I’m running a stock ‘88 Zuki with P-225/75R15 tires.  This is a daily driver and while I do a lot of off-roading, I don’t do any really serious rock crawling.  I don’t plan any major mods, although I might be willing to add a small amount of lift. My one problem with it is that I sometimes have to “blastâ€? over places in the desert mountains of southern New Mexico that I could creep over in the stock ‘61 CJ-5 with 5:38-1 differential gears that I owned for 41 years.  

I’m considering adding a Rock Block from Trail Tough to allow me to go slower over the steep, bumpy places without sacrificing highway speed but I have some questions and hope someone here who has actually tried one, or seen one in action can help me.

1) The vehicle isn’t exactly over powered to start with (understatement of the decade?) and I wonder if adding the additional gear box results in any significant loss of power to the axles either in 2wd or 4wd?  

2) I am not exactly happy with the fact that the transfer case hangs down now, just begging for some ill tempered rock to reach up and smack it and I plan to add a skid plate but wonder how low the add-on box hangs? In other words, am I going to have more metal hanging down even lower to tempt the rocks?

3) Where the heck does the shift lever stick up through the floor board and is it in the way of anything (such as the passengers seat)?

4) Does anyone else sell a similar unit that I should also give consideration to? Or anything else I should know either good or bad about the Rock Block unit?

TIA,

Mel

You can change the gearing in your transfer case.  It will improve your low range AND your high range.  That will help make up for your taller tires.

This is just one vender.

http://www.puresuzuki.com/drivetrain2.htm

Cwkick

Hi Mel,
          I don't have have a rock block...but I stayed at a holiday inn express last night...just kidding!  
Spidertrax makes a thorax...something just like the rock block.  Then there is OTT industries that makes the kicker 3, which takes the low range box from a Sidekick and mates it to your sammy xfer xase.  This is by far the cheapest way to go.  That is if you can get a kick xfer case cheap enough.  

You could also do a simple spoa and add the lower xfer case gears and run 30"ish tires and still have similar highway speed.  With some shopping around all of these options are going to be pretty close in dollars spent.

D

Additionally 5.38 gears are available for the
Sammy also, and will help with the crawl ratio

You have many choices to look at, it just
depends on what you want to spend for
the parts

Wild

As for the Rock Block, it is an expensive option but works quite well.  But for the price you would probably be better off just putting lower gears in the transfer case first.  Unless you really need that lower crawl ratio and have money to burn.

As for clearance the Rock Block replaces your intermediate shaft so it doesn't hang down at all.  The only problem I noticed was when to small of a diamater of tube was used for the breather line.  Then it spit oil all over the place, including my friends lap as he had it run up to the top of the cab to give it some more length.  Now that was amusing.  He also notices a bit of vibration at high speeds, but he trailers it to and from the trail and it is un-noticeable at lower speeds.

If you talk to Trail Tough they will tell you that the rockblock is not recommended for use on the road.  :-/

Drone,

Your answers on this board and the other one too (I saw that one first) are exactly what I've been looking for.

Thanks.

Mel

nc_zuk,

Thanks. Since I won't always be trailering mine, I will call them before I leap.

Mel

definatley do the 4-1 t case gears. way cheaper and more suitable to what you want to do. I have a sami with 3" emu springs,30" tires and the 4-1's are perfect. I can still cruise down the highway at 75 but can also crawl the trails.