Preparing the Niva for off-road with your own hands

Off-road cars VAZ, which include Lada 4x4 ("Niva") and Chevrolet Niva, and in the stock form are characterized by high traffic. This is due to the good geometry of the body and suspension, the presence of the all-wheel drive system with a downshift and interaxle differential with locking.

Nevertheless, there is always the possibility of improvement. Especially since these cars have obvious defects, first of all, insufficient engine performance. Further in the article the preparation of "Niva" for off-road is considered.

Features of "Niva"

Classical "Niva", known as the VAZ-2121 and Lada 4x4, is a small compact compact SUV, manufactured since 1977. It has a load-bearing body, found in 3 and 5-door variants. Equipped with 4-cylinder gasoline engines with a capacity of 80-94 liters. from. With 4 and 5-speed manual transmission. The drive is full, with a downshift and a locked interaxle differential. Front suspension - independent, rear - dependent.

Features of Chevrolet Niva

Chevrolet Niva is also a compact SUV. It has been produced since 2002. It has a 5-seater body. Most cars are equipped with an 80-horsepower engine from the Niva with a 5-speed manual gearbox. By the design of the transmission and running gear is similar to it.

Principles of tuning

Preparation of "Niva-Chevrolet" for off-road, as well as any other cars, should be carefully thought out and calculated. However, its tuning must be approached with extreme caution. This is because their design has a small margin of safety, which determines the potential for tuning. That is, the elements of the car function almost at the limit, and the preparation of "Shevi-Niva" to the off-road can easily violate it. This will entail a decrease in both performance and reliability.

So, the engines have low performance even for standard machines. If you load them with heavy additional equipment and install large wheels, the low dynamic characteristics will get worse, and the load on the already weak engine will increase, which will result in a decrease in its life. Approximately the same situation with the undercarriage: an elevator by installing long shock absorbers and springs or spacers without additional intervention will lead to a deterioration in handling and stability and accelerated wear of the suspension and transmission components.

In addition, serious interference with the design is not cheap. Therefore, the stages of preparing the Niva for off-road are singled out. And the initial (tourist) involves changing and installing only individual elements, with almost complete preservation of the original design.

The cost of tuning is determined both by the degree of interference in the design, and by the level of the applied parts. As you know, most owners of VAZ SUVs are not rich people. Therefore, the preparation of the "Niva" for off-roads with its own hands is widespread.

For the same reason, most owners maintain and repair the car on their own. They are well known "Niva". Preparing for off-road, photo Which we will provide in our article, therefore, they are also able to.

Body

It is extremely important for the SUV to protect the bottom by covering the main components, such as the engine, gearbox, the front propshaft, the front axle reducer.

Protection is represented by plastic or metal sheets. The first are very fragile. Even 1-2 mm metal sheets are able to protect only from small stones and weak contacts with the surface. Therefore, for serious off-road use protection 4-6 mm thick.

As for the area, you should choose the widest sheets that cover as large a surface as possible. Thus it is necessary to be convinced of presence of technological and ventilating apertures. Such a preparation of the "Niva" off-road will cost about 30 thousand rubles.

Sometimes provide protection of the body, by installing stronger metal bumpers and thresholds (power kit). This will cost about 20-30 thousand rubles.

In the case of installing wider wheels, wheel arch extensions are used. The simplest universal variants cost about 2 thousand rubles.

"Niva" has fragile and small towing eyes, necessary for off-road to remove a jammed car. At Chevrolet Niva they are stronger, but they are very inconvenient. Therefore, it is expedient to prepare the Niva for off-roads, by installing a removable towbar with a square socket 50x50 behind and anchorages under the winch in the front.

This allows you to change these devices in places, using a towbar instead of towing eyes, drag trailers and apply hi-jack. The cost is about 15 thousand rubles.

The price of an electric winch is from 20 thousand rubles. Another 4 thousand will cost the fastening system.

