Thread: I am retiring the p38

i can sorta argee with what you said /i would rather drive 110 or series in river or through bushs ect /but i am yet to break the above items you have listed ,may be i am too fussy serviceing on mine /went to suzuki club outing and found they are great little 4wd but there cv joints are weak ,its a design fault like old series landie axles (not strong ) .
up the hillclimb seen 5/7 of them snap cv"s ,even filmed it /were landies didnt ,just leting you know in advance ,i use and designed mine for road useage mainly and love it but still do silly things off road ,cheers.

Originally Posted by rofosixone

i can sorta argee with what you said /i would rather drive 110 or series in river or through bushs ect /but i am yet to break the above items you have listed ,may be i am too fussy serviceing on mine /went to suzuki club outing and found they are great little 4wd but there cv joints are weak ,its a design fault like old series landie axles (not strong ) .
up the hillclimb seen 5/7 of them snap cv"s ,even filmed it /were landies didnt ,just leting you know in advance ,i use and designed mine for road useage mainly and love it but still do silly things off road ,cheers.

lol heres the thing tho i service mine all the time! i check all the fluids before i go offroading and everything...im baffled as to how it broke!

hrmm interesting thought about the suzukies.

For series bush bashing you need a special built job.

Range Rovers are road cars that go very well off road.

When pushed, something usually the weakest link will break, so if you strengthen that, the next weakest link will break and so on.

There is no such car off the shelf that will do everything you require, what you have however is a wicked compromise.

Just thinking... if you were to shell out for a decent zuk or anything else to bash, you will probably spend the same as a cheap P38.

Why not buy another P38 and have a full set of spares?

Good luck either way, for the same reasons (except I haven't broken anywhere near that much) I tend to favour using the Mrs 100 series for off roading these days... Definetly cheaper to fix and less head f#$*'s when pushing it!

In saying that, there is however no better feeling than romping past cruisers and patrols in the rangie (especially uphill in mud)!!!

try an early-ish rangie classic, you still get the comfort and on-road manners but cheap as chips to buy so are the parts and maintenance can be do easily by yourself.
Also they are awsome off road

IMO suzukis are fine as long as you dont raise them, they have a tendancy to roll.

Sounds like you've had a bad run Mike... and fair enough, you've had a gutfull. I wouldn't say all P38A's are like that though.

Guess I've just been lucky that I've never broken anything off-road (not counting "the river incident"). I'm not exactly gentle with my 4wd's either

Zooks are a lot of fun too. I bought one for $3K about 15 months ago after "the river incident" while I was between P38A's, spent another $5k on it for new suspension and 2" lift, bullbar, new seats, wheels and tyres, sports-back etc. Took days for my bum to recover after 1 day's off-roading

A few scary moments on uneven surfaces in the Zook that I probably wouldn't even notice in the Rangie. A roll-cage is a must.

Beware water crossings too.. the little 1.3L struggles to push through anything past he bumpers in high range. Low range is very capable though.

Easy to work on, popular for Vitara or Corolla engine transplants and lots of cheap parts from India on eBay... search for Samurai instead of Sierra

Have since sold it to a mate for a lot less than it owed me.

If I was to do it again, I'd go with HangOver's suggestion and get a Rangie Classic. Parts are very cheap now and the old 3.5L V8 is easy to work on.

Cheers, Paul.

i have to say i agree with you.

sierras are the way to go. cheap,easy to work on. yes they do brake cvs when you go bigger tyres. a sierra on 31's is running tyres 5 inchs bigger than it came out with from the factory.