WE WASTED $1000s... 4WDs and mods we regret + money saving tips

Times are tough and money is tight. We're going to show you how to save thousands on your next build and we're even going to show you what we regret on our own builds so you guys don't make the same mistakes. We're back for another beers in the shed and I've got my good mate Jocko on the line. Righto Jesse, let's get into it mate. First things first. Oh I love that sound. Don't let your four wheel drive be your biggest regret. Here's how to buy the right one from the start. The question that you need to ask yourself before you lay down your hard-earned for your dream four-wheel drive is what do you want to use the vehicle for? Now that can be a little bit hard to answer if you've never wheeled before but in most cases you'll fall into one or two camps. Tough wheeling or touring. I'm speaking from experience here. When I bought my first four-wheel drive which was my solid axle swapped Hilux, I didn't really want to do any tough four-wheel driving. I went out and bought a dual cab ute because I wanted to go camping and exploring with my mates and I thought a dual cab was the best thing to do that and that's what I did at the start. After a while I started driving it on a bit more technical tracks and started realizing that I really enjoyed that side of things more and more and that's how the vehicle started becoming a little bit more extremely modified. So from my experiences I would say this, if you're looking to start out four-wheel driving and you're not sure what to get, if you reckon you want to do a bit more tough wheeling, a bigger full-size four-wheel drive is the go like an 80 or a GU. If you want to do a bit more touring and exploring an IFS dual cab ute definitely seems to be the one that reigns supreme. Facebook marketplace bargains. Now they can be good but you do have to be aware on some of these bargains. Mate you're a bit of an expert on marketplace so run us through it. Mistakes you've made, deals you've gotten, I'm sure there are plenty. Mate I've got some good deals and I've also wasted a lot of money on marketplace and time but I do love it. What I've learned over the years though is there are some things you definitely do buy a marketplace and some things you don't. You know as you know marketplace can be a bit of a faff about you know messaging back and forth trying to line up times to go and look at things and just working out the condition of the product. For an example one of my mates he's a fridge mechanic and he really wanted an angle fridge. He bought an old angle fridge and him being a fridgie thought he could fix it up cheap. It ended up costing him more than buying a brand new fridge so that's just like maybe just look into it a bit more before you go and impulse buy something. I bought a few things like suspension and diff locks thinking it's great to buy the second hand it's much cheaper but the diff locks didn't come with all the parts in the end or they were broken and by the time I repaired them once again they were worth more than retail price. I've definitely been guilty of it probably yourself Jocko you've ended up getting a bargain and by the time it's on your car and working it's not really a bargain at the end of the day. Hit the nail on the head mate sometimes you can score absolute bargains on there but sometimes not. The trick is knowing the difference between the two and you know spending a bit of time really doing your research having a look at what's out there. Comparing the prices of things on marketplace with them being new as well I think is another good one to do because you might find you're not really saving that much money in the long run if you need to throw parts at it as you said. Old versus new vehicles what will really save you thousands on your dream four-wheel drive? Okay first up you want to pick the right four-wheel drive do you buy an old vehicle or do you buy a new vehicle? Now with a new vehicle as you know Jesse you've got a big initial outlay for that brand new four-wheel drive and you don't need to spend anything on it for a long time it's good to go to drive around it's new it's nice it's comfortable and pretty much all you need to do as Graham would say is fill it with a tank full of diesel and go out and explore. Yeah most definitely and Dave's Prado is a perfect example of that in our recent Simpson desert trip brand new car straight to the desert not a problem the whole trip. Exactly mate and compare that to an older vehicle now I guess an older vehicle gets a little bit more complicated here because you might get yourself an absolute steal and you may not need to spend money on it for a while and you can do the same thing you buy the car you go out and you use it and that's probably the best one you can get when buying an old vehicle however it's more likely that when you buy that old vehicle you're going to have to spend probably a few thousand dollars mate on replacement parts you know belts hoses