New to off roading- advice wanted.

[teabagger]

Hi all,

I am normally into trackdays in the kit car or motorbike but as our poor summer is coming to an end and 6 months of winter is bearing down on me, I need to plan my petrol head fixes throughout.

I have been thinking a cheap offroader is the way to do this.

A couple of venues look to be available in the North East of England, if there are any more recommendations then please let me know:

http://www.nyoffroad.co.uk/
http://z8.invisionfree.com/Off_Road_North_East/ind...

I would like to only spend £500 on a vehicle which would have to be legal to drive on the road. Ideally, I would be able to get the weight down to <900kgs so I could trailer it to offroad sites.

The obvious choice seems to be an SJ413 but I am concerned I may spend more time fixing it than driving it at this age/ price point.

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

Edited by teabagger on Monday 23 August 15:00

[Eggman]

SJs are massively reliable, but the bodies are rather rust prone. I ran one for two or three years and didn't need to spend much time working on it at all - in fact, had I spent a little more time greasing the things that need greasing I can't think of much that needed changing that wasn't a service item. As it was, I had to change two propshaft UJs, a wheel bearing and a sticky clutch. I didn't think that was too bad at all considering it went off road quite regularly and a lot of that involved water.

[rhinochopig]

teabagger said:

Hi all,

I am normally into trackdays in the kit car or motorbike but as our poor summer is coming to an end and 6 months of winter is bearing down on me, I need to plan my petrol head fixes throughout.

I have been thinking a cheap offroader is the way to do this.

A couple of venues look to be available in the North East of England, if there are any more recommendations then please let me know:

http://www.nyoffroad.co.uk/
http://z8.invisionfree.com/Off_Road_North_East/ind...

I would like to only spend £500 on a vehicle which would have to be legal to drive on the road. Ideally, I would be able to get the weight down to <900kgs so I could trailer it to offroad sites.

The obvious choice seems to be an SJ413 but I am concerned I may spend more time fixing it than driving it at this age/ price point.

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

Edited by teabagger on Monday 23 August 15:00

Hi TB,

The first site you list is excellent. There are also some routes you can do over the moors which are obviously free - Beadlam Rigg and Rudland Rigg and a couple over to the North - Guisborough way.

I also used to use the Langdale site. My tool of choice was an SIII lightweight.

I have to say, if you've never done it before and are used to TDs, you may find it boring. After about 4 outings I was bored and stopped doing it.

I went back to TDs and picked a car that was better suited than the Westy for winter TDs.

[Kermit power]

rhinochopig said:

teabagger said:

Hi all,

I am normally into trackdays in the kit car or motorbike but as our poor summer is coming to an end and 6 months of winter is bearing down on me, I need to plan my petrol head fixes throughout.

I have been thinking a cheap offroader is the way to do this.

A couple of venues look to be available in the North East of England, if there are any more recommendations then please let me know:

http://www.nyoffroad.co.uk/
http://z8.invisionfree.com/Off_Road_North_East/ind...

I would like to only spend £500 on a vehicle which would have to be legal to drive on the road. Ideally, I would be able to get the weight down to <900kgs so I could trailer it to offroad sites.

The obvious choice seems to be an SJ413 but I am concerned I may spend more time fixing it than driving it at this age/ price point.

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

Edited by teabagger on Monday 23 August 15:00

Hi TB,

The first site you list is excellent. There are also some routes you can do over the moors which are obviously free - Beadlam Rigg and Rudland Rigg and a couple over to the North - Guisborough way.

I also used to use the Langdale site. My tool of choice was an SIII lightweight.

I have to say, if you've never done it before and are used to TDs, you may find it boring. After about 4 outings I was bored and stopped doing it.

I went back to TDs and picked a car that was better suited than the Westy for winter TDs.

Then again, I'm rather the opposite!

I get a few laps into a track day, going round and round the same track, and the thought of how much it's going to cost me to replace the tyres just starts growing and growing....

The nice thing about a 4x4 is that you can go off exploring all sorts of stuff you've never seen before for nothing.

To each their own!

[teabagger]

I will continue to do trackdays but prefer dry days (not many of them) so I need something to keep me occupied during the winter.

As I say, I havent done any off roading so I want to keep the costs down to see if its for me. I do like the idea of climbing banks and wading through water though!

Are the Diahatsu sporttracks as good as the sj's. They seem to be cheap and there are lots for sale.

[Eggman]

teabagger said:

Are the Diahatsu sporttracks as good as the sj's. They seem to be cheap and there are lots for sale.

They are probably not much worse, but you hardly see any at the pay and play sites so it's difficult to say. SJs go pretty much anywhere, so they're going to be hard to beat. Lightness provides quite an advantage off road although you would never guess it looking at the modifications people make!