Offroad-Express

I have recently aquired a 1999 mitsubishi challenger, 2.8 diesel.
It is a definite virgin, I have had it up on a hoist and been all over it and I see no sign of it ever really being used offroad.
I would like to start making a few improvements. It is my daily runner so i dont want to go nuts and make it too expensive to run, or too top heavy to drive on the motorway, and actually I dont want to spend too much at all, but I definitely want to beef it up a little and give it some capability before I look at the possibility of taking it out to play.
My first priority is to put the back gate back on, It has definitely had one at some point, but since it passed through a dealers about 5 years ago they chose to remove it as this made them easier to sell. I have contact with a few wreckers and I have them looking out for a replacement for me, then I can get the tyre back up where it belongs.
My second priority is to get some basic protection on the front. It needs some kind of nudge bar(wreckers again), it looks like it has one, but on closer inspection it turned out, much to my disgust, to be moulded plastic, maybe one day I could even get some bull bars, but that would involve some kind of forward planning, hell, I might even have to do something unnatural and actually save........
Priority three, snorkel, have to do a bit more research on this tho.
After that....... I dont know........ what do you guys reckon?
I would love to get a lift kit but according to my preliminary research they are pretty pricey. I need to look for more information but I was told it depending on the model it would either be $1100 or $1700 bucks.
Is this right? That would be out of my price range anyway.
Advice would be great, what are some great ways to beef up my truck without breaking the budget?

Cheers.
Ted.

Hey mate, good to hear from another challenger owner.
Yours sounds like mine, and so does your walllet!. Also a daily driver which I don't want to go mad on. Only had it a month or so, and am just getting used to where it can go, and what I want to do.

I've been looking a "price concious" ways to lift it. A set of rear springs from a Safari will go in, and will give it 3-4 inche's of lift. (But I'm unsure if tweaking the front torsion bars that much would be a good idea and was told it leads onto having to do other mods)
Or for a couple of hundred bucks, buy some rear springs say 2" and adjust torsions to suit. That way no other mods really need to be sorted. (ideally the shocks as well of course)

Will keep an eye out on this thread to see how ya get on.

Ideally my first project, will be to learn to weld, and a winch to go into a tow hitch reciever say one front or rear. I like the club tours, but reckon that will be more helpful for our family tours around the country which may or may not be with others.

I dont want to spend too much or affect my resale as my priority for the next year or so is to get this thing paid off and save for a 4wd Ute. This vehicle is actually an unsceduled replacement for my much loved Nissan Terrano which was stolen and burnt out, and my dream is a Ute so I dont want to get too attatched and unfortunately, I wont be doing any serious 4WD in this.

It did a good job yesterday with the flooded roads which was actually the first time I started to feel a little respect for my new truck, and started to think about making further changes after I get the Gate and the nudge bars.

Ted.

Wow. 3-4 inches of lift sounds pretty extreme, it already rides fairly high at the back, if anything I'd be looking to lift the front to match.

I can get new springs etc through some of my contacts, my partner works in the automotive industry, so I can get them at cost but I would have to know alot more about what I was doing before I start chopping and changing, and I would definitely need all work to be legal, certifiable and discrete. (By discrete I mean not leading to more problems or causing further work to be neccesary)

Ted.

If it's already riding high at the back, you should definitely adjust the front to match - this will give you slight ramp-over improvements, and a slight clearance advantage under the front diff. And it's FREE. Just keep an eye on the top bump-stop to make sure there is still room for the wheel to droop.
Make this mod and see how you find it.
I wouldn't go much more that 2" lift in the rear, otherwise you will find it difficult to get the front to match without doing a bunch of other mods.
Next best thing you can do is put some mud tyres on. Not necessarily the cheapest thing, but sure will make the truck go better off road, and it's not really 'modifying' the vehicle.
Wouldn't bother with a snorkel unless you are planning on some deep river crossings...

pjb wrote:Wouldn't bother with a snorkel unless you are planning on some deep river crossings...

