I have a couple of friends that have run mostly dunes in their Samurais. I would say the rides were tame for sand vehicles and mostly served to drag the kids and cooler around in the dunes. They could go must places as they had good dunes driving skills and they kept the vehicles light. they ran 16 valve motors and moderate gearing. Ran about a 31" tire, or a pair of paddles in the rear if you want to deal with the comfort issues of paddles and a low horsepower motor.My goal is to keep a fairly stock drivetrain, but go big horsepower. A 2.0 liter is in the works. I'd like to go with a 31" tire, but I'm not sure what would be a good streetable sand tire. I'm going to keep the 4:1 tcase and 5.12 R&P. I will still be able to drive to the dunes with this combo. I'm also thinking about ditching the YJ springs up front and running Trail Toughs Bonz eye springs. I was told that the sand will take it's toll on my axle housings, so I'm also thinking of welding on some axle trusses. I'm open for suggestion on the trusses. Any more ideas?
I have a couple of friends that have run mostly dunes in their Samurais. I would say the rides were tame for sand vehicles and mostly served to drag the kids and cooler around in the dunes. They could go must places as they had good dunes driving skills and they kept the vehicles light. they ran 16 valve motors and moderate gearing. Ran about a 31" tire, or a pair of paddles in the rear if you want to deal with the comfort issues of paddles and a low horsepower motor.
Regardless of what you do to the Samurai it will always be a so-so sand vehicle. Anything you do to most any street car is going to be a so-so sand vehicle. So keep that in mind.
I highly suggest a cage for sand dunes.
If you plan to be jumping, you will kill your axles.. you will kill most any axle jumping.
A stockish Samurai is a fair amount of fun in the sand.. Beat the shit out of it, and it keeps coming back for more.
I like turbo powered motors in the sand. Attached is a picture of my 2.0 liter turbo Sammi on 37" tires in the sand at the Hammers (playing in 2wd). It was not a sand car, but it had the power to play in the sand.
-Wayne
Nice tranny mod. I tried to put the same motor in my Samurai some years back, but with the Automatic and the trans length was a deal killer. Then I fell into the Mitsubishi 4G63 turbo and never looked back. :grinpimp: Spins more RPMs then a stock 13B, has 40 hp more in stock trim, and easy to pump another 100 hp out of it. The 13B is a sweety though. Nice to see one running around!It fit's well, after I whacked 6" of dead space out of the trans tail housing and output shaft. :evil:
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