Offroad-Express

I'm new, I've been out on one tag along safari, but I enjoyed it; especially when the recovery straps had to come out, so I think I want to take it further. I'll do the next Welly training weekend and I want to join a trip soon, probably as passenger for the first time.

I've been doing some research, and even regardless of my '91 2.8TD manual MU being a MU or anything else, simply by being a standard truck it isn't nearly as cost effective to make it tougher as it would be to buy one already done, so provided I stick with this 4wd thing after I've met some of you guys I guess the logical thing to do would be to change my ride, possibly not for a little while yet, but maybe in a couple of months.

I realise this might not be the right place, but I'd appreciate it if you give me your (plainly biased of course) reasons for choosing your truck over the other options available. The only guidelines would be I'm not interested in expensive modern models as I want to spend as little as possible and not have my fun hampered by worrying about damage. I do want something capable and also I like the idea of something open, possibly an FJ40 for example. Lastly I'd want it to be road legal as it would be used for occasional towing / load lugging etc. Over to you guys...

try a hilux ute mate , cheap easy moddded but still love my safari

you can do the toyota(hilux,cruiser) thing or nissan(safari,patrol) thing......but why not keep the mu and up grade you can get a set of lift springs in the rear and wind torsions on the front and even throw a lokka in it? add mud tyres and you have a capable truck. theres a couple of guys on this site with MUs and i have a mate in welly whos building one and he cud maybe
give you some ideas??

hope this helps Ryan

Depends how much you want to spend. My old Hilux cost bugger all and was a lot of bang for the buck. It was open with no windows front and rear, did tend to take on a bit of mud.
http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg16 ... allywoods/

http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg16 ... bee310.flv
Now have a 83 Fj40 with all the toys(arb locker, pto winch, on board air, ome suspension lift, roll cage, soft and hard top)all certed and road legal. Fun to drive and cost less than 4k.
The only thing is doesn't have is power steering yet.
Bloody hard to break, plenty of bits available for them and easy to work on.
Come out on some trips and jump in the passenger seat of various wagons and see what you like.

Realistically I'd like to spend maybe $8k tops, but that's picked from thin air and partly because looking at Trademe there seems to be a choice of trucks under that figure that would look to fit the bill.

Your FJ40 sounds pretty much perfect though, and $4k is absolutely within budget - I just dropped slightly more coin that that yesterday paying GST to import my road car.

I'm absolutely up for a trip - I'll take a look at the upcoming ones and see if I can get something arranged with some of you local guys.

I could spend a little on the MU, but really for the difference in what I'd get for it selling it on and $4-5k which a lot of decent looking trucks seem to be priced at I wouldn't have as capable a truck as I would by buying something better. The MU is always going to have a compromised IFS unless I spend several times what it's worth getting a SAS. I'm also a sucker for retro, so I really like the look of the 40 series and they seem to be relatively commonly running V8s which appeals.

I guess maybe my question should be "I'm happy to play with the MU as-is until I can find the right FJ40 (ideally) with a V8, but for what that would cost would I get something more capable/fun for the same money that I should be looking at instead?" The difference in price between a 40 and the other options (Hilux, 70 series, Safari etc.) isn't massive and I'd be prepared to pay a bit of a premium for a 40 because I like the look of them, but not if something else would perform better off road. I want the most capable truck, and if a 40 is as good as anything else I'd want a 40, otherwise if a 70 for example is a much better offroad performer then I'd rather buy one of them.

A Rallywoods (where the tag along safari passed through) working bee is on this weekend you could come up say hello and have a look at a couple of trucks My super reliable Fj40 should be there

I'd love to but I have a mate over from the UK (who arrived early) until next Friday and I can't really abandon him.

I'll keep an eye on the thread and join the next weekend. As a bonus we get our shipment from the UK on Monday so I'll actually have decent work boots etc. for when I can make it.

Bring him along..............

