Offroad-Express

Hello anyone who reads this. I am Paul and am from Hamilton.

Been interested in 4x4ing for a while now but never had the chance to attend with anyone. I have however done the offroadnz thing in Rotorua... However tame it was awesome little introduction for me.

Now I am about to pound you with some quetions and would be greatfull to anyone who manages to take the time out to read and reply to them.

I dont yet have an offroad vehical. And dont know what to get.

I have sort of come to the conclusion a Nissan patrol or Toyota surf is the way to go. I was also thinking about a Nissan terrano or Izusu mu, but have heard that raising these makes their cv joints go kaput. Any insite into that would be helpfull cheers.

Also once I get the vehical im obviously going to get some equipment to stack on it and tool to throw in it.
List so far for mods and tools i have come up with is.

-Runva winch from winches.co.nz
-Suspension lift 2inches ( also the hell is the difference between suspension lift and body lift, I cant figure it out, I thought they sort of would acheive the same effect)
-some nice big 33inch or so mud tires
-hi lift jack
-strops, snatch blocks etc
-spade, shovel, pic axe, sledge hammer, other things of that variaty that might come in handy.
-bull bar and tow points everywhere.

Is there anything i have missed or will this get me on my way fairly happily.

Since I live in Hamilton i plan on attacking thompsons track (Te Aroha side only, up to sumit, not even going to try get down katikati side) since its the only track i can find around me. Which also has me a bit worried some horror stories i have read.
Now i dont plan on being an idiot and driving through impassable bogs and such, if i dont think i can do it, im definatly not going to try it and get stranded mid bog or roll over or whatever.

Which leads me to another thing, if i come to a point i feel uncomfortable with, how easy is it to turn around and go back.
And when going back, what happens if you come accross another 4x4 coming up... is there some sort of unspoken rule as to who goes where?

Any answers you can throw my way would be greatly appretiated.

Cheres, Paul.

Hi paul and welcome to the forum. I imagine offroadnz might get a few people hooked, tho in the pictures it does look very tame compared to some of what we do..in the real bush theres no wooden box 'rails' to hold you on the track
I've got some time to read through and try answer you questions in a round about sort of way.. but have a good search thru the forums theres tons of info around to answer your q's but can be a little confusing when new.
First up, The Patrol/Safari is a bloody good strong vehicle, likewise with most 80series and older type landcruisers, but keep in mind these trucks are going to cost more in good condition, and I cant speak for the cruisers, but with the Safari you can at least double maintenance costs (dual oil filters, nearly 10L of oil, 13L of coolant) i got rid of mine partly because of this. In saying that mine never let me down. They are heavy even in short wheelbase form, and sometimes struggle where any lighter truck is fine. All post 89ish surfs also suffer the same problem as with a terrano or mu etc with CV's. This is because the older/bigger trucks have what is called a solid/live axle front end, meaning the axle is one solid piece that moves all moves together, the same as a rear axle, there is only one CV joint in the ends where it bend for steering obviously. They can still be broken tho with hard driving or lots of horsepower. The lighter/newer trucks often have independant suspension in the front, like almost all cars, meaning the diff is fixed to the chassis and doesnt move, and each wheel is free to move on its own arms like a car..this requires driveshafts which can bend in 2 places to allow up/down and left/right movement the same as you will probably find in you car.. the problem when lifting is that these driveshafts now sit at an awkward angle in the normal posistion, when you try to flex them even further often when the truck is on a big angle and wheels are turned near hard lock it doesnt require much power to overstress the joints and break them. Unless you plan on fitting massive tyres and/or a V8 you will probably be fine tho, just dont drive like a nutter My friend has a surf which is raised 2inch on 32"tyres with a winch and its quite a capable truck. I now drive an old solid axle hilux. Tho I was contemplating a terrano before this truck came up.

About the lifts.. Suspension lift is just that, making the suspension height higher (and generally also allow it to drop lower/extend further), this is done by using longer springs and shocks, the higher you go the more you need to start modifying other things to make it all line back up again. A body lift is where you make the body sit higher on the chassis by placing usually high density plastic or aluminium spacer blocks between the chassis and the body. This really gains you nothing other than looks and better clearance for your tyres, it will not allow your wheels to move further.

Your list looks good, but I would suggest this, decide on a vehicle pick some you like the look of and try take one for a test drive make sure its what you want.. then drive it for a while as it is, get used to how it handles, have a play in some dirt etc, and see where you need to go from there before you go buy a big list of stuff straight up. Jump in a passenger seat with someone with a similar truck if you can, see how thiers is setup. You will find you can fit 31" mud tyres on most trucks standard. Then once you get used to it you'll get a feel for what you need to do next. Obviously yes bullbars, hooks, recovery gear etc is a good idea if you plan on using it as a 4x4 is meant to be used My hilux after all is still largely basically standard, just got some good tyres, a winch and some bullbars and you'd be suprised just how far you can get as long and your not scared of the odd dent or scratches galour (remember you dont have wooden guides to keep you off the banks and the vegetation isnt all nicely pruned back like at offroadnz

