Okay,
I've been tyring to plan my upgrade path for my Samurai. Looks like what I need to do is buy a Trackick doner car - take it's motor, FI, rear 3rd member, front pinion gears, A/C and power steering. Swap them all into my Samurai (making a custom rear hybrid in the process) and get my new car "reffed" with the new motor for california SMOG.

Then I thought to myself "Wait - why don't I just sell the Samurai - and slap on a lift / armour / tires/ lockers to the Trackick and be done with it? I'll have the better axles, better power, larger tuck, and it will be WAY less work, and I'll get money BACK from my Samurai to help fund the project..."

I want a daily driver, that can keep up on the freeway - and still get me through the Rubicon. So - what do you think.... Samurai, or Trackick?

I like Trackers more for daily driver cars but, Samis are nice for pure off-road.  I prefer the looks of the Tracker though   

There's something to be said for the ladies liking the styling 

To be honest with you, I think Trackicks are more inherently capable and quite a bit more stable as trail vehicles.

I have wheeled with quite a few Sammys in the last 6 months, and I have done everything they have, and easier too..

I am not saying my little truck is as good as a radical Sammy, but  money to money....  I find that my Tracker will go places that make lifted Sammy's turn over.. I have been with at least 6 Sammys that rolled, or got VERY untable, where the Tracker just walked right up the same obstacle.

Deep mud might be an exception, as I don't run deep mud in my little machine.. but as far as trails, hills, and such...  I rarely pick a tire, and the sammys around me have usually been on the verge of rolling over, if not already on thier side.


I am NOT a Sammy expert, but I have seen what I have seen, and they ARE more tippy than a Trackick.. no doubt..


lets see what the sammy guys say about it..

One hint is to see which vehicle Mike Hagen and the other Zukgurus have chosen....... hmmmmmmmmm trackicks.......   tells you SOMETHING... at least it did me..

I don't have unlimited funds... so... I'm thinking more and more that a trackick (good one can be had for around $1,500 these days with A/C + Power Steering) is a more economical base to start from. And - all the sami guys complain about their weak diffs, and say Trackicks are better. I'm doing armour in either vehicle... but still.

And - I hear that automatic is better for wheeling. No rollbacks, and the gearing in the auto is supposed to be better for bigger tires? (I'm going 29"). For that matter - do they have t-case gears for the auto's? The t-case is internal on Trackicks aren't they?

Not sure what lift I'd do... I at least need to lift it enough to get armour under the rocker panels. I plan on armouring the hell out of it, and running lockers front + back. I don't mind scraping over obsticles if I'm protected.

One thing I'm wondering though - can I do welded in front of a trackick? I'm pretty unfirmilliar with IFS - heh.

The rollover thing makes sense (trackicks are wider).

The MAIN drawback to Kicks is the aluminum front IFS.  Get the GV steel stuff, or you will likely break.. especially with a welded front. In  my opinion, if you are going to weld the front, I would invest in a two wheel LOW kit, I think they are a little over $100 and allow you to use low range in 2wd, that way you could leave the front disconnected unless you really needed it.


The transfer case bolts to the back of the tranny on kicks, so yes, they do have gears for the autos..

and YES the autos seem to be better for offroading.. I wish I had one.


You don't need a lot of lift on a kick to get where others go with more lift. Remember, I only have 2" in a BDS suspension package.. with a great deal of trimming, I am running 31's just fine.

Instead of putting on a body lift  (YUK!)  I trimmed the rockers off, and put the sliders up where they would be on a body lifted Kick.   I have the same ground clearance of ANY other kick on 31's.  It just doesn't look like it.  I have less break over than a lifted sammy, but I am WAY WAY WAY more stable.. That I guarantee.

Check this picture.  I barely drug at "V rock" at the 909 trails.  I climbed stuff others couldn't, and didn't spin where Sammy's spun...




Tires and low pressure contribute a great deal... but a stock street tired, un lifted, un locked Tracker went almost EVERYWHERE everyone else went...  It was funny as hell...

Thanks again for the info. I like keeping a low center of gravity - so, I'd PERSONALLY would rather do a virtual lift than a "real" lift. I'm THINKING of doing like a 2" lift (would that replace the aluminum parts?) - and then cut fenders as necessary. Calmini has a 2" lift for $600 - is it any good? Should I look at something else?

