84 (na) Pajero rims and tough tyres?

sorry...only me again....i forgot to mention about the size numbering: 31 indicates the tyre circumferance while 10.5 is the width of the rim. (Correct me if im wrong anyone)

Cheers, Jono.

Jono

Thanks for the advice.

When decided to buy a 4wd I spoke to everyone I could, I soon decided to buy one of what I consider the big three (Cruiser, Patrol and Pajero). If it was going to be a Cruiser of Patrol it had to be diesel (for economy). Lots of people are very negative towards the Pajero, except for those who actually own on or had a good friend who owns one! There are not many older Pajeros advertised, and I am told this is because owners tend to hang on their Pajeros......

Before I bought the Pajero I seriously looked at 3 SWB patrols, and a turbo diesel LWB pajero. The patrols were very uninspiring and often in much abused condition. The LWB pajero was very nice, but very gutless. Believe it or not the 4 cyl pet Pajero was easily the quickest (and hopefully most fuel efficient) to drive of the lot!! Most of the cars I looked at were from the Quokka.

As for my Pajero, it is a 84 SWB with the astron 2.6 petrol engine. No power steering, no air con, manual hubs (perfect!!) The car was bought privately. I am not a big fan of car salespeople, particularly those who sell older cars (I rank used car sales men equal to door knockers and snake oil peddlers).

The body was straight, clean and largely original. It has some minor rust. The previous owner had made some body repairs, but it looked to be of a very good standard (i.e. fixed rust spots with metal plates), and the body was presented as is (i.e. not been recently repainted, thus easy to see the non-extent of rust).

The previous owner claimed that the cylinder head and gearbox had been recently rebuilt and I have no reason to doubt this as it runs beautifully and I have had no strange sounds or problems with the 4wd in the drives down the beach and up in the hills.

It had good tyres, interior was excellent (including carpets!!), except for the seats, which are pretty tired.

Oh yeah, I paid around $4000 for the car. This is on the high end, but considering the excellent condition of the car I thought it was worth it!!

If you are looking to save money, definitely buy privately, look for a car that has been cared for and has been tidied up (indicating that they value the car).

Drop me an email if you would like to have more of a chat or a look at the car. (jsauvage@iinet.net.au)

ITH (I hope this helps)

Justin

Thanks for the info Dave.

I take it that by BFGs you mean BF Goodrich or similar? I have since spoken to a tyre shop and they were highly recommended, but they also seemed to carry a significant price premium. Does $230 for a 215x75?x16 sound excessive?

I am not particulaly conserned about tyre noise or road handling (I have a Saab 900i to drive if I want comfort :o)

As I have flares on the guards the extra offset will not be a prolem in terms of leagality, and the 16 inch partrol/cruiser rims seem to be dirt cheap in the Quokka. I am a little concerned as to wether the extra offset will dangersously upset the road holding/or put undue strain on hubs/axles. I know for road cars mucking around with offsets can cause bearings to prematurely wear (not to mention cause the tyres to foul against the guards :o)

Are you awere of any problems of running a little extra offset in a 4WD? I guess the SWB is slightly lighter.

Do you know what is the largest overall diameter tyre that I can run without fouling on the bodywork? What tyre sizes would they equate to? (prefer a narrower tyre for fuel economy)

The majority of the trips I plant to make will invlove significant stretches of fast touring I would appeciate the higher gearing the larger diameters will give, (The speedo is already out a little more won't hurt!!)

Cheers

Justin