Thompsons is a good beginners drive last I heard not too hardcore (TA side at least, DO NOT go over the top without a few heavy duty trucks and your sleeping bag ) I would love to get up there again actually. I dont recommend going alone at all, take someone with some experience and another truck, its much easier to have another truck pull you out if need be. This way you will learn way easier without destroying your truck too. You might look at something and think 'holy f*** i cant drive that' but with seeing someone else do it and getting some guidance on how to do it you will find it much less daunting. Turning around.. is often not an easily accomplished task, often involves reversing to the widest point you can find where you can do a 10 point turn between some trees or banks. Giving way, not often but occasionally esp up a popular track like thompsons, no unwritten law I know of (usually we keep to the same as on road and keep to the left), just use common sense go real slow and make as much room as you can, if either of u can shuffle over into some trees and wait a second do so, dont expect a truck coming down hill to stop if its slippery cos he probably cant But yes, passing can get VERRRY close.


Hope this novel starts to help you and makes some sense

I got into 4wding by buying a standard vehicle, no need to lift and put bigger tyres on it straight away, lifting is likely to break things (like cvs) and bigger tyres will cost you at the pump, especially if it is also your daily drive.

Joining a club is probably the best way to learn how to drive off road and learn what your and your vehicles capabilities are. Being a club member also will provide access to more places to go off road.

Thanks for the help guys. Really appretiate it.

Hi Paul
I live near TeAroha so if you decide to go up there , give us a yell and we could tag along .
Its possibly better to wait till it dries a bit up there , if you havnt done much 4x4ing.
shes a good view from the top and well worth the trip.
last time i went up with my brother( he has a mitsi jeep rep) in the dry ,he didnt use (4wd cause it wouldnt go in ) and didnt have a problem.
Im sure you will find lots of good advice on here , the hard part is deciding which wagon to buy . Soo many pro`s and con`s for all.
Happy hunting
Russty

Thanks Rusty. Ill keep that in mind.

Im trying to tee something up with someone I sort of know through someone else to get a ride as a passanger up there. So i can atleast get a general idea of how things are done first.

russty wrote:Hi Paul
I live near TeAroha so if you decide to go up there , give us a yell and we could tag along .
Its possibly better to wait till it dries a bit up there , if you havnt done much 4x4ing.
shes a good view from the top and well worth the trip.
last time i went up with my brother( he has a mitsi jeep rep) in the dry ,he didnt use (4wd cause it wouldnt go in ) and didnt have a problem.
Im sure you will find lots of good advice on here , the hard part is deciding which wagon to buy . Soo many pro`s and con`s for all.
Happy hunting
Russty

any photo? I've been in TeAroha few weeks ago for first time, nice surounding.

Planning to get there again in a month with kids, can I join you with my Bighorn?

Hey, welcome to ORE, i see the bug has bitten yet another victim, i had a MU/Wizard (longer wheel base mu). originally i bought it to impress a girl, but then i had a play 4 wheeling on a farm... i never got to the point to see if the girl was impressed, but i sure was! it was all down hill from there (or up hill, depends how you look at it) my truck was IFS and wased raised about 40mm~ from standard and a good set of mud tyres. only thing that went wron was starter got filled with crap and died, meh, shops got heaps. Good truck those isuzu, also the hilux's and the terrano's are awesome too. but if i were you, get a good feel of you truck standard (if and when you get one), tag along and maybe change your list to something like this

-spade, shovel, pic axe, sledge hammer, other things of that variaty that might come in handy.
-strops, snatch blocks etc
-bull bar and tow points everywhere.
-hi lift jack
-Runva winch from winches.co.nz
-Mud Tyres!
-Suspension lift 2inches ( also the hell is the difference between suspension lift and body lift, I cant figure it out, I thought they sort of would acheive the same effect)
-Winch
-Then think about bigger mud tyres if you can afford/need it, or you may just want bigger tyres (like everyone else)


Very important to get that recovery gear first tho.

hope this helps

pmfg wrote:Hello anyone who reads this. I am Paul and am from Hamilton.
List so far for mods and tools i have come up with is.

-Runva winch from winches.co.nz
-Suspension lift 2inches ( also the hell is the difference between suspension lift and body lift, I cant figure it out, I thought they sort of would acheive the same effect)
-some nice big 33inch or so mud tires
-hi lift jack
-strops, snatch blocks etc
-spade, shovel, pic axe, sledge hammer, other things of that variaty that might come in handy.
-bull bar and tow points everywhere.

Is there anything i have missed or will this get me on my way fairly happily.

Since I live in Hamilton i plan on attacking thompsons track (Te Aroha side only, up to sumit, not even going to try get down katikati side) since its the only track i can find around me. Which also has me a bit worried some horror stories i have read.
Now i dont plan on being an idiot and driving through impassable bogs and such, if i dont think i can do it, im definatly not going to try it and get stranded mid bog or roll over or whatever.

Which leads me to another thing, if i come to a point i feel uncomfortable with, how easy is it to turn around and go back.
And when going back, what happens if you come accross another 4x4 coming up... is there some sort of unspoken rule as to who goes where?

Any answers you can throw my way would be greatly appretiated.

Cheres, Paul.