Select to expand quotekiteboy dave said..smicko said..
How many k's you doing a week Dave?
Varies.. up to 750.
There is 50-50 possibility I'll get a work car in the next few months, which would drop it right back to <100.
I was gonna suggest a tb48 but fark that if you're doing 700k a week, not at 18lt/100. A 3lt gu will do your head in if you're used to driving something with a bit of poke, they really are a slug, as is a td42 unless you throw lots of coin at it and then they're just as thirsty as a tb48.
If you can hold out till you know if you'll have a work bus then a tb48 would be well worth a look, plenty of grunt, as good as anything off-road, bulletproof drivetrain and service costs are minimal. You just gotta be prepared for 18/100.
If you don't need to climb mountains or tow your camper through soft beach sand than a Paj is probably about your most economical option, both purchase price wise and service and running costs.
It's worthwhile also doing your sums on petrol v diesel running costs, service interval on diesel is half that of pettys and more costly per service, do an injector pump and your generally up for at least 3k, not to mention initial purchase price. I've had over a dozen 4wd's of various breeds and have always been a staunch diesel man, but that was before you needed scan tools and a doctorate to service one, I wouldn't want to go sticking my head under the bonnet of a modern common rail diesel, but I'm happy doing my own servicing on my Patrol.
It all comes down to what you want it to do, if you want to go rock climbing and lots of high speed gravel and corrugations IFS sucks, they don't have sufficient wheel travel and you'll split CV boots and be forever throwing money at maintenance. That's where a live axel front end comes into it's own and there's really only two options there Cruiser or Patrol. If on the other hand you just want to be doing a bit of beach work and medium duty track work then you've got the Paj, Prado, Cherokee etc.
As an aside, by far the most capable 4wd's I've driven have been Landrovers, the Defenders,the Disco's and Rangies up to the end of the live axel jobbies are all amazing off-road. It's just their quality control and that drive train made of cheddar that let them down. I have no experience with Jeep.
These are very popular here in the states, 4 x 4 Ford van, Sportsman (or Sportsmobile ) equipped. They can go anywhere and carry everything.
Maybe you have something similar where you're at.
^ That thing looks like a beast and i want one, but i would not like the fuel bill for it!!!!
^^^ no please no. There is simply no need for those American monster trucks.
GVM of 4.5 tonnes, so I'm guessing the vehicle dry is 3 - 3.5 tonnes.
sportsmobile.com/sportsmobile-4x4/
http://www.pickles.com.au/cars/item/-/details/CP-08-12--Built-07-12--Toyota--Hilux--KUN26R-MY12-SR-Double-Cab--Cab-Chassis-Dual-Cab--5-Seats--4-Doors/452212262 (example that one over priced)
easy to service go anywhere Don't have all the bull**** modern gimmicks! go turbo diesel anyday ! cruizers and patrols better for towing but heavier on fuel The personal carrier is one of the best 4*4 ever built with the 4.4 lite straight 6
We run patrols, cruisers and pajeros in the fleet. Cruisers are the benchmark but 25 k buys a really old worn out one. Patrols are reliable, but rough and ergonomically challenged. small engine pushing a brick. Pajeros are under rated you would pick up a much later model for 25k than the cruiser, drive much nicer than the patrol, tow as well as the patrol and have a better warranty. Unless you are planning on doing the gunbarrel regularly they will go most places the other two will. My personal opinion is if the company is paying always go the cruiser. If its coming out of my pocket i would get a late model paj, best bang for buck.
See what you can pick up Pajero / Prado wise. I am on my 4th Prado and they go anywhere I have pointed them. Gunbarrel, Cape, Uluru etc etc. You should be able to pick up a reasonable 150 for 25k. If you find you want more grunt you can get the ECU remapped and they'll jump from the 105kw upto around 155-160kw. That will also increase the torque heaps if your going to tow a CT or a boat. I tow a kk with mine and whilst you can feel it it still has more than enough grunt to overtake at highway speeds.
Select to expand quotesameh said..
We run patrols, cruisers and pajeros in the fleet. Cruisers are the benchmark but 25 k buys a really old worn out one. Patrols are reliable, but rough and ergonomically challenged. small engine pushing a brick. Pajeros are under rated you would pick up a much later model for 25k than the cruiser, drive much nicer than the patrol, tow as well as the patrol and have a better warranty. Unless you are planning on doing the gunbarrel regularly they will go most places the other two will. My personal opinion is if the company is paying always go the cruiser. If its coming out of my pocket i would get a late model paj, best bang for buck.
