Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Im just looking for a toy 4wd and want something smallish and cheap but not as small as a serria. So, what are the eairly 90's vitara's like off road??? Do they need alot of mods or just some decient tyres? Im not going to enter tuff truck in it but I dont want to get stuck on a pebble either.

Ask your mate the almighty Roothy, he will tell you a cruiser is the best thing on earth though.

Dave.

Not a bad thing off road for what they are IMHO.

Been covered here plenty of times before, search is your friend.

Yeah the search thing never works properly for me.

They can be good but first you will have to do a few inches of suspension lift and get some decent sized tyres underneath. The front part of the drivetrain is then a little bit vulnerable to breakage and you'll be looking for some better gearing, such as a sierra transfer case.

It can still be well worth doing because you could pick one up pretty cheap; I am just saying be prepared to drop another $2k straight into it to get it good.

A mate of mine ditched his SWB vitara for an SWB maverick and regretted it ever after.

Just my thoughts.

Very under rated...
all you need is 31's and 2' lift..
dont expect it to do big water crossings but..
still to low for that..
but otherwise found mine very good..

chimpboy wrote:They can be good but first you will have to do a few inches of suspension lift and get some decent sized tyres underneath. The front part of the drivetrain is then a little bit vulnerable to breakage and you'll be looking for some better gearing, such as a sierra transfer case.

It can still be well worth doing because you could pick one up pretty cheap; I am just saying be prepared to drop another $2k straight into it to get it good.

A mate of mine ditched his SWB vitara for an SWB maverick and regretted it ever after.

Just my thoughts.

Check out my build up thread, 2k will build up a fun vitara!! I got out of a SWB Maverick & into my zook & have never regretted it! It's very rewarding to drive.

chimpboy wrote:They can be good but first you will have to do a few inches of suspension lift and get some decent sized tyres underneath. The front part of the drivetrain is then a little bit vulnerable to breakage and you'll be looking for some better gearing, such as a sierra transfer case.

It can still be well worth doing because you could pick one up pretty cheap; I am just saying be prepared to drop another $2k straight into it to get it good.

A mate of mine ditched his SWB vitara for an SWB maverick and regretted it ever after.

Just my thoughts.

so your friend thinks the vitara is better than the maverick??? in what way ?

they are very good, and i've seen many kick the arse of a fully kitted out larger vehicle (won't mention brands, might upset some people!). but it comes down to what you want to do. 31's will slowly kill the driveline and affect gearing and consumption, though with 30's and air lockers you will go just as far. there are many models, swb, wagon, efi, auto etc so have a look around and decide which you like. they do need a fair bit of work for larger tyres and you should decide waht you intend to use it for, this will save you some headaches. other larger vehicles are great for towing and carrying a heap of shite, the vits are great off roading.

whitepootrol wrote:

chimpboy wrote:They can be good but first you will have to do a few inches of suspension lift and get some decent sized tyres underneath. The front part of the drivetrain is then a little bit vulnerable to breakage and you'll be looking for some better gearing, such as a sierra transfer case.

It can still be well worth doing because you could pick one up pretty cheap; I am just saying be prepared to drop another $2k straight into it to get it good.

A mate of mine ditched his SWB vitara for an SWB maverick and regretted it ever after.

Just my thoughts.

so your friend thinks the vitara is better than the maverick??? in what way ?

He got further and had more fun in the vitara than in the maverick. That much is true; I saw him do it.

The Mav had a factory locker, too.

On the other hand, he broke stuff on the vitara a lot as he was very mean to it. But it is a fact that, damage level aside, the vitara could get further in difficult terrain than his maverick.

I had a SWB hardtop Vitara. Put 2" lift and a rear minispool in it. Only ever had 28" HT's on it and never struggled anywhere. I imagine transfer mods as mentioned earlier would help if tyres were any larger than this. Oh, and I took the front swaybar off as soon as I bought it. Nice, light little economical car. Bloody cheap too. I had the carby version 1.6, which did have a few trips to the local specialist for tuning, never seemed to be 100%. I would definately consider buying one to mod in the future again if circumstances changed.

hi
i got a swb efi with only 235/75/15 (29") no lift and i have taken it on beach tracks and really boggy sand, never had a problem with it at all. get a good one (EFI) and you'll never have a problem.

mitch

i was also in the same situation as you i ended up not getting a vitara and got a swb pajero j-top insted, payed 5g and never looked back i decided that if i was going to pay 4 or 5 for a vitara im better off with a 3lv6 injected pajero......just my 2c but its completely up yo you from what iv heard the vitaras are ok but my mate has one and once we went off road together i must have pulled him out of a bog atleast 7 times in 3 hours...

Anyone who talks crap about a Vit offroad is talking out their arse. They punch above their weight.

Mine ended up with 33x10.5's, 4 inches of lift and a rear locker. Went anywhere...

Mine was great when it had 30's and a rear locker. once i went to 32's with heavy rims and tried harder tracks it'd break cv's and rear axles on command almost.

I'd suggest getting a swb model, run the OME lift, and get some 30's or 31's under it. A rear locker makes a world of difference too

Vitara's are fun, changing CV joints is not so much fun.

If you want to do some more hardcore stuff, save money and buy something easier to modify (Sierra/Hilux/ dare is say GQ)

Hindsight is great, my Vit was fun within it's limitations. Far more comfortable than a sierra but harder to modify and harder to add strength to.

Yeah breaking CVs would become a common thing if you weren't careful.

Is there still no aftermarket replacement that's less breakable?

Not that I'm aware of.

IMHO CV's aren't all that weak. The big problem is open front diff bouncing at full droop/full revs, and excessive droop popping out the driver's side inner axle which then binds the CV when the angle goes too steep.

Vitaras don't have rebound stops, only bumpstops, shich leads to mods that radically improve droop and take the CV's well beyond safe operating angles.

Cj on here has offroaded vitaras with lockers and gears for years and hasn't done a CV that I'm aware of outright, but he's very careful about the angles and has some tricks to stop the inner axle popping out.

Vitaras are a great offroad package - stable, available with EFI and a great auto (AW-4) transfer gears, lockers, suspension etc.

They are harder to work with than a sierra, but good results can be achieved and they are much better suited to road driving.

Steve.

there is a kit to adapt the toyota front ifs shafts to suit the vitaras. one of the guys up here in queensland had one iirc.

cant remember of the top of my head what company made it though