Could just pop along for a couple of hours and have a beer

Looks like we might be in Queenstown from Sunday.

as a newbie too, I wanna know why the Mu wouldnt be a good option,
I might of thought the short wheelbase, like the sookie, would be just wats needed?
is there something about them I dont know of,
and yes I have one, '93 auto 2.8td

fred flintstone wrote:as a newbie too, I wanna know why the Mu wouldnt be a good option,
I might of thought the short wheelbase, like the sookie, would be just wats needed?
is there something about them I dont know of,
and yes I have one, '93 auto 2.8td

my own opinion, and iv never owned a MU, is that they should be a good wee offroader, up to a point...

main disadvantages i have heard about is more the price of parts when things break, and they do break...

obviously the ifs can only be improved up to a point, without going to the expense of a sas, but i would certainly look at a mu for some light off roading, especially if it was the right price.

could be completely wrong.

nstg8a wrote:

fred flintstone wrote:as a newbie too, I wanna know why the Mu wouldnt be a good option,
I might of thought the short wheelbase, like the sookie, would be just wats needed?
is there something about them I dont know of,
and yes I have one, '93 auto 2.8td

my own opinion, and iv never owned a MU, is that they should be a good wee offroader, up to a point...

main disadvantages i have heard about is more the price of parts when things break, and they do break...

obviously the ifs can only be improved up to a point, without going to the expense of a sas, but i would certainly look at a mu for some light off roading, especially if it was the right price.

could be completely wrong.

I'd have to agree with the above, Nothing at all wrong with them as an entry level/lightish offroading 4wd.
All standard IFS suspension is limiting but a Mu will definitely hold its own against any other IFS vehicle.
I think the MU IFS is a bit more limiting than say a surf IFS set up, doesn't allow for as much movement and seems a bit stiffer, though the rear suspension works a treat as standard. Have seen 35s fitted to a few MUs without too much work, look good too, not that looks help offroad....
SWB IFS vehicles in my opinion suffer a bit more from lack of wheel travel in the front than longer wheelbase IFS vehicles, but MU has the power to help make up for that.

My understanding is exactly as described above - nothing wrong with it and I'm happy to use it for a while, but it's not cost effective to make it really capable, so if I want that sort of truck then I'd look to change it rather than upgrade it.

A lot of the reason I bought mine was because wanted to be able to give offroad driving a go and I needed a half-way sensible vehicle to get around in and it does both of those things. I like the chunky looks and short wheelbase and I don't regret buying it or think it was the wrong thing, but with my 2wd car now in NZ and just waiting for MAF to clear it so I can have it registered I don't need it to be half-way sensible any more.

Fen wrote:My understanding is exactly as described above - nothing wrong with it and I'm happy to use it for a while, but it's not cost effective to make it really capable, so if I want that sort of truck then I'd look to change it rather than upgrade it.

A lot of the reason I bought mine was because wanted to be able to give offroad driving a go and I needed a half-way sensible vehicle to get around in and it does both of those things. I like the chunky looks and short wheelbase and I don't regret buying it or think it was the wrong thing, but with my 2wd car now in NZ and just waiting for MAF to clear it so I can have it registered I don't need it to be half-way sensible any more.

Sounds like you best start looking for a 40 then...

Hey gidday mate, umm ive rescently jsut obught myself a toyota surf 3L turbo cost me $4000, ive done a few mods not huge things thatl make much difference, just:
40mm TJM spring/shock lift- $890 all up i think
31" goodyear wranglers mud terrains- $1000 inc. fitted/balancing
good standard 8tonne tow rope $60
and Airflow snorkel- $540 inc. fitted

i look back and i woudl reccomend 33" though i wish i had got them but that requires certification and i thought id be a tight A** and not do that but yeah wudnt off made any difference jsut an extra $380 or something to get it certified and abit of panil beatting lets you put in 33", so its quite cheap jsut to modify a truck slightly as to rather buy a new one and MU probably quite good trucks aswell due to short wheel base, dont think theyd loo kgreat if you put 35" tyres + 100mm raise though

Well, to close the loop on this after a loooong time...

I didn't make it to Rallywoods (yet anyway), mainly because we started looking for a house to buy and that took every weekend for a long time. I have kept half an eye on Trademe though and because of that and how other things have developed plans have changed a bit.

