I'm picking up a beautifully restored '87 tin top tomorrow and the first thing on my list is twin sticks for the transfer case.  I plan to tow 4-down for distances of up to 400 miles at a stretch and I don't want to stop to run the engine or pop off the drive shaft every time I relocate.  Apparently Rock 4XFabrication used to make a Samurai kit but I don't see it on their site now.  I could get a drive shaft disconnect but those run $400-500 and don't give the extra bonus of 2-wheel low.  Feels like paying twice as much for half the features.  Actually more like thrice the price.

Anyone have a line on twin stick kits for the Samurai?

I would give them a call.

I should have mentioned that I sent them an email last night. 

twin sticks offer no flat towing benefit.

unless I am missing something?

It is my understanding that you can get a true neutral in the transfer case, eliminating the need to run the engine every couple hours of towing.

Answered my own question.  Found the Evil Twin kit at http://www.zukeviltwin.com/index.html

Just installed the Evil Twin sticks and love it. The 2 low option is awesome.

Is the one your getting the one in your avatar?  Red one in San Diego ? If that's the one it looks like a nice one, I thought last time I looked at it on ebay it said reserve not met.

That's the one.  I really wasn't expecting to win it.  Figured it would go for 7500 or more and I wasn't going to spend that much.  But that rig was what I wanted to end up with (minus the pretty paint job) and it had passed the reserve much lower than I expected so I set up a meet just to see what I could expect from a [mostly] stock restore.  I was supposed to meet another guy on the way home to look at a project car in Fontana but he flaked.  I pulled over and checked the San Diego auction and it had barely moved.  I put in a last minute bid just figuring I'd bump up the last guy's bid by a few hundred.  Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Now I'm up before the crack of dawn to catch the train down to pick it up.  Instead of a project with a drivetrain rebuild, engine swap, lift, etc. all I have to do is drive it home.  More than I intended to spend up front but less than I would have spent just restoring the mechanical side of a project car, never mind the cosmetics.

I put in a last minute bid just figuring I'd bump up the last guy's bid by a few hundred.  Surprise, surprise, surprise!

You have to be careful of bids like that.  My brother has a Tekken 4 arcade machine stored at his house because of 'someone will probably outbid me' style of bids. 

Question: Does the Evil Twin offer the option of front-wheel-drive only?

Question: Does the Evil Twin offer the option of front-wheel-drive only?

No, but Trail Tough does offer a rear drive-line disconnect.

http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/index.php/suzuki/samurai/transfer-case/rear-driveline-disconnect.html

It looks really clean and pretty much everything has been replaced or rebuilt, the list of things done to it add up to a lot more than the purchase price, with a $10,000 buy it now price I thought it was going to sell for more. One thing I noticed was that they called it a jx but it doesn't have the jx dash or gauges. Discrepancies like that seem to be pretty common on ebay.

It looks really clean and pretty much everything has been replaced or rebuilt, the list of things done to it add up to a lot more than the purchase price, with a $10,000 buy it now price I thought it was going to sell for more. One thing I noticed was that they called it a jx but it doesn't have the jx dash or gauges. Discrepancies like that seem to be pretty common on ebay.

Yeah.  The VIN on the kick panel matches the VIN on the dash, tho, so I'm pretty confident it's not a total Frankenstein made from the parts of a dozen corpses.  Maybe I should have checked the frame rail, too, just to be sure.    Lots of people click the "list the same item" link for stuff that's not really an exact match.  And it doesn't have duel exhaust like the pics imply.  They're just tips that will be promptly removed.  They look nice but I don't like fake trim.  While I'd like a tach and a clock and stuff those things weren't very high on my priority list.

I did the math on what it would take to get a "project" tin top into solid mechanical condition and, any way I crunched the numbers, it was going to be more than $6000.  That was figuring 3k for the car, rebuild the transmission and transfer case, scrounge up a 1.9l turbo diesel, $$$ to get the engine in good shape and install it, lift kit, wheels, tires.  It adds up fast.  So I took a shot and skipped the "project" phase.  While I don't have the extra power and coolness of the bigger engine, I also didn't have to deal with all that work. 

That and the only other tin tops I found for sale were either very rough (like the one with the transfer case lever held in place with a strap) or saddled with a high reserve, out-of-state, salvage title, or some combination.  Titled, currently registered, and recently smogged in CA helped tip the scales.

The stock Samurai T-case shifter leaves the front and rear driveshafts connected through the transfer case when in "neutral". When flat-towing, the rear driveshaft then spins the front driveshaft at highway speeds, which it was never intended to do, and it's easy to break something expensive. Twin sticks allow you to select 2WD and Neutral at the same time --  a "True" neutral for towing. This is especially important on a lifted/modified vehicle with more extreme driveshaft angles.  You still have to run the engine to spin the gears and lube the seals every 200 miles or so.  I've installed twin sticks for towing my Sami behind a motorhome, 'cause I can't be dropping the rear driveshaft every day of a 3-month, 10,000 mile  summer trip.  I installed the twins sticks with 4.16 gears 'cause you'll need to remove the center interlock shifter ball.  I run the engine in gear, every 200 miles and/or when gassing-up, to re-lube the internals just like Suzuki recommends, starting on page 8-6 of my owners manual.
  
This is a fairly popular subject and there's been much discussion, here and elsewhere.  Some searching will reveal a bunch of additional information, but you'll have to separate fact from opinion and conjecture. Besides the Evil Twin (my choice), Rock4X Fab also makes a very nice set with a modified Jeep (dare I say that word?) lower boot, absent on the Evil Twin.  You'll always have to bend the sticks yourself, and some welding or heat may be required. I really like mine, for what they do for me and in my situation.