Thoughts?


Cheers,
Mitch

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Have a look at where the air intake is located. Factory it may be halfway down the rear of the passengers side front wheel, a sure recipe for a hydraulic in a splash crossing. Without a snorkel just unclipping the top of the aircleaner drum for a crossing will mean the engine sucks air from high under the bonnet which is fine for a 'top of the tires' crossing. Do the clips up again when past the water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mitcho

Mauser, excuse my ignorance… but could you point me toward the right information regarding the winch setup you refer to here? That makes a lot of sense to me, so am going to do some homework once I know exactly what I need to be looking in to. So far I just keep finding stuff about marine winches that dont look all that useful.

Thanks in advance,
Mitch

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A Wench is something you screw on the front of a 4wd

Winches are fine and dandy, but you can end up chasing your tail, and carting a shitload of extra weight twice around the South Island, and use it once.

Minimum for me would be: Air compressor or hand pump: dog turd tubeless tyre repair kit: spade: hand saw: A decent polyprop rope: Possibly a 2T come along hand winch. All up weight about 20kg.

What XR500 says, plus 4x MaxTrax. I use the MaxTrax to get myself out, and my winch is generally to get others out. Maxtrax are brilliant things.

Wow… thanks again guys… really generous with your time there. Really appreciate it. That gives me plenty of food for thought, and will save me a good bit of cash.

Have an awesome week!


Cheers,
Mitch

Polyester ropes for towing.
Nylon straps (snatch straps) for recovery, the 20% stretch that you get in a recovery strop aids in the recovery, the stored energy works like a rubber band and helps pull the stuck vehicle out once the strap reaches it full length.

Yep. My mistake. I've got 35mm dia Polyester ropes I have spliced up for hauling things with the tractor a dozer. Lovely and light and almost no stretch. Just what you need for attaching a hand winch to something immovable.

Bicycle track pump. Slays a foot pump for reinflating tyres. Or theres always an electric pump. But manual stuff is more reliable and fixable IMO.

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Bugger having an expensive winch mounted on your truck with limited pull angles and stuff that can crap out. I carry a 3 ton vertical lift chainblock with plenty of chain, a couple of long straps and waratahs with a flat top welded on them so I can use the sledge hammer to drive them in, cost fuck all, pull on any angle you like and super strong.

warratahs...now man at work made me wee gizmo that shocked me in how good it is....piece of 2" heavy pipe 3" long with a 3" square flat welded to one end so its like a big cup/top hat with square rim...sit the sucker on top of warratah and hit the flat plate...you cant smack your hand holding the pipe bit as its underneath the rim and the top of warratahs dont get bent up....you can leave insulators on unlike using the top hat with handles models....
we have commercial "black snake" tow ropes for our fert trucks...they stretch like buggery but the trucks come out...biggest trick we learnt was to pull truck from front at sharp angle so it pivots on one back wheel,popping other three free of shit then lurches itself up n out....when really stuck the towed truck can rear n lurch like crazy horse before clearing itself,the tow rope shrinking as it moves then tight as tower gets moving...at times I admit I hide down behind dash as its plurry unsettling seeing that tight black line pointed back at you......thats the other advantage of towing at angle....it points past you.

....And without really trying, his 'around the South Island for 6 months truck' is nudging GVM without any passengers or gear aboard:omg::omg::omg: