Ive read about everything i can find on the kicker 3 setup as IM getting ready to put one in my samurai. But was kinda wondering what everyone though about theirs? The good the bad, What the extra reduction is or isnt breaking. What motor are you running with it. Gears, tires, t case gears. I ask becuase im a little worried about my sami t case with 6.5's behind a 16 valve. Thanks for any info Ryan

Interested in this as well.I'm in the middle of a 4dr sidekick build,making my own dualcase setup using the 6.5 t-case out of my parted zuk along with my dana's and 37" rocker's.

look into rock4xfabrecation there rock box is sweet and he may have some in stock. the kicker 3 is the same style, just OTT will take 8-16 month to get yours built. the box is not on the web site so you will have to call or e-mail him. 600 it is about the same price as the kicker 3.

Even if you don't use the reduction, get it just to marry the t-case up. Makes it way stronger.

I've been running one for over a year now with less t-case problems then before(none). 1.3L, 4.89:1 t-case, 4.10r&p(cruiser axles) 37" sticky claws
It takes all the stress off your t-case mounts and makes for a much stonger drivetrain.
I really like my kicker3 but to do it again I would have went with Rockrat(rock4xfrabrication). He's a stand up guy and you don't have to wait 6+months(9 months for me:eek:). It's a huge improvement eather way you go.

I've been beating on one of Rockrats original run of reduction box setups for almost 2 years now... I have one of early Calmini 5.89 gearsets. I run Dana 44's with 5.89 gears in them. Pushed by a 8-V 1.6. (I run a pretty small tire by todays standards...34-10.50's)I think the solid mounting is a much improved deal over the divorce mount. You also get the added advantage of getting rid of the crossmember.

I get pretty "western" with this rig...I don't think I'll ever hurt the original case now that it's monuted to the rest of the drivetrain. (I also run a Rockrat DIY bucket to hold it.) I think this is really the key to making any Zuk case live.

my only problem with my kicker was it took over 8 months to receive

I got mine from Ben at OTT too. Top quality work and I'm running exactlywhat you described you're gunna run. Yota axles with 5.29, 16v, 6.5tcase 39" comp crawlers and not a single problem. I also have Rockrat twin stick, and it works really well.
Mine also took about 9mos but I expected it so it wasn't a big deal for me.

It's been said 100's of times but it cannot be said enough. It will take for-fawking-ever to get your case back from OTT. Great product though. I have a 16v-kicker3-stock geared sami case with upgraded front output. I have 5.38 in my axles and spooled front and rear with 36" Iroc's. I beat my shit and have had no t-case problems. Axles on the other hand :laughing:. I think the key to this holding up so well having the case married. I think a lot of the problems people have with stock cases breaking is the lack of a rigid mount. By marrying the stock case to the engine/trans the whole system becomes stronger. :smokin:

cool well I will try to get ahold of rockrat and see what the time frame is.

Crazyblue I bought some alloy usa chromos and yukon super joints for my 44's and they have held up great after breaking many stock shafts with 760x joints. and I run them in the rear to with my 4wheel steer.

I have haven't had an issue with mine yet. My drivetrain set up is a 2000 Esteem 1.6 16 valve, tracker tranny with kicker, and 5.14 t -case gears. I am running toy axles with yukon 5.29 gears with a welded front and detroit rear. I have been running 37" MTR's with no probelms from the kicker set up to date.

The only known issue I have had with mine is that the kicker setup does not like highway speeds. On its only highway trip I did around 30 miles to the trail and the case puked out over half of the oil in the first 10 miles. I now only drive it on the backroads to trails and it never goes over 50 mph.

I like the kicker for its increase gearing options. While it isn't used on every obstacle or trail it is nice to have when you do need it. I have also used the kicker in low/t-case in high a couple of times in sand which has been nice. I say call rock rat you will be happy with the setup.

