Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[snowjunkie]

Hi All.

Have a '93 BigHorn SWB which I already take off road. Had it up the Corrieyairack Pass the other week (Scottish Highlands) - great fun. As an import however it wasn't as heavily armoured as the previous 'UK' Troopers I have had. Flicking through 'Land Rover Owner International' magazine there are scores of adverts for accessories for Landies, from underbody armour to replacement suspension parts to jackable sills etc.

Anyone have some handy links to companies selling Trooper-relevant stuff? I'm looking for shocks, plates, nudge bars, winches etc. My lovely blue baby has some serious work to do!

Cheers.

[Google]

[Philp]

Most of the stuff for troopers is made in the USA, calmini produce some good kit if a little pricey, one UK supplier is http://www.specialist-leisure.co.uk/ Alternatively try http://www.frogsisland4x4.com/ but their website seems down atm both also supply safari snorkels which can be had for the Trooper. US suppliers can be found on the planet Isuzu web forum http://www.planetisuzoo.com/aftermarket.htm After that it's adapting stuff yourself. Mr Twister may chime in with some others as he's done a load of modifications to his.
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Phil

96 or is it a 98 Isuzu Bighorn Lotus

[Twister]

Thanx for the intro Philp.

There's not much available for the Trooper / Bighorn in this country, however, if you shop around you can find the odd bit here and there. Underbody armour is non existent in this country, as are jackable sills, or rock sliders as they are known. I want both for my Trooper, and am having to resort to getting a friend of mine who is a fabricator by trade to make them for me. Only snag is he lives 50 miles away .
There is one company based in Israel who make what looks like decent underbody armour, and rock sliders, they are Asfir
http://www.asfir.com/
and their equipment is available through TBR ( a UK based company)
http://www.tbruk.com/
but by the time the gear has been imported, and duty etc paid the costs become silly.
In terms of suspension, there is the Australian Old Man emu system, distributed by ARB http://www.arbusa.com/ in Australia and USA, and imported into the UK by Devon 4x4 http://www.devon4x4.com/ This is designed to give better off road handling, and gives approx 35mm lift. However, again it's not cheap, but you gets what you pays for.
Explorer Pro Comp http://www.explorerprocomp.co.uk/, although not listing a suspension lift kit for the Trooper, do stock both extended shackles for lifting a leaf sprung Trooper, and +40mm heavy duty coil springs for the later models. They also do an unbelievably wide range ( in terms of shock length ) of shock absorbers, which come with a lifetime warranty, and are very well priced.
I am currently running Pro Comp coils on the rear, with the front torsion bars cranked up, and Old Man Emu shocks all round, however I have also got some trick bits fitted from a little gem of a company I found in the USA, independent4x. This place is a goldmine for Trooper owners, and the smaller parts can be sent by standard mail, keeping the costs down.
http://www.independent4x.bigstep.com/homepage.html
This has given me 65mm lift, and I have bits on order to go to +90mm, but this is going to mean changing the rear shocks again to Pro Comp ones, as they do longer shocks than the OME ones.

Anyway, I have written an article on suspension lifting for the Trooper, and am waiting at present for it to be hosted by ITOC. Should be available some time soon.

Hope this gives you some food for thought for the time being. Delve deep into the independent4x site, there are some really neat ideas in there, I fancy a set of those Stinkyfab bent trailing arms, keep from dragging the rear arms on the ground when climbing over things.

Be very wary of buying springs from the USA. They only ever had the Petrol vehicles over there, and they like their suspension a lot more wallowy than we do, as a result their front torsion bars are different lengths and specs to ours ( not that you need to replace the torsion bars to acheive a lift ). The same is also true of rock sliders, as they have completely different mounting points.

Happy surfing for now.

I'm going to move this thread into the modifications section.
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"Tongue-tied and Twisted; just an Earth-bound misfit,  I..."  -  PF

LTM # 000002

[snowjunkie]

Wow! Top class responses there guys!!

Much appreciated. I've joined a fledging voluntary group way up north (whisky country) that will be providing backup call-out support to the emergency services, e.g. when idiots think they can drive their 5 Series BMW through 12" of snow...

Want to start kitting out my pride and joy (no, not my wife) to cope with anything.

And so I can play of course...

[snowjunkie]

Hey Mr Twister, was just looking carefully at the spec on your signature footer. Any chance of a few pics of your underbody and suspension? (Nothing kinky now please...) The top priorities for me are
- suspension (to replace my dead electonic Irmscher kit)
- winch solution for front (probably on an A bar of some type)
- solution for my rear fog lamp. My import has a mounting under the bumper; lamps tend to be removed as the vehicle departs over rocks.

Any photos showing what you've done in these areas - if appropriate - would be greatly appreciated.

[siweb]

Look here my friend

http://www.itocuk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2764
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[Twister]

Cheers Si, sorry 'bout the delay in replying, had a PC breakdown .

There's not too many technical photos in my gallery yet ( in fact, there's none ), but when I get my new digi camera I intend to rectify that, and get some proper close ups of the modifications for all to see.
_________________

"Tongue-tied and Twisted; just an Earth-bound misfit,  I..."  -  PF

LTM # 000002