In a nutshell I started to think that I could use a 4x4 as a more regular car. We've bought a lifestyle block, we'll be getting a horse and float etc., we have rellies coming to visit soon and not a 4-door car out of 3 we owned, and I'm finding that while my road car is fun and I'm not selling it, it seems to make contact with the road surface a lot in general use so I want to keep it as more of a toy before I do some expensive damage to it. The MU wasn't what I wanted to be my main vehicle - neither hardcore tough truck nor comfy but capable SUV, so I've switched to an XJ Cherokee Sport which I intend to use on the road and to get into some lighter offroading. If the bug bites and I want to take it further I can either mod the XJ slowly to keep pace with my ability or buy a dedicated truck - probably a 40 - but in that case it won't be a problem if it isn't registered so long as I have a trailer.

Fen wrote:Well, to close the loop on this after a loooong time...

I didn't make it to Rallywoods (yet anyway), mainly because we started looking for a house to buy and that took every weekend for a long time. I have kept half an eye on Trademe though and because of that and how other things have developed plans have changed a bit.

In a nutshell I started to think that I could use a 4x4 as a more regular car. We've bought a lifestyle block, we'll be getting a horse and float etc., we have rellies coming to visit soon and not a 4-door car out of 3 we owned, and I'm finding that while my road car is fun and I'm not selling it, it seems to make contact with the road surface a lot in general use so I want to keep it as more of a toy before I do some expensive damage to it. The MU wasn't what I wanted to be my main vehicle - neither hardcore tough truck nor comfy but capable SUV, so I've switched to an XJ Cherokee Sport which I intend to use on the road and to get into some lighter offroading. If the bug bites and I want to take it further I can either mod the XJ slowly to keep pace with my ability or buy a dedicated truck - probably a 40 - but in that case it won't be a problem if it isn't registered so long as I have a trailer.

what sort of car did you import? sounds intriguing?

Not especially exciting, but pretty low at the front and BMW prices to replace anything that gets broken. It's not standard of course...

mint, i love those minis... is it turbo? or one of the older supercharged ones?

2005 supercharged, small pulley, big intercooler, CAI, lots of exhaust bypassed, lowered, upgrade brakes, 4 different chassis braces, lots of carbon fibre etc.

I drove a new turbo one before I bought it, but they just aren't so.... raw, I guess.

that is so cool, i would quite seriously consider buying one if they were a bit more affordable..

Smurf wrote:

nstg8a wrote:

fred flintstone wrote:as a newbie too, I wanna know why the Mu wouldnt be a good option,
I might of thought the short wheelbase, like the sookie, would be just wats needed?
is there something about them I dont know of,
and yes I have one, '93 auto 2.8td

my own opinion, and iv never owned a MU, is that they should be a good wee offroader, up to a point...

main disadvantages i have heard about is more the price of parts when things break, and they do break...

obviously the ifs can only be improved up to a point, without going to the expense of a sas, but i would certainly look at a mu for some light off roading, especially if it was the right price.

could be completely wrong.

I'd have to agree with the above, Nothing at all wrong with them as an entry level/lightish offroading 4wd.
All standard IFS suspension is limiting but a Mu will definitely hold its own against any other IFS vehicle.
I think the MU IFS is a bit more limiting than say a surf IFS set up, doesn't allow for as much movement and seems a bit stiffer, though the rear suspension works a treat as standard. Have seen 35s fitted to a few MUs without too much work, look good too, not that looks help offroad....
SWB IFS vehicles in my opinion suffer a bit more from lack of wheel travel in the front than longer wheelbase IFS vehicles, but MU has the power to help make up for that.

I'm a very big MU fan,i had one for 7 years, [ mine is on my 4wd ] they will give the big trucks a very big fright off road with a little bit of work done to them,mine had about a 6"lift,ARB lockers front and back,33'' Simex's etc etc the bloody thing would go any where,...i remember once passing 5 4x4's from a certain club all stuck in a very swampy track they were very surprised how easy the old MU made this track look and no we didn't get stuck this day at all,we came round the loop and watched them pull each other out

The ony weak points are the IFS and front wheel bearings,i replaced a lot of bushs and bearings but the old MU really did get thrashed