What would you do to get your hands on a Suzuki Jimny 4x4?
Would you go off-grid down a deserted mining trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to recover one that's been stranded there for 47 years? That's what Matt's Off Road Recovery has done, with the recovery documented on YouTube.
The owner of the vehicle drove the Suzuki up the trail nearly half a century ago while working on mining operations in the area. A landslide left the LJ20 Jimny isolated, so he offered to sell it to the recovery team for a pittance.
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The team scouted the area by foot. The mining trail is now narrow, overgrown, and in some parts inaccessible by vehicle. But they deemed the recovery as 'do-able' and returned with a XJ Jeep Cherokee, their recovery vehicle nicknamed "Banana."
It was a tight fit for the jeep, which the owner of the Suzuki said was the largest vehicle to attempt the trails. They had to drive the Banana on an angle to avoid slipping off the side.
To make the recovery even more complicated, the Suzuki's brakes were nonfunctional and its steering barely worked due to the deteriorated tires.
But despite that, the Jimny did alright. This was up until the point the vehicle had to be pulled through the water. The car was submerged and caught on a rock which smashed its headlight.
In the end, the team successfully got the Suzuki on their trailer, and even paid the owner $10 more than agreed upon back in the day - $210.