Fully agreed. Get some mud tyres and you will be impressed. Remove your side steps and it'll look like you've lifted it!

pjb wrote:If it's already riding high at the back, you should definitely adjust the front to match - this will give you slight ramp-over improvements, and a slight clearance advantage under the front diff. And it's FREE. Just keep an eye on the top bump-stop to make sure there is still room for the wheel to droop.
Make this mod and see how you find it.
I wouldn't go much more that 2" lift in the rear, otherwise you will find it difficult to get the front to match without doing a bunch of other mods.
Next best thing you can do is put some mud tyres on. Not necessarily the cheapest thing, but sure will make the truck go better off road, and it's really 'modifying' the vehicle.
Wouldn't bother with a snorkel unless you are planning on some deep river crossings...

Yeah I think deep river crossings may affect my resale value somewhat, I'm not planning to do any, but its better to have it and not need it rather than need it and not have it, and its only a moderate cost.

I am definitely keen on the idea of adjusting the front suspension to match the back, can you tell me a little more about what is involved?

Mud tryes.... how are they on the blacktop as compared to road tyres, I'm sure they will be noiser, but I dont care about that, is there much change in the feel? does the grip change by much? what about fuel consumption? How much faster than normal road tyres do they wear?

Um.... I think that is all for now, I appreciate the advice.

Ted.

Writeup on torsion bar adjustment here:
http://www.4x4wire.com/mitsubishi/tech/ ... rsion_bar/

The more you adjust the ride-height at the front, the more you should get a wheel alignment done afterwards.

Muddies: noisier than highway tyres, but not by much. It's the extreme offroad tyres that really make a din. There are some quite road-mannered muds around, like Kumko KL71, but they aren't necessarily the cheapest.
Grip seems fine to me. Apparently they aren't as good in the wet, but I've never had any moments.
They definitely wear faster, but you also start off with deeper tread. So for the highway, should last at least as long as regular tyres. However, they work best in the mud when they have lots of tread left.

pjb wrote:Writeup on torsion bar adjustment here:
http://www.4x4wire.com/mitsubishi/tech/ ... rsion_bar/

The more you adjust the ride-height at the front, the more you should get a wheel alignment done afterwards.

Wow! Thanks heaps. I am going to do this and give myself another inch or so at the front, to balance out the rear. I'll just have to set some money aside for a wheel alignment first.

Ted.

have the back mounting bumper and tyre swing thing just brought a challenger they took it off, mounted tyre underneath so is of no use to me let me no what kinda money u wanna spend ,,,

On the front you can do a tridon 4wd ball joint flip,for more wheel movement. The rear suspension has two bolts to hold the radius arm to the diff, do not let it to move freely, lifts wheels tripoding, also the diff moves in an arc which can snap shocks on the rear if lifted, also buy cruiser or safari rims with big offset as track is narrow on challengers,
Bullbars are made for your trucks, but in america they have problems of them breaking off, mounts are not strong enough to support the weight.
they do needa rear locker, a front one helps too.
Also limited choices to fitting tow hooks on the front, rears not to great either
Waypa on here has one, this has been a 3 year learning curve,ARB 2'' lift has help, but broke shocks thats fixed, and had to fit limit straps in the rear to please wof man,

Hi Waypa here.

The picture is of my truck. The adjustment of the sway bars is very easy to do. You only need to do a ball joint flip if you use up all the travel space.

Yes Challengers do have a tendancy to tripod rear wheels, however I don't think this is any worse than most Surfs I have seen.On extreme articulation at the rear the body can move over considerably. This did have a tendancy to break the heads off the shocks. I had also removed the rear swaybar and this allowed the body to move over. However the problem of the broken shocks was fixed by our club engineer Bernie
Konz and this was a very simple fix. Yes a rear locker does transform this vehicle. If you have a towbar the fitting of the rear towhooks is quite simple. If not they can be attached to the chassis.
The front towhooks are another problem but not insurmountable. You would need to look at what Coxy has done to my truck and I have seen others with towhooks fitted front and rear.Wider rims do give you a better track. Off Road Australia forum has a section for Challengers. These trucks are used quite a lot in Australia.
Yes this has been a 3 year learning curve in NZ, but don't let this put you off. I have done the hard yakka now and you are more than welcome to view my truck and discuss modifications and /or problems etc.