Offroad-Express

I'm a complete virgin with water/river crossings. Sorry if this sounds newbie..

I've got a stock Vit SWB (no snok) with 235/75 on it. Wanting to know how deep I can go in water?

Also what prep work I should do before attempting such.

Cheers in advance.
Joe

Depends where your air intake is, also you need to consider things like diffs and where the breathers are on them and if you are running electric fans.....

Yeah it's still the stock airbox in the mid-right of the bay. It's pipped thru to the right guard. I think the stock Vit have diff breathers on them already . Can someone confirm plz.
No electric fan..on the agenda thou.

if you ask skid and i agree,no snorkle-no water crossing and if you don't have extended breathers check your oils after each trip
and change of they have changed colour

By rights and all manufacturer's manuals will say that you should go no deeper then hub depth and go slow so as not to through water into airbox/engine bay.
Al

Was told up I'm good up to the level of the wheel arch. Just as well I'm trucking in pairs.

OK the to do list..

Electric Fan
Extended breathers on diff and t/case
W/proof the dizz
Snokel pipe

Was told up I'm good up to the level of the wheel arch

If you did that you would have a bow wave well and truly up to and/or over your bonnet. You would definetly take in water. Have you seen those "car bra's made in Oz. They are a canvas "bra" that goes over the front of the vehicle so that you can cross a good depth of water, make a bow wave and because the bonnet is covered your air intake should be protected as long as you keep moving forward. You could do the same with a small tarp.
AL

I can see the logic in it. But my car wear a bra!
Me mates will...

Maybe also mite not hurt to have a look at door seals .. not unless you like wet seats

The 'standard 'zuk intake is inside the left guard and will suck water reasonably easily. If you can't afford a snorkel straight away you can divert the intake from the airbox inlet, to a flexi pipe inside the engine bay, facing rearwards and high up at the rear of the bay. (or better yet, through the firewall and into the cab/glovebox.)

Spray the electrics (plug-leads, distributor, coil etc.) with silicone spray before your trip. Double check the diff', gearbox and transfer case breathers are properly attached and stick cheap plastic fuel-filters on the top end of each breather outlet to prevent water ingress, but still allow breathing.

Door seals will be fine while you are moving.

joeninetynz wrote:I'm a complete virgin with water/river crossings. Sorry if this sounds newbie..

The best thing you can have is a bit of experience, take it easy and learn slowly, learn how to read water, depth, channels, current, soft spots, exits entrys etc as well as your vehicles capabilities. Its not just hydrolicing your engine you have to worry about, you can swamp your vehicle, get washed away, float, roll over and all sorts of bad shit can happen

just stay out of the water

you may thin you're OK, just like I did and then the slightest bit of brain fade, or a slight un-planned miscalculation and next thing ya know the water is over the bonnet, you're sitting in water over your nuts and everything inside is getting wet

then once your mates who had well equipped trucks get you out, you then have to drain everytihng and spend thousands on new bits for ya motor

and the list goes on



get a bloody snorkel before you even think about water crossings

they are dicey at the best of times and its hard to see under the water for the hidden obstacles etc

its not worth the risk

If you are as new to this as you say I wouldn't go past the second knuckle without some preparation. If you push it to hard you will regret it.

Listen to the advice from these guys. They know what they are talking about. I saw a vitara driving through water not quite near the top of the wheels and it got a lot of water in the top of the spark plugs. Airbox had picked up water too and the mass airflow sensor or whatever it is didn't like it. Truck wouldn't throttle up so had to almost idle back to a garage.
Least your asking questions which is good. Don't wana be one of those ill-equipped people that ends up being towed out with a dead truck to take home.

Cheers for the advice guys. I think I'm a little water shy now. I'll stick to puddles for now until I kit out my truck. But I learned alot!

Feel free to keep the comments/advice coming. I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants to take the "leap of faith"

One other suggestion: If you're going to be doing water work (when your truck's set up for it) get rid of your carpets and just use some removable mats.

You will end up stationary in water at times and the floor WILL fill up with water. Even in extended crossings while still moving you will get water in your footwells. It's impossible to stop a Vitara taking a drink from every deepish stream it crosses (in my experience with two of them) and silty, soggy, musty carpets are a pain. Plus, when they're out its a piece of cake to pop out the floor bungs and drain the inevitable inflow.

All the other guys are right, don't even consider crossing more than a few inches until you've suitably prepped your truck. Even then, make sure for deeper crossings that you're in good company.

Good luck, and you'll enjoy it when you've done the preparation.

Most Scud intakes are on left, but you might have V6 if it's on right...? I believe the V6's still come to the same point, as they route inside the guard but then come back in to suck the air in from behind the headlight (just above top of headlight). It's crap and sucks water in VERY easily so be careful without snorkel. I tried routing pipe through cab and it was VERY loud so blanked it off and just simply made it from 3" piping from Pitstop ($90 multibend gives you whole selection of bends and I actually only had to make 2 cuts).

Inside the guard there's a water trap and it's remarkably effective generally (emptied it out after each trip!) but it only needs to get blocked by a bit of something or overwhelmed and it's all over (when I hydrauliced last engine it was in 6" deep water which just splashed up into intake).

Snorkel's cheap insurance...

Remove your carpet (not much louder) and you have rubber plugs you can quickly pop out if full of water, drains in seconds then pop em back in.

Every scud Ive known has factory diff and gearbox/transfer breathers.

On my Escudo the intake sits just behind the passanger side indicator under the bonnet.

My rule of thumb if I can keep that indicator dry i do it. Ive only been caught out once with that rule when I got a big bow wave going of muddy water and it drowned. It only takes 10 mins to pull the pugs out, turn the engine over - fire the water out then bobs ur uncle - the joys of petrol engines they can handle a few cups of water where as diesels cant handle teaspoon of the stuff. Im not a mechanic thou and im guessing it does other damage but my truck still runs fine and its not my daily driver.

The other thing is in deeper enough water with a current my suzuki has been known to float - and not get any water into the engine - the simexs turn it into paddleboat (like teaching a kid to swim - it will try and swim and not drown). you can actually feel it bobbing up and down and going perferly sideways down the river. was a cool feeling but very dangerous. Im not sure if its a standard suzuki feature or just the fact mines stripped right down but still has good water seals.
(though on saying that I wouldnt try and drive the cook stright with it)

Have a read of the water crossing articles on the Nelson Club website

http://www.4wdnz.net/articles/articles.html

Armz wrote:On my Escudo the intake sits just behind the passanger side indicator under the bonnet.

My rule of thumb if I can keep that indicator dry i do it. Ive only been caught out once with that rule when I got a big bow wave going of muddy water and it drowned. It only takes 10 mins to pull the pugs out, turn the engine over - fire the water out then bobs ur uncle - the joys of petrol engines they can handle a few cups of water where as diesels cant handle teaspoon of the stuff. Im not a mechanic thou and im guessing it does other damage but my truck still runs fine and its not my daily driver.

Thats definately asking for trouble, dont think lower compression petrol engines cant hydrolic and bend rods, I've seen quite a few petrols hydrolic, one of them ripped the main bearing caps out of the bottom of the block and the engine was a throwaway

play it smart and spend an afternoon modifying the intake now and it'll save you lots in the long run