Going to Mongolia and back !!!

I think if it was me id get a decent pajero/shogun, landcruiser, or patrol, cheap, reliable and easy to repair. Then sit in comfort all the way and with air con. I will be using a shogun to tow my Jimny when I am to go more than an hour away for play days.

Get a book called
The Vehicle Dependent Expedition Guide by Tom Sheppard - my copy is quite old but it has been updated. It is published in conjunction with Land Rover, but the advice is relevant to any vehicle - it is the Overlanders Bible. Amazon have copies and they sometimes come up on ebygumbay.
Be prepared for a shock when you see the price...................

Good Luck

Paul

I think that I would travel as light as possible, keep the vehicle as standard as possible and to some extent rely on local services on the way. The Jimny and earlier SJ series are popular along most of the route and should not come as a surprise to local mechanics and blacksmiths. You should probably look at taking items designed to get you to the next major town. These are probably things like fuel, water, drive belts, tyres etc. Take rad sealant, jam the viscous fan on so that you always get maximum cooling. Fit a sump guard as damaging the sump and loosing the oil can spoil your day.

Broken shocks, springs, kingpin bearings and brakes (take a brake pipe clamp) can all be tolerated until civilisation is reached. As said before, some heavy duty ratchet straps and mega cable ties combined with Molegrips can create some good instant repairs.

Failed rear wheel bearings mean the rear driveshaft and wheel will fall off which can be quite distressing but then changing a rear wheel bearing is not a roadside task due to the bearing retainer ring. I might have tried to find room for a pair of rear driveshafts pre-fitted with new bearings.

Most front drive failures can be coped with by removing the freewheeling hubs, perhaps a conversion to manual hubs would help. A broken trackrod end will stop you steering so a pair of those (left hand and right hand) would keep you going.

Getting ingenious with the 4WD selector and unbolting driveshafts will also help you over come driveline failures.

If you were to promise to submit reports/photos etc. (including all the prep etc.) here then you can have parts from me at cost.

Take the BigJimny phone number with you and if you have trouble then there is a world of Jimny owners out there who will be able to offer some help in some way.

With regards to fuel, how well does the jimny run on rough fuel? The TD5 landy engine is designed to run on poor quality fuels in developing countries.

Possibly taking some sort of additive or octane booster would be an idea?

Thank you, some good food for thought. I'll try to keep the forum informed as I go. The key messages I'm getting are:-

1. Keep it standard.
2. Keep the weight down.
3. A very serious service and then some. My plan is to do this myself and not rely on a garage. SO I will know my way around the car and then take it in for a serious inspection to double check what I have done.
4. Maybe the Jimny is not the correct vehicle for the job! But I do like a challenge.
5. Take comprehensive spares, not sure how that squares with keeping the weight down. Still who needs clean underpants!
6. A very kind offer of spares at cost. For now, advice is far more valuable to me than mere money, but I will bear it in mind. Thank you.
7. No fuel cans on the outside of the vehicle, I won't need to use the jerry cans until I hit Mongolia, where it seems almost anything goes. So I might be OK to take them empty until then. Not sure I will need to make some more inquires.
8. Uprate the springs and shocks.
9. Comprehensive tool kit plus Ratchet straps, mole grips and tie wraps (heavy duty).
10. Do some more reading. A number of books have been suggested so I plan to try the library first and buy if needed. I have almost printed off the entire Jimny Manual, too big and too heavy to take, so I plan to use a KINDLE book reader. It is light and I believe it can handle PDF files plus I will need some other books to read on the journey, so a good compromise.

Thank you all, Kind regards Teafortwo0789

Thank you, some good food for thought. I'll try to keep the forum informed as I go. The key messages I'm getting are:-

1. Keep it standard.
2. Keep the weight down.
3. A very serious service and then some. My plan is to do this myself and not rely on a garage. SO I will know my way around the car and then take it in for a serious inspection to double check what I have done.
4. Maybe the Jimny is not the correct vehicle for the job! But I do like a challenge.
5. Take comprehensive spares, not sure how that squares with keeping the weight down. Still who needs clean underpants!
6. A very kind offer of spares at cost. For now, advice is far more valuable to me than mere money, but I will bear it in mind. Thank you.
7. No fuel cans on the outside of the vehicle, I won't need to use the jerry cans until I hit Mongolia, where it seems almost anything goes. So I might be OK to take them empty until then. Not sure I will need to make some more inquires.
8. Uprate the springs and shocks.
9. Comprehensive tool kit plus Ratchet straps, mole grips and tie wraps (heavy duty).
10. Do some more reading. A number of books have been suggested so I plan to try the library first and buy if needed. I have almost printed off the entire Jimny Manual, too big and too heavy to take, so I plan to use a KINDLE book reader. It is light and I believe it can handle PDF files plus I will need some other books to read on the journey, so a good compromise.

Thank you all, Kind regards Teafortwo0789