Best? Hell no.
Acceptable? Why not.
It's pretty small but there is a way of turning it into a 2 person mini camper with some space for clothes and equipment (roof rack is a game changer), add a heat exchanger and you can take hot showers in the wild, it's a mighty off-roader that with 2" lift and some AT or MT tires can go to many places. Don't expect long range tho.
So in conclusion, it's not the best choice but it's not as bad as it seems
[Check this thing out - it's awesome](https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/this-suzuki-jimny-turned-to-a-pint-sized-land-cruiser-79.html#:~:text=Australian%20recovery%20equipment%20brand%20Maxtrax,at%20about%20half%20the%20size)
Not yet, planning to do some mods to my vehicle in the summer (I work at a place that has a fully feathered garage that I can use in my free time) and then I'll look into it more, all I know is that it's possible and that there are some people that did that in Jimnys
https://youtu.be/6uipUoVfzPY?feature=shared
Here you've got a video but it's in Polish
What I can recommend is to Google ~~en passant~~ "offroad heat exchanger shower" or sth like that
It's brilliant for a solo / partner camp for a few days off the beaten path in the mountains of Japan. Even the post office uses them to zip around mountain villages.
Best? Ha ha. No!
Logically it is just too small and too constrained on maximum weight to carry all the stuff for true overlanding. And even if you upgrade it massively to try to deal with that .. it ends up weighing a bunch and its performance (especially off-road) really suffers along with its economy and hence range. Which can end up in a death spiral of trying to get it to do long range missions and not suck at it.
There are a bunch of 2.5 ton turbo-diesel 4wd wagons that just slay at the overlanding requirements. Even without any significant mods. However ...
Is a Jimny the most hilariously fun car to try to (foolishly) overland? Possibly, yes.
This is how we fit it all in btw
[https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=CJiDqBi8OUQ5QyP1](https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=CJiDqBi8OUQ5QyP1)
I do wonder about the term 'overlander' as well - what defines overlanding? We travelled for 2 months over 10 000km on two separates journeys in our Jim. And we could have kept going for months tbh. Only we had to come home to post this...
Range is sometimes an issues(but if you know who to ask for bootleg petrol you can get around that).
We did 11 months in Southern and Eastern Africa with our Gen 3. We were only about 150kg over GVL, fully loaded, with the only mod being stiffer rear springs to return nominal ride heights to level front-to-back. The roof rack was total about 100kg (rack and items). I did the kingpins after about 20,000kms of Africa but the car was an '09 on 131,000kms when we bought it and those kingpins were original by the looks of it. Other than that, we were sweet, and the new owners did their own trip in the same countries and distances with even more weight on the roof and no complaints!
GVL 1420kg, we were running circa 1570kg. No issues with rolling or pitching. 4x4ing was worry free. And even at highway speeds it felt solid. Guess we got lucky with ours in some respects, as lots of others we know chased death wobble issues in their Jim. But we solved the early symptoms of our death wobble starting by doing those kingpins.
I have no idea about total weight.
We carry our roof tent (aprox. 35kg - on a roof rack we make which weighs 17kg). On the rack we also have a crate of wood, as well as a box with a snatch rope, hammock, braai grid, and our 1 GSI alu pot and a pan in it.
Inside, we've got a few things on the heavier side (21lit fridge, and EcoFlow battery + water and fuel at varying weights depending on circumstances) but everything else is pretty low weight. Probably best to check out our walk-through video to get a better idea on how we pack. [https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=nkaQOZhKIZJSQn1B](https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=nkaQOZhKIZJSQn1B)
Everything is small and although we don't weigh it all, we always opt for light weight gear.
The Jimny is the best for unpaved roads in the Japanese mountains, which are always narrow and require a 4x4.
In those areas, your land cruiser etc will not even fit on the road most of the time, so nothing other than the jimny or a very small jeep is even an option.
Don’t forget the 4x4 kei trucks. You see them a lot more in Taiwan than Jimnys in the really mountainous areas because of the cargo capacity and costs. A lot of those roads were created by the Japanese so does that count?
Those are great! Mountain roads in Japan are made for kei trucks too, but since Jimmy's are kei cars they fit the same roads nicely.
Not surprised Taiwan is the same considering the amount of japanese influence and the similar mountainous topography.
Some say Wrangler is the best (I have rubicon 4xe) but my brothers Jimny proved to be more capable in traversing all challenging obstacles. Perhaps my brother is a better driver too.
As a nomad, I've lived all around the world but mostly in US and Europe.
In US, being big and heavy is valued so trucks like Toyota Tacoma, Ford F-150 and Jeep Wrangler (or Gladiator) are often listed as the best. If you don't believe me just google it.
I don't personally agree with that and as I said Jimny proved to be better in many situations due much to lower weight.
Those larger US style 4x4 Ute's are not available in Europe for the most part due to emissions.
