Hello everyone, I've been following the boards for a while and I have been inspired to build a sammi as my trail rig. The Jeep just isn't cutting it anymore. I have a '92 sammi that I picked up that the engine was about to throw a rod so I got a 1600 conversion kit and am now on the prowl for an engine. When it comes to sammi's I'm pretty much out of it figuring my other rig is a ZJ. From what I've seen so far I can achieve the best articulation out of a qers/coil setup.. is this true?. I don't care about onroad handling, and I don't mind taking a sawzall to it. The vehicle is not registered and I don't plan on it being. So what do I do! Instead of jumping into this making the same mistakes as I did with the Jeep I'd rather do the research before building.. and listen to the experts. :D I'd like to run 35s so I'm guessing I will be replacing most of, if not the entire drive train. Please post your experience and what YOU would do if you had the knowledge you do.. and were going to build a sammi from scratch. Thanks very much!

Let us know what you are planning on spending on your trail rig, and I'm sure we could tell you how we would spend it. Also, let us know what type of wheeling you will be doing with your newly acquired addiction.

My suggestion: buy t-case gears first....

and by the way :flipoff2:

welcome newbie:flipoff2:

:D

first off.......an honerary newbie welcome..........welcome newbie......:flipoff2: :flipoff2: :flipoff2: :flipoff2:

now, 35"s, spoa, yj springs, toy axles, at least a 4:1 t-case and probility somewhere around 5.29 R&P...... hmmm you'll have to ditch the stock bumpers in order to fit any sized tires, rocker protection(they bend EASY)...... and well the usual.....

no budget.. I just may have to take a little extra time to build up the rig. ;) As for wheeling I will be doing more rock crawling than mudding I'm sure.. but I would like to be able to do some occasional mud running with the top down! :D I would like to run some of the harder paragon trails if possible as that's not to far away from home either. I've not done any big runs before but I sure would like to with this.

and thanks for the welcome! :D

Chris has a super website that you would benefit from reading. Goes through just about every thought you will have in the upcomming months.

www.azrockcrawler.com

:flipoff2:

Originally posted by jdetar
The Jeep just isn't cutting it anymore.

He has seen the light!!

I sorry that I cannot offer much info. It sounds like you plan to do more to your rig to start off, than I have done to mine in the past years of whellin. I have the basic set up with SPOA, tires, lockrite, and gears, and of course all the other little stuff like bumper hackin and exhaust mods.
Thats the beatuy of the Samis, you can take it slow and easy and still have a rig that can do some great whellin, and add more later. Its a process.


Good Luck.

Def. Gears first. then spoa with rears upfront and a 5 leaf YJ pack in the rear. The beauty of a spoa is you can build on it. Just go spoa until you can afford the YJ's then put those on and move your rear springs to the front. I run CJ's in the rear and will be spoa next week. I would also recomend you checking out Chris's web site very well put together and covers about every lift you can think of. I started out kinda backwards in that I stayed spua got some missinglinks moved the rears to the front and put cj's in the rear. You can run a 30" tire real easy with this set-up. After seeing the flex difference in spua vs. spoa I'm glad I'm going spoa.:D

See the post SEASONED CRAWLERS......... this may answer some ?'s and get you a starting point for your project. A GOOD SPOA WILL GET YOU @ 22-24"OF ARTICULATION AND EXCELENT STREET AND TRAIL MANNERS, stock is @11-12". THIS SET UP WILL PROVIDE YOU A GOOD FOUNDATION FOR MORE SUSPENSION WORK THAT CAN PUT YOU IN THE AREA OF 26-28" OF ARTICULATION(M/LINKS, J**P SPRINGS ETC.) click on the links ON THE POST SEASONNED CRAWLERS..... BY ME ... HORSE_WITH_NO_ NAME THESE ARE PICS OF ME & MY FRIEND/SPOTTER SWEEPING FIRST PLACE IN A CRAWLING COMP. WITH 31's AND A SPOA, THE CLOSEST COMPETITOR HAD 35'S AND THE NEXT DIDN'T EVEN FINISH THE COURSE W/33'S- ALSO A SAMMY (HAD @ 4-5" OF CLEARANCE MORE AT THE ROCKER !!!!!!!!!)

hey horse, lay off the fawkin caps lock...I'm going def. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by mud-magnet
now, 35"s, spoa, yj springs, toy axles, at least a 4:1 t-case and probility somewhere around 5.29 R&P

a 4to1 t-case is not enough gear for 35's when running 5.29's.

if i were you i would do a springover and buy a sumo 6to1 and start there. i would not spend any $$$ on the stock axles. this way you can save your $$$ for a set of waggy dana44's with 5.38's or 5.89's. weld the rear and lockrite in the front and swap in the yj springs when you put them under your rig. lengthening it to 95to100" wheel base will help too. (i would personally shoot for about 100 but that is me). just my op.

horse gettin' old sometimes need big letters to see what I said.

Tube the front end since your not afraid of the sawzall!:D

welcome newbie!!!!:flipoff2:
definately go with an soa, and t case gears, if you can afford it, get the 6 to 1's. use yj springs all the way round, add an anti wrap bar in the rear to prevent killin the springs. toy axles with at least 5.29's and youll be set for 35's and some serious crawlin.

Originally posted by rockzooki
welcome newbie!!!!:flipoff2:
definately go with an soa, and t case gears, if you can afford it, get the 6 to 1's. use yj springs all the way round, add an anti wrap bar in the rear to prevent killin the springs. toy axles with at least 5.29's and youll be set for 35's and some serious crawlin.

That set up would take you alot of places. Hell I didn't have even that on mine, but don't forget Lockers...

Thanks for all the information. I read quite a bit on azrockcrawler.com and when I read about the toyota axle swap, I think I just realized how much work I'm in for.

I'm glad to hear I can keep the tcase and just have it regeared. I'm gonna start ordering stuff up shortly but need to do the axle swap first so I don't have to rework the lift, and am able to drop the 1.6 engine in. So I just need to look for a set of 80-85 land cruiser axles?

Originally posted by jdetar
So I just need to look for a set of 80-85 land cruiser axles?

mini truck axles are the ones you want. not the cruisers

Originally posted by jdetar a set of 80-85 land cruiser axles? [/B]

Try to aviod LC axles, 3rd member is huge, you don't need that, the only advantage in the right offset

Originally posted by GBRAVO


Try to aviod LC axles, 3rd member is huge, you don't need that, the only advantage in the right offset

If the right off set is the advantage then they not just get the waggy D44's front and rear. It seams about half the zuks run toys and half run Waggys and the rest just havent swaped yet.