filters fluids steering rack ends all those bits that will probably be a little bit tired depending on how old the vehicle is so whilst you might be saving money initially compared to buying new you may be spending more straight away to get it up to scratch to make it safe comfortable and reliable to drive on the road. Yeah 100% I couldn't have said it better myself the tricky one with this is there's actually no right or wrong answer it all just depends on what you want to do with the vehicle and the budget you sort of have to spend because you don't want to go and blow all your budget and then mean you can't go on a trip whereas if you're not going to do massive remote trips you just want to do some local camping trip to the family maybe four-wheel drive bikes a cheaper four-wheel driver you're not going to daily drive could be the answer if it means you're going to get out there a lot quicker buy your vehicle whether it's new or old get it ready to drive around with any maintenance if it's an older vehicle and then get out and use it in its stock form and go from there. Now Jesse mate our next point is something that you and I believe in to our core and that is of course as you know it seat time overshed time any day of the week what we're trying to say is no matter what car you got and no matter what type of wheeling you want to do you don't have to go and throw a parts catalog at it straight away what do we recommend people do Joe? Mate the best thing you can do get out and use your vehicle stock you'll very quickly find its limits and the more time you can spend in the seat driving it than working on it in the shed the better it'll be you'll be able to figure out what mods you want to do and you'll learn the limits of your specific vehicle. I think it's one of the best things you could possibly do it'll save you money you'll have a ton of fun and you'll learn a lot about your car too. The best three mate save money learn about the car and have fun it doesn't get any better than that now Jesse mate we agree on seat time overshed time every day of the week but our next tip maybe we don't agree as much petrol versus diesel which one is right for you? Yeah that is true now you you actually are swaying over my side a little bit here you're putting a petrol turbo on that nice red high like you're building but yeah before that you sort of whenever I said anything about a petrol four-wheel drive you would screw your nose up now definitely you know they're not for everyone but what I want to say is I've got a few petrol four-wheel drives and I love them I think they're great and you know diesels do have their purpose but for someone getting into it I wouldn't say don't get into four-wheel driving or wait another six months to buy your car if you want to buy a diesel. Petrols can be great say if you want to have a you know get into harder wheeling and have a just a play car you're not daily driving it the fuel usage doesn't really matter stock standard a petrol four-wheel drive is going to beat an NA diesel especially like you know we're talking 80 series 100 series GUs all that sort of things the diesels that don't come turboed straight out of the box you go to a muddy hill the petrol four-wheel drive is going to get up there you got wheel speed straight away yeah use a bit more fuel but you don't have to turbo you have to do power mods you can spend that money in other areas. Jesse you raised some good points there mate and I guess it comes down to how often you're using the vehicle as well particularly with fuel yes an older petrol four-wheel drive might be cheaper to buy but maybe the cost of spending more fuel you'd be better off buying a diesel and saving a bit of money there despite the more expensive purchase price. The prime example would be Graham's y62 patrol that is a new petrol four-wheel drive now towing he used only a couple of litres more per hundred with that y62 than he would have with that big heavy diesel four-wheel drive as well. Look Jock we could sit here all day and argue about petrol versus diesel but this is another one of those great topics where there is no right or wrong answer it's really up to you guys sitting down at home that's going to buy the four-wheel drive it depends what you're going to do with it your budget and where you want to go with it. Exactly mate there's a general theme through here of what you're going to use the vehicle for with buying the right four-wheel drive and I reckon you absolutely nailed it now next up when it comes to owning your dream four-wheel drive there's a lot of things you can do to save thousands by doing maintenance yourself with your four-wheel drive chances are the issue you're facing someone's already fixed it YouTube, Facebook, forums, social media, workshop manuals learn what breaks on your four-wheel drive. Yeah mate I couldn't agree more and I love the internet for that type of thing at the moment when I was doing that BMW GU swap it was a big learning curve for me and