I'm running 30" tires and in the rough stuff I have to ride the clutch alot, or else I have to use the brakes alot going downhill. I did a little bit of research last night and found that Samurai transfer-cases have a lower gearing than Sidekick ones. Is it possible to put a Samurai t-case into a Sidekick, or put the gears from a Sammy t-case into a Kick t-case? I also looked on the interweb and found transfer case gear set starting at around $650 US. It's kind of expensive but I guess that's what it takes to run bigger tires and still crawl. I also heard of the OTT Kicker 2 and Kicker 3 setup...however their website seems to have disappeared but apparently that setup runs near $1000 so I'm not too interested anyway. Are there any other options worth exploring? Such as diff gears? I read that 1991 4-doors came with 5.38's in the diffs...that's be rockin but probably incredibly hard to find.

If your fine on the freeway then you might want to pick up a 4:1 kit for your transfer case.  That should help you out on the crawling. 

Buy the trail tough gears.  You'll have nothing to complain about as far as crawling goes after installing them.

3rd gear low with the 4.24:1 is still lower than a stock 1st gear low, after you've done the change.  You'll have plenty of gear selections.

Diff gears are very hard to come by, and the difference they make is mostly noticed on-road.

Transfer case gears are the way to go.

Right now I'm running 30's, but I might be putting a 4" lift and 33" tires on..do you think that with the stock diff gears and the 4.24:1 trail tough gears, it will be good? I don't want to spend the money if it's not going to restore it to a stock or better than stock crawl ratio.

Bump

With a 5-speed, 5.12 diff gears, and 4.24:1 t-case gears, you'll have about a 79:1 crawl ratio in first gear.  It's somewhere in the 30 or 40: 1 ratio with stock t-case gears, so yes, it will be greatly improved.

You'll have to wait for someone with 33's to chime in on their opinion though.  On the road, 33's with stock gears wouldn't be so great i'm sure.

Just keep an eye out on ebay.  I see 5.83 gears for trackicks there about every other week.  There is a set of front and rear 5.83s on there right now.  Its up to almost 400 bucks and theres still over 4 days left but even if you pick them up for 500 hundred or so its still a deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&viewitem=&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fws%2Fsearch%2FSaleSearch%3Fsofocus%3Dbs%26satitle%3D%2B120183678977%26sacat%3D-1%2526catref%253DC5%26_trksid%3Dm37%26from%3DR7%26nojspr%3Dy%26pfid%3D0%26fsop%3D1%2526fsoo%253D1%26fcl%3D3%26frpp%3D50%26fvi%3D1&item=120183678977

crikeymike, I have a question.. I multiplied 1st gear by the 4.24 transfer and got 29, which of course multiplied by the 5.12 diff is like 148.. what am I missing..?

You'll have to wait for someone with 33's to chime in on their opinion though.  On the road, 33's with stock gears wouldn't be so great i'm sure.

Dire would be my description. I do have the 5:83 R&Ps now and they did make a huge difference both on and off road.

Here is how to calculate your overall crawl ratio.
It's a simple formula.
Multiply your first gear, times your low range transfer case gear, times your differential gear. For example if you have:
3.93 first gear in your transmission
2.28 low range gear in your transfer case
4.10 gears in your differentials
Your crawl ratio is 3.93 X 2.28 X 4.10 = 37:1
If you have two transfer cases then you also multiply the number by the second case like this:

3.93 first gear in your transmission
2.28 low range gear in your first transfer case
4.70 low range gear in your second transfer case
5.29 gears in your differentials
Your crawl ratio is 3.93 X 2.28 X 4.70 X 2.29 = 223:1

I have a 4 door Sidekick with a 5 speed trans, 1st gear is 3.65, plus a 4.24 xfercase and 5.71 rearend gears.
 
3.65 x 4.24 x 5.71 gives a overall crawl ratio of 88.36 to 1

         
                Ed

If your fine on the freeway then you might want to pick up a 4:1 kit for your transfer case.  That should help you out on the crawling. 

i have the little engine w/carb, so i put up with the highway performance.
i put trail tough's gears in for the trail because of the clutch issue(31" tires).
i like it.
now i'm thinking it would turn 32s in low range ok, but be a sled on the road.