Man, I gotta tell ya, I'm not a fan of trars. If it's a car, then I think it should be left a car. If it's a truck, I'm not gonna lower it and make it so I can't drive over a speedbump, ya know? Starting with a car and turning into a trar can be many times VERY expensive and very difficult. Many times you're working with only a unibody which makes mounting drivetrain and suspension parts a bit tricky, but you also have to reinforce the body so you don't waste it the first time out. It's a lot cheaper and a lot more practical to start with a 4WD truck. If you wanna convert something, buy a 2WD truck and throw an axle on the front. That way you have a frame, an easy retrofit, plus I don't see why you couldn't claim a 2WD title for lower insurance purposes.  

YES! Build IFS to work!  I'm curious about using coil overs in place of the torsion bars. Unless the torsion bars could be mounted to the upper A-arms, I think any torsion bar set up would hang down too low to be useful off road. 

I would go with a 3/4 ton or better IFS front end the 1/2 ton is just too weak, I've busted my 1/2 ton front end and all I have is 35's. What is the difficulty factor of swapping the 3/4 ton front diff into a 1/2 ton? HMMWV parts would be cool, but I don't think that many people have access to a HMMWV parts truck...

Build something Joe Truck owner can duplicate. There are a lot of aftermarket kits for the 4X2 PreRunner crowd, long travel A- Arms, etc. With the number of IFS Chevy's out there, there is little to no aftermarket for improving the IFS for 4X4, other than the usual IFS lift that just drops the torsion bar crossmember 6 inches below the frame to hang up on every snag.  I've been thinking about ditching the torsion bars for coilover shocks (I think I saw an ad for a coil over conversion for 4X4 Chevy IFS made FABTECH? I can't find the ad again, was I imagining things?)  Either way, it shouldn't be that hard to fab up some shock hoops (with a cross brace across the engine for strength) mounting the shock to the lower A arm might be creative to clear the halfshaft.  The stock CV joints/halfshafts seem to be one of the limiting factors. How about longer A-arms, coilover shocks, and some trick halfshafts that have a slip joint like the Downey Off Road long travel short shafts for Toyotas. I don't think the Downey units would be strong enough for a full size with 37"-42" tires, but a beefier unit using readily available standard driveshaft components maybe? I think the Porshe halfshafts used by Baja Trophy tucks would be too expensive for the average Joe.

I also like the build on the cheap idea! How about a junkyard jewel build? Only use what you can find in the junkyard to build the beast! I don't have acce$$ to Dynatrac custom axles, but I do have a local junkyard...

You make an interesting point.  I have a two wheel drive truck.  Maybe I'll try that.  Any suggestions on what frontend to put on it?  I've got a B2300.

Toyota front axles are awesome, especially for light-duty applications (a Ranger-sized vehicle with 35" tires or smaller). They can be built too, but they are strong as a stock unit. You may or may not have some trouble locating one of them, as this is a sought-after swap for 86-later IFS Toyota owners. A Dana 44 from a Jeep or a Scout might also be a good one, but you will still have the wrong bolt pattern (actually maybe not, old Jeep is 5x5.5, but new Jeep is 5x4.5). If it's out of a Jeep, it might not be wide enough to suit your needs, depending on what you want.

well, first of all, i'm not from CA. take a trip anywhere else in the country and you will find other valleys. second of all, i lived in the pacific northwest for most of my life and have done most of my wheeling there.  i've ran mud, snow, sand, and backwoods trails. there are no rocks. i've tuff trucked, mud bogged, mud dragged, sand dragged, and raced across frozen lakes. i've owned and 4 wheeled trucks from every manufacturer except mazda.  if you take  all the staff buddies' snipers, scorpions, jackly's, and truggies out of the equation, i don't believe they've ever done a buildup on a buggy. i'm sick of the $50K buggies myself. most of the buildups have been things like the ultimate superduty, avalanche, jinxy, dakota, blazers, ramchargers, the list goes on. some one correct me if i'm wrong. i have not seen them take a truck, cut the top off, lose the bed, the fenders, hood, doors, design their own suspension, and tube out the rest. the guys doing it are real world 4 wheelers with fab. skills. and they are doing it cheap. i just wish the mag would check back in with the monster THEY created when they showed us the scorpion. AND, the magazine is not for trucks or about trucks. it's about 4 wheel and offroad. not 4 wheel and tractor pull. the editor owns a damn jeep. i know i've said this before, JEEP ADVERTISES OFFROAD CAPABILITY, FULLSIZE TRUCKS ADVERTISE DRAG RACING WITH TRAILERS! since you stereotyped me to a surfing california rockcrawler, i'll take a shot at you. your 73-87 chev pickup is your only vehicle. it has a rebel flag somewhere on it. it has multiple dents and is multiple colored( or all primer). you have 38" mudders and you've rebuilt/replaced more that one dana 44 front end. you blast hank jr. or david allen coe through your 6x9's so loud that the sound is distorted, and you post your chew can lids on your dash. no offense meant, that's just how me and my buddies were back in the muddin' days.  

Valley, who is hank jr. or david allen coe?
AS for the 4x2 to the 4x4 idea, that sounds pretty hot.  Big thing in it is installing the transfercase right?(correct me if i'm wrong never thought of something like that before) How would the truck react to all this: going from ifs to dana 44, installing a new transfercase, and I'm sure there are other things that need to be done.  And where exactly would you start?  This would be quite the intereseting build and i think a lot of people would be interested in it, i know i'd read it no matter how many parts there are to it. 

