Road use safe?

Hi all

My first post after spending a few days mulling around your fantastic sight as a potential new owner. Looks like a great forum and very well run without certain nuances you get on some other forums. Well done.

The reason I'm here is because I'm keen on starting out with a bit of green laning but can easily see myself getting a thirst for some of the more extreme stuff I can see that members are using their jimny's for. It will also be my daily commute of approx 30 miles round trip, lanes and B roads.

I'm a very relaxed and slow daily driver so, when it comes to me driving, I'm not too concerned about stories I hear about the jimny being prone to rolling in corners. But then I get to thinking about what happens if I need to turn sharply, perhaps under braking, in an emergency? What if my daughter is on board? Will my wife be as conscientious when driving it?

So I'm hoping that you will put my mind at ease but what I actually need is the right information. How compromised are they in a corner on the road? Another forum I use suggests there has been various litigation in the US about the tendency to roll.

Sorry if this is a regular question. I suppose I could use the search facility but then this is me saying hello too

Cheers
Mark

The litigation in the US concerned the earlier SJ model, in any case the test was fixed as the SJ passed it many times before they modified the course to make it harder. The US and UK transport departments retested the SJ and declared it safe. The Jimny is a lot more stable due to its loinger wheelbase, wider track and superior suspension, I have never had any concerns driving one.

The original videos of the SJ tests are on youtube:

Good to hear.

What if you remove the arb? :whistle:

Thanks for the vid, that's useful

Well I went out earlier offroad and came home following a modded off-roader I was taking corners at some speed and had no problem what so ever even abit of tyre screech due to the amount of grip it had.

If you modify it then the Jimny will cope less with the on road issues, like emergency steering etc. This is true of any 4x4 though, not just the Jimny.

You just have to decide how much a compromise you want one aspect of the Jimny to be as you improve the other. In this case, how much you want to compromise the road handling to improve the offroad ability.

Lifting it raises the centre of gravity and the car is able to.cope less when the arb has been taken off but I wouldn't say I've ever had an issue when people have done silly things in front of me. I just drive it according to what it is.

It sounds like you're a prudent sort of driver, but I know what you're saying about your Mrs. I don't let mine drive my Jimny on road often for the same reason.

Kirkynut