LWB Pajero - Recommendations for Light to Extreme mods?

[JamesBY]

Good Afternoon all, been lurking for a while but finally have a reason to post!

My family used to do a lot of wadi driving when I was young here and about 5 years ago I inherited the 2009 Pajero 3.8 LWB, now at 170,000km (with rear locks) that I've simply added some A/T tyres to (and recently had the sidesteps removed, though yet untested) and gone bounding around in the mountains. 

Now, seeing as my father was now deprived of a 4x4..we're closing on a 2009 Pajero 3.8 LWB at 187,000km (with rear locks) on Saturday! He however, with slightly deeper pockets, is looking to do some modifications to it quite early on. I'm contemplating some basic bits myself but I digress. 

Currently the only key modifications we're looking at for his Paj is a 2inch lift, ATX tyres at likely an increased depth than stock, offroad rims and probably a bashplate. We talked about a TC Killswitch but unlikely that we'll go that route for the wadis/mountains as the Pajero TC system is one of the best for that surface and the rear locker has sorted me out a couple of times with some steep uphills with sandy/loose terrain and big hollows created by those with a lead block in place of a right foot or additional brain cells. 

We do very little desert driving so the major focus is on mountain/rocky terrain, though the 3.8 was specifically selected to ensure that we have freedom of choice on what/where we do/go.

Any thoughts & advice from the mod-heads out there?! 

Cheers,

James

[Luke K P]

transmission radiator fan to stop overheating on hot slow days where not enough airflow goes over the appropriate radiator.


and heaps of lights to look cool 😎

Edited October 12, 2023 by PETELCZYC PAJERO - luke

[JamesBY]

8 minutes ago, PETELCZYC PAJERO - luke said:

transmission radiator fan to stop overheating on hot slow days where not enough airflow goes over the appropriate radiator.


and heaps of lights to look cool 😎

Hah! Interesting idea. I had my radiator replaced recently along with some other mechanical bits so I'm interested to see if I get the overheating issue on long switchback climbs. Got most of the way up Route to Sal before it got warm and my wife was very unimpressed with the heights, so we turned around and went down. There's a good training switchback in the Jebel Yibr area which also gets the old warhorse pretty warm. 

That being said, it was just engine temps and not transmission temps I don't think. 

[Frederic]

Welcome to Carnity @JamesBY !

The Pajero 3.8 is a fantastic off-road vehicle for many purposes and for driving in the mountains it can indeed benefit from the following:

- Bashplate and perhaps some added skid plates underneath to protect vital components.

- Good All-terrain tyres. Would not recommend to change the size of the tyres itself, as it's the 3.8 you have 18inch rims so you are limited already, unless you plan to change the rims then a 17inch rim with 265/70/17 would be nice.

-2 inch lift kit will give you a bit of extra clearance, which could be helpful in navigating boulders.

If you head out in the mountains in summer, the additional SPAL cooling fan for the transmission is definitely recommended, and during low creeping speed you will start to face overheating soon. In those scenarios it's better to be at home anyways

The Pajero has indeed a great traction control system for the mountains, so no need for a kill switch. 

Deflate to around 25psi when you head into the mountains, it will increase traction significantly and dampen the bumps a bit as well.

In the winter we have the occasional wadi / scenic drive with the club, so would be great if you could join us.

Take care !

 

 

[JamesBY]

Skidplates is a good plan, i'll mention those to him and probably look at it a bit myself. 

I think he was looking to change the rims, I'll let him know of the suggestion to drop it down to the 17" and amp up the tyre depth!

I assume that the 2" lift will likely be enough? Any more than that will start to get a bit extreme, though 3" is a possibility.

The SPAL cooling is something that I hadn't considered at all and would probably help me out a bunch too.

Yea we run a little deflation depending where we're headed. We know of a great spot in Oman that has one hell of a gorge to drive through and reach, so once the mods are done we'll be heading over there to gauge who we could likely take there too. 

I'll keep an eye out for the group drive! Would be interesting to come along and see what you guys all get up to.

[Frederic]

10 hours ago, JamesBY said:

Skidplates is a good plan, i'll mention those to him and probably look at it a bit myself. 

