Shooting

Good point about the push-button 4wd on the newer (post 2005?) Jimnys. With a lever it's very easy. I've added a 2lo switch like Jonesy so have low range 2wd for reversing trailers and stuff at the flick of a switch. With the lever range change you can even crunch it from low to high range on the move if you have to (Suzuki don't recommend this, but with a little mechanical sympathy it goes in without much fuss).

Every other vehicle I've driven with push-button 4wd has been painful to select low range.

holdsy wrote: Thanks for that, I thought that the Jimny looked a bit top heavy myself. The only reason I am wanting to get one is to replace my 500cc quad which was an impulse buy! I did have a lovely Pajero and found that so comfortable to drive compared to all the landrovers I have owned. But driving and lamping around nigh on 100 acre fields in low just drank diesel. Mind you it was handy because the front passenger seat would recline and I could lay a couple of expensive rifles along with nightvision riflescopes and not worry about them getting bashed about. I will regret forever selling the Pajero as it was in excellent nick and even had a new engine fitted.

So I bought this bloody 500cc quad, brilliant for going anywhere, but wow I was spending more on Petrol than I ever spent on diesel with the Pajero. Then whilst out lamping on the quad my lurcher would just dissapear after charlie. So to be honest I never use the quad. Since new it has only covered 250 miles and it is a waste, so in Sept it is due its very first MOT, I reckon I will sell her. Apart from that I want warmth, don't want to get wet.

I was toying with the idea of either buying a disco 2/3. But after listening to Busta's advice decided to get a little Jimny for running costs. I was out with my mate the other day when we topped up his disco. Cost him well over a ton and he even had a quarter of a tank before he put in the fuel nozzle. So I have been listening to everybodys advice, because I need to budget and whatever the Jimny need to be a good little shooting truck I will get. I dont want people to then say to me "oh you should have got this or that fitted" I definately need a winch to be fitted and perhaps a rear diff locker that Busta told me about.

Oh well I had better crack on and thanks for taking the time and trouble of adding your comments etc. Have a good weekend. Cheers Holdsy

Don't get me wrong it does have some good points most notably the service costs are very affordable and the petrol consumption isn't too bad I think we worked it out to be about 6mpg better for the same use over a month than the 90 but the effects are compounded by the difference in pump prices between petrol and diesel. The other thing with the 90 is that having no carpet or plastic trim in the back(it's a pickup) means you don't worry what you put in the back be it heavy, hard, loose, muddy, alive or dead whereas even though our jimny is a ply lined van you would have to be desperate to throw a live sheep in the back never mind a dead one simply because it would be a bugger to get clean after. Ultimately a jimny is a car that can off road rather than a tool for serious work.

Hi Busta,
So are you sort of saying that I should look out for a low milage pre 2005 model with a manual lever to select 4 wheel drive, or can a newish say 2012 be easily adapted to over come the push button 4 wheel drive select? My friend who is a farm mechanic and a 4x4 enthusiast said that he will fit the rear diff locker, might be able to do something with the button if you can explain a bit more.

I did see some telly program that I recorded the other week about this guy who is restoring/building a 4x4 and it showed him explaining those rear diff lockers and how ithey worked. I wished I never deleted that episode as I really didnt pay much attention, as I was talking to my ex rattlesnake on the phone. Cheers Busta, Holdsy

Well I had already thought that one out about cleaning the back out. I will get a plastic tray made up to put any Muntjac/Roe in. As for reds (hence the winch to aid gralloching) I will just have to go and get my trailer.

For the use you are suggesting a pre-2005 with the lever range-change may be a better buy. In the 16 years the Jimny has been on sale not a lot has changed, so you don't really gain anything by buying a newer car except the chance of it being in better condition.

Consensus on the button-shift is there's not a lot you can do to improve it. Unfortunately bolting a gearstick to it isn't possible.

I think the show you are thinking of is 'A 4x4 is born'. It's a great series. Most of the episodes are on Youtube. He fits ARB lockers, which can be switched on and off but are much more expensive (thick end of a grand!) and complicated to install. The lockright engages and disengages automatically.

Yeah that's the program, funny as I have it on auto record and I have just finished watching an episode on replacing the cab glass. Not long ago he built himself a helicopter. As for the ARB lockers not at that price, but the lockrite I will go for. Holdsy