Newbies 4x4 report and data base

[BenDover]

Alot of questions and debate on 4x4's and capabilities...

Please Name your vehicle and fill in the rest of the info for others looking at purchasing...

Vehicle ...
1. Sand (beach)
2. Mud
3. Water
4. Rocks
5. Hill climbs

Sub categories ...
6. Clearance (suspension)
7. Strength (engine, gearbox, clutch, driveline, axles, cv's)
8. Articulation (suspension name and design)
9. Capability (Modifications available for that vehicle (and if you have got any)
10. Fuel economy
Pictures/video's also welcome
Cheers

ps. No more mention of soft roaders... Just vehicle names


RATINGS ARE...
1. Dont bother buying
2. Very ordinary
3. Below average
4. Average
5. Does everything sales said it did
6. Above average performance
7. Very reliable and capable 4x4
8. Does it easily with out fuss
9. Cant stop it
10. Tuff Truck Challenge Vehicle (performance)

[BenDover]

92, Toyota Landcruiser GXL 80 series (1Hdt) 4.2TD Manual




1. Sand - Great (tyres make a huge difference)
8/10 could use more power

2. Mud - Great (tyres make a huge difference)
8/10 could use more power and a bit less weight

3. Water - Turbo diesel is fine, snorkle and everything is propperly sealed with silcone, oil element air filter, Diff breathers relocated to fuel filters high under bonnet.
10/10

4. Rocks - Very stiff/tough chassi and under body gaurds, diff centre gaurd, diff tubes reinforced. Suspension lift and big tyres allow high clearance, departure and approach angles. Great articulation front and rear (tyres make a huge difference)
9/10

5. Hill climbs - Good Approach and departure angles due to suspension lift and tyres, very strong upgraded drive lines, Great articulation front and rear (Winch, lockers and tyres make a huge difference)
9/10

6. Clearance - 6" lift and big tyres give just enough height to clear most obsticles when offroading
8/10

7. Strength - Engine is strong and reliable (bit slow) Upgraded brakes and axles (part time kit added). Gear box upgraded, rebuild diffs, 4.5 diff gears have reduced alot of undue stress, floating axle studs upgraded.
9/10

8. Articulation - 6" soft coils, After market shocks (to allow max flex), lengthened brake lines, front superflex radius arms, after market panhard rods. Removed front sway bar and very stable on road and handling.
9/10

9. Landcruisers have endless after market accessories in all feilds
10/10
Mine has duel air lockers, steel arb bullbar with winch, 6" dobinson coils, panhard rods, custom size shocks, sperflex radius arms, 35 x 12.5 muds, 4.5 diff gears, 45% rock hopper reduction gears, engine has been ballanced with 3" exhaust,
alot of rebuilt and upgraded parts for strength

10. 13l per 100 k's (im a lead foot)
8/10

Over all about 8.5/10

[FNQCairns]

96 GQ Patrol LWB, TD 4.2, manual, mostly standard, 2 inch lift weighted toward towing, standard sized MT/Rs.


1. Sand - 6 /10

2. Mud - 6/10

3. Water - 4/10 no snorkel etc

4. Rocks -5/10

5. Hill climbs - 3/10

6. Clearance - 5/10

7. Strength - 9.5/10

8. Articulation - 4/10

9. Aftermarket market accessories in all fields 10/10

10. 12-13l per 100 k's, towing 1.5T = 16.5L/100km, 7/10

11. Grunt - 3/10

Anyone let me know if you think if any of my ratings are out.

Interested to see what other think of their 4wd vehicles.

[ozscott]

LR Discovery 02 - owned since new in that year. TJM front winch bar, Dobinson's GT springs; LPG; ICOM UHF; Rhino and LR ladder; Cibie Super Oscars; 4X4 Intelligence HD recovery points (on but never used...); tough dog steering dampner; 31 Maxxis Bravo AT's LT on 16 inch LR mags; Centre Diff Lock (and traction control front and rear - that bits standard). 5 speed manual 4.0 n alloy V8 - Bosch Montronic injection; 4 bolt mains - ie all stock.

The problem I can see with this is the x/10 is rated against what we think of our vehicles that are often non standard. I mean BD's 80 has had a fair bit of work. So its all a bit of a hard call. I will do my best given how stock mine is, so I will compare mine stock with others stock that I have driven and seen.

