Friday, Dec 02, 2005 at 21:32
I looked at the GU Patrols ( no interest in 100 series ) and thought the same thing, too plastic and too small in the back although much better than a troopy in the tough stuff off road. My first choice was a defender but they were too uncomfortable so I couldn't do it.
They are rippers as standard but a few mods really help I would suggest the following,
1, Twin lockers make up for the lack of
suspension travel, worth every cent if you're tackling anything too difficult. Factory ones are OK ARB better IMO.
2, New springs all-round and longer shocks made a big difference, Dakar rears are good value, go for the 800KG jobs as they can handle heavy loads but allow much better travel than standard. ARB coils in the front ( OME 859 is the code I think?) + 30mm coil spacers make it sit level with the back. Fit longer shocks.
3, Buy some HD polyetheline or similar plastic and make a 30mm spacer to lower the sway bar mounts so the sway bar doesn't hit the front drive shaft at full droop. It's a cheap and easy job and is necessary if longer shocks are fitted.
4, I think the gearing is a bit wrong, revving too high on the freeway so I suggest 285/75/16 on 7" rims for the road, much better. I have a second set of rims with 35/11.5/16 Simex centipedes for offroad which rub very slightly at full flex but that causes no harm.
5, The U-bolt flip kit. I wouldn't have dared to do this to a new car, but I've had it for a year now and found the lack of clearance under the back diff frustrating. the patrols would go straight through on the same size tyres and I'd get hung up on the Plates under the spring pack that the u-bolts go through and the shock mounts to. The u-bolt flip kit was easy, bolted straight on and made a huge difference to clearance. the hard part was the shock mounts. I cut up the plates to make new shock mounts and welded them to the back of the diff. This created a new problem as the shocks were then too long and would bottom out so I welded new shock mounts up top and problem solved. Nothing to do with spring-over.
About driving around town? It's really good actually, visibility is great of course being up high with loads of windows, power steering is good, turning circle is average but better than my Triton ute, interior comfort is excellent ( RV model, cloth seats etc ), Forget
parking in underground carparks, 2500mm high with roof rack on.
Sorry about crapping on so much, but that's what I think about troopys.
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