Thread: Urgent Advice - Would you buy this 4WD?

Originally Posted by XR500

Believe it or not, spray cans of mud is a real thing....for those that have to look the part but don't have the wherewithal to actually have the terrain apply it for them

Not saying that these dudes were that type though.

Before we traded up to our Jayco caravan we had an Aussie off road trailer tent. It folded up and out, had a floor built in, queen sized bed, pull out kitchen…sold it cheap to one of our sons down south as age and arthritis challenged us with the putting up. Son takes it gnarly places behind his Prado as trailer has proper 4wd rotating hitch, heavy springs etc. It’s a good bit of kit for younger people.

Originally Posted by Ingrid 51

Before we traded up to our Jayco caravan we had an Aussie off road trailer tent. It folded up and out, had a floor built in, queen sized bed, pull out kitchen…sold it cheap to one of our sons down south as age and arthritis challenged us with the putting up. Son takes it gnarly places behind his Prado as trailer has proper 4wd rotating hitch, heavy springs etc. It’s a good bit of kit for younger people.

When we can afford it, this is exactly the sort of thing we want to upgrade to. We’ve been looking at the BruderX campers made in Australia… they look mint, but they don’t miss you on price!

Renta mud?

Very true and factual statement there @Ingrid51.
We only take one hi lift jack on a group trip, more often used as a winch for moving rear of 4wd, moving logs rocks etc. Without a solid mounting point (side bards, bull bar or rim/tyre mount to from they are pointless as a jack. We too have come across many 'offroaders' carrying a hi lift that when asked have no idea how to actually use it.
I wouldn't fit my 4wd down a lot of the tracks we drive if I had a roof top tent.

https://www.turners.co.nz/Cars/Used-...prado/21940175

I would buy this...they go lots of places...and don't blow up. Cost 600 to ship this down https://www.turners.co.nz/Cars/Used-...ester/19170732

@Flyblown really interested with your experience of the V6 petrol.
What would you (or anyone here) do to improve the riverproofness of the petrol engine?

Cheers

Originally Posted by imaca

@Flyblown really interested with your experience of the V6 petrol.
What would you (or anyone here) do to improve the riverproofness of the petrol engine?

Cheers

I just liberally cover the HT components in spray on lithium grease and pack the plug recesses with grease. Spray or wipe on, wipe off. The mechanics at the one mine I worked at prepared our vehicles using a bright blue spray on the waterproof coating that semi hardened. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called but it was extremely effective at repelling water.

Our vehicles run numerous 12 V accessories under the hood and I never run into any problems from water ingress despite several quite exciting river crossings in the Pilbara monsoon.

I ran 4Y and 22R petrol Hiluxs for years in Africa and did countless deep water crossings in the Okavango. Never had a problem with a motor cutting out with suitable grease protection.

Guys tend to get freaked out about the water problem with petrol engines, which is easily solved, what they don’t think about is how they are going to look after their diffs and transmission. On a number of times I’ve leaned down unobserved and looked underneath an expensive ute after observing someone complete a water crossing - no rear diff breather extension. Which almost certainly means no gearbox transfer case or front diff breeder extension.

The other thing to triple check is the watertightness of the air intake system. I remember one guy finding to his horror that a previous owner had used a hole saw to cut a 50 mm circular hole in the bottom of his air filter housing, so that his engine made a sexy induction noise. Imagine his surprise when he crossed a river and his air filter filled with water and unsurprisingly he suddenly developed nasty rod knock… Ouch.

In the early 90s I worked for a while as a volunteer (for parts) at a legendary place called N1 4x4, north of Pretoria. I was building my overlander vehicle and was too poor for some of the stuff I wanted, so I worked weekends for it. Bloody great! They’re still going strong. They were / are the Land Cruiser / Hilux authority in South Africa, and supported the older models all the way through Southern Africa with a MASSIVE horde of well organised and cleaned spares stripped off wrecked vehicles.

(Hilux used to be manufactured from scratch in SA, Land Cruiser was either fully imported or assembled from CKD kits and matched with locally derived engines and gearboxes to suit local conditions. Nowadays the Hilux is CKD I think.)

Anyway, one of the things I remember doing was draining the transmission and drivetrain fluids on incoming donor cars. Holy crap! Many of those diffs were running on 50/50 oil and water, and the overpressure from sucking in the water made them all leak. So yeah, diff and trans breathers are always the first thing I do to a new vehicle.

When it comes to water however, the absolute best advice is don’t go in above your wheels unless you absolutely have to in an emergency… have got some priceless experiences from Cape York of guys writing off their you beauty SUVs and utes by floating them on stupid, unnecessary river crossings… Not an argument I want to take on with my insurer for a $75k vehicle (after the $10k recovery). Vehicles have max wading depths for a reason, only the very well prepared and experienced (and brave) should ignore this advice.

Father said they used to take fan belt off going into Haast before road done.
Land rovers.

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All I see is three Nissans with their accompanying recovery vehicles.

CRC white lithium spray on grease.

The silicone grease is Chemtools (Aussie).

The blue one is E-Max dielectric grease (also from Aus). That’s bloody good stuff that one. I’m glad this came up in this thread because I went for a look in the shed and found a tub which I didn’t know I had.

You have to be careful to clean components of silicone grease at service time, else it can harden and crack. But the blue one stays pliable and you can leave that one for years.

I imagine your NLGI2 grease is conductive because it is supposed to be, there’s lots of electrical contact greases that are NLGI2 grade. But there are also lot of non-conductive lithium greases that are NLGI2, you can buy dielectric grease of NLGI #2 grade.

Ha ha served the apprenticeship for Denso tape application. I was always given the task to wrap electrical fittings, j-boxes, motor terminal boxes after the tradesmen had done their bit.
All these years later and it is still available. Says something about its effectiveness.

Originally Posted by zimmer

Ha ha served the apprenticeship for Denso tape application. I was always given the task to wrap electrical fittings, j-boxes, motor terminal boxes after the tradesmen had done their bit.
All these years later and it is still available. Says something about its effectiveness.

I did a storm water job a few years ago. Sched10 8” stainless, 300m, with bends aplenty. The whole lot was denso wrapped, then pvc wrapped. I was welding, the hairy was doing the denso.


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The beauty of these 4x4 of the late 80- 90 era is that at one time us country boys could travel to the big smoke and purchase a reasonable second hand 4x4 for about as much as a second hand quad.
They all had an easy life, had hardly ever been in 4 wheel drive, and were generally just a status symbol for soccer moms.
Made great bush/beach hacks and WOF and REG meant you could head off to any corner of the country.

Now those same utes or in high demand as they get tricked out with raised suspension. raised bodies, flares, snorkels, bigger wheels and you guessed it more as a status symbol than a practical application. Problem is the affordable beach/hunting wagons getting snapped up, and some pretty sick prices for older models as OP has highlighted.

Originally Posted by trapperjohn

The beauty of these 4x4 of the late 80- 90 era is that at one time us country boys could travel to the big smoke and purchase a reasonable second hand 4x4 for about as much as a second hand quad.
They all had an easy life, had hardly ever been in 4 wheel drive, and were generally just a status symbol for soccer moms.
Made great bush/beach hacks and WOF and REG meant you could head off to any corner of the country.

Now those same utes or in high demand as they get tricked out with raised suspension. raised bodies, flares, snorkels, bigger wheels and you guessed it more as a status symbol than a practical application. Problem is the affordable beach/hunting wagons getting snapped up, and some pretty sick prices for older models as OP has highlighted.

Hmmm,, maybe the fellas that feel they need to trick out there 4x4 of the 2020's are the children of the soccer moms of the 1990's.
Think about it.