high_desert_crawlers
Member
A few people have asked if I have a build thread on my junk, and since I’m giving it a facelift now, I figured I’d throw one together.
I don’t have a whole lot of pictures of the stuff previously done, so might be a little boring, but maybe it’ll be helpful to others building a Sammy or thinking about it.
I’ve built a few different rigs in the past, mainly Yotas, and a few Suzukis. Even had a K5 blazer for a little bit.
At one time I had two rigs. A pretty well built 2nd gen 4runner on Chevy axles, and a little Sidekick on 33s that I got for $500 and didn’t care about. I feel like my 4runner was pretty nice, and capable. But I found myself having more fun in the sidekick, putting it places it shouldn’t be. But it was so small and nimble, it usually would make it through to my surprise.
That’s what made me want t build a Sammy and focus on keeping it little and light.
I know one tons and 40s are the norm for rock crawling, but there’s been multiple times I’ve been behind rigs on full width axles and 40s that get hung up on axles and diffs. Then the Sammy will walk right through.
My belief why, isn’t only it being small enough to fit “between” the rocks, but also having your tires closer together, leaves less of an area for rocks to catch your axle/diffs.
If that makes any sense. So, while the norm is to build rigs wider, I’m trying to keep this thing relatively narrow.
Now, I know this size rig won’t always help me. I’m obviously handicapped when it comes to water falls, steep climbs, or big cracks you need to straddle. But so far it seems to be a pretty good tool for the job. And has impressed me, many more times than it has let me down.
So here it is.
I picked up my 1988 Suzuki Samurai in 2022 from original owner in Arizona. He still had dealer paperwork!
That’s not to say it hadn’t seen the trails though. He had an off-road tuned carb, backyard made cage, 4.9 T-case with mount, SOA lift, rears up front, Lock-Right lockers F&R, chromoly front shafts, rear disc kit, and 33x13.50 TSLs on Allied Beadlocks.
Along with the Sammy, he gave me tons of spare parts. Axles, T-cases, Carburators…
I think he had disassemble like two other Sammys and just kept the good stuff.
One of the first things I did to it was replace the cage with the LowRange full cage kit, and added gusset tubes to it. Then electric assist steering from a Prius and LROR high steer kit.
Front axle ended up getting bent, so I built up some new axle housings with gussets front and rear, 4.57 R&P and replaced them, also putting chromos in the rear. I also installed front frame stiffeners during this time.
Ran it like this for a while, then swapped the T-case gears for 6.5s and installed LROR EOS Tcase mount.
The electric steering was great for mild wheeling, but running hard rock trails, I ended up breaking 2 or 3 steering boxes. So I pulled the trigger on a Hydro-assist setup consisting of TG crank/pump pulleys, TG steering pump mount, and TG hydraulic Ram. With this mount, you can run a 2005 Chevy corvette pump, which is pretty much identical to the TG pumps, but cheaper and lifetime warranty from the parts store. Also, the 6” ram was too much throw for the samurai’s geometry, so I had to take it apart and install, I think an inch of washers to reduce the travel.
I used a Sidekick box that I drilled and taped for hydro, and mounted with LROR “Wedge” style mount. Also an oversized reservoir/filter and cooler.
That’s pretty much the meat and potatoes of my rig, along with other little things like, HD tranny mount, seats, tire carrier, shocks, camo wrap, winch, lights, etc…
The little Sammy, does pretty good.
I do have Yota axles waiting to be installed, but I’ve been holding off till I’m ready to install them with linked suspension.
Till then, I’ve been able to beat the hell out of it on 33 inch tires without problems.
I did install a set of 35” boggers on it at one time, but broke a rear shaft on the first trail, so went back to 33’s. But that was before I had the rear chromoly shafts.
I currently have the Sammy apart right now. Mainly the body/interior so I can put a new wrap on it and change a few things on the cage and paint.
I’ll keep updates on that progress.
I don’t have a whole lot of pictures of the stuff previously done, so might be a little boring, but maybe it’ll be helpful to others building a Sammy or thinking about it.
I’ve built a few different rigs in the past, mainly Yotas, and a few Suzukis. Even had a K5 blazer for a little bit.
At one time I had two rigs. A pretty well built 2nd gen 4runner on Chevy axles, and a little Sidekick on 33s that I got for $500 and didn’t care about. I feel like my 4runner was pretty nice, and capable. But I found myself having more fun in the sidekick, putting it places it shouldn’t be. But it was so small and nimble, it usually would make it through to my surprise.
That’s what made me want t build a Sammy and focus on keeping it little and light.
I know one tons and 40s are the norm for rock crawling, but there’s been multiple times I’ve been behind rigs on full width axles and 40s that get hung up on axles and diffs. Then the Sammy will walk right through.
My belief why, isn’t only it being small enough to fit “between” the rocks, but also having your tires closer together, leaves less of an area for rocks to catch your axle/diffs.
If that makes any sense. So, while the norm is to build rigs wider, I’m trying to keep this thing relatively narrow.
Now, I know this size rig won’t always help me. I’m obviously handicapped when it comes to water falls, steep climbs, or big cracks you need to straddle. But so far it seems to be a pretty good tool for the job. And has impressed me, many more times than it has let me down.
So here it is.
I picked up my 1988 Suzuki Samurai in 2022 from original owner in Arizona. He still had dealer paperwork!
That’s not to say it hadn’t seen the trails though. He had an off-road tuned carb, backyard made cage, 4.9 T-case with mount, SOA lift, rears up front, Lock-Right lockers F&R, chromoly front shafts, rear disc kit, and 33x13.50 TSLs on Allied Beadlocks.
Along with the Sammy, he gave me tons of spare parts. Axles, T-cases, Carburators…
I think he had disassemble like two other Sammys and just kept the good stuff.
One of the first things I did to it was replace the cage with the LowRange full cage kit, and added gusset tubes to it. Then electric assist steering from a Prius and LROR high steer kit.
Front axle ended up getting bent, so I built up some new axle housings with gussets front and rear, 4.57 R&P and replaced them, also putting chromos in the rear. I also installed front frame stiffeners during this time.
Ran it like this for a while, then swapped the T-case gears for 6.5s and installed LROR EOS Tcase mount.
The electric steering was great for mild wheeling, but running hard rock trails, I ended up breaking 2 or 3 steering boxes. So I pulled the trigger on a Hydro-assist setup consisting of TG crank/pump pulleys, TG steering pump mount, and TG hydraulic Ram. With this mount, you can run a 2005 Chevy corvette pump, which is pretty much identical to the TG pumps, but cheaper and lifetime warranty from the parts store. Also, the 6” ram was too much throw for the samurai’s geometry, so I had to take it apart and install, I think an inch of washers to reduce the travel.
I used a Sidekick box that I drilled and taped for hydro, and mounted with LROR “Wedge” style mount. Also an oversized reservoir/filter and cooler.
That’s pretty much the meat and potatoes of my rig, along with other little things like, HD tranny mount, seats, tire carrier, shocks, camo wrap, winch, lights, etc…
The little Sammy, does pretty good.
I do have Yota axles waiting to be installed, but I’ve been holding off till I’m ready to install them with linked suspension.
Till then, I’ve been able to beat the hell out of it on 33 inch tires without problems.
I did install a set of 35” boggers on it at one time, but broke a rear shaft on the first trail, so went back to 33’s. But that was before I had the rear chromoly shafts.
I currently have the Sammy apart right now. Mainly the body/interior so I can put a new wrap on it and change a few things on the cage and paint.
I’ll keep updates on that progress.
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