I'll do a locker in the rear almost immediately (I know... I wish I could afford ARB, but I can't), and was thinking welded in front 'cause it's super cheap   I'll look for a kit that will let me do 2wd low only. Trail tough has a bunch of t-case gearing kits that give you the "H" pattern shifting as part of the kit.... I'll have to see if anyone does that for the trackicks.

that is awesome that a stocker went all those places. when i wheeled my zuk it was hilarious because it was stock and I couldn't believe where it could go. I'm sure the 1st gen trackers are pretty similar as far as stock capabilities to my GV. some advantages to a track/kick over a sammy is the 3 link rear (not too shabb), and as quaddog says, better stability. I haven't seen too many sami's but the 3 link will be much more active than the leafs and probably easier to get good flex out of. as for the front, you can run ome struts and take the sway bar off and get some pretty decent flex there and it will ride oh so nice like that.

I'd say trackick would have some good advantages over the sami including less work and getting your money out of the sami.

good luck.. the choice is yours

if you are going to do calmini you should do the 3 inch lift so you get all the new rear links. it will not replace the aluminum front axle housing quaddawg mentioned. the 3 inch kit isn't that much lift and you'll apreciate spending the extra money for the new links I think. a friend of mine had it and LOVED it. ran 31's with no trimming except the front bumper skin and had minimal rubbing. you'd probably want to trim a few things up though.. a matter of flexing it and fidning out I think

to eliminate the aluminum housing you can either get a GV housing or the calmini anvil. the calmini anvil is nice because it has a flanged axle stub for the passenger side (US) so you don't have to mess around with pulling the CV out and losing all that oil if you have to put in a new CV on the trails. you'll have to spend a bit for a new drivers side CV to go on the passenger side and have a stock passenger side one to look at when you get bored. I think the anvil would be cool

good luck man

Here's where I took MY stocker:

Samurai people keep em cause they are cheap and they dont break down. Now that changes a little when you go nuts on off road mods and try to break em on big rocks, but hey what can you say.  I dont wheel hard, but it seems like the concensus is that the samurai is easier  and cheaper to lift and take off road because of the solid axles and leaf springs. 6 inches of lift is pretty cheap and will clear some decent sized tires without chopping up your ride.

What it pretty much comes down to on looks is the Samurai is a unique looking vehicle with classic styling. It gets attention where jeeps and trackers get ignored, particularly when its lifted and looks decent.

The tracker is a nice little 4x4, but the styling got worse and worse as time went on and it tried to compete with rav-4's and crv's and other small SUV's.  Now a days its hard to get any attention in a stock tracker because they are so common. Just when you think your tracker is all sweet looking some yahoo in a leased liberty with all the plastic add-ons and 19 inch wheels pulls up next to you and steals your thunder with his mall hopper. But trust me, when i drive my samurai, people notice me and not the mall hoppers.

Now this is likely to insult some tracker owners so i should say it is just my opinion. I would not mind having a nice tracker to run around in, but i just couldnt see spending money on a lot of mods for it.

I love my little SJ, but I bought a Tracker to use as a Daily driver.  It just has more room inside then the Samurai does and it doesn't require an engine swap to cruise down the highway at 70+.  They are both solid off-road vehicles, but for hard-core running I think the Tracker will take a bit more work due to the IFS front end, where you can just get new axels on the Samurai.

My next off-road project vehicle will be a Tracker though.  I want to take a 4 door and mod it into a truck, as mentioned on here a few times.  I also want just a bit longer wheelbase.   

Not to mention that unless you get lucky a good Sammy cost almost as much as a Tracker these days...

I,m pretty new to the zuki scene have a 90 samuri and a 90 sidekick,i love the sami,s styling but prefer the sidekicks I,m over 6 feet and find the kick much roomer and a better daily driver I,m in the process of building a tracker using a auto tranny,Much easier to find a rust free tracker and i hate rust.

After owning/building numerous samurais and trackicks, I would have to say that your best bet is going for SAS on your trackick.  Samurais are a blast to drive, especially in the woods but the comforts of the tracker are not even in the same ballpark.  The only gripe I have with trackicks is the IFS, no matter where you go solid axles will kick some independant ass. If you did go with the buildup of the samurai, I would prolly not swap motors(it is amazing what a set of gears will do).  The extra power is nice, but a weber on 1.3 works wonders.  Its really all on what you want to do, yes a samurai IMO is a far better wheeler than a trackick with IFS, but swap some real axles in and you have a beast.   

Jeremiah,

if your tired of your samurai, and want a softer ride for the street, then sell the samurai and get a tracker. if you still like the samurai then keep it, and build it over time like i'm doing. the bonus of a tracker though is it already comes with a 1.6, and 95-98 came with the 16v version. i've never owned a sami so i can't tell you which is better.

as far as the ifs goes, you shouldn't have any problems unless you have big tires, and drive it hard off-road. i mean the aluminum front housing, as the ifs is solid otherwise.