The other thing that should be said is that you can find a wrecked trackick as a donor. Talk to your local foreign car salvage yard and see if they will keep an eye open for a rolled trackick, rear-ended, hit side, theft recovery, etc.....  My cousins own a large local yard and said if i ever decided to do a swap they woudl keep an eye out at the auctions for what i needed.  They said it would be a reasonably good deal for them to sell me the wreck at a hundred bucks or so over their cost to cover moving it from auction to my house etc.....if i would give them back the unused part of the wreck when i was done.

Your local salvage yard may be willing to make a similar deal since it is basically free money for them.

Which actually brings up another thought......is it possible to take the samurai motor etc and swap them back into the tracker when you are done so you at least have a running rig?

LOL, on the "solid kicks IFS ass"

I used to believe that.. really I did.. I was a full size BEAM guy..


BUT,  I have been doing QUITE a bit of wheeling this year, almost every weekend, from Windrock TN, to Attica, to Haspin acres... to 909..

Solid axles haven't shown me anything... Maybe on hard core rocks or something... but my IFS has been doing everything the solid guys are doing, and even more.. SO... I really don't see where solid is kicking anything... and man, it pains me to say so..  you don't know and can't imagine how I used to be on the other side of this argument.. (lord if you only knew.. lol.. I am eating crow like you wouldn't believe)

I haven't done that much wheeling but I have found that with the sway bar off a zuk the ifs comes alive and it's just a freaking beast even with stock supension. I think solid front is overrated but not sure which is better once you get into extreme stuff

Well, solids are tougher.. that's for sure...  They can flex better... but they don't give the contact patch that IFS does..

trade offs I guess...   I take it easy... I try not to break stuff...seems to work for me.

Don't get me wrong.. I want a Sammy too.. and am looking for a cheapo Sammy to fix up.

I actually like IFS, and was concidering plans for an IFS buggy for a little while.  But it is harder to build the front end for larger tires then it is on the Sammy. 

yea, that makes sense. I am gentle with my GV especially because it's my daily driver


I want a sammy just because. i wouldn't even necesarely do anything with it other than just have it because they are so tiny and wicked

The advantage that 3-speed, non-OD auto tranny Track/Kicks have is that you can swap in the 5.12 diffs from a 5 speed or 4-speed OD auto Track/Kick and have the proper gearing for 30-32" tires.  I'm sorta in the process of doing this.



IFS gets bad reviews because of another form of it...torsion bar IFS...having had a fullsize GM with it and being spectacularily unimpressed with it's durability and 3.56739" of travel I can say some IFS is worthless.  Ever noticed your F150's lack of front travel Quaddawg?  A bone stock Tracker has twice the travel of a fullsize GM, Ford, or Dodge with a torsion bar IFS.  Toyota's torsion bar IFS turned out pretty well though, wish the Big 3 had taken a hint.  Coil sprung IFS is the current wave though and everyone's left or leaving torsion bars behind.  Good riddance in my opinion.
Wait, Suzuki went coil sprung IFS in 1989...maybe they knew something...

LOL.... yeah, that torsion bar IFS is what had me hating..


My 150 is 2wd though... just a DD and tow rig..


My full sizes have been beam, and I really thought I had something.. lol.. NOW, I go back to the same trails I used to find hard, and feel like I did something to get up, in the Tracker and cruise to the top with radio on, kid having a conversation, arm out the window, drinking a soda, not spinning a tire.. it's really great.. lol...

yea, most torsion bar ifs sytems seem completely worthless. I haven't really flexed my dad's dakota but for how high it sits it doesn't look like there is allot of travel. you can't just throw a longer shock absorber in and crank the T bars to get more travel. it's no limited by the shock like a zuk on the down travel. my grandpa's ifs chevy 2500 4 X 4 seems like a giant car... I dislike it allot

I noticed that with my stock struts with the sway bar off the ifs did a ton more than I expected. I can't wait to undo my sway bar and flex it with my ome struts!

quaddawg, I haven't wheeled a full size but they seem like the wrong way to go for off roading to me. too big and clumsy. zuks and toyotas are light and agile

quaddawg, I haven't wheeled a full size but they seem like the wrong way to go for off roading to me. too big and clumsy. zuks and toyotas are light and agile

LOL, yeah, that is exactly the case.. but you know... all american boy, grew up with v8's and Harley's..  Now I am driving a Geo.. lol.. and going places other can't/won't/shouldn't


lol..


Little  4x4's gottem beat..


I loved this old truck...... but it was a dog compared to my Tracky:

Little  4x4's gottem beat..

I loved this old truck...... but it was a dog compared to my Tracky:

It interesting to hear you say that your Tracker does better than the Chevy above.  I would think that the Chevy would have had much greater ground clearance than the Tracker and that the ground clearance would help a lot.

Good lord NO..

My Trackick is SO SO SO much better than that Chevy (and every other fullsize I have ever run it against)  It isn't even in the same league.

It is all about the weight.

Also, the Chevy was carbureted, so it choked out on the steep stuff.

My breakover angle is probably better on the  Tracker, but I never really measured it.

The Tracker is SO much more capable than my Chevy was that I can barely stand it.

Keith, haven't you had your Tracker in the rough stuff??  Ground clearance just isn't all it's cracked up to be, really.. as long as you are smooth and protected on the bottom, you can slide over the rough stuff pretty easily.

As far as climbing, the Tracker again is MILES ahead of the Chevy.  It's not even comparable.. that, and since I didn't have one ton axles in the chevy, just half ton stuff.. it would break almost everytime I took it to the trails. 

Nope, no comparison... at all. The tracker is WAY more capable on trails and hills, and snow, etc...

I've had mine in moderatly rough stuff and I'm always impressed with it.  I do need more underbody protection though.  I just thought that your Chevy looked prettly capable.   There was a woman in my club with a built up Blazer that was pretty unstopable.

I guess it is according to what type of terrain you are on..   I rarely get high centered.. and that is about the only thing ground clearance is good for..  I guess deep mud too, but I stay out of that... I hate the friggin mud. Still it does ok in it, I just don't like it.


Where the Trackers shine is hill climbing, side hills, etc.. my Tracker is MUCH better on them than my Chevy was.


Power is great, but light weight is crucial..

I hear you on the sliding over things. I've done allot of that with my GV when I was wheeling it stock. went many many places I didn't think it would. I think suspension travel is more important than clearance as well... unless you have lockers. I would be hill climbing and have to back down when I lifted a tire because I'd lose my traction. a few times I could turn the steering wheel to grab traction with the front wheels and barely finish a hill when a back tire was lifted

oh how I need to go wheeling