Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you.....PirateMonkey

piratemonkey

piratemonkey

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 4, 2017
Messages
180
Location
Australia
After hanging around for a few weeks, I really like this place (enough that I even donated).

I joined up on a few Jeep forums, but this one hands down is for me.
A mixture between the people here and the forum itself, it's just so easy to navigate and the forest theme suits the nature I like.

My name is Simon and I'm from Northern England but have been living in Canberra Australia for the past 20 odd years.
I've always had a passion for cars, fast and slow.
For the last 15 years I've been a Suzuki Sierra fanatic, my wife and I wheel almost every weekend through winter. The Sierra are small, slow and under powered, my last few I replaced the carby motors with more modern efi versions. This made them better, until we had our daughter.
I got completely out of the Sierras and got rid of anything Suzuki related. This hurt, but was the right thing to do at the time.
We bought an Isuzu Dmax ute to fill that void, but it just wasn't the same.
The years went on, and every time I saw a Sierra it brought a tear to my eye.

I had never really considered Jeeps, but needing more power, more room I thought I'd go look at a few.
I preferred the TJs but there are a lot more JKs kicking around. In the end I just couldn't do it.

So here I am, with a dream and a TJ :D
 
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Suzuki Sierra and Isuzu Dmax? Wow, they sure have a lot of vehicles down under that I've never even heard of before, I'd love to see them!

Welcome to the world of Jeep Wranglers. It's an addiction, but a good one. The TJ is already quickly becoming a classic. The last of the classic looking Wranglers if you ask me. The JKs don't look bad, but they're too big for me, and they don't have the classic lines that a TJ does.

Glad you're liking the forum (and thanks for the donation!). Don't ask how it happened, but all the knowledgable and friendly guys from the other forums seem to have gravitated here. It's a good thing by all means, as I have to admit this is the friendliest and most laidback forum I've ever visited myself.
 
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I thought the Dmax was available in the US.
3L turbo diesel. Loved this thing, but IFS held it back.

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And yes we get snow in Australia :D

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Welcome aboard mate! I love how you south pole folk call stuff different than us north pole folk. Tyres, windscreen, boot. I love it! Now if we can just figure out why the water drains in the wrong direction for you guys, and that crazy steering wheel on other side thing. I have a Isuzu Rodeo. Does that count?
 
Rob5589 said:
Snow?? Wouldn't have considered snow in Australia.
Click to expand...

Everyone thinks Australia is all sand, sun and snakes haha.
We get decent snow from time to time, and I'm pretty close to the Snowy Mountains.
Those photos were taken 45-60minutes from home.

bobthetj03 said:
Welcome aboard mate! I love how you south pole folk call stuff different than us north pole folk. Tyres, windscreen, boot. I love it! Now if we can just figure out why the water drains in the wrong direction for you guys, and that crazy steering wheel on other side thing. I have a Isuzu Rodeo. Does that count?
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Yes!
Isuzu made the Holden Rodeo here for years on contract, then when the contract ended they went their own way and it became the Isuzu Dmax.
Holden also went their own way and came out with the Holden Colorado.

Isuzu make a solid engine, and when looked after will go for ever. Especially the early mechanical injection stuff.
The new common rail stuff really hates water vapor in fuel.
 
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That Isuzu looks very similar to a Toyota Tacoma (Hilux). We didn't get that Isuzu here in the U.S. Heck, we didn't get a good majority of the vehicles you guys got here in the U.S. Pretty cool to see some of them.

I do agree though, the IFS would hold that thing back off-road.

I too had no idea it snowed in Australia. But hey, that's okay. I'm sure people from other countries probably have their own stereotypes about life in the U.S (which is nothing like what you see on the news).
 
A couple of pictures of some of my zooks and the work done to them.

31s went on with a little bit of cutting and bashing.

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33s with no lift required a bit more work including chassis extension, front and rear tubs, RUF (Rear sprungs Up Front)

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Power! I always wanted more power. EFI for life.

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Nice Samurai. Did you add power steering to it?
Here is the one I've been working on now and used it for hunting this year. I added power steering to my last one (big mistake when I sold it) and it spoiled me. Going to add power steering to this one in January. I built a trailer made out of a Samurai tub to tow behind this one when out on the ranch.
I also put lower gears in the transfer case on this one and locked rear end.
Samurai.png
 
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lowranger said:
Nice Samurai. Did you add power steering to it?
Here is the one I've been working on now and used it for hunting this year. I added power steering to my last one (big mistake when I sold it) and it spoiled me. Going to add power steering to this one in January. I built a trailer made out of a Samurai tub to tow behind this one when out on the ranch.
I also put lower gears in the transfer case on this one and locked rear end.
View attachment 25477
Click to expand...

Yes, added power steering. Makes wheeling so much nicer.
I think all my zooks had 6.5s added, again made crawling that much easier on the motor and driveline.
The zooks were light so I ran mini spools in the rear, and a mechanical locker in the front. Clickity clack, they were noisy but worked well for the cost.
I loved my zooks, but after owning a TJ I don't think I could go back.
 
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That's cool!

I really like that front bar too.

I plan on building a camping trailer to pull behind the TJ and would love to use a TJ tub but there's just not enough of them around so they are quite pricey.
 
Wow, those are some nice welds indeed! And nice Suzukis as well.

Are those Samurais even capable of highway speeds?
 
Chris said:
Are those Samurais even capable of highway speeds?
Click to expand...

Stock yes, bigger tyres with gears yes but big tyres with no reduction they struggled hard.
EFI motors gave them the punch needed. I've done both 1.6 and 1.3 EFI conversions and both were really nice.
But the 4L Jeep motor is nice and torquey.

I love turbo diesel, and if the prices came down I would consider the cummins motor for the TJ.
 
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