Thread: advice greatly appreciate!!!!

Surf's are good i have a 91 petrol v6 goes great, good to sleep in i have slept in it bout 3 times now cumfey and worm, the only thing i would change is get a diesel as v6 chews the gas.

10c worth of advice from old 4x4 clubber.

Did umpteen years club offroading (hence the site name) and hundreds of tracks including coast to coast etc. After many years of running all the 4x4 makes through obstacles side by side, and knowing the relative maintenance for each model, alot of myths go out the window, and the sturdier trucks emerge.

First thing - forget the old landies. Even in the Canterburyy Landrover club very few members run landies, they are frowned on when you take them on trips because of breakdown rate, and they had special landie days to accommodate them. Don't go there - too brittle. Then forget the new ones. Went on one landrover club trip - it had only two new landies on it - and both buckled steering gear when no other trucks did.

Don't believe the Toyota 'tough truck' marketing. Have watched too many members and mates doing their toyota boxes, diffs, motor work etc when other trucks didn't need it. 2.8 non turbo probly the best of the Toyota motors but not much power. Performance better with turbo bolted on but motor not so reliable afterwards with the extra turbo pressure.

Chrome has summarised the 1Kz motors above. Ok, nice to drive, but a number of club trucks cracked heads and if the water got into the bore it was a $9k rebuild.

Some of the mitsis ok - not as rugged as some trucks but the older 2.5 softtop with factory locker ok - esp if it had the cast iron Mitsi Canter gearbox.

Three good options are the safari, toyota hilux 2.8, and the isuzu 1987-92 2.8T:

Safari very heavy - we called them sinkers for obvious reasons - and a bit gutless unless turboed, but tough, durable donkeys. Easy to mod.

Toyota hilux 2.8 - good engine, tons of parts for inexpensive repairs, Can be made into good performers but you must do the lifts right - have seen hiluxes that look great but on the ramp measured terrible wheel articulation.

Isuzu bighorn 87-92 - a sleeper - in fact an isuzu light truck with 4x4 body. 4Jb1T a cracker of a diesel, easy to tune to 140-150hp, very tough and durable, great drivetrain, easy to mod. Hard to get here now though.

It is no accident that these are the three 4x4s overseas (from Dubai etc) buyers come into NZ to pick up and sell into Africa etc.

Jeeps a no-no. Standing joke among jeep club mates is jeep means "just explode every part'.... Very brittle.

Little suzukis do some things well but with serious limitations - not much torque, no grunt when pushing big tyres, no room for passengers and gear, and no good in deeper rivers - have seen them floating off.

For bang for your buck for an easily setup 4x4 for hunting and moderate offroading, my advice would be the 4JG2 3.1 isuzu wizard. Very underpriced, very sturdy isuzu drivetrain and box and quite good motor. Occasional head cracking but nothing like the toyota 2.4T and 3.0T. As noted above a bigbore even from flexi back will help with this. Quite good ones from $3,500 - alot come with v good isuzu LSD, good range of lockers etc. Don't buy the wizard with 4X1 3.0 motor - crapper of an engine. 92 - 97 Bighorns also good value - similar to but heavier than wizard.

Give me call when you get back Mark - cheers Mike Anderson. Hope this short summary helps.

(And no more *&#* old landies! A Cantab clubmate of mine had one for about 12 years but it hardly ever left his garage - he used a cruiser instead... He spent a fortune on the old series 2 and finally sold it for $1200 - not going.) Nuff said...

mate of mine has a surf for sale ............. good deal ...

Have you thought about the Mazda Marvie? Heaps of room in the back. Looking at them and Wizards atm as a cheaper alternative than surfs...

Was chatting to diesel mechanic mate about the marvies and his comment was leave the mazda 4wds alone - not so robust engineering. They are also v hard on the juice.