I remember one night I was out in the shed about 10 30 had the auto all apart and I actually had YouTube up my phone I kept pausing it looking at what he was doing and he had arrows everywhere and when I put the gearbox back together the vehicle drives so I was super stoked and thankful for that you guys probably don't think Jock and myself do things like that but we actually do no one knows everything and you'll never stop learning. There's some really good points of how handy the internet is when it comes to building and maintaining your four-wheel drive but there are some negatives as well I reckon it's so easy to fall into the trap of seeing a vehicle on Instagram or Facebook on social media and thinking that's what you need to build and a lot of the time you don't really need all those things to get out there and explore. Oh 100% and probably you and I are guilty of this too I know there's a couple of mods on my car I've done because I need that it's cool and I spend a lot of money doing them like I didn't I didn't need that it doesn't get me any further up the track some of the best fun I've ever had would have to be in Darrell when you're in the pony or when I was in that Zook down in the high country and coughs like you couldn't get a cheaper car and I had a small ear to ear the whole time. Jesse I couldn't agree more mate some of the most fun we've ever had in a four-wheel drive it didn't cost an arm and a leg to do it we just got out there in cheap cars with good mates and had fun. This right here has got to be one of the rarest four-wheel drives in the country of course it's the Ram 1500 TRX Final Edition and there's only 140 of these in the country it's got over 700 horsepower it comes with 35 inch tires standard get this it'll do nought to 104 and a half seconds making it one of the most powerful four-wheel drives that you can buy and the best bit is you could win it. Motocars for Cancer has given you the chance to win this Ram 1500 TRX Final Edition plus this fully custom Wildtrail Caravan and $50,000 worth of cashable gold bullion now that brings the total price package to over $450,000 which could be yours for as little as $30. And have a look at what you'll be towing now this is a fully custom Wildtrail Caravan complete with mud tires independent suspension you can take it just about anywhere and the best bit is you'll be doing it with your family in absolute luxury whatever you do make sure you jump onto the website carsforcancer.com.au and get yourself a ticket for your chance to win this awesome prize behind me whatever you do make sure you get in really quick because these tickets are likely to sell out quick good luck. Now one area where it comes to saving money on your four-wheel drive that if you get wrong not only will cost you thousands but will make your vehicle not drive very nice as well is of course with suspension. To make sure you get the right information I sat down with my good mate Simon at Tough Dog and asked him a couple of questions on what you need to do to get your suspension set up right the first time and save some cash. So I've got a couple of questions to ask you mate on how four-wheel drivers can get their suspension set up right the first time. Straight off the bat when you lift a vehicle what actually happens to your suspension and handling? Look predominantly when you lift a vehicle the first thing that you affect is geometry so what we're looking at is restoring the caster angle back on the vehicle and alignment settings what's the issue you're currently experiencing and how have you modified your vehicle by fitting a bull bar or a canopy or drawers and how we're going to address that with the correct spring rate. So when you buy a brand new vehicle or a second-hand vehicle that development process was done without the bar without the canopy without the rock slides and so as we go ahead and modify that vehicle there's a call for an increase in spring rate or a decrease depending on what you've done with the car or what you choose to do with the vehicle. Don't ever rock into your suspension shop and say look I'm going to be getting a bar and a winch and a rear wheel carrier you cannot fit a coil spring or a leaf spring in anticipation of a component that's going to be fitted possibly in six months time maybe in 12 months time because a the alignments will be out and b it's going to ride like a bucket of bolts it will be super super firm. And what are some telltale signs that your suspension is not set up correctly? Really bad tyre wear and super uncomfortable inside the cab of the vehicle that's another thing like if you're getting knocked around just you know driving over the smallest bumps it could be severely over sprung so there's the tyre would probably be the most predominant thing the tyre will tell you what the car needs. All right so we've picked the suspension or we know what suspension we want to put we know what we're putting on the vehicle but how do you match the suspension load