Sound advice.
I'm a bit based against the paj for 2 reasons: I had a 98 petrol manual, it was slow as a wet week and drank like an irishman as well. I spent 5k on it in the last year before I sold it for 5k. Secondly my mate bought a newer one, 2 months later there was some major fault that was going to be 7k to fix. Not sure exactly but he mentioned ecu or wiring loom. Not engine as such, there was still a risk that would go later. Neither of these are great reasons I know. I'll have a look at some see if anything grabs me..
Select to expand quotesmicko said..kiteboy dave said..smicko said..
How many k's you doing a week Dave?
Varies.. up to 750.
There is 50-50 possibility I'll get a work car in the next few months, which would drop it right back to <100.
I was gonna suggest a tb48 but fark that if you're doing 700k a week, not at 18lt/100. A 3lt gu will do your head in if you're used to driving something with a bit of poke, they really are a slug, as is a td42 unless you throw lots of coin at it and then they're just as thirsty as a tb48.
If you can hold out till you know if you'll have a work bus then a tb48 would be well worth a look, plenty of grunt, as good as anything off-road, bulletproof drivetrain and service costs are minimal. You just gotta be prepared for 18/100.
If you don't need to climb mountains or tow your camper through soft beach sand than a Paj is probably about your most economical option, both purchase price wise and service and running costs.
It's worthwhile also doing your sums on petrol v diesel running costs, service interval on diesel is half that of pettys and more costly per service, do an injector pump and your generally up for at least 3k, not to mention initial purchase price. I've had over a dozen 4wd's of various breeds and have always been a staunch diesel man, but that was before you needed scan tools and a doctorate to service one, I wouldn't want to go sticking my head under the bonnet of a modern common rail diesel, but I'm happy doing my own servicing on my Patrol.
It all comes down to what you want it to do, if you want to go rock climbing and lots of high speed gravel and corrugations IFS sucks, they don't have sufficient wheel travel and you'll split CV boots and be forever throwing money at maintenance. That's where a live axel front end comes into it's own and there's really only two options there Cruiser or Patrol. If on the other hand you just want to be doing a bit of beach work and medium duty track work then you've got the Paj, Prado, Cherokee etc.
As an aside, by far the most capable 4wd's I've driven have been Landrovers, the Defenders,the Disco's and Rangies up to the end of the live axel jobbies are all amazing off-road. It's just their quality control and that drive train made of cheddar that let them down. I have no experience with Jeep.
Appreciate the advice from one who's tried them all.
Bit turned around on a Patrol now, I had thought the 3L auto got along all right around town, haven't test driven any yet, holding off till the wife can come. The only way I'd go bigger would be petrol on gas.
I would say I'm only going to be doing mainly medium tracks, beach, and some outback touring. Not really serious serious stuff.
probably time for some test drives.
/not going near Rovers of either kind or anything US made.
The 150 looks pretty good. You wont get 2000km from a tank but I regularly get around 1200 to 1300km's out of the standard 145 litre tank, thats with a lift and ECU upgrade. Those tyres have about 10 to 15k left in them before they need replacing. The new BFG's are good. With the lift you can do the 185 x 70 side wall and they look pimp and perform well, just can't fit the spare under the tyre cover, just keep the best existing BFG as a spare. I think that price would be fair for a GXL but you have a bit of room to negotiate for the GX.
The 120 looks a bit tired. Yep its got the steinbauer and LED's but the LED's are cheap so is a secondhand chip, better off with the ECU remapping.
I have no snorkel, bullbar or sliders, but have done the underbody protection, dual batteries, lift, drawers, fridge, ECU, front locker and would happily drive the thing anywhere. The only thing I want to do is the hidden winch but its a fair bit of work.
Select to expand quoteMastbender said..
These are very popular here in the states, 4 x 4 Ford van, Sportsman (or Sportsmobile ) equipped. They can go anywhere and carry everything.
Maybe you have something similar where you're at.
OZZI OZZIE OZZIE OI! OI! OI!
Might blow a big hole in your budget though 
stephen
Select to expand quotekiteboy dave said..
sameh said..