I am also upgrading to 39", beadlocks, 6.5 t-case, lockright front and 30 spline longs. I should have all of it in the zuk by Thanksgiving. I will let you know if I have any issues with the changes.

cool well I will try to get ahold of rockrat and see what the time frame is.

Crazyblue I bought some alloy usa chromos and yukon super joints for my 44's and they have held up great after breaking many stock shafts with 760x joints. and I run them in the rear to with my 4wheel steer.


Ya after the last explosion I upgraded to yukon axles and joints in the front and dutchmans in the rear. 6 trips now without broken axles. :bounce: Kinda nice to not have to replace an axle every time I punch it. The funny thing is I ran stock fronts for years with a power lock and never had any problems. Spools and a doubler=:nuke:

The only known issue I have had with mine is that the kicker setup does not like highway speeds. On its only highway trip I did around 30 miles to the trail and the case puked out over half of the oil in the first 10 miles. I now only drive it on the backroads to trails and it never goes over 50 mph.


has anyone else had similar issues?

My home built kicker is holding up fine. I run the stock 1.3 EFI engine with the dodge motor mounts, stock gears in both tcases (although I have some 4:1s to put in the samurai tcase), trackick 5 speed tranny, 5.12 axle gears in stock samurai axles, lock-rights front and rear, a home made bucket for the samurai tcase and reinforced stock tcase arms, and I have just recently switched to 33" tires.
I have no issues with it puking out gear oil at highway (50mph) speeds.

has anyone else had similar issues?

I DD'd mine for a year with the kicker3 in it, drove to and from the trail and on 2-3+ hour road trips never a problem
... However, now I beat it a like a step child that didn't do his chores and just toss it back on the trailer :grinpimp:

Guess I should clarify as what I was considering as highway speed.

When the case puked its oil I was on the highway going 65-70 mph. My kicker case has no issues of puking oil at 50 mph.

I hope this helps clear things up for those who are looking at this step up.

sweet thi sounds really incouraging. I cant wait to have mor power and twice the gearing. Ryan

I ran my home-built dual case setup behind a 1.6 6V auto for over a year, until the engine let go for lack of oil. Off-camber obstacles can kill...

I then went for a 2.5 V6 auto. The dual case setup held up just fine.


It´s now going in behind a 2.2 Subi. We´ll see....

Guess I should clarify as what I was considering as highway speed.

When the case puked its oil I was on the highway going 65-70 mph. My kicker case has no issues of puking oil at 50 mph.

I hope this helps clear things up for those who are looking at this step up.

I ran mine at 70 on the Highway for hours without any issues so i don't know what went wrong with yours

Sorry to bring one up from the dead but is anyone running lower gears in the kick case with a low geared t case in the back. Im not asking this cause I want a 500+ crawl ratio but becuase I'd think I may want more gearing options. ie 4.24:1 or 6.5:1 or I guess even 4.24:1 into the stock highrange of the sami case would be a reduction. I ask becuase right now I'm plenty low enough for almost everything, but theres nothing inbetween that and high range. So I jump from to slow for some obsticals to way to high and not enough power.

How do you guys feel the spread of gears in your kicker 3 setups are with the axle ratio/engine/tire size you are running? Is low range in the kicker case to high in the sami case enough to make up the difference or?? thanks Ryan

The thing I would be concerned with is running that much gear reduction into the sami case. IMO the 1.8 (kick low) is about all I'd want to feed it.

However, by having a stock sami case, and geared kick case would give a pretty good combo of gearing options. I've just been waiting for someone else to try it, and see how it goes.

i'm with mope on how much you should really push it.

i run modest 4.1's and deep diffs at about 77:1 crawl ratio. it could be a little lower, engaging the kick at 1.8 brings it way down to around 140:1. turning 33's, that's plenty slow enough.

i'm just chiming in because i sent my case in to rockrat this afternoon... i've finally found a kick trans with the 0.795 5th gear. finally. so LBS is going compound low!