to the type of driving and the stuff you're carrying? Look there's no real you know set way of doing that again it's about selecting the correct spring rate to suit the accessories that are on the vehicle that's predominantly what we're focusing on here. If your expectation would be say to have a damper which is externally adjustable because you've had a great experience in a previous four-wheel drive I would suggest that you go looking at a shock absorber that has an external valve on the outside so you can dial whatever valve code you like whether it be you know too soft or too firm that's something that everyone has their own thought process on. I mean the reason why we've all come across and you know brought out things like remote canister shocks with external valves is to allow the customer to dial in the right quality they enjoy so that's one thing I would say to most customers is if you are wanting a firmer suspension probably buy something that is adjustable so you could dial it up and again if you want something that is on the softer side still you're still coming back to the adjustability so we have a lot of people that will say to us you know is it worth getting the adjustables and I would say well look if you in your mind have just come out of a you know an XR6 Falcon or a Commodore and you've been driving a vehicle with almost no body roll and it's very neutral to drive I'd probably steer you more towards an adjustable product. All right so on that a lot of DIYs will be watching this I'm one of them as well what are some of the common mistakes you see from people trying to fit suspension and do it themselves? I would suggest that if this is something that you don't do as a regular job I'm not a bricklayer so therefore I would not build my own house. 25 years ago fitting a leaf spring or a coil in a solid axle car was a fairly simple process but these days as I say with headlight modules ABS lines and you know brake lines that are you know near at full capacity at full stretch in all honesty for the cost of getting a suspension kit fitted and aligned correctly it's not worth the hassle of doing it at home yourself. Well Simon thanks so much mate every time I come down here and chat to you I learn so much and hopefully a lot of you guys at home have as well so thank you for your time and we'll see you on the next trip. Thanks Jock see you soon. Cheers mate. Righto Jesse we've looked at buying the right four-wheel drive what about saving money on gear once you get it? 100% mate that is a very good one and probably one of the biggest investments you're going to put on your four-wheel drive would be a good set of tires now this is where lots of people make mistakes they get the biggest most aggressive muddies they can get and they might do four trips a year and a heap of highway driving I think the pony is a great example you don't need big tires to do some of the toughest tracks in Australia that thing's done thousand dollar track it's done Cape York it's done Coffs Harbour it's done Glasshouse and it's only on 33 inch mud tires. Yeah mate especially if you get the wrong tires that'll be easily over a thousand bucks wasted on your vehicle and as you mentioned with the pony being capable with the smaller tires there are all these hidden costs it's not just the purchase price of the tires which are expensive if you go to big tires you need to factor in diff gears wear and tear on your vehicle the right suspension to fit it and if you go too big then you've got to have to look at engineering as well which can cost thousands of dollars they're all these little hidden costs so get the right tires on your vehicle to start with and you'll save thousands of dollars I reckon and speaking of gear you really need one area that I reckon a lot of people would have something to say about would be 12 volt setups you can spend tens of thousands of dollars on 12 volt if you want to it probably would make sense if you're planning to do a big lap or you're living off grid for a lot of the time but do you really need a four grand plus 12 volt setup if you go camping six weekends a year with your mates and you run a fridge and camp lights probably not there are a lot of things when it comes to 12 volt in particular that are nice to have like coffee machines and induction cookers but you may not actually need it and you can save thousands on 12 volt if you go for a bit more of a basic setup 100 one of my things when I mod forward drives is I look at the mods is that going to get me further up the track and if it's no well I'm going to cheap out on it my GU is a perfect example exact same as your disco last year we went to Cape had a voltage sensitive relay for the dual battery system and we did three weeks up in Cape no dramas I didn't have a heap of camp lighting but what I did is I had a couple of just magnetic ones that I charged during the day via USB and I could stick them and take them around and get firewood so that was my camp lighting solution