Honeymoon expedition to Kazakhstan and Nordkapp in a Jimny

Hi All,

As our honeymoon trip we are going to travel for 3 months in a Suzuki Jimny to Kazakhstan and the Nordkapp.
After the Nordkapp we head back home, we intend to drive through the west coast side of Norway.
We doubted to do this on my KTM 990 adventure but the misses wanted a bit more comfort so we decided to do it in a small 4x4
an bought the Jimny specially for the trip.

It's a 2003 model with a manual 4x4 lever and just over 70.000 km.

We want to do the following things to the car in the next months:
- Install roofrack
- Install rooftent, probably the frontrunner featherlight tent
- New tires on original steel rims
- Make drawer / storage system
- Install dual battery system to run the WAECO fridge and auxiliary electronics
- Give a full service

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The original state Jimny

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Removed the back seats recently

We will keep this post updated when we continue to work on the Jimny.
 

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Somecallmetimm

Adventurer
Sounds like a wonderful trip!

I would advise caution with the drawer system. The organization will help, sure, but the added weight in that small a vehicle will subtract from what you are able to bring with you. Be mindful of the weight of the materials you use when building.

I'll be looking forward to updates!
 
I'm currently drawing for the storage solution in the back, see the attached image.
Between the drawers and top layer I want to store the table and chairs, so that's te blank space between.
Schermafbeelding 2016-01-14 om 13.32.21.jpg

We want to take as less as possible, so we focus on the must haves and skip probably most nice haves.
We did some small holidays on the bike so we now how to pack light, wear functional clothes and only bring tools that fit the bolts etc.

For the drawers I want to use probably betonplex, I don't know the english word for that.
But these are layered wooden construction sheets, but if anyone has an idea for light weight material that can hold the fridge and some crates.
 
Schermafbeelding 2016-01-18 om 20.16.40.jpg
Just pulled the trigger on buying the frontrunner roofrack and roof top tent.
With of course the beer bottle opener rack accessory :beer:

The delivery for the rack could take up till 6 weeks.
 

jerryn206

New member
What an awesome honeymoon. I'm a huge Samurai/Jimny fan and wish they continued importing them here after the early 90's. I would suggest adding stiffer rear springs to the rear, if they still use seperate spring and shock setups on the newer jimnys, to compensate for the added gear you'll be carrying (like jeepmudder mentioned), otherwise the rear may sag quite a bit. Any plans for onboard air? If so, maybe rear air bags could be a solution for the added weight. I'm in the process of finding a clean Samurai here in the states to build into an overlanding rig so these kind of builds are really exciting to me. Look forward to your future posts!
 
What an awesome honeymoon. I'm a huge Samurai/Jimny fan and wish they continued importing them here after the early 90's. I would suggest adding stiffer rear springs to the rear, if they still use seperate spring and shock setups on the newer jimnys, to compensate for the added gear you'll be carrying (like jeepmudder mentioned), otherwise the rear may sag quite a bit. Any plans for onboard air? If so, maybe rear air bags could be a solution for the added weight. I'm in the process of finding a clean Samurai here in the states to build into an overlanding rig so these kind of builds are really exciting to me. Look forward to your future posts!
Thanks for your reply and advice, today I visited the local Suzuki 4x4 specialist and they advised exactly the same about the better shocks.
It's a separate spring / shock setup so they advised to replace the stock shocks with Old Man EMU shocks.

Good luck finding a Samurai!
I once rented a Samurai and wanted to own one since then, but for this trip decided to go for a Jimny.
 
Last weekend we followed an off-road course. We're complete novice off-road drivers and really liked the course. Learned a lot and definitely gained more trust in the jimny and our own capability. The jimny was the smallest car joining the course but finished the steepest hill on its own where a defender needed to get winched out of trouble.
 

Dake21

Adventurer
Interesting to see Suzuki had it right and put the brakes as high as they can be te reduce the risk of water and debris getting on the pads.
You didn't change the springs?
 

thjakits

Adventurer
Interesting to see Suzuki had it right and put the brakes as high as they can be te reduce the risk of water and debris getting on the pads.
You didn't change the springs?

...same question here!!

Just changing the shocks will do NOTHING for load compensation!

Usually the ARB/OME products cater to some serious load increase, unfortunately NOT very progressive, which generally means - unless you have a serious/permanent "base load" - the ride will get VERY stiff or ..."rugged"!

As it is with the Jimny - I think a air-bag kit inside of the original springs would be nice!
E.g.:

http://www.driveriteair.com/catalog...Id=431&yearId=535&categoryId=45&isSearch=true

and/or (don't know what's the difference...maybe front/rear)

http://www.driveriteair.com/catalog...Id=431&yearId=535&categoryId=45&isSearch=true


Other than that: TONS of Samurai/Jimny forums out there!


What is your tire size? (You should be able to go at least ONE size bigger than stock)

Also, IF you consider to go "advanced dirt roads" - you might also think about getting a 1-2"-suspension lift (NOT more than that!!) and fit the biggest tires you can on that kit....IF you go with airbags - I'd keep the original springs and use spring spacers - also, IF you lift, look for the camber/caster correction items for the track arms!!

A ARB bumper might safe your bacon in a accident!

IF you want to go off-road anywhere East (....and you WILL be tempted!!) - winch and lockers!!


Cheers,

thjakits:ylsmoke:
 
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Thanks for your reply's. They did not change the springs, just the shock they said it was needed to prevent the jimny from becoming an sailboat with the roof tent fitted on top. We will see if we need to make more adjustments if the roof rack and tent arrive and get installed.

We do not intend to do extreme off roading, just decided to take a 4x4 to get off the beaten path when needed and camp out of sight. With that and the tent in mind the local jimny specialist recommended the shock change.

The airbag thing looks interesting, never saw them before, but we're absolute beginner 4x4 folks and specially bought the jimny for this trip so that explains it maybe. The course we took was our first 4x4 experience.

The tires are 205/75/15, default it was 205/70/15 so a little bit bigger.
 
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Hranni

New member
This sure sounds like a good adventure ! not your everyday honeymoon trip :p

As for the jimny i like thouse neat litle cars, but they have a downside also wich is load capacity, as a fellow says above change the springs also will make a big diffrence
for rtt and gear in back all cars will shag and hang low, makes them poor driving also no funn in that

So change the springs as you should get 225mm lift from them
 
When building the storage system we will focus on weight, also when packing stuff we focus on weight.
We will fully pack and see what's needed to be done to compensate for the weight.

Does anyone know the official maximum load capacity? Searched the PDF manual I have but can't find it in there.
 

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