New member and 4wd beginner

[milner82]

Hi Group

I'm Steve from Hamilton.

I recently got a 1989 Pajero LWB 2.5td 4wd with intercooler and coil springs, and it is a manual. It's all original and I am hoping to do some mods to improve vehicle life span and increase off road performance. The previous owner was a lady for 20 years. I had it serviced and everything looks good so far. I am hoping to do most of the work my self through browsing forums and with a Haynes manual. I am a totally new to all this so its going to be a laugh.

For a start I am thinking of doing the following mods:
- Upgrade cooling system, possible a 3 core radiator
- Suspension lift, possibly with Amada Xtreme Adventure 50mm
- Front and rear diff lock, possibly a mechanical locker. Not sure if it has an LSD on rear, need to check.
- Snorkel
- Bull bar and winch, it currently has a s/s standard bull bar
- Side bars
- 33" Mud tyres

Cheers

[Craydiver]

Steve - my advice unless money is no object (there's an easy $10-15k plus in your list) is to join a local 4wd club.
Get out on a few diff trips track types and talk to the club guys, then decide what mods you really need, many of them will have done it all before.
its comes down to "where and how you want to use it off road" - this hugely influences how some of those mods are done, priority best bang for buck etc.

either way - best thing is to join local club, plenty of good advice on this forum (you need to weed out all the crap too)
but nothing beats you seeing things first hand offroad & talking directly to guys that are really doing it.

[milner82]

Steve - my advice unless money is no object (there's an easy $10-15k plus in your list) is to join a local 4wd club.
Get out on a few diff trips track types and talk to the club guys, then decide what mods you really need, many of them will have done it all before.
its comes down to "where and how you want to use it off road" - this hugely influences how some of those mods are done, priority best bang for buck etc.

either way - best thing is to join local club, plenty of good advice on this forum (you need to weed out all the crap too)
but nothing beats you seeing things first hand offroad & talking directly to guys that are really doing it.

Thanks for the good advice. I had thought about joining a club but I am unsure of how it works in terms of going off roading with the club. Do you take your own vehicle or do you go out with someone else?

Cheers

[Mudde1]

Usually you take your own vehicle on club trips, but if you contact a club they will probably arrange a seat in someone else vehicle if that is what you want. List of clubs and contact details are here
http://www.nzfwda.org.nz/clubs/
Tony Burgess
NZFWDA Public Relations

[mudlva]

Imho get some muds. They eill get ya moving.
Then front and side bars will protect ya wagon then drive it.
As soon as you lock it all up and throw in top suspension then you will trash ya wagon and lose your initial fun and excitement of being out there.
Fit the goodies once you have been out there doing it.
Go out and have good dirty fun take ya kids cause they will have more fun than you.

Oh get some good seat covers as well will save a lot of stress

[milner82]

Imho get some muds. They eill get ya moving.
Then front and side bars will protect ya wagon then drive it.
As soon as you lock it all up and throw in top suspension then you will trash ya wagon and lose your initial fun and excitement of being out there.
Fit the goodies once you have been out there doing it.
Go out and have good dirty fun take ya kids cause they will have more fun than you.

Oh get some good seat covers as well will save a lot of stress

Thanks, I can defiantly see the sense in that, trash the existing kit before upgrading. Cheers