New and would like to start green laning

lewisfox86 · Gate Opener Joined: 03 Jan 2016 Odometer: 3

Hi All,

I have been a fan off offloading for a long long time but never actually done anything about it, but today I went on a short green laning in my dad's wrangler when he was out and loved it.
So to my question but vehicle should I look at getting. Don't want nothing too hardcore just for floods and green laning and the odd field for when I go shooting. I love defenders but in my head they are soo expensive for a nice one. So my head I am think jimny.

Any help or advise would be great.

Lewis

mike328 · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 8:13 pm Post subject:

Daihatsu Fourtrak. Same size and light weight(ish) like a Jimney or SJ but you get a 2.8l TD Cool

lewisfox86 · Gate Opener Joined: 03 Jan 2016 Odometer: 3

Good call. Very difficult to find one though. Ebay and auto trader don't have many.

one2killu · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 11:26 pm Post subject:

Personally I would try and source a Suzuki sj 1.3 , purely because they are light and strong go anywhere little machines + easy to work on , very basic so less to go wrong and fairly cheap parts if you did run in to a bit of bother . If your still loving the off-roading , the Suzuki is very easy to take to the next level and modify, again within a reasonable budget you can create a acquired look and performance vehicle.

RichMayo · Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 12:46 pm Post subject:

Take the plunge! I had that day where I thought - if I don't just get one I'm never going to!

I think I agree with pretty much everything one2killu said... Was in a similar position where wanted to get into it on a budget. I started with a Vitara... but things quickly went wrong budget wise an I ended up spending a lot... but looking back, if I did it again, I think I'd go for an SJ. Then again - I've still got my vit so maybe I wouldn't do it again! If you can find one that's had a 1.6 put in it you've got a good headstart on your future life of upgrades too Smile

Also probably makes sense to start out on something worth less money - so if you do stuff it - you haven't just trashed thousands of pounds worth of defender (not saying you would - but it's how I justified it to myself at the time!)

TBH any of the little cheap ones that you can find would probably be a good starting point. So...

SJ, Vitara, Grand Vitara, Jimny, Fourtrak, Sportrak... I've probably missed some really obvious ones.

You can pickup Jeep Cherokees for not very much money. Might be worth a look. But bigger and larger engines. Pretty nice to inside too.

If your not too fussy on which one to go for might be worth considering a few as it increases chances of a bargain coming up. You won't really know if you like a given vehicle till you take it out and use it tbh.

You might need to figure out if you want to do upgrades yourself (its part of the fun for a lot of folks) or want a pre-done one. You could quickly spend a fair amount on a snorkel and some decent off road tyres... might be cheaper to find one that's already had your desired level of modification done to it, as often the modification cost and time put in isn't really reflected in sale value...mods don't seem to hold their value too well, then the trade off is often trying to figure out how much action its seen! On the other hand you may not need any modifications... they're all 4x4's after-all and you'll be surprised what they'll do in standard form. Even more impressed with the difference that more offroad biased tyres will make over road. All comes down to your wants/needs really.