[Jed Else]

hey guys, my name is jed and this is my first post, im 16 years old and have just bought my first car, an LJ50 for 250 bucks.
this car has been sitting under a tarp for the last 20 years, apparently, and has got some rust which i am working on with my old man. now i am up to the stage of planning ahead and finding out info on what works and what doesn't. so now to the question, what tyres and rims go good with the little things, keeping in mind that it's a first car and the old 2 stroke has got to be able to turn them. i have got it sitting on old warn out bar tread tyres, they look tough but i believe their is a lot tougher tyres out there.
if anyone could take the time to give me some ideas, or pics , it would be greatly appreciated.
thanks Jed

[Joshyboy26]

What type of driving do you plan on doing? Mud, sand more road or only offroad? Do you want to only put tyres on or do you wanna add lift and other mods to get the tyres on? Have a search through the builds thread theres quite a few floating around. Oh and congrats on geting a suzi!

[missmyljdaze]

I wouldnt recommend lifting a LJ, they tip over too easy as it is!

Realistically- you dont need to lift a LJ anyway- they will get almost anywhere in standard unmodified form. (just not terribly quickly)

If I had another LJ50 (or another 80) I would be keeping it on 4 ply bartreads! LJ's and bartreads just belong together.

My opinion (not that its worth much) is that big grippy tyres will just make it easier to fall over itself if you are on the road, and bolting on wider and different offset rims to increase the track made all my LJ's handle horrible and with much heavier steering, compared to the original bartreads having much lighter steering.

Yep- either replace the bartreads with new ones- or an appropriate sized new tyre on the original rims. Dont go overboard trying big fat tyres- the LJ doesnt need them.
Remember "lighter is righter" These zooks are so great because they are light and skinny and nimble!
The only modification I would recommend is to do yourself a favour and bolt in a rollcage if you dont already have one, and replace the old seatbelts - it will make your mum a lot happier!

All the best, stephen.

p.s. we need pics!!!
p.p.s. I hate you. how come I can never find an LJ at that sort of price.....

[2stroker]

Hi Jed my son bought his first LJ80 when he was 16 and started doing it up, he now 20 and has been working for a couple of years and has an LJ50 as well. The day he got his licence he drove it to school and it is still his daily driver and gets him to work every day and out and about on weekends. Please tell us more about your car, soft top or hard top, colour etc.

Here is what my sons car looks like now.

[sideways]

x2 on the bartreads if it's still got them, my LJ81 goes further offroad on 28" bartreads than my Sierra does on 30" BFG KM2s.

If not, any 205r16 tyre will fit on the original rims and be relatively cheap, very common tyre size.

missmyljdaze wrote:

p.p.s. I hate you. how come I can never find an LJ at that sort of price.....

I've got a well stuffed LJ80q you can have.

[3cyl]

If it nas 15" rims then 235/75r15 and on the 16s 205 r 16 but any wider and the rims will be too narrow. You have any pictures of it?

[tonyevans]

Welcome to LJ's Jed - Yes like the others say LJ50's and bar treads are just made for each other.

Yes pictures please.

[3cyl]

tonyevans wrote:

Welcome to LJ's Jed - Yes like the others say LJ50's and bar treads are just made for each other.

Yes pictures please.

Nothing says "original" like 600/16 bartreads on an LJ50, My problem with them is that these days they are similar price to much better tyres and it also depends on what rims the car already has. My neighbor has an original LJ 50 on bartreads and it drives much better than mine on the road and is much cooler. There are pictures of it in the Ripley thread and I love it.

[Daz7]

We've tossed this around in the NSW Zook Club a lot recently, as we're now building up a good base of LJ's under the new historic vehicle registration scheme in NSW.

Our outcome is to use the standard rims with a 6.50x16 Maxxis Creepy Crawly that we've imported from Japan. The problem with a lot of the tyres out there is that their mean't for a far heavier vehicle's than Zooks so ride like crap and/or their road based. Our requirements were for a lightweight tyre, aggressive tread pattern, flexy sidewalls, not too tall or wide. The creepys have a fairly low speed rating but in a 50 or 80 their not going to be a problem.

At present the new tyres are still on the ship in transit, so its all theory still but can't see why they shouldn't be fine.

Back in the day, we used to run 7.00 Jeep Service tyres on a 15x7" rim on 50's (see photo) and it worked well.

