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A little word before anyone flames us with any of that 'Land rovers are better than Suzuki’s or similar bollocks. First you might to remember this site is also devoted to my mates very nice land Rover 90 ( which I used to own) which unless you get stupid is virtually unstoppable and is the base line for comparison.. Secondly my other off-roader is an Expedition ready Discovery 200Tdi. Thirdly there is no perfect 4x4 except possible the Mercedes Unimog! Now I've got my pet hate off my chest I'll continue with the story.
After playing with it for a bit around the local byways my brother and I took it to a few a play days. I don't think it took kindly to the rough treatment and eventually its brakes went and the engine started producing more blue smoke than was healthy for it! At that this point we decided to treat the vehicle as a joint project and it started to evolved into its current incarnation as ‘7‘. We brought a second vehicle for spares and set about the SJ in stages repairing and modifying the vehicle between play days.
'Technical' Specifications
Body: Custom truck cab, welded-up tail gate and large wheel arches (wouldn't want all that mud flying around would we!)
Colour: ‘New Caterpillar Yellow’ with black roll cage.
Seating capacity : 2 (Driver + victim)
Interior: has all the knobs and levers, 2 seats and 2 drain plugs in the floor to let the water out (and In if you forget to put them back), what more could you want!
Chassis: heavy duty front and rear cross sections with substantial recovery points and custom external roll cage which works!
Suspension: leaf strung with axel under conversion
Axles: standard except the back diff has been 'tweaked' - big grin!
Wheels and tyres: BFG mud terrain 235x80 R15 on chromed steel rims, the only shiny bits on it!
Engine: 970cc petrol normally aspirated (yes you read that correctly its almost an entire litre!)
Fuel system: custom fuel tank behind cab, designed to deliver fuel at extreme angles and it works!
Gear Ratios :
Transmission
1st: 3.136
2nd: 1.946
3rd: 1.422
4th: 1
rev 3.463
Transfer box
low 2.511
high 1.58
Final drive: 4.111
Exhaust: custom raised exhaust behind cab for water wading
Ignition: partially water proofed.
Lights: I believe the passengers head light still works!
Weight : dunno
Wheel base: 80 inches
Ground clearance : 15 inches - it has never bottomed out in the middle so we have never bothered extending the spring shackles!
Approach and departure angles: 50 deg limited by the leaf springs!
Cost to date: can't be more than £500 and that include a complete donor vehicle!
Performance:
0-60 MPH: oh do behave.
Side slopes: surprising good since SJ where know as Suzuki roll- overs when I was lad!
Decent angle: very extreme!
Ascent angle: totally reliant on momentum!
Safe wading depth: about 27 inches but loads more with a decent bow wave!
Pulling power: none. In fact if a girl is willing to get in this then I'm not interested!
Wish list and things to do:
Ideally we want more torque and lower gears! We are looking at engine options and an upgrade is likely when the current one expires. Has anyone fitted a decent diesel engine to an SJ. Also any one know of a economic way of lowering the gear ratios?
It would be nice to have the radiator behind the cab so its out the way and doesn't get full of mud!
Currently it would benefit with better ignition water proofing and it would be good to move the coil moved inside the cab.
That’s about it, what more could any off-roader want?
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