Thread: 4WD Advice

Originally Posted by bigbear

Suzuki vitara five door and a basic set of muds tires and snorkel. they are a lighter suv and do float. Not a tuff truck by any means.
All depends how off road you want to go.
The likes of a suzuki will take you up your mud tracks, river beds etc but your high flow rivers and big boulder bouncing you will need a heavier truck.

If you go suzuki get the grand vitara has the steel diff housing in the front instead of the standard alloy that snaps pretty easy

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Starting to get into some serious mods and certing there though. One option for a winch especially a 'working' installation is a heavy duty power fitting either end, a pair of shackle points at either end and a narrow-drum winch mounted to a heavy plate with a pair of soft slings. Advantage of this setup is being able to pull from either end i.e. back out of the crap rather than further in, and less weight permanently mounted over your front axle (where a lot of vehicles struggle with legal weights).

Yep but with all the new rules anything apart from stock standard pretty much needs a cert so do it all and do it once kind off job

Isn't it funny on people's standards of what a 4wd needs to be its like guns one will say all you need is a gun and bullets and learn to shoot others will be it has to be custom or it won't shoot straight all will get you a deer out to 300 but the custom will go further and a little easier and be nicer to use. But at the end of the day it's what you want to do and need it to do

Originally Posted by country cuts

Yep but with all the new rules anything apart from stock standard pretty much needs a cert so do it all and do it once kind off job

You should see the amount of (mostly rangers) 4wds here with massive offset wheels and tread of tires sticking way outside the guards......also sooty tunes and loud exhausts.
All seem to go unnoticed by the warrent places and traffic enforcement.

Originally Posted by country cuts

Isn't it funny on people's standards of what a 4wd needs to be its like guns one will say all you need is a gun and bullets and learn to shoot others will be it has to be custom or it won't shoot straight all will get you a deer out to 300 but the custom will go further and a little easier and be nicer to use. But at the end of the day it's what you want to do and need it to do

I have had a few different 4x4 now and been through the body lift etc custom bumper. Now i would only own a truck with the standard mud tyre that dont rub and a snorkel for piece of mind. And breather extension's for all those south island rivers.

I’ve had hilux (too hard on my repaired back) a Suzuki Grand Vitara (thirsty as) and d-max. The Suzie was most impressive in the sands of Rangipo near Waiouru and easily matched, if not bettered my sons Prado on the route we took. I still have an unfitted snorkel kit here.

Originally Posted by Mohawk .308

My missus has a 2003 4l petrol prado, really nice to drive ,comfortable and plenty of power but bloody expensive to run. I’d be looking for an earlier diesel 96-98 if it was me. One with the old style odometer

Hang onto that....
Sick of spending the purchase price and more to keep old Diesels running I stumped up and bought a new budget brand 3 years ago.
Knowing what I now know I would do the same but buy a petrol.....any petrol I could get.

just wish they would put the vitara motor in the jimny !
be a drop in juice from my legacy 3.0 but the roads are so crap it doesnt matter

Originally Posted by Mauser308

I dunno, the new petrols with sensors everywhere aren't a huge improvement over... anything really.

I was more thinking of this government taxing diesel's till they are not viable to run rather than any reliability issues

Originally Posted by Mauser308

I dunno, the new petrols with sensors everywhere aren't a huge improvement over... anything really.

once you understand modern petrol engines they are ok to work on with a few access issues to the parts involved. everyone raves about engine management unit failure, its 90% a peripheral part.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

I dunno, the new petrols with sensors everywhere aren't a huge improvement over... anything really.

once you understand modern petrol engines they are ok to work on with a few access issues to the parts involved. everyone raves about engine management unit failure, its 90% a peripheral part.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Yep, done a few engine transplants and rebuilt a few so a fair idea. The biggest issue with the new ones is bloody CanBUS systems - unless you can address the replacement part and sensors to 'talk' to each other and get everything to play nice you're kinda screwed as a back yarder DIY man. Your average OBDII reader won't perform that level of intervention in an ECU and being able to recode something to talk to the propriety ECU is a major undertaking.

What ya reckon about refreshing an ln106 2.8 and putting a turbo on it?
Looking at the kaiapoi lads and they get some impressive results .
I'm not a big lwadfoot these days but towing the trailer in the highway is painful with 65kw!

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Hang onto that....
Sick of spending the purchase price and more to keep old Diesels running I stumped up and bought a new budget brand 3 years ago.
Knowing what I now know I would do the same but buy a petrol.....any petrol I could get.

I have a petrol VX Prado. It's not a daily driver but a weekend toy for fishing and hunting trips. Bloody comfy and plenty of herbs under your right boot. Fuel costs don't really worry me and it's only used occasionally anyway. It's just ticking over at 100km/hr. Some of these in the outback have over a million kms on them, if you service them well.

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