and it wasn't the flashiest thing but it definitely worked and I think I had a $20 gas cooker from Bunnings might have been induction I had to put some heat shields up when it was windy but it meant I could get up to Cape that year because it fitted them all in my budget now before I jumped on the phone with the mate Jocko we threw up on Instagram we wanted you guys to tell us some of your best money-saving hacks and some of the biggest mistakes you guys have made on your builds and we got inundated with answers and messages I tell you what some of them I read and I'm even guilty of doing myself and we've got a couple of prizes to hand out today we've got two prizes to give away for the best money-saving hacks and one prize to give away for the biggest lesson learned or biggest mistake you've made during a build what do we got to give away today Jock? Mate our mates at Repco are backing you guys at home with $300 gift cards to give away to help you finish your builds here from Rig by Bryce don't spend 100 grand on a 79 spend 20 on a GQ and go twice as many places with half the worry you've only got one worry the fact is you're driving a GQ mate so well he does have a good point but that leads on to Harry's answer here and I think it's a great answer it's very simple it says sometimes less is more I couldn't agree with him more this one from baby giraffe 86 mate seat time is key use your four drive to work out what it needs and how comfortable you want to be that's spot on with kind of what we've been saying as well 100% I reckon that is a good one do you reckon do you reprise that one yeah mate I reckon baby giraffe 86 has got a hundred dollar Repco gift card coming his way because that is spot on seat time is king 100% mate that is a great one seat time over shed time any day of the week there's another standout question here and I really love it and encourage people to do it it's from Brian Leach 5 I reckon he's won himself a hundred dollar Repco voucher as well learn to work on the basics first basic servicing basic wiring it's all teachable on YouTube too and I couldn't agree more watch a few videos and get out there and have a crack because you can save yourself some bucks by doing some of these jobs yourself for sure the second question we asked is what's the biggest mistake you've made whilst building your four-wheel drive we've got some cracking answers straight off the bat here we've got one from uh Psycholas and I'm actually kind of guilty of this one as well changing the goal halfway through from say hard wheeler to two-wheeler definitely something that can cost you thousands if you're not careful 100% and you wouldn't be comfortable touring in a hard wheeler you can make a car that does everything but it's not going to be great at everything there's a good one on here that I think both of us really agree with it's from uh Josh and he said thinking he needs mods to have fun he said standard cars are way more fun than a capable one I would 100% agree that red zook that we had oh I was smiling the whole time I was wheeling that thing man oh mate spot on and Yashatron said the same thing throwing on mods before stretching the platform in stock form those two are kind of similar and yeah we could not agree more there's one here from savage tracks 4x4 this is actually one that always comes out of Sean's book of excuses and it is too much weight now too much weight can be no good when you're hard wheeling and if you are touring too it can be pretty bad too you know it can wear things out like your tires and wheel bearings and fuel usage so just sort of you got to work out what you do and don't need and how you can lighten the load I guess weight is the enemy as uh Sean's book of excuses is quite thick mate but I reckon this one from Mr Max Edwards mate I reckon this one gets the hundred dollar Repco gift card because not taking weight into consideration had to basically sell everything and start again so hopefully that hundred dollar Repco gift card coming your way will help to build your vehicle up the right way from now that's all we have time for today you're probably sick of hearing us ramble by now but we do love hearing from you and the best way to support us is go and follow us on all our social media platforms Facebook Instagram and even TikTok nowadays I don't have it but apparently we do yeah mate there's some cool videos of you doing funny dances on there so of course if you want to get in touch with us and get your answers on the show as well they are the best ways to do it and of course we've got plenty of exciting stuff coming up with some epic trips Jesse and I have done including Tazzy in the Land Rover behind me cannot wait to show you that one but uh Jesse mate I'm gonna get myself another beer and maybe spin some spanners on the disco behind me I'll catch you next time mate yeah sounds good mate I'm gonna have a beer and yeah I've got some more grinding and welding to do as well I'll uh catch you next time mate