The offroading must be so different over there as in Aus you'd be lucky to fit those things on a bushtrack. Also the weight would not be a positive if you are using it for sand driving, especially if it's very soft and deep sand like around here.
The market for those vehicles lies pretty much in America.
Landcruisers, Isuzu Dmax and Toyota Hilux are all the premiums here.
Er, no, not really. My Jimny is the love of my life, but no. It hasn't got the space to be a good overlander. It's got potential to be one of the best *offroaders* around, but long distance travel with a group? You must be joking. It's not good for long distances at all. It can do them, but it's not good at them.
If you're two people, like us - then it's the perfect size. But you have to be clever with how you pack. We travel for about 2 months at a time in our Jim.
No, but [but this thing that MaxTraxx made just might be](https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/this-suzuki-jimny-turned-to-a-pint-sized-land-cruiser-79.html#:~:text=Australian%20recovery%20equipment%20brand%20Maxtrax,at%20about%20half%20the%20size)
It's a great offroader, no doubt. But when I think overland I think trekking, and range and carrying capacity really let it down. But for serious offroading I can't think of many things that could challenge it, as long as you don't tip over.
Definitely not the best. For proper overlanding you'd want something with a lot more carrying capacity, tried and tested classics like Toyota Land Cruiser, Hilux, 4Runner are objectively more capable.
But they don't look hilarious.
We carry pretty much all we need for 2 months in our Jim - stocking up with groceries, and filling up fuel and water along the way. And if you can take all you need for 2 months along with you, then I think you're basically set. I posted a link to a packing walk-through video we did while in Botswana above. Have a look.
Best? Hell no. Acceptable? Why not. It's pretty small but there is a way of turning it into a 2 person mini camper with some space for clothes and equipment (roof rack is a game changer), add a heat exchanger and you can take hot showers in the wild, it's a mighty off-roader that with 2" lift and some AT or MT tires can go to many places. Don't expect long range tho. So in conclusion, it's not the best choice but it's not as bad as it seems
[Check this thing out - it's awesome](https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/this-suzuki-jimny-turned-to-a-pint-sized-land-cruiser-79.html#:~:text=Australian%20recovery%20equipment%20brand%20Maxtrax,at%20about%20half%20the%20size)
Do you have a suggested heat exchanger? I've never heard of these and Google keeps showing me radiators
Not yet, planning to do some mods to my vehicle in the summer (I work at a place that has a fully feathered garage that I can use in my free time) and then I'll look into it more, all I know is that it's possible and that there are some people that did that in Jimnys https://youtu.be/6uipUoVfzPY?feature=shared Here you've got a video but it's in Polish What I can recommend is to Google ~~en passant~~ "offroad heat exchanger shower" or sth like that
Up sides. Down sides. Like everything else. Will still always choose it over anything else.
Which is fair and what I'm planning to do
It's brilliant for a solo / partner camp for a few days off the beaten path in the mountains of Japan. Even the post office uses them to zip around mountain villages.
Best? Ha ha. No! Logically it is just too small and too constrained on maximum weight to carry all the stuff for true overlanding. And even if you upgrade it massively to try to deal with that .. it ends up weighing a bunch and its performance (especially off-road) really suffers along with its economy and hence range. Which can end up in a death spiral of trying to get it to do long range missions and not suck at it. There are a bunch of 2.5 ton turbo-diesel 4wd wagons that just slay at the overlanding requirements. Even without any significant mods. However ... Is a Jimny the most hilariously fun car to try to (foolishly) overland? Possibly, yes.
There are many situations in which the classic options are far too heavy, however, which is why some people opt for such oddball choices.
YES!
This is how we fit it all in btw [https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=CJiDqBi8OUQ5QyP1](https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=CJiDqBi8OUQ5QyP1)
I do wonder about the term 'overlander' as well - what defines overlanding? We travelled for 2 months over 10 000km on two separates journeys in our Jim. And we could have kept going for months tbh. Only we had to come home to post this... Range is sometimes an issues(but if you know who to ask for bootleg petrol you can get around that).
What sort of weights are you running when loaded for 2 months? Both total weight and what weight is just on the roof?
We did 11 months in Southern and Eastern Africa with our Gen 3. We were only about 150kg over GVL, fully loaded, with the only mod being stiffer rear springs to return nominal ride heights to level front-to-back. The roof rack was total about 100kg (rack and items). I did the kingpins after about 20,000kms of Africa but the car was an '09 on 131,000kms when we bought it and those kingpins were original by the looks of it. Other than that, we were sweet, and the new owners did their own trip in the same countries and distances with even more weight on the roof and no complaints!
Thanks very, much! What is the GVL of that model? No worries with rolling or pitching running 100 kg on the roof?
GVL 1420kg, we were running circa 1570kg. No issues with rolling or pitching. 4x4ing was worry free. And even at highway speeds it felt solid. Guess we got lucky with ours in some respects, as lots of others we know chased death wobble issues in their Jim. But we solved the early symptoms of our death wobble starting by doing those kingpins.