I have liked my kicker 1.8 reduction so far wihen running the sammi case in high with the 37" MTR's. I wish 1.8 reduction was a tad lower but overall I have been very happy with it. I think the 4.24 would be too low for an intermediate low range and too similiar to my 5.14 low range of the zuk case to be worth the gear cost.

Running sammi 6.5 gears might make it worth running the 4.24 tracker gears. Onlt issue I see is the strength the setup. I don't know that the kicker case and zuk gears/case would handle the extra reduction of the 4.24 gears. I seriously thought about doing it but I don't want to spend the coin and take out my t-cases and or gears.

here's how the spread breaks down on mine (rounded):
HiHi 35:1
LoHi 53:1
HiLo 77:1
LoLo 140:1
that's a pretty useful range!

i'm with mope on how much you should really push it.

i run modest 4.1's and deep diffs at about 77:1 crawl ratio. it could be a little lower, engaging the kick at 1.8 brings it way down to around 140:1. turning 33's, that's plenty slow enough.

i'm just chiming in because i sent my case in to rockrat this afternoon... i've finally found a kick trans with the 0.795 5th gear. finally. so LBS is going compound low!


What tracker did this tranny come out of that has that 5th gear ratio?

You've definitely got plenty of gear options there. I like that.

When the case puked its oil I was on the highway going 65-70 mph. My kicker case has no issues of puking oil at 50 mph.

Who else runs at 70MPH and has had problems? This will be a deal-killer for me if I can't do freeway speed.

Who else runs at 70MPH and has had problems? This will be a deal-killer for me if I can't do freeway speed.

as I said
I ran mine at 70 on the Highway for hours without any issues so i don't know what went wrong with yours

mope-
4-door hard tops. it is easy to find the early models and 2-doors, but i've had trouble finding one of the big vehicles. the light sidekicks and all trackers by Geo (might have changed w/ chevy) had a 0.865 5th gears. with my 5.13's and high range t-case reduction, i cannot go any lower in final drive if i want to drive on the freeway. (4200 RPM at 65 mph!) many of the good trails require a little bit of freeway travel... besides, i still like to get lost in nevada, which is not all crawling.

i scored that trans and t-case with a brand new clutch and flywheel (new, not resurfaced!) for $125, out the door, from a mildly t-boned sidekick.

mope-
4-door hard tops. it is easy to find the early models and 2-doors, but i've had trouble finding one of the big vehicles. the light sidekicks and all trackers by Geo (might have changed w/ chevy) had a 0.865 5th gears. with my 5.13's and high range t-case reduction, i cannot go any lower in final drive if i want to drive on the freeway. (4200 RPM at 65 mph!) many of the good trails require a little bit of freeway travel... besides, i still like to get lost in nevada, which is not all crawling.

i scored that trans and t-case with a brand new clutch and flywheel (new, not resurfaced!) for $125, out the door, from a mildly t-boned sidekick.


Very sweet deal on the find! I would really like to do this in the future, and need to keep the .79 5th ratio. I agree with the highway driving thing, I like to take it up to 1.5 hours away as well. Its nice to have a dual purpose rig.

Thanks!

hate to bring a rock block to a kicker3 party :flipoff2:, but sure wish my rb had 3:1 gears. I would enjoy the kick case with 4.24:1, but with 6.5 in the rear case, double low would be waaaay to slow. 4:1 in both cases could be livable.

hate to bring a rock block to a kicker3 party :flipoff2:, but sure wish my rb had 3:1 gears. I would enjoy the kick case with 4.24:1, but with 6.5 in the rear case, double low would be waaaay to slow. 4:1 in both cases could be livable.

thats the kind of numbers i'm looking at with my buld. as i may have to use a toy trans and t-case to my D300. my deal on the donar rig has not come thru yet! even so the toy would get 4.7 and the d#00 would get the 4:1 then the axles are 4.88 so its not to bad!

I wish someone would build a 2.7-3.5:1 for the kick cases. I think that would be just about perfect when mates to a stock sami case.