Off Roading Advise

[aasay]

I am looking at purchasing a Sidekick to modify for off-roading in Alaska. The sole purpose will be to operate as a swamp buggy on four wheeler size trails. Some rock climbing but not extreme. I really like the idea of being enclosed and having a heater. The swamps are about 3 feet deep and muddy. I want to make the vehicle light weight and water tight. Looking for ideas on transmissions/ engines/ lift kits and making the vehicle tough and reliable. Thanks for the help.

[Lucy]

Hi there,
If you want reliability suzuki's are tough as nails, stick with your factory zook engine and tranny, hard as hell to kill them , believe me ...I've tried! There are 2 engine config's out there 89-95 have the 1.6L 8 valve and the 96-98 have the 1.6L 16 valve both are good reliable engines but if your doing a lot of water you might want the 8 valve as it is a throttle body injector system as a posed to the 16 valves multi port....the 16v has a little more power but it also has more electrical. so if you want to keep it simple the 8v might be the way to go!

As for suspension , for the most part left stock ,again tough as nails! But when you start lifting the suspension you can cause some weak spots with the front CV axles and sometimes the front axle housing ,especially if you go bigger the 31" tires! These weaknesses can be minimized and over come with modest modifications. I run 33"x12.5"s on my 93 and have successfully stopped the front housing breakage! So if you need this info I'll be glad to share!
Once you re-enforce the housing the CV's are really your only week spot. To counter this you have several options, #1 you need to minimize the angle of the CV when lifting the suspension, trying to keep the angle as close to stock as possible.#2 drive nice, if the skinny peddle is your best friend and you have too much lift and tire weight you will snap CV's ...trust me on this! The skinny peddle is my best friend so for me I just always carry extra CV's, if you know what your doing they are not hard to swap out ...even in the mud!. There is also a company that I'm looking into who claims to build custom CV's guaranteed unbreakable, be happy to share further info once I have it.

As for water proofing, for starters there is a really slick snorkle system available but it's expensive, if you would like the info on it I'd be happy to look it up for you, but if your handy you can easily make your own snorkle with some abs tubing from your local hardware store. Water proofing other wise? a lot to cover , will be happy to go into detail for you once you get to that point, I'll just say ultra blue and strips of rubber go a long way ;)I can also advise on water proofing venerable spots in the electrical system.

there are several options on the market for lift kits, one that I personally recommend is Sky Manufacturing www.sky-manufacturing.com/new/products.php?category=suzuki&sub_category=suspension&page=1
I know of other options if your interested but sky is a great place to start!

think that covers the basics for you to get started! feel free to ask any questions, I've been building and wheeling these little suckers since 1990 so I've got lots of knowledge to share and I'm glad to help out!

good luck
Lucy

[Lucy]

you can see a couple pic of my truck here home.golden.net/~haida/suzuki/show/specs/lucy.html if your interested