riza

anyone on here dabble in the dirt??

iv been looking at getting a 4x4 and doing some greenlaning.Iv been down to a few local offroad tracks/play pits but if you ask any Q's peep only tell you to buy whatever they drive "coz there the best ever" so wondered if anyone on here might have some info.

basically i cant decide between an older disco or a suzuki sj. they are both pretty opposite, ones small, light, petrol and the others a big, heavy, dirty devil juice.

both seem to have pro's and cons so anyone .....

Oldun

Have a look at a Mitsubishi Delica L300 2800CC turbo intercooler.

MPV day-to-day, fun vehicle at the weekends.


Also good for recovering Range Rovers from the mud.


I've had two, I would describe them as a Galaxy on steroids.

Good forum for them, great community and easily customised.

scoobyman2012

iTrader: (1)

Get a old range rover v8 or disco , parts are cheep for land rovers when they go wrong and easy to fix , sj's are ok , but prefer landrovers myself

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I used to...Lightweight Landy is now rotting out the back at work covered in moss and lichen - Not much wrong with it, just don't have the time.

SJs and Disco all have their pros and cons. Regardless of which; they'll need proper tyres, as thats the main key to avoid getting stuck. Diff locks second and ground clearance third. Plus a damn good tow rope (I have a steel rope rated at 200ton that came from a casting foundry ). The cons of both will be chassis rust/rot....especially if off-roaded before as mud/sludge gets inside the chassis rails and rots it from the inside.

Whatever you buy, find out what goes wrong most on them, and what it costs to fix, because you will probably break it. Also look at modified parts, such as lift kits, cages and big wheel/tyres, as you'll probably end up buying them too. More fancy Jap stuff can get pricer on parts - both replacement and aftermarket mods. Landys have always had good parts supply from loads of competing outlets which helps keep prices down, SJs have a similar following.

As for advice; if its deepwater wading...don't buy a disco V8 unless its a disco 2 with coilpack ignition....with the older ones you'll waterlog the distributor (its at the front of the engine and not very waterproof). When that happens, the engine will run just about long enough for you to get you stuck in the middle of whatever pond/lake/river/bog you decided to wade through (it is avoidable, mine has a rubber glove over the distributor...now ). I still have a tide line on the inside of my doors from when it happened to me (won't jetwash off), and it made a right mess...killed the aternator and killed the starter motor (all filled up with sludge - simple enough to rebuild DIY though) Electric fan conversion with an manual overide on/off switch would be advisable as well, as a viscous unit makes a right mess when wading.

I think being mechanically minded is the key to keeping costs down. Trust me, no garage will want to work on a 4x4 thats clad with a 4" thick layer of clay underneath it.

Luan Pra bang

Get a disco 2, I have one and had it through some pretty deep water recently, and made it through no drama, I did start to **** it when the water was level with the head lights though, and now I have to kick the left side head light to make it work and the battery did die a day or so later but I cannot imagine many cars would have made it through.

hodgy0_2

If you want the daddy of off roaders

Toyota Landcruiser 80 series, built to last and diff locks on all three axles

And will hold its value too

Matteeboy

Jimnys are very good off road, cost naff all to run and are well made. Still miss ours!

LVC

Surprised no-ones mentioned it - still the best 4x4 for off-road: light enough, excellent angle for steep access and entry points, great source of cheapish parts, easy to work on as well as great street cred:

Land Rover Defender 90 with a 200Tdi engine ..... here's my current one :



I've had a Disco II - put it on it's roof, had a Pajero X-Storm - great for posing but limited use off-road, had various US trucks - you'll need a big bank account to run them.

At the end of the day get decent tyres and a high-lift kit, add your breathers if you're going wading and pretty much any 4x4 is excellent fun - don't do it alone as 1 car can get really stuck and you'll need the 2nd to pull you out - enjoy.

zip106

I used to with my old L200.

Got fed up having to clean the rads and engine every time though.