Vehicle ...
1. Sand (beach) - 8.5/10 - never got stuck on 31's and i have towed a fair bit on the beach, heaps of grunt from the 4.0 V8 but she does go through the fuel on song.
2. Mud - 6/10 - light enough at 2.2 tonns and good grunt and ratios but let down at moment by AT's
3. Water - 8/10 - no snorkel yet, but fords over the headlights no problems and coil packs are way up high over the motor at rear and standard (good) high diff and box breathers - rear diff to high light cluster up in c pillar (ie damn near 5 foot off the road) and fronts and centres up near coil packs (again though comparing against standard rigs)
4. Rocks - very good. LR has the lowest ratio low range and in low she re-maps the throttle nicely. Traction control cross axled and front to rear helps a lot and V8 has nice low down torque - 8/10.
5. Hill climbs - depends on covering. Does very well despite AT's unless on marbles...again traction control makes it very easy for cross axels...8/10

Sub categories ...
6. Clearance (suspension) - 10/10 - for a standard non lifted vehicle solid axles and everything nice and high on full box chassis...hard to beat
7. Strength (engine, gearbox, clutch, driveline, axles, cv's) - 8.5/10 - excellent unless you go to high in increasing power....tows 2 tonn easily and is rated to 3.5. Solid axles but fronts have gone to CV bearing on the beam Rangie style - strong, but not as strong as my 95 Disco swivel joints. Engine very strong if well serviced, but they can suffer if coolant is not changed every 40k and if she goes too long between oil changes. LR said 20,000k servicing is fine - I prefer 10k. Diffs and Axels all good, except again if overpowered or abused like crazy. The one weakness is the double carden join in the front drive shaft - grease dries out in the standard sealed unit, but easily replaced with greasable's
8. Articulation (suspension name and design) - 9/10 - hard to go past for a stocker...known strength with coils all around and very well set up.
9. Capability (Modifications available for that vehicle "if you have dont any") - heaps...lets face it world over people do insane things to them and the amount of stuff available in OZ is amazing and importing from USA or Britain is easy if you want - cheap too.
10. Fuel economy - 16 l/100k in and out to town and a bit better on highway - but I run LPG so equivalent to about 10-11/100k - 8/10 for such a big truck
Pictures/video's also welcome

Frankly I love it at 155,000 and I have a D1 that is still going nicely at 285,000k - they have both been very reliable.

Cheers

[PinHead]

how about you add....how legal is it according to the current regualtions.

[ozscott]

Pinhead - mate for me I like the clearance and dont want to go higher cause the standard is very good and on 31's she sits a fair bit higher than the stock 29's and I tow so I dont like to go up much. Maybe one day a 2" but I will need convincing...

Cheers

[catfishkid]

I have removed my post.

[BenDover]

how about you add....how legal is it according to the current regualtions.

This isnt about regulations mate. Its about how well does your model 4x4 rate. And what modifications have you done to make it better. Solong as everyone is honest, It will show others how they rate in standard form. And by what mods how much better they improve for each category.

ps. I see im going to have to re edit my ratings compaired to others

[FNQCairns]

This isnt about regulations mate. Its about how well does your model 4x4 rate. And what modifications have you done to make it better. Solong as everyone is honest, It will show others how they rate in standard form. And by what mods how much better they improve for each category.

ps. I see im going to have to re edit my ratings compaired to others

Yeah me too, Oh well it is a personal rating.

cheers fnq

[ozscott]

I tried not to let my close feeling for my truck get int he way of the ratings - otherwise they would all be 10/10....I tried my best to rate compared to what others I have seen and driven in stock or largely stock form. Such ratings are always subjective and other people dont know what experience we all have and how objective we are, but overall its good fun.

Cheers

[BenDover]

Yeah me too, Oh well it is a personal rating.

cheers fnq

Yeah, but nomatter what I have got I always say "Theres always room for improvement". And there is... But, I have to draw a line in the sand as to what I will lose if I go further. Thats why I decided to try out the superflex arms to keep good road handling. The only thing better is xlink or 5 link. But then my road handling would be 3/10. I do still have my blue prints for the 5 link I was building before I purchased the superflex arms.

[BenDover]

Nissan Gu Patrol St Ute, Ls1 engine, manual.






