Justy for hunting, and other small 4X4's

[savagefan]

Hi has anyone tried off-roading these little fellas? is there much aftermarket doo-dads to get them back there? Curious they might be a cheap alternative to a SxS quad. Thanx in advance.

[justyfied]

Welcome aboard. I gather you know alittle about the Subaru justy, like that it is a small,light front engine, normally front wheel drive car. The great thing is that as a poor driving condition presents itself, there is the ability to simply push a button on the gear shift and -presto: 4 wheel drive.So before I wade into all the pro's and cons of using a Justy for serious offroading, I will try and show you some other alternatives that you may or may not have been aware of.Depending on your luck in finding the now rare and hard to find rust free, Suzuki Samurai. It is an excellent choice as it is easily modified to lift and get bigger tires under it. Plus it is relatively light and narrow, good for narrow bush tracks.
The older Suzuki Samurai:



Or if you are a real Subaru fan and like small car/pickup trucks:



This one with its 12 inch lift and body mods is so nice I would cringe if it was to rip through some brush and scratched up the nice paint!


So if you really had your mind set on using a Justy, A stock justy has a small engine that at best makes just over 70 Hp.It is very light which makes it peppy with the little 1 liter or 1189 cc engine. However this lightness means that it is not intended to be crashed into steep embankments to fly over creeks and such.The biggest thing against really using a Justy where there is no road or even a track or trail is the car sized ground clearance of around 6 inch's.To increase this you need bigger tires and that is where the biggest problem with a Justy lies. It has extremely small wheel wells that will only accommodate a very narrow and short tire of about 22 inch's high. part of the front wheel well is built into the firewall beside the operators feet, so butchering in larger wells won't even work that easily.However the justy has sub frames supporting the front and rear. So if you are handy it is possible to lift the body from the sub frames 4 inches. Then 28 inch by 9 wide tires will fit:



Here is a view of the rear which has a 4 inch rectangular tube bolted in between the sub frame and the car. Also there is some extenders for the bottom of the rear struts.



So having said all that, I think the best selection today would be a Japanese market mini truck. They are usually in great shape and not only are they 4x4 but there is not the issue with clearance for taller and wider tires. Plus some even have a dump box feature to make it even easier to load and unload that trophy!There are several makes that are all very similar including Honda,Subaru,Isuzu,Dihatzu etc.

[savagefan]

Thanx for the excellent reply, much to think about.

[moose]

I am of the opinion that the Justy was designed and built to be an all WEATHER vehicle and not an all TERRAIN vehicle. Which is not to say that they CAN'T go off-roading but they certainly weren't built for that purpose.

[savagefan]

thanx, Moose. talking to the bank mugger going with a quad after all. Here's what got me on this track. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3vOzq8fCY&feature=related bad language warning.

[lincolntbird]

The You-Tube video is no longer available, the account has been closed.