I think he was looking to change the rims, I'll let him know of the suggestion to drop it down to the 17" and amp up the tyre depth!

I assume that the 2" lift will likely be enough? Any more than that will start to get a bit extreme, though 3" is a possibility.

The SPAL cooling is something that I hadn't considered at all and would probably help me out a bunch too.

Yea we run a little deflation depending where we're headed. We know of a great spot in Oman that has one hell of a gorge to drive through and reach, so once the mods are done we'll be heading over there to gauge who we could likely take there too. 

I'll keep an eye out for the group drive! Would be interesting to come along and see what you guys all get up to.

Great ! 90% of our drives are in the sand, but we do the occasional wadi run and head out into the mountains if the weather is pleasant enough.

I would def not go beyond 2 or 2.5inch. First there is no need, and secondly the center gravity would be affected too much. In sand we are very mindful of this to keep the original center of gravity, so that means whenever we lift, we will make sure we widen our footprint as well, either with spacers, or rims with different offset.

[JamesBY]

Ah yes, I can definitely see how messing with that centre of gravity would be a dangerous situation for the dunes, and though there's no true extreme angling here in the mountains I have ended up in a few situations where I could see an extreme lift without width balancing being dodgy. 

Unfortunately all the spots in the UAE that we used to go to 20+ years ago are far more developed now, so they've been grading/flattening the roads a lot more and building more farms, sucking away the natural pools. 

There are segments in Oman, just over the border to Hatta, which has some rather exciting driving. One of them we're quite certain is unblocked (the gorge route, fantastic camping at slight elevation on the other side of it that unsurprisingly no one goes/gets to), though there's another brilliant one with amazing pool formations and an interesting drive in that had been blocked off when we last visited it about 4 years ago. We think it was too many incautious people plunging over the edge as it's a 50m stretch at a decent grade and with a right bend, drop to the left and some sizeable loose rocks on it. 

Anyway, another thing we're looking at both doing is removing the 3rd row of seats, though I wanted to ask your opinion on the spare tyre cover. I've got the full cover, whilst his will be one of those semi circle covers. Worth him getting a full cover to protect the spare from sitting permanently in the sun?

[Frederic]

39 minutes ago, JamesBY said:

Ah yes, I can definitely see how messing with that centre of gravity would be a dangerous situation for the dunes, and though there's no true extreme angling here in the mountains I have ended up in a few situations where I could see an extreme lift without width balancing being dodgy. 

Unfortunately all the spots in the UAE that we used to go to 20+ years ago are far more developed now, so they've been grading/flattening the roads a lot more and building more farms, sucking away the natural pools. 

There are segments in Oman, just over the border to Hatta, which has some rather exciting driving. One of them we're quite certain is unblocked (the gorge route, fantastic camping at slight elevation on the other side of it that unsurprisingly no one goes/gets to), though there's another brilliant one with amazing pool formations and an interesting drive in that had been blocked off when we last visited it about 4 years ago. We think it was too many incautious people plunging over the edge as it's a 50m stretch at a decent grade and with a right bend, drop to the left and some sizeable loose rocks on it. 

Anyway, another thing we're looking at both doing is removing the 3rd row of seats, though I wanted to ask your opinion on the spare tyre cover. I've got the full cover, whilst his will be one of those semi circle covers. Worth him getting a full cover to protect the spare from sitting permanently in the sun?

the semi-circle cover is fine, we drove for 4-5 years with our Pajero and the spare tyre never seemed to degrade much from that. It was parked in the carport during the day. So if the Pajero would not be in a covered parking it's perhaps worth looking into covering it completely.

[JamesBY]

Alrighty. His will be parked outside so I'll have a little look for him. 

What are your thoughts on the Geolandar X-AT's? He seems to be quite keen on getting a set. I'm on my second set of Geolandar standard AT's, brilliant tyres. 

[Frederic]

11 minutes ago, JamesBY said:

Alrighty. His will be parked outside so I'll have a little look for him. 

What are your thoughts on the Geolandar X-AT's? He seems to be quite keen on getting a set. I'm on my second set of Geolandar standard AT's, brilliant tyres. 

I havent seen the X-AT's on a lot of cars here yet. For us dune-drivers we anyways prefer the lighter Geolander G015 model.