This was a mate of mine at Sibbertoft.....


Just keep watching - it gets funnier.....

Matteeboy

LVC - we had a newer Defender for a year and while it did the usuals well, it was so unreliable and expensive to run (tax and insurance as well as servicing were horrendous), we sold it.

The Jimny on the other hand was comically cheap to buy and run and coped amazingly well with serious green landing.

David_Dickson

Had a defender 90 TDi = full time 4x4 with a lockable centre diff and hi and lo range boxes.. good off road, easy to fix and plenty of bits available everywhere. However it liked to rust, was very unrefined on road and has surprisingly little space in the cabin.

Had a 3 door Discovery 200TDi = full time 4x4 with lockable centre diff and hi and lo boxes again. pretty much as good off road as the defender, with same parts availability but much more comfortable on road, plenty of space and actually relatively refined to drive.

Had an early SWB Frontera Sport 2 litre petrol. = RWD on road, switches to 4x4 for off road with hi and lo box and auto-locking front hubs. 4x4 not suitable on tarmac due to binding the transmission (front and rear axles need to rotate at different speeds and having them linked permanantly strains the drivetrain on tarmac as there is no slip between front and rear) Surprisingly cheap to run economy-wise, comfortable enough and the removable hard top was cool in summer but a faff to put on and off. Mine had a limited slip rear diff as a factory option and I would say it was probably more capable off road than the landrovers.

Had a Lada Niva. = same transmission style as the landies with a wee 1.6 petrol engine. Surprisingly good on-road with very little body roll and pretty much unstoppable off road. Tiny overhangs and a short wheelbase meant it would go places the landies couldnt. Terrible fuel economy and was only rated to tow 750 kg trailers. Everything that wasnt vital to the running of the engine was broken...electrics, lights, heater controls, window winders, seats etc etc etc but it just kept trundling along quite happily. I really liked that car and rate them highly. Only reason I got rid was due to the low tow capacity.

Had a Daihatsu Sportrak. = Same transmission style as the frontera with a 1.6 petrol engine. A nasty, bouncy, uncomfortable **** that used more fuel than anything else. Reasonably competant off road, but the front hubs were manual, so required getting out and faffing in the mud to lock them before engaging 4x4. Did not like.

Currently have a Landrover Freelander td4. = full time 4x4 with a viscous coupling unit that does away with the need for a locking centre diff as per the other landies. very comfortable and car-like on road, cheap enough parts, but lots of electronic voodoo that makes it hard to diagnose faults. Viscous coupling is the weak link and must be changed when it starts to grip too much before it seizes and takes out the rest of the transmission. See Bell Engineering for a decent recon unit and accept no cheap pish from ebay. Main drawback is lack of lo range gearbox, so clambering over rougher stuff requires either lots of clutch slip or taking it at a higher speed. Not built for serious offroading, but its surprsingly competent. It has an electronic traction control system that brakes each wheel as it slips, diverting power to those that grip. Today I spent all day hauling a double axle trailer full of wood back and forth through serious mud and it coped ok although the clutch took a hammering.

Have just bought a Mazda B2500 pickup (same as a ford ranger) 2.5 tdi. Same transmission style as the Frontera, I havent had it long enough to comment, but need to decide whether to keep it or the freelander. Pickup bed us useful for my work, but its skittish on road when the back is unloaded - easy to drift on wet roundabouts!

All the above cars were from the bottom of the market. The Mazda is the newest I have had (11 years old) and the lada was the oldest (it was 20-odd years old) and none cost me more than about £1500 to buy. None of them have failed catastrophically but I dont do hard-core offroading. I work as a country estate manager so spend a lot of time driving forestry style tracks, farmland etc and humpf around loads of chainsaws etc and pull a large trailer for firewood or carrying the mini tractor / mower etc. Its ****-wet here so very muddy and slippery....Tyres are the most important modification to start with and will make a massive difference to any vehicle. I like BFGoodrich AT2's as they are a good compromise for offroad and road use, but I think the next set will be proper offroad mud tyres. Insa Turbos get decent praise on various forums.