Many professionally prepared SUVs are equipped with an expedition trunk. This device, of course, does not increase the patency. However, the use of off-road vehicles is often associated with the transportation of a large amount of cargo, which may not fit in the cargo bay. For the machines under consideration, this is especially important, since they both have small trunks. In addition, the "Niva" spare wheel is located in the engine compartment, so it loads the front end, worsens engine cooling and safety.

Installing the expeditionary trunk, you can solve these problems by moving the spare there. In addition, many options have attachments for additional equipment. When choosing a trunk, you need to pay attention to the way it is fastened: it is better if it is prepared for installation on the factory rails, troughs or arches, as a rigid mount requires a permit.

On many modified off-road cars additional lighting devices are established. Standard headlights may not be enough on the road. In addition, they quickly get dirty in the mud. Therefore, additional lights are installed higher - usually on the roof. Many expedition trunks have specialized fasteners. LED chandeliers cost from 3 thousand rubles.

Engine

As noted, the engines of the cars in question are very weak for off-road, where they lack traction capabilities. This is especially evident in the heavier Chevrolet Niva. The situation is aggravated in case of weighting of the body with additional equipment and installation of large wheels. There are 2 ways to solve this problem: engine replacement more powerful or tuning the source motor.

For the Swap on the Chevrolet Niva, the VAZ-21126 and Toyota 3S engines are most often used, and others. The Niva is also most commonly installed with 3S. The cheapest thing to buy is it (from 30 thousand rubles).

As for the modifications, the same technologies and methods are used here that with the sport tuning of VAZ engines. The only difference is the target character of the motor: in contrast to the sport, when off-road tuning they tend to get the maximum torque at low revs.

The main off-road modification for the engine is the snorkel. This device is an external air intake, which is carried to the roof to prevent water hammer and clean air intake from above, where less dust. In addition, the snorkels are equipped with separators. Their price is the same and starts from 3 thousand rubles.

Transmission

To ensure even rotation of the wheels, the car is equipped with front and rear inter-wheel differentials with locks. The cost is about 15 thousand rubles. Interaxial locking, both SUVs are in stock.

As noted, both cars have low-performance engines, not enough for serious off-road. You can solve this problem without interfering with their design. To do this, change the gear ratio of the main pair. The price is about 3 thousand rubles.

Both cars have a downshift. However, there are lowering whales, which further reduce the gear ratio. The cost is from 10 thousand rubles.

Suspension

The most important off-road suspension parameters are clearance and moves. Standard cars have a high ground clearance and good geometry. However, over time, especially when operating under load or off-road, the suspension can sink. To avoid this, the springs and dampers are changed to reinforced. They differ in their increased rigidity, but they have better energy intensity and are more durable. Cost from 12 thousand rubles.

Raising the ride height requires a much more serious intervention in the design of the suspension. If you simply install spacers or longer shock absorbers and springs, the service life of the CV joints and cardans will be significantly reduced, handling, stability and braking efficiency will decrease. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a significant amount of work with the replacement of a large number of elements to ensure the durability of the structure, in which the preparation of the Niva for off-road work consists of its own hands. Photos demonstrate its implementation.

Wheels

To a large extent, patency is determined by tires. Standard tires are not suitable for serious off-road. Off-road tires provide better grip on dirt, loose ground and other surfaces. There is a specialized off-road rubber for winter as well. Therefore, the replacement of tires - the simplest preparation of "Niva-Chevrolet" to the impassability of their own hands.

It should be borne in mind that without increasing the ground clearance and expanding the wheel arches on the "Niva" you can install wheels that are no larger than 15-inch 215/75 or 16-inch 215/65. The first option is more relevant, as it provides a better ride and a greater choice of tires, and the deterioration of handling is not very significant for these cars. Such preparation of the Niva to the impassability will cost about 16 thousand rubles.

Interior

For off-road operation, the salon is trimmed with simple easy-washing materials. Most often, the flooring is replaced with aluminum panels. In other respects, the interiors of cars are very simple.

Sometimes install additional equipment, depending on the equipment of the car.