Australia's most forgotten 4wd!

[old Jack]

Todd's White PB Challenger featured.
also check out his links to other trip articles he has had published.

https://magazine.unsealed4x4.com.au/en_US/14852/213349/australia’s_most_forgotten_4wd.html

OJ.

[littleriver]

Todd's White PB Challenger featured.
also check out his links to other trip articles he has had published.

https://magazine.unsealed4x4.com.au/en_US/14852/213349/australia’s_most_forgotten_4wd.html

OJ.

good read ... looks like we are keeping ours for several yrs to come .. 84k km only in 7 yrs ... ready for our next adventure...

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[amec]

Awesome

[Guest]

good read ... looks like we are keeping ours for several yrs to come .. 84k km only in 7 yrs ... ready for our next adventure...

...

Noticed you have the 697lt on your challenger. We have done 81,000 klms on the Bridgestone 684 HT.
What do you think of the 697s. Looking at getting them next week. Cheers

[Ozzyal]

Yep , I've had mine for about 2 years now . I got to say , it wasn't love at first , I missed my Delica .
But 60,000km later , I'm warning up to it , its comfortable , economy is okay , as reliable as you can expect . Even with stock suspension and tyres is reasonably capable .
Quite simply , I can't think what I'd replace it with that would do a better job for the cost of change over .

[littleriver]

Noticed you have the 697lt on your challenger. We have done 81,000 klms on the Bridgestone 684 HT.
What do you think of the 697s. Looking at getting them next week. Cheers

Been a great tyre, on our second set (did approx 50k km on them) probably could have done another 10k km, but I am fussy when it comes to tyres, at about 1/2 wear they are not as sticky ... went with 116/113 8 ply ... we do approx 20% off road 80% on road ... 36psi cold unladen around town, 40 psi cold 200kg weighted, 45psi cold 450kg all the gear with x4 people ... beach start at 20psi (450kg loaded on Fraser in May “no problem”) ... they are also quite good on fuel ⛽️ economy (expect approx 1L more per 100km compared to HT tyre ...

[old Jack]

The D697 is a really nice comfortable light duty mild AT tyre, with great road manners, especially in the wet.
The 8 ply LT version it is stronger than the factory HT passenger construction tyres but only tread face. The shoulders and sidewalls are very soft and will easily damage when subject to rocks and gibbers fouds in the outback and coastal headlands.

There is a long term test thread on these tyres, highlighting the good, bad and ugly.

https://www2.pajeroclub.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=27966&page=32

OJ.

[Guest]

Thanks OJ and littleriver. Bob Jane has them on special at $239 265/65/17 LT 116s. Buy 4 and get $100 eftpos card. Works out at $214 per tyre. More than happy with that.

[itsamitsi]

Yah I had them on the Challenger and now they're on my Prado. Got the Bridgy M/Ts on it now. They were OK on sand and stuff but were pretty much useless in wet sloppy stuff, even wet mushy grass they couldn't grip on.

[littleriver]

I’d like to add to the title ..

Australia’s most forgotten “& underrated” 4WD.....

Which due to poor advertising missed out on record sales (unlike the Pajero Sport) ...

A quick search also on Carsales has featured several Challengers well over 200k km & one 5k km short of the 300k mark ... there were some doubts of the modern diesel high powered 4 cylinder low capacity engine”s .. the proof is in the pudding ... these cars are keepers .. well done Mitsubishi
....


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[cookie9]

great article and pictures!


My only real beef with the vehicle is the lack of AUX tanks that dont require expensive rear bar for the spare (and engineering) and the pissy rating for the roof rails..


The car is starting to show its age (2011 model) with 165k on the clock with little things needing replacing/fixing, however its been super reliable and has never left me stranded or stuck!

[Kingbrown]

Having completed almost 10000km over the past 6 weeks (SA to the Cape and return, including the OTT and Frenchman's Tk ), I'm more than happy with the way that my Challenger handled everything that was thrown at it.

The problems I saw on the Cape were ALL on that unbreakable brand of vehicle and included:
New vehicle drowned at Nolans.
Old traytop stuck and flooded at Nolans.
Radiator fan destroyed and pushed through radiator at Gunshot.
Highly modified (LS conversion) stalled in Nolans and was flooded.

The problems I witnessed boiled down to the attitude of the drivers rather than the capability of their vehicles.

[amec]

Agreed Kingbrown.

Driver attitude makes big difference.

[Chris4x4]

After 115,000, Chally is running very well nothing to report, no mods no catch can no nothing, all she has is a set of Hellas and a stereo. My auto performs very well without any mods but we are very light with the right foot and only tow around 1000kg occasionally. I am always looking underneath for leaks and things and around the turbo but there’s nothing.
For me it turns out that it does and keeps doing everything as advertised so far and still have 3 years of drive train warranty.
40 grand well spent for me so far.
Knock on wood!!

[pb4x2]

Although not a 4wd my 2012 PB Challenger 2wd would be even more forgotten than all your 4wd vehicles out there. I would even go so far as to suggest there are a lot of members of this forum who have never known of there existence. They are a great vehicle and I have every intention of keeping mine for many years to come.