1. Sand - 7/10 Plenty of power but 16" rims ment tyres didnt perform very wel

2. Mud - 6/10 33" x 16's let it down alot

3. Water 10/10 Bloody good engine!!!

4. Rock 6/10 Plenty of power but no grip

5. Hill climbs - 7/10 Great rear articulation and shimmed lsd worked very well

6. Clearance - 7/10 5" lift on a patrol is eqaul to a 3" lift on a cruiser in real life measurments. Plus tyres where too small

7. Strength - 9/10 Very very tough drivelines, axles, gearbox's etc...

8. Articulaion - 6/10 Rear flex's great but front is terible

9. Capability - 10/10 after market everything is avaliable

10. Fuel eco - 90 litres used to get me 500k's (same as turbo diesel I pulled out of it) 320bhp 0 - 100 in 7 sec flat (with 33's), Tonnes Of Torque from idle

Over all 7/10 - Great drag car, plenty of power, Just got too expensive to take bush and damage

[BenDover]

94 Landcruiser Ute, 4.5 supercharged petrol, Manual.




1. Sand - 10/10 absolutely unstoppable, hardly ever used 4wd

2. Mud - 9/10 It loved the mud (tyres and locker makes a huge difference)

3. Water 7/10 It had a distributor, and although I made it waterproof, I still never trusted it.

4. Rock 7/10 having no weight on the back used to make it slide and slip sideways

5. Hill climbs - 7/10 lacked some articulation

6. Clearance - 9/10 7" lift kept it off everything. Although full sized tray used to dig in and hang up at times

7. Strength - 8/10 upgraded front diff centre (60 series), gearbox and drive lines upgraded. But it kept spitting axles due to torque and turning big tyres with full detroit locker

8. Articulaion - 7/10 Front was awsome but rear wasnt very good (without lengthening springs and welding new eyelets on further back)

9. Capability - 10/10 after market everything is avaliable, and I used to thrash it

10. Fuel eco - 90 litres used to get about 420ish

Over all 8/10 - Very very capable and strong. Being a ute used to save me alot of trips to the paint and panel shop as tray used hold the cab away from hills/tree's etc

[BenDover]

I NOTICE NOONE ELSE IS WRITTING ANYTHING!!! Yoot, i have you in mind..
Anyone with rav 4's etc please come forward and tell us what you think of them and rate them...

[YOOT]

Subaru Forester 2007
5-Speed Manual
AWD LSD Centre
LSD Rear
215/65/17 Mud and Snow Tyres
Stock Standard

1. Beach - 9/10 (1400kgs 169kw, floats and flies!)
2. Mud - 6/10 (depends on tyres, will stop when most std 4WDs diffs hang up)
3. Water - 3/10 (air intake mounted high, alternator at the top of engine, but low mounted engine negates most advantages, not worth the risk)
4. Rocks - 1/10 (don't even go there)
5. Hill Climbs (open ended not sure what to say, if its sand than 10/10, dirt or flat and just slippery 9/10, as soon as there are bumps or any wheel articulation 1/10. Very fine line between success and fail)
6. Clearance - 5/10 (240mm to front bash plate, 280mm to rear diff (Factory exhaust 205mm) Industry standard clearance across the board. Body of car closer to ground than bigger 4Wds, diffs generally higher.
7. Strength 5/10 - Basically a car that goes wherer it shouldn't. Exploit this to the limit and you'll need repairs.
8. Articulation 2/10 - the wheels moved, but not far. no TC on 07 model makes LSD earn its keep. 2009 Forester TC as good as any.
9. Capability - 8/10 40mm strut lift gives LC200 clearance, bashplates, diff plates, bullbars, parts swapping from Sti/WRX, variable centre diffs, low range gearsets including 2.1:1 reduction upgrades, engine tuning (how deep are your pockets? 400HP easy to achieve) - rare to find high HP and offroad together though. All this and you still have a 1400kg car/4WD.
10. Fuel Economy 7/10 - 8.5L/100km highway 10.5L/100km town - 60L tank lasted 400kms on Fraser.
11. 0-100kmh in 5.9 sec, 0-400m in 13.9sec, basically on or off road you won't catch it, not matter what 4WD you own (except maybe the $200K X5, Cayenne, RR Sport, etc)

Overall rating for the XT Forester 6.5/10 - all depends on how you mod it and how brave you are. Would buy another one but I am looking at a Challenger/Prado/Pajero in 6 months.

Fraser Island Sep 2009


Inkskip May 2009


Teewah Nov 2008


Crows Nest Dec 2007


Lake Mackenzie Sep 2009 - Important, notice the Hilux draging its diff? The forester still have an inch or two of clearance, standard. This is a good real world comparison.