Thinking about a samurai based buggy....

[GreyZuk]

Tentative plan right now is

Used Sprint car chassis* *101-105" wheelbase 22-24" belly height
Samurai motor on propane
Samurai transmission
Samurai t-case 6.5:1
Toyota axles with trail gear offset rear 5.29 welded rear, ARB front, marlin 25 mm high steer
One link suspension front and rear with air shocks and limiting straps
35" tires on forged aluminum rims and inner air locks
Fancy suspension seat

Heres a picture of a buggy made out of a sprint car chassis
This one is a little taller than I like and he's running Dana 60's and 40's

[GreyZuk]

What do you think I can expect as far as weight with my intended setup? I'd like sub 3000'lbs. is that doable?
BTW, Won't be running a ginormous front stinger

[D Boz]

Sub 3k lbs should be no problem with the Sammy motor/trans/case, single seat and 35's. Even less than 2500 shouldn't be a problem, maybe even down closer to 2k

I've got to ask though, why a sprint car chassis? Even if it's free, that thing is ugly

[GreyZuk]

super narrow, super cheap (300-500 for a used chassis), easy to work on, as they are mostly straight tubes. Unique look (Ill try to fit one of those funky swoopy hoods on). mostly cheap though even compared to the z-chassis from hendrix

Doesn't look too bad without the big stinger

[johny5.0]

That has to be the uglyest thing I have ever seen , if your going to go to that much effort you may as well build something a little nicer

[GreyZuk]

couldn't care less about aesthetics. I'm not building it to impress anyone

[D Boz]

Fair enough, build it and post pics

[93_bigbadxj]

Personally I think those are badass looking but you will have to narrow a zuk hood and put on it atleast!

[Valley Auto]

Ive always thought building a buggy off a sprint car chassis would be sick! Do it. I think your weight goal is totally obtainable. My mostly tube sami buggy weighs less than 3k. 2.0 air shocks at 180 psi at all four corners.

Oh and you should totally buy my sami for all the parts

1.6.16 valve 5 speed to shogun doubler and 6.5s with 5;89 d 44s linked with full hydro front and rear

[skyman6529]

I am wondering about tire size, why 35's? If the terrain warrants it 37's would be the go..

I also think you could get a little lower belly height with a 35-37 inch tire. Maybe the lower end of your guesstimate (20 ish inches) i think that's do able.

It sounds like you have got the plan all laid all, now it;s just the details.... like work uhhg

[GreyZuk]

I'm thinking you're right about the tires. As light as it would be, I could probably get away with running 5.71 diffs, 37's, and even 40's (for snow)

Belly height was guestimating off my old samurai on 35's I'd like it lw without being foolishly low.

For the suspension, I was thinking of air shocks with straight lowers, and for the upper, not sure what you would call it but I saw a suspension with two fixed points at the frame and a single flex joint at the top of the pumpkin... eliminating the need for a panhard bar.

I have a friend who is telling me he has hookups for the chassis, but if nit I may crosspost somewhere and see if anyone on here has sprint car hookups.

[GreyZuk]

Also, let me throw this out... For propane tanks, I saw that the old westfalia vans had a propane tank holding 8.5 gallons that is 8" round by 42" long.
What do you guys think about mounting two of these, one on either side of the chassis inside some protective tubes? Low CG and 17 gallons would leave plenty of reserves

[mattmey]

A friend of mine started with a sprint chassis and I think there are only 2 bars left that weren't cut or moved. Don't have any pics but here is a vid so you get the idea.

Rock roach climb - YouTube

[skyman6529]

or propane tanks, I saw that the old westfalia vans had a propane tank holding 8.5 gallons that is 8" round by 42" long.
What do you guys think about mounting two of these

If I were to run propane these are the type of tanks i would run. IMHO there's no reason (other than cost) to run a forklift, or BBQ styled/sized tank when the longer torpedo style are readily available new and used. They also use this style of propane tank for propane injection on diesels. So if you have a diesel wrecking yard near you you might want to have a look.

The reason I asked about the tire size is that I just figured if your gear is built for, and can handle 37+ tire why stay with a 35?

Here's a pic of the torpedo style tanks.

[GreyZuk]

So, in thinking about keeping everything as light as possible, I think I'd like like to run a wishbone 3 link fron and rear using heims.

Since I'm aiming at keeping it super light and super cheap, I'm thinink about using 1 3/4" x .180 wall round tubing for the lowers and 1.5" .120 wall square tube for the uppers I'll use bushing at one end and heims at the other

What size heims should i use to balance between strength and light weight? Is one brand better than another? I'm think either ruffstuff or aurora.

[jr4x]

Depends on how hard you use it. I know people who ran 3/4x3/4 hiems on heavy rigs with minimal problems. But links are expensive to build so you may want to pony up and do it right the first time. I wouldnt suggest anything less than .250 wall for the lowers. The uppers can get away with the lighter stuff but the lowers probly wont make it.

[GreyZuk]

Hmmm .250 wall is heavy. My 4 runner had 2" x .250 wall lowers. Super beefy, but the runner was nearly 5000 lbs. But, you guys have more experience than I do with the stuff so you're probably right.
With links that heavy I wonder if I'm saving weight vs just using some stock height YJ springs. ???

[longzook]

I'm running 2 nich .375 lowers and everyone of them are bent.
i got a buddy with a 6000lb rockwell rig that runns 2" .25 links and they are bent as well, but never had a failure.
i say go with as light and as strong as you can afford and do it once
(heat treated chromo)

[GreyZuk]

I think you're right, the HT chromo seem to be the hot ticket for strength and weight savings.... I might have to save up for em though. I have a very mild wheeling style, no braille wheeling for sure, all finesse


Maybe you guys can help me with this.... I'm fairly dead set on using the suzuki 1.3 for several reasons
1. light weight
2. I don't need tons of horsepower
3. Propane is a MUST

I know there was an adapter out there several years ago to allow use of a powerglide transmission, but that seems like it would be a power robbing tranny.

Is there any other automatic transmission that readily can be bolted to the suzuki 1.3 and still allow use of the divorced samurai transfer case?

[Joecochrane]

3spd auto out of a 2wd side kick it requires a adapter from petroworks or trail tough but thy are the most common trans I see in the sami world. Also if you got a 1.6 out of a tracker or side kick you wouldn't need th adapter you would gain a bout 30 hp and weight is about the same

[Joecochrane]

And I am thinkin of guting my sami for a simular build so don't give up on this idea I need motovation