aug 2003 issue says a samurai is a goog beginner rock rig.  What about a tracker?  Are all samurai's solid axle?  How will the samurai do in mud?

thx-

Samurais and lightweight, but not really powerfull

we are looking into getting a samurai for a project vehicle, and will let you know how it works out in the mud

trackers are all IFS....it will cost you a fortune in custom work to make it a worthhile rock rig with 33" tires. stick to the sammy if you can  

ide rather use a tracker theres less old junk to deal with and you can swap chevy parts in the drivetrain

a solid front is the ticket but

if you brace the centersection you can run 33s for a wile untill it breaks but you could get lucky and im not sure but you might be able to swap in an s10 blazer center and brace that as well im sure you can find one blazers are allmost free anymore for an old one your looking at 100 bucks if it looks like crap and doesnt run

and a swap would be good aswell trackers i think only would be able to take a ford front end because of the ifs is on the other side like a ford ide look at one first before getting parts.

a good well done swap is hard but cheap if you have a cutting tourch and a good welder the worst is steering but someone has somewhere taken pics of lots of ideas and it helps a lot

I'd stay away from the Tracker, unless you have some serious fabrication skills and plan on swapping a solid front axle.  The Sammie comes with solid axles and are cheap and easy to lift.  The hot axle upgrade for sammies is to slap Toyota axles underneath, they are much stronger than stock Sammie axles.  Engine wise, I've seen Suzuki swift motors and Tracker motors swapped in. Check out Calmini for Susuki and Tracker upgrades.  

thats true about the axles but you cant beat a good deal... take what you can get... cheap rules toyota axles are ok i guess but i have heard mixed on them use a 9inch for the back they work good and are easy to find-cheap also

if you built a track with dana 44s front and rear a bigger motor and some gearing ... toss a set of 35-37s on and you have a kick ass truck but its all hard and i dono how you are with fabing

and if your gonna put that kinda money into a tracker to swap it to a solid axle why not spend that kinda money on an old beater  

I've thought about one day building another Sami, like I did in high school.  We did an soa, lockers, gears, shackle reversal, and lots of other cool stuff.  I would use Scout II D44's f/r though.  Under something as light as a zuki they'll hold up really well and the advantage of having a superior turning radius would be awesome in such a small, nimble rig.  Not to mention you don't have to try and find a toyota front axle.  I haven't seen a straight axle out of the front of a toyota in my neck of the woods recently.  Toyota rockcrawlers have already snagged them for their IFS rigs. 

I would even begin to want to mess with the headache of an IFS tracker.  Sure you could brace it up, add a sub frame  or something and decrease your ground clearance even more.  If time is money, then you are putting an awful lot of money into fabricating something that really won't be that effective in the long run.  It would be much more cost effective and less time consuming to go with a straight axle Sami.

Scoutnut

how do you plan to use the vehicle?
I own a 87 Sammy and its held through jumps, snow, trails, and mud. and its stock everything except oddball tires and no bumper.
As for mud as long as it is about 2nd gear and about 5000 rpm you should be fine.