2004 discovery se with black interior and 120000 miles. Owned for 7 years and in excelent shape. This is my spare vehicle and i want to get back into offroading since my children are a little older now. I have 2 options that im considering and that is either keeping her stock and getting another truck for offroad, or lifting the discovery for my offroad toy.

 

Will you be doing the work yourself?

 

Yes, i do all my own work.

 

In truth if it's your spare truck and you intend doing the work yourself use the existing D2, but if you intend using it for long highway trips later on it'll handle like a three legged donkey once converted for offroading.

 

Haha i bet, and ya i never take it on long trips ever.

 

Before you start dumping money into lifts, tires, bumpers, roof racks, etc make sure your drivetrain is healthy. To you have good temp and oil pressure gauges/monitors? Good rad/t-stat/recovery tank? Spares like belt, hoses, cks, maf, etc. Nothing worse than spending money on goodies and be broke when that head gasket blows.

 

Im actually slowely going over the entire truck already. I just replaced the water pump, thermostat and recovery tank last week and ordered a new radiator last night. ill be replacing all the hoses and replacing the head gasket with arp head studs and changing all the fluids soon and rebuilding the front driveshaft. the truck runs great but im just doing it all as preventative measures.

 

Also this depends on the what you define as offroading... If you mean getting off on some dirt/mountain roads it's one thing, if you mean rock crawling and stream fording then thats another thing entirely.

A simple 2" lift and slightly larger tires will not make your truck into a three legged beast on the highway. 35" tires with a 4" lift and lower gearing will.

 

Id probably go with a 3" lift and 33" tires when the time comes. no rock crawling or deep water as i would hate to damage the disco, just having fun some on trails and mud pits.

 

X1 ............ Excellent advice