We run patrols, cruisers and pajeros in the fleet. Cruisers are the benchmark but 25 k buys a really old worn out one. Patrols are reliable, but rough and ergonomically challenged. small engine pushing a brick. Pajeros are under rated you would pick up a much later model for 25k than the cruiser, drive much nicer than the patrol, tow as well as the patrol and have a better warranty. Unless you are planning on doing the gunbarrel regularly they will go most places the other two will. My personal opinion is if the company is paying always go the cruiser. If its coming out of my pocket i would get a late model paj, best bang for buck.
Sound advice.
I'm a bit based against the paj for 2 reasons: I had a 98 petrol manual, it was slow as a wet week and drank like an irishman as well. I spent 5k on it in the last year before I sold it for 5k. Secondly my mate bought a newer one, 2 months later there was some major fault that was going to be 7k to fix. Not sure exactly but he mentioned ecu or wiring loom. Not engine as such, there was still a risk that would go later. Neither of these are great reasons I know. I'll have a look at some see if anything grabs me..
The new Paj is NOTHING like the 3L V6 petrol puss bucket thing u are speaking of.
Cord, I wonder about the advice a bloke above who is on his 4th Prado in the same timeframe as I have had one fourby that has not missed a beat. 
1999 Challenger, with the old pussbucket motor........ but rock solid triton chassis, truck gearbox etc.
Dunno about ECU remapping on a TD - I'd go a gas conversion first. Power and clean, and can turn it off too.
I think you need a serious evaluation as to what you want from the vehicle.... The original question was " choose me a big tough 4x4"
If this is still the case you only have two options cruiser or patrol.... Or maybe unimog or okka these cars will go everywhere and parts can be easily obtained even in the most remote of places.
Upon further evaluation it seems you probably want something a bit softer something more comfortable something the Mrs will happily drive that will get you 90% of the places you would possibly want to go.
This next category would be the Pajero, Prado option. Both have about equal off-road ability and so it would come down to personal preference and budget. I would probably go the Pajero and spend the savings on equipment ( tyres suspension or camping gear )
Go and take a 2011+ mitsi challenger for a drive, it's got a solid real axel on coils and is far more capable in the soft stuff than a Paj. They're up there with a Prado but cheap as chips. The two guys I surf with most, one has a challenger the other a Paj, the Paj is a year or so old the challenger maybe 2012. It eats the Paj.
The big difference between this class ^^ of car and a gu or an 80-105 series is that it is easy to maintain a cruiser or trol. Components are generally solid, well built and even have grease nipples and old school $hit like that 
They're agricultural and accordingly they drive like a tractor. Will last forever if you do maintain them though, with minimal replacements of most parts.
If you're not going to maintain it yourself get something a like challenger etc for 22k, that's been used as a shopping trolley, thrash the living daylights out of it for three years, then spend $250 on a good detail and flog it for 18k before it $hits itself. Once $hit starts going on them don't waste coin on trying to keep them going cos that's when they get exy things like clutches, gearboxes, fuel pumps etc on modern 4by's are horrendously expensive.
For the same reason, don't spend big on aftermarket fluff on a bus unless you intend on keeping it long term, you will NEVER see a return on your spend.
Select to expand quoteCord, I wonder about the advice a bloke above who is on his 4th Prado in the same timeframe as I have had one fourby that has not missed a beat. 1999 Challenger, with the old pussbucket motor........ but rock solid triton chassis, truck gearbox etc.
None of them have missed a beat either. I just don't like keeping them until they're too old. My first Prado which was the 120 kz is still doing laps around the place. I sold it to a mate of my fathers.
Admittedly it does go pretty slow as that kz motor had some big holes in its torque range. 
If I was spending my coin on a second hand 4x4 and only wanted a wagon, I would go for either a Diesel Challenger or a Petrol Pardo.
Both independent front end and live rear axle and with a lift and decent tires will go anywhere in comfort.
I had a Triton that I did over 250,000ks in and it was a solid as a rock when I sold it, and did everything I asked of it, although I modified it a bit. The problem with diesels are that when they go bang, they cost lots of dollars to fix. The Mitsubishi's suffer issues the the EGR clogging up the inlet manifold, but that can be overcome with a simple but illegal resistor in the wiring harness.
I hire a lifted V6 Prado (with 190,000ks on the clock) for a group trip to Fraser one year and it was awesome but thirsty.
Both the Challeger and Pardo are generally the choice of soccer mums and tend to not do as much hard core off road. And if you are going second hand maybe a petrol Prado may be the way to go as the cost of purchase, future repairs and servicing will be offset by the 30% more fuel usage. BTW the Toyota 3L diesels suffered a lot of injector problems.
