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ZW: So, you've
been a die-hard Samurai fan for many years now, what got you
started down this new path? JH: In the last 6 years now
I’ve spent a lot of time and money building a very capable
Suzuki Samurai. I had a lot of good times and lots of memorable
events with that vehicle but it was starting to ride really choppy
(yeah I know, it was just a samurai). When my father decided to
sell his Sammy and decided to get a sidekick/tracker, I thought he
was nuts. Well he finally got one and after I drove it a bit, I
was hooked! Eric Bewley had been bugging me to get one for quite a
while and when he discovered I was addicted he was all over me.
“Why don’t you do a bitchin SAS?” Well thanks a lot buddy
(and I’m not being sarcastic)!
ZW: What was
the next series of events that moved you 'down the line' towards
this new ride? JH: I live fairly close to Trail Tough and had
always checked out the red SAS Sidekick he was prototyping every
time I was down there. So I thought extensively about it and after
sleeping on it for a week or so I called Brent Bradshaw and told
him that I wanted mine to be his first production model. I told
him I wanted the works and wanted him to do the install. After
some talk and the reassurance that the end result would drive down
the road perfect and go off road awesome, I signed on. He had a
couple of projects ahead of mine so I started looking for the
perfect donor vehicle.
ZW: Donor
vehicle... Sometimes it's tough to find a nice clean one like you
found. How did that evolve? JH: Well after a couple of trips
to the Portland area I found a Sidekick, green in color, that had
been taken awesome care of. Of course it had to have the basics,
like 16v, PS and a 5 speed. The one I found had 113,000 miles on
it. It was perfect. I got it home and stripped the carpet out and
Herculined it and installed a new stereo because it didn’t have
one. It was ready!
ZW: Ready,
Set, Go! Right? JH: I delivered it to Trail Tough, along with
the nastiest set of Toyota axles you ever seen, in the early part
of January. Brent still had a few projects to finish up and I told
him I was in no hurry (OK so I lied). I think he didn’t get
started on it till the beginning of March. Brent said that the
axles would need to be rebuilt, end-to-end. I was good with this,
because then they would be brand new and shouldn't cause problems.
ZW: OK, tell
us what's it's got. Give us the rundown. JH: It has the SAS
kit, which consists of everything you need to install a 3 link
with pan hard in the front and a 4 link in the back. Doestech
shocks, springs and knuckle over steering. The kit is bolt on with
the only welding involved being the brackets that weld onto the
leaf spring perches on the Toyota axles (it’s a real NO BRAINER),
5.29 ring and pinions a lockright up front and an ARB in the back.
We had him install the 4.27 transfer case gears and a new cat back
exhaust system. His new front and rear bumpers and his rock
sliders would be a must. They are awesome because they are DOM
tube instead of the formed ones that the market is saturated with,
I LOVE THEM!!! During the process I decided to have him build a
cage for the front and he happily obliged by designing one. I
think he is going to put that into production too. Top it all off
with some eagle 89’s and 33-12.50-15 Goodyear Wrangler MTR’s
and you have a mean wheeling machine!
ZW: Bottom
line it for us, how do you like driving it? JH: This machine
is awesome! It drives as good on the road as my wife’s 4 runner.
That is what I wanted and that is what was delivered. ZW: Any
final thoughts? JH: I would like to thank the guys at Trail
Tough for their awesome work and for making a dream come true. I
would also like to thank Eric Bewley for putting the bug in my
ear!
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ZW