LVC

The newer Defenders have a multitude of problems (as well as costing a fortune) and the TD5 engine is only good in the Disco. Mine is a 1986 ex-military with a 200Tdi conversion (which I've lightly modified). Had her for 12 years and never let me down but be prepared to learn to be a mechanic (if you're not already) as going to the LR garage costs way too much.

Rust....that's why the Defender was designed with bolt on panels .... and with an enormous supply of 2nd hand parts available just buy a newer bit and recycle the old one.

Had a Freelander (Sport Premium) and am planning on buying another early next year (for the misses) - great little cars and with the TD4 and an autobox more than comfortable for the school run. You can mod them fairly cheaply for playing in the mud but their wheel base is still quite long which'll see you in some "interesting" situation no doubt.

If you want mud fun on a budget get a decent quad - much more lively and enormous fun...but then you'll need a 4x4 to tow the trailer.....and so it goes on ....lol

Matteeboy

Ours was the Puma TDCi XS model; not the right way to own a Landy. If I did it again (and I might one day - they really get under your skin) it would be a basic, older model like a Series 3 or early Defender.

2000 sport

iTrader: (1)

It's pretty impressive that he was able to drive that truck home!

I've got a new shape L200.. I'm looking for a spare set of wheels to put some chunky tyres on, but I doubt I'd ever put it through water that deep..

tattoosi

iTrader: (5)

http://s1098.beta.photobucket.com/us...landy.jpg.html



heres a few of my mates toys we go out in

zip106

BFG or Grabber AT's fit nicely (had them on mine)

265/70 17 fit the standard wheel and the speedo reads correctly.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...8/Image067.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...8/Image068.jpg
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...8/Image069.jpg

riza

wow cheers for all the replys guys. i worked for landrover for many years so i was sort of leaning towards the disco over the sj.
but just thought the sj or jimnys would be much cheaper to run.

loving all the defenders but they are out of the price range as its just gona b a cheap bit of weekend fun.

i can get a battered disco then buy decent tyres, lift kit and a set of winches for half the price of a not so good condition standard defender

p.s loving the idea of the l200 or maybe hilux

riza

any of you gus still off road/green lane??

any good places to be recommended??

CrisPDuk

Early V8 Discoverys seem to be the weapon of choice around here these days

alistair

Jeep Wrangler

Here's mine

I just love the Wrangler - mine spends the summer in Bordeaux minus roof & doors and comes home for winter to play in the mud.

If I wasn't going topless quite so much, then I'd buy a Defender 90 or maybe a modified Disco.

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Very cheap to insure aswell (if they are a second vehicle)

LVC

One of the main reasons I moved out of the UK was the hassle factor when legally using Green Lanes on bikes or in cars - join a decent club and go in groups as alone you're going to get an ear bashing from the ramblers etc. even if you're allowed to be there

All 90s have a topless option - just unbolt the hard-top mine's been stored in the barn since I moved to France 11 years ago - the mohair soft-top is fine all year round as easy to roll the sides and back up if I want to keep some shade. Have a bikini top as well but that loses the usage of the rear for passengers (unless they're kids only).

Matteeboy

I used to be a GeoTec Engineer and we were allowed to drive like nutters off road when accessing awkward sites (which was often ). We had modded 110s and HiLuxs and often got fully airborne, drive through crazy mud, down silky slopes etc, safe on the knowledge that there was always a JCB on hand to pull us out.

Great fun!

The best off roading is when you aren't worried about the vehicle. I green laned the outlaws new LC Amazon and properly bricked myself but it did very well!

davyboy

The fast show - lets off road.

Leslie

I used to do a lot of motor cycle scrambling,or moto cross in the modern idiom.

That was a good way to get really dirty!

Les