[2stroker]

Daz7 that sounds like an excellent plan with those creepy crawleys, wow thoe jeep service tyres, I have not seen them for a long time it brings back memories.

I agree with what has been said, don't go too big and if its got bar treads now try to stay with them and maybe have a set of 15" rims with 235's as well.

[Jed Else]

look further down for pics.

[2stroker]

Jed the pic wont come up, you need to put them on something like photobucket then post them up

[Jed Else]

hopefully these images work everyone.

[Jed Else]

yes i finally got them to work, as you can see, a lot of work has to be done to bring it up to scratch, but it sholdnt be too hard to rebuild because my dad has one and he hand made the tub from the firewall back. anyway i hop the little zook will get up an the road as soon as posible before i get my P's.
thanks for reading, jed.

[christover1]

Keeping stock sized tyres while on P's or L's is wise.
Keeps the boys in blue happier.
Bar treads can be terrible on wet roads,
so I'd suggest a newer type tyre, or drive carefully.

Welcome to our Zook obsession

[3cyl]

That tub's not too bad, nothing your dad can't handle, I recognize him in one of the photos. I haven't met you before but I know your parents and used to work with your uncle Steve. I remember your dad driving his on the road. Let us know if you need a hand, your dad knows where I live.

[tanshi]

small world

[rustyzook]

doors and seats in good nick

now that's not fair!

[303zuke]

tanshi wrote:

small world

Nah! LJ folk are all related and mostly inbred.

[sideways]

Geez, those scrub bars follow the guard perfectly, they're begging to be made into tube guards.

Pics of your dads LJ?

[3cyl]

303zuke wrote:

tanshi wrote:

small world

Nah! LJ folk are all related and mostly inbred.

That may be true but we're also so much awesomer than normal folk.

[Jed Else]

rustyzook wrote:

doors and seats in good nick

now that's not fair!

although they look good, the frame is rusted out, so i am getting my dads old, old seats where the upholstery is gone, but the frames are good. and the doors are rusted shut, i had to un-bolt them to get them off, im thinking half doors maybe?

[Jed Else]

sideways wrote:

Geez, those scrub bars follow the guard perfectly, they're begging to be made into tube guards.

Pics of your dads LJ?

i was thinking having side steps like this:

[rustyzook]

you can get restraint bars, i think thats what there called, there just a bar i have them on my soft top, as for the rubber, keep the bar treads there awesome!

shame the seat frames are rusted cause they look in good nick for something thats been sitting for years! think you should do a build thread on this bad boy!

also, LJ's are the thing of the future! from the past haha

[2stroker]

Jed Else wrote:

sideways wrote:

Geez, those scrub bars follow the guard perfectly, they're begging to be made into tube guards.

Pics of your dads LJ?

i was thinking having side steps like this:

Take a close look at that pic, original soft door Stockman hinges, they are very hard to come by these days, mine has them but if anyone has got some I would be interested in another set so that Jacob can run hard and soft doors on his black Stockman.

Hey Jed, I reckon that when you paint it you choose an original LJ colour and stay with those rims.

[matty_wall]

205r16 maxxis treps on steel GV rims would look cool on an lj.

[Jed Else]

2stroker wrote:

Jed Else wrote:

sideways wrote:

Geez, those scrub bars follow the guard perfectly, they're begging to be made into tube guards.

Pics of your dads LJ?

i was thinking having side steps like this:

Take a close look at that pic, original soft door Stockman hinges, they are very hard to come by these days, mine has them but if anyone has got some I would be interested in another set so that Jacob can run hard and soft doors on his black Stockman.

Hey Jed, I reckon that when you paint it you choose an original LJ colour and stay with those rims.

I was thinking the colour yellow, and the name of the beast could be CAT, for caterpillar.

[2stroker]

Jed it doesn't matter what you call it mate, in the end you have an LJ50 and you should be excited because it is not just anyone that is lucky enough to own one these days, you will find that not all your mates will understand but that doesn't matter it is a classic 4x4 and you own it.

[tanshi]

have a good search around on here. Lots of great LJs, and some nice 50s

this is mine viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13628&hilit=fiddy

[3cyl]

tanshi wrote:

have a good search around on here. Lots of great LJs, and some nice 50s

this is mine viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13628&hilit=fiddy

Aah... memories. Bin on the road a while now...
Bar treads look cool and some days they're the only tyres to have but if you use the LJ for transport (I know not many do these days) and especially on wet slippery roads a set of sierra 15s and tyres can be pretty nice.