Off Road conversion, info required for a farmer

Hello Everybody,
I'm not a Jimmy owner, but I'm trying to help a friend of mine, as he has no access to the internet.
His plan is to buy and raise up a Jimny, fit larger tyres to use off road, he's a farmer, so the Jimny will be used for carting grain, equipment across some boggy and rough terrain.

The info he has asked for, is a raise up possible without body work alterations, will he need to replace all suspension and the largest off road tyres he could fit and would there be any other must do mods. Also and I think this will be quite important, what would be a rough cost of all these mods.
It won't travel far on the road, but it will need to travel short distances on tarmac


Thanks for any info you lads can give Alan

He will be most grateful

This is like how longs a piece of string kind of question
More information needed
What year jimmy he's looking at ?
And what size tyres he's wanting ?
Knowing tyre size will give us more understanding on lift kit needed

Jack

I'm really no expert at all, but the cheap options are:

1) Go up two tyre sizes to 215/75s without touching anything else - cost of tyres
2) 215/75s with a spacer lift - £150 plus cost of tyres
3) 215/75s with a 2" suspension lift - £320 plus cost of tyres

To fit bigger tyres than 215/75 I believe you need a 3" or 4" lift kit and these are considerably more expensive because you need to get replacement radius arms, brake lines, panhard rods and prop spacers (£1000 mark). Depending on what tyres he wants to fit he may also need to chop the arches. Body lifts are another option and I have no experience at all with these, but they seem like a bit of a hassle.

Check out this thread for in-depth discussion on tyre sizes: www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum?view=topic&catid=7&id=51978

Also to be considered,the most important trait of the Jimny in the situation you describe for your friends is its low range capability. Especially when laden you want to be able to just trundle along at a fast idle without melting the clutch.

The bigger the tyre the higher the gear ratios get, making it less effective offroad, particularly with a trailer.

Why does he want big tyres out of curiosity? Does he have a genuine need for floatation for driving over seeded rows? If not close to stock sizes (195/80, 205/75, 215/75 etc) will likely to be the most effective for a proper working vehicle. The reason so many fit larger is for pay and plays, but P&P tracks are somewhat different from the real world, as there tends to be a bit of an arms race as to who can fit the biggest tyres for the most axle clearance, and as such a bunch of trucks rolling up and down with 35+" tyres ruin the trail for anyone with smaller.

Thank you for all the info, I am pretty sure that Alan hasn't thought long and hard about this project...He had seen some Jimnys uprated in a farming magazine and has probably thought it would be easy and cheaper, I will print out all the help and show him.

Regards Bill

I farm sheep with mine. As far as off road performance in an agricultural environment goes a standard Jimny with the back seats removed is a very dominant package. I have road pattern tyres on mine and can get everywhere our old 90 could and a few places it couldn't, I am able to get on the land a good month before and after the defender and not leave a mark other than flattening the grass. It uses half as much fuel as any big pickup in real world use. It is significantly quicker and more pleasantly appointed than a side by side quad. As for lifting and fitting big tyres it's a pretty pointless way of making it worse unless you are prepared to spend more money on gearing and the like to rectify the effects of the big tyres. It will look cool granted but it will also mean more maintenance and breakages which is fine if you have other vehicles to use in the meantime. They're brilliant for farming out of the box.