Wizard far better option and they go for b*gger all too. Nice on the road, easy to lift, good strong drivetrain and box, and isuzu (like the safari) have excellent LSDs. Pop some Redline Heavy Duty Shockproof Gear oil in them and they bite extremely well - almost as good as a diff locker....almost. Downside with 3.1 motor is it requires new turbo every 120ish ks so don't pick one w noisy turbo whine... Most of the wizards have mechnical rather than electronic fuel pumps so usually easy to add bit more fuel and tweak timing to gain 10hp extra power.

I like the 3.0 surfs to drive - had one as work vehicle - but they're a bit of a lottery and can cost a bundle if head probs occur. In terms of bang for your buck I'd take the wizard as a worker - will be my next 4wd. Just make very sure you don't buy the 98-2000 or so model with the 3.0 4JX1 motor - isuzu's mistake. 4JH1 ok.

Have you thought of a Jeep Cherokee pre 1990. They are only as hungry as your right foot. Hardly any difference between a Landrover Defender and a jeep. except in price the jeep is cheaper.

Landys comfy so its nice to relax in while waiting for the tow truck!

I recently went against what alot of people said and bought an xj jeep - no regrets whatsoever. Awesome wagon, you can fold the back seat down dead flat right through. Tonnes of grunt, awesome 4x4 capabilites, cheap as chips to buy. Doesn't use anywhere near as much fuel as what people tried to say. I love mine btw, from all the jeep forum's I"m on, the only thing they say, is 'people who slag off Jeeps have never owned one, let alone driven one'

BEEP BEEP

Originally Posted by gadgetman

I'd go (actually I did do) for an Isuzu Bighorn or Wizard with the 3.1 (4JG2) engine. The running gear and engine are stronger than the Toyota and you get a lot more for your dollar.

I have a wizard that thing will go any where its a good hack

I have four 4x4's but only one that sets up easy for sleeping.The wife and I will be camping in it this weekend as the rear seats fold down to make a flat full length bed area, thats the main reason we keep it. Its a 1986 Nissan Safari 3.3 ltr turbo. Cost $700.00 five years ago complete with PTO winch and has not failed a WOF yet. We take it on rallys and hunting ,camping trips of a month duration (We take an Oz Tent ).Cheaper to drive than my 1991 4.2 ltr GQ safari.

North Island

South Island

the suzukis are good just a bit small to sleep in mine goes every where with hardly any mods I just take a small tent with me stay away from the wizards youd be way better off with a punch in the head and your mechanic will end up hating you. ive had to work on the pieces of shit. that's the diesel ones im talking about

My thoughts/questions.

Maybe not all Toyotas are over-rated-yet after more than 10 of them -I got the impression = either high repairs/maintenance, or use them and throwaway- esp after designed life mileage (opinions vary on that determined point)- the reason terrorists use them I think is because there are so many of them to cannabalise for parts and they become valueless after a while. Great for carrying polystyrene or 2-3 hay bales-not much else.
They are not 100% bad, and do have some good features.
Additionally they are generally comfortable though-part of the marketing ploy I'm sure.

Landrover - good if you can find S2 without rust-new gearbox,new suspension, good engine(not landrover supplied)-high ratio diffs-put up with the tractor like comfort;-Newer ones -well marketed and better to drive to town-expensive to fix.

Nissan patrol = good, yet can be heavy in the mud, expensive to use, and depends greatly on the previous maintenance schedule/ and yours.

What experience have people had with a Daihatsu rugger?

Originally Posted by northdude

stay away from the wizards youd be way better off with a punch in the head and your mechanic will end up hating you. ive had to work on the pieces of shit. that's the diesel ones im talking about

Depends which model Wizard. The early one with the 4JG2 engine is fine. The later one is let down with the reliability of the 4JX1 engine ancillaries/injection system.

Exactly. In the Wizards the 4JG2 pretty good - occasional head cracking and turbo needs replacing at 120k or so, but otherwise good durable motor. Isuzu's 4JX1 was their failure - quite a good block but v bad fuel system and major sensor problems - a crapper to be avoided.