What are your experiences with the delica ?

Now the wife has a full time job it's freeing up some penny's for toys for me :-)

I'm looking at a delica for camping etc ( me and the bit ) and maybe turning the fronty into a off road toy using the delica as a tow car :-b
So any experiences gents ?...

Delica is ok...but it isnt a shogun underneath, so expect hard to find parts and not the ruggedness of a shoggy...

L400 is 2.8 People carrier shell on shogan/pajero running gear. Or 3.0 v6
L300 is 2.5 mid engined scooby wagon.
Usually auto, but can get manual, come in high roof and low roof, lwb and swb (swb is longer than a lwb fronty) spec varies depending on what optional extras were put on in Japan.
The deli i had was more thirsty than my v6 fronty, but would quite happily tow my frontera behind it on a trailer. (there is no known towing data in terms of weight limits so be careful)
Very flexible use of space look at seating options that suit you before commiting.
Check with insurance before buying as it is an import so some companies wont insure. Also mine was an 8 seater so some companies wouldnt insure for this reason but you can get 7 seaters.
Take a look on www.mdocuk.co.uk

Petrol ones are thirsty and diesel ones love a head gasket

Iv had a couple of runs out in a friends ....... Nice enough to drive , not overly concerned with mpg as a drive a 2.2 frontera so it will not be much less lol

Was looking at the same formyself for laning. Had a look at a lot of activity on youtube, they seem OK and capable, even lockers are available from ARB. Then got search for infoand found a fair bit on a Canadian Deli club site. It seems that you can get suspension lift kits that will take them to +2 inch with no additional work. Go much higher and you run into problems if you don't do it properly i.e. damaged/twisted mountings etc.

The L300 has the cab/doors over the front wheels where as the L400 has the door behind the front wheels like a conventional van. I'd have gone for the L300 short wheel base, with the seats over the front axle you get a lot of interior space than an L400 shorty, enough to bin the rear seats and turn it into a competent weekend/laning camper. Fit/make a full length roofrack and you can mount a safari awning (thing long rollerblind nailed to the roofrack that you unroll out over the side of the rack cage and prop up on a couple of tent poles and guy ropes)

The L300 is on leaf springs at the back and the L400 is on coils, both are on torsion bars at the front. On the 300 it seems you put a spacer between leaf spring and axle and on the 400 you fit Landrover defender 110 front spring then wind the tosion bars up.

To go higher you need to look at the orintal sites, there you can get some comprehensive kits that can take you to +6 inches but the prices on these kits were eye watering circa 2500 dollars.

You can't do a body lift on these as they are monocock (spelling) chassis/bodies made of thin metal hense the liabilty to damage if you go over +2 inch suspension life putting too much stress on the mounting points. With the +2 inch lift you can put 31 / 10.50 R 15 mud tyres (I wanted to fit 285/75R16 or 255/85R16 =33 inches).

Contrary to popular beleif they are not rebodied Shoguns, engines and transmissions are plus some other bits. people are starting to ship container loads of spare into the UK for these, there's a garage in the home counties specialising in them.

Regards

Stuart

Sounds a good idea... I'm going to need a tow car for the frontera soon and if i can sleep and go laning in it then even better lol. I'd love a small mog but I can see that costing loads lol, plus I think even the small ones are probably still too tall/wide for some lanes. The girlfriend said she'd pretty much refuse to get in a l3/400 because they are ugly :/ ebay seems to like the mazda bongo as a 4x4 camper (no experience of them offroad tho lol). There is a trooper that's had its back removed and a camper stuck on instead, looks interesting with the offroad ability of a trooper, still abit tall tho. Is there anything that's normal 4x4 hight (thinking pop up roof) that's still got mud fighting ability that you can camp in? I know the ozzys do conversations on pickups but they do still add abit of hight and length hmmm. Got me thinking tho