Rooinater

yeah, and if you know enough jeepers, they generally discount the xj as not being a "real" jeep... they are a great little mild and cheap wheeler, but their unibodies start seperating with heavy use. several of my buddies that actually wheeled their xj have had to replace the vehicles several times because the seams on the unibodies start cracking and seperating when you start flexing the grocery getter. they make reenforcement plates, but the body still flexes like crazy. if i were to get a jeep i'd get one that has an actual frame. flexy vehicles + no real frame = body seperation and cracks at the various joints and seams. samething with old c-channel frames, they get twisted enough, they start to crack. subaru unibodies are at least built well and when my car is flexed i can still open and close my doors... try twisting up an xj or a grand and get out then try and close your door... i see it all the time and laugh, cause not even the subaru has that problem. solid axle toyota pickups can be picked up for the same price or less than a cherokee, and will take more abuse offroad.

4wheeling is all about your definition. to me it's a progression, soobs are great for starting out, but at some point some people's progression with equipment and trails exceeds what can be done with a subaru. within the tolerances of a reasonable margin of breakage potential. a soob can no longer hold together with where i wheel. therefore it just sits in my yard, needing someone to buy it and wheel it. from what i've read, i do agree with zap on the jeeps and toy thing. i've met more friendly toyota owners that are very accepting, vs snobby jeep owners. another reason for switching to toyota, they have a similar community to the subaru's. in general they are more accepting of crazy ideas, modifications down the line. my belief on that is you buy the jeep for the name or status, while a toyota owner picks up his truck for a grand and throws in less than the jeep cost and has a highly capable rig. a soob is actually an excellent starting 4x4. for the simple fact that if you learn to make all the lines in a soob, after adjusting to a solid axle you'll progress faster and see all the lines that someone starting with a built rig won't even see.

as for cutting holes into it... make sure you paint it... things rust out real well in hawaii.

i like my samurai, but it is old enough that it requires a lot of little maintaince. wheel bearings, ujoints, timing belts...... but other than that, i get anwhere between 23-28 mpg, depending on speed limits, how hard i get into the throttle and overall wind conditions... not to mention the disty going bad... but at about 200k miles a lot of this is to be expected. it wanders in the steering a little, but a lot of that has to due with the shackles being up front and 20 year old rubber bushings being worn out. definately better than a jeeps 15mpg...

i'll have to wait till my head gasket starts going... too many other things going wrong... i need to reseal the tcase, replace the ujoints, rebuild the steering knuckles, install the new exhaust, replace the rear wheel bearings...

updates?? :popcorn:

was worth every penny, the thing hauls with respect to the fact it's a 1.3L. still haven't gotten the exhaust installed... still chasing down gremlins on my fuel economy... the front wheel bearings went bad, just replaced them. doing a complete fluid change this week. the disty is about ready for replacement, and i'll upgrade the coil at the same time. then i'll replace the rear wheel bearings just for good measure...

as for coil and disty problems. rtv the disty cap, and use dielectrical grease while installing your plug and coil wires. that should seal 99% of the power robbing water out, and relieve the random misses when