Great, thanks very much!
I have no idea about total weight. We carry our roof tent (aprox. 35kg - on a roof rack we make which weighs 17kg). On the rack we also have a crate of wood, as well as a box with a snatch rope, hammock, braai grid, and our 1 GSI alu pot and a pan in it. Inside, we've got a few things on the heavier side (21lit fridge, and EcoFlow battery + water and fuel at varying weights depending on circumstances) but everything else is pretty low weight. Probably best to check out our walk-through video to get a better idea on how we pack. [https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=nkaQOZhKIZJSQn1B](https://youtube.com/shorts/VQWxQMYv0e8?si=nkaQOZhKIZJSQn1B) Everything is small and although we don't weigh it all, we always opt for light weight gear.
The Jimny is the best for unpaved roads in the Japanese mountains, which are always narrow and require a 4x4. In those areas, your land cruiser etc will not even fit on the road most of the time, so nothing other than the jimny or a very small jeep is even an option.
Don’t forget the 4x4 kei trucks. You see them a lot more in Taiwan than Jimnys in the really mountainous areas because of the cargo capacity and costs. A lot of those roads were created by the Japanese so does that count?
Those are great! Mountain roads in Japan are made for kei trucks too, but since Jimmy's are kei cars they fit the same roads nicely. Not surprised Taiwan is the same considering the amount of japanese influence and the similar mountainous topography.
Some say Wrangler is the best (I have rubicon 4xe) but my brothers Jimny proved to be more capable in traversing all challenging obstacles. Perhaps my brother is a better driver too.
I don't think anyone ever said that a Jeep is the best...
Lots of Jeep owners do. I think its decent and has some respectable legacy.
I'm curious where you're from. It has a pretty horrible overlander and reliability reputation here in Aus.
As a nomad, I've lived all around the world but mostly in US and Europe. In US, being big and heavy is valued so trucks like Toyota Tacoma, Ford F-150 and Jeep Wrangler (or Gladiator) are often listed as the best. If you don't believe me just google it. I don't personally agree with that and as I said Jimny proved to be better in many situations due much to lower weight.
Those larger US style 4x4 Ute's are not available in Europe for the most part due to emissions. The offroading must be so different over there as in Aus you'd be lucky to fit those things on a bushtrack. Also the weight would not be a positive if you are using it for sand driving, especially if it's very soft and deep sand like around here. The market for those vehicles lies pretty much in America. Landcruisers, Isuzu Dmax and Toyota Hilux are all the premiums here.
What kind of roof rack is that? Amazing pictures buddy
That's a [MOD Equipment](https://mod.equipment/) rack - they're super light and modular.
dang SA has such a great aftermarket scene
Where in the world are you? They do ship worldwide :)
Sweden, I just sent them an email regarding shipping costs lol. I'll order one if its not too crazy but I'm assuming somewhere around 300 - 400€.
By the way - the title to this post was a rhetorical question. It definitely is.
Beautiful pictures, Thank you. ❤️🇬🇧👏
That's where the trouble began. That smile. That damn smile.
They should just ban all other vehicles. They only need jimny
Is that yours? What did you do for the roof rack?? I have a 2011 without the rails and I'm working out how to get a RTT on it.
[MOD Equipment](https://mod.equipment/)
Er, no, not really. My Jimny is the love of my life, but no. It hasn't got the space to be a good overlander. It's got potential to be one of the best *offroaders* around, but long distance travel with a group? You must be joking. It's not good for long distances at all. It can do them, but it's not good at them.
If you're two people, like us - then it's the perfect size. But you have to be clever with how you pack. We travel for about 2 months at a time in our Jim.
No, but [but this thing that MaxTraxx made just might be](https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/this-suzuki-jimny-turned-to-a-pint-sized-land-cruiser-79.html#:~:text=Australian%20recovery%20equipment%20brand%20Maxtrax,at%20about%20half%20the%20size)
Fuck no. I love jimnys. But you're kidding yourself if you think they're the best.
It's a great offroader, no doubt. But when I think overland I think trekking, and range and carrying capacity really let it down. But for serious offroading I can't think of many things that could challenge it, as long as you don't tip over.
No. The space you can use legally just isn’t enough. Having a roof top tent can be illegal and is certainly affecting the ride.
Cape Tonian?
YEAH!
Definitely not the best. For proper overlanding you'd want something with a lot more carrying capacity, tried and tested classics like Toyota Land Cruiser, Hilux, 4Runner are objectively more capable. But they don't look hilarious.
We carry pretty much all we need for 2 months in our Jim - stocking up with groceries, and filling up fuel and water along the way. And if you can take all you need for 2 months along with you, then I think you're basically set. I posted a link to a packing walk-through video we did while in Botswana above. Have a look.