Thread: Urgent Advice - Would you buy this 4WD?

Originally Posted by trapperjohn

The beauty of these 4x4 of the late 80- 90 era is that at one time us country boys could travel to the big smoke and purchase a reasonable second hand 4x4 for about as much as a second hand quad.
They all had an easy life, had hardly ever been in 4 wheel drive, and were generally just a status symbol for soccer moms.
Made great bush/beach hacks and WOF and REG meant you could head off to any corner of the country.

Now those same utes or in high demand as they get tricked out with raised suspension. raised bodies, flares, snorkels, bigger wheels and you guessed it more as a status symbol than a practical application. Problem is the affordable beach/hunting wagons getting snapped up, and some pretty sick prices for older models as OP has highlighted.

Hmmm,, maybe the fellas that feel they need to trick out there 4x4 of the 2020's are the children of the soccer moms of the 1990's.
Think about it.

Originally Posted by trapperjohn

Hmmm,, maybe the fellas that feel they need to trick out there 4x4 of the 2020's are the children of the soccer moms of the 1990's.
Think about it.

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

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

Put some decent tyres on it, and use it as is for now. You will soon find out the limitations of the vehicle and yourselves. Then you can fit whatever you have discovered you need to push past those previous limits, safely.
All the modifications in the world won’t help you if you make a poor decision through inexperience.

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Thanks… I like that advice.

Below is a poc if the current tyres on there… any suggestions on what I should go for? A good mud terrain tyre?

If your not happy with the tyres on it now, then a decent all terrain would likely serve you better than a mud terrain. There’s a lot of rocky river beds, and plenty of long driving stints where a mud tyre is not the best. But I’d probably use it as is, they sell tyres in the South Island, if you find they’re not up to it.


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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:



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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.