And buy yourself a scan tool or a WiFi dongle to hook to your iPhone so you can get the codes, clear them and fix the thing yourself.
Jut my 2c worth..
Select to expand quotecrakas said..
And buy yourself a scan tool or a WiFi dongle to hook to your iPhone so you can get the codes, clear them and fix the thing yourself.
Sounds interesting... Do tell more. 
I reckon the short version is:
For 90% of people or more, quality mid-sized fourbys with a real 4WD system (Prado, Paj, Challenger, Pathie) will go everywhere the big two will go, except extreme rock crawling where u need big tyre dia and clearance etc.
The only difference is the big two can handle a lot more weight while they do it.
So if you plan on 1000km of corrugations, then Cape York and across the top etc, all carrying 100L of fuel, 200L water, a camper, 4 passengers, etc etc you are gonna need a Patrol or Cruiser.
Select to expand quoteBuster fin said..crakas said..
And buy yourself a scan tool or a WiFi dongle to hook to your iPhone so you can get the codes, clear them and fix the thing yourself.
Sounds interesting... Do tell more.
As you probably know, you have a OBII port to access the car computer under the dash somewhere. Well.....you can purchase either a genuine scan gauge (can be hard to get at a decent price) to access this or you can buy a WiFi dongle that goes into the port off eBay for no more than $30. You then download an app on iTunes etc such as Dash Command (there are others) for around $10 and connect the WiFi to your phone an you have access to fault codes, resetting them and engine information. You can even use it while driving.
The only issue with the app on the phones is that you are not able to access the airbag systems or reset those codes.
Anyway, it will give the error codes...eg. 234779. You need to find out what these codes mean and this is where the internet is great. For my previous car I downloaded a Mitsubishi fault codes PDF for a particular vehicle. There is also a international standard for codes and what they mean, but it is better to get hold of the vehicle specific ones.
For example, you get the fault code 234779 (not a real code) and cross reference that with the PDF and it says the the "Suction Control Valve is sticking". If I took it into Mitsubishi for a SCV issue, it would have cost me around $500, but I fixed it myself in 30 minutes with a 10c "O" ring and a piece of 2000 grit wet'n'dry.
I pulled up at a car yard today and they had 2 cruisers (100 or 105 series) and a prado so I had a good poke through them. The cruiser definitely had the height and space that I'd prefer, Prado (oldie) felt tiny in comparison. Bit ordinary dash etc in the cruisers though, very basic.
So maybe I'm going back around the circle to a big petrol engine on liquid injection gas. That way I could run a big cruiser or patrol with heaps of grunt, lower servicing costs, and still cheap on fuel.
This one could be all right, k's not too high for a cruiserhttp://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/_/SSE-AD-3889578
(Mark's favourite colour though... could be a bit hot in the outback..)
I would steer clear of any vehicle with an independent rear end (eg Pajero) for towing and carrying heavy loads as they have issues with inconsistent tire wear when loaded.
As agricultural as old Malcolm the troopy might be...
There is something sedately satisfying about bumbling down the highway @ 2000rpm getting to where ever we're going whenever we get there. ..
But i guess that might have more to do with the big fat ones being rolled continuously along the way
Select to expand quotetheDoctor said..
As agricultural as old Malcolm the troopy might be...
There is something sedately satisfying about bumbling down the highway @ 2000rpm getting to where ever we're going whenever we get there. ..
But i guess that might have more to do with the big fat ones being rolled continuously along the way
Troopys are cool. Cant bloody killem!
Careful going gas option. Service stations are pulling out gas bowsers all over the place and the industry is declining very rapidly. Service station equipment is reaching end of life and is not being replaced due to rapidly falling demand.
I have had a petty/gas 80 cruiser for 16 years, now just nudging 500000, - gas can be hard to get once you leave cities and at the price it costs you it is not worth the loss.
The figures with petrol are $0.33 per km for 91 octane, $0.31 per km for 98 octane and $0.30 per km for lpg, this can come down at city prices but if you tow anything you will be doing 25/30 l per 100km, while on petrol you may do 18/21 l per km - on 98 premium, - you'll do 21/25 l per 100 on low octane -and run like handbrake is on, so running on low octane fuels will cost you more per k
Did put a second hand motor in at 330000 ks as running on gas tends to make the unit an anchor.
this vehicle has been loaded much, taken us many, and brought us back always.
mmmm fossil fuels burped the landcruiser