Tube buggies are ok, jeeps are cool, i like big trucks, not show trucks useful big trucks.  You've got half a year to build any of the options listed before until the UA 2004.  UA means its going to have to be able to go on all the streets, tubes or no tubes, cheap or mad ca$h, junkyard jewl or offroad monster. 

Well your right about the chew cans and country music.  but thats all my rig is not the only vehicle i have i own 5 vehicles and the trucks only purpose is to 4 wheel, its not a 73-87 chevy, its a 89 chevy 1/2 ton, with a solid axle swap, dana 60 front 14 bolt rear, 12 inches of lift done the right way a beast of a motor sitting on 44 inch boggers.  so NO im not a redneck pisspoor plow truck owner.  I do fabrication on trucks and hotrods for a living and like to see a badass machine. thats all.

if they do make a badass mud machine, i just hope  they do something to decrease the massive weight. use fiberglass pieces, bob or remove the bed, do something innovative and cheap. i just don't think bolting a 12" lift and some 44's on a pickup is much of a build.  i like the tube jobs because sheetmetal no longer is an issue. you can run 44's and still keep a low center of gravity. you don't have to lift your rig  15" to fit big tires. you can lay the thing on it's side and keep churning on the sidewalls, w/out tearing up $2000 worth of body panels and paint work. if they took the thing out muddin', and then made some setup changes to run sand or high speed desert, that would be my project idea. i would just like to see a purpose built rig that can kick ass in 2 different envoirnments. i don't care if it's rocks, mud, sand, whatever, as long as it's not speed bumps and show and shine. i just think rocks and sand are completey opposite so it would be interesting and challenging. i want to see a rig that can be transformed to actually perform differently using the same parts, just a different setup.  

I think you're idea about a rig that can do 2 different things well is possible and has been done.  Check out Randy Ellis and his R.E.D. Racer at www.randyellisdesign.com.  If you use a lightweight aluminum engine with a few mods, an aluminum tranny, 1 or 2 aluminum t-cases, and some aluminum diff housings that are reinforced you would have a great crawling rig, as well as one that is light enough to jump or float on the mud.  I'ld like to see the mag transition from big and heavy to small and light (atleast for the UA).  If you lose the weight, then you'll save a lot of the money that you would spend buying big heavy axles, and drivetrain components.  If you look at one of the main things that pro rock crawlers and SCORE racers have in common is that their rigs are generally built as light as possible.  Pro rock crawlers are just starting to move that direction.

I know some of you will counter this with the big rear ends they use in SCORE and how some rock crawlers are still doing it the way of the SCORPION, but I think that's changing.  If you could keep your rig under 2,000 lbs. then Toyota axles, or Dana 44's would do just fine.

Scoutnut

it's funny that you mention randy ellis. i've recently moved to the phoenix area(where his shop is). i've never met him or been to his shop but one of my (few)offroad buddies in the area was talking about him the other day. we were talking about front lockers and i asked him what he thought about my sand rail turning brakes i installed on my jeep front brakes in lieu of a locker. he said it was cool and that randy ellis had done that. don't know if he really did but the guy seems to be a legend around here.  

hank jr and david allen coe, along with charlie daniels are the best country musicians to listen to while you're wheelin' out in the woods. the music is best when played through 6x9 speakers out of a 70's ford or chev 4x4 with big tires.  you must have good buddies and cold ones.  a bottle of whiskey being passed around is optional.  a few nice looking young ladies that aren't country music fans but for some reason they are that day is an added bonus. nightfall, clear skies, full moon, lots of stars, and a campfire help too but isn't absolutely necessary.

as far as the project, they would have to figure out how to make a ttb or other ifs setup rockcrawl, or figure out how to make a solid axle jump and blast the dunes. i didn't see the part about building for ultimate adventure. UA isn't what i had in mind. for that, i would just take a rubicon with 33's and a good stereo(for all the road miles). wouldn't even have to do a buildup. they could save magazine space for something interesting. as you can see, i'm not a big fan of UA.

I'm from Tempe, and you're right about Randy.  I've met him and he does some awesome work.  He did the SOA on my Scout and did it right.  I live about a mile from his home/shop. 

As far as IFS for crawling, the Red Racer has that, and since it has pretty good travel, it should work well in the dunes as well.  All you would need is a little more motivation from the engine.  That's where you do a few 4 banger upgrades.  You really start to push it though if you want NOS.  You'ld have to upgrade to all forged engine components and you'ld be much more suseptible to breaking lightweight drivetrain which equals lots of money.

Scoutnut

Hey, what else could i do to my 4 banger to make it put out?  I dont want to use NOS unless there is no other way.  I have a 2.3 L, Dual Pl.  Is there anything that a guy could do with not alot of money?

I would imagine that any of the standard bolt on items such as: a header, performance exhaust, (if carburated) a spacer plate.  Then there are your higher dollar items such as cams, head mods, forged crank and pistons, and some type HEI.  I don't really have lots of info on the rice burners.  I have usually only modified or worked with V8's but I assume it's still the same.  This is one of the reason's I would like to see the mag. go light and build up a 4 banger with a light drivetrain.  I think a lot of people would benefit from seeing what's out there for their little engines, and what they can get out of them.

Scoutnut

i know toyata guys put 20r heads on 22r engines for more compression. maybe something like that is available for your application. there is also the bolt on stuff you can do. K&N, header, high flow muffler and cat, throttle body spacer(or a weber). if the 4x2 mazda where mine, i'd lose the sheetmetal, build a link suspension with coilovers out back, a locker(spool if it's available), and deeper gears. custom build a new long travel A-arm suspension up front with king shocks and eibach coils. build a kick ass 13B rotary and take it out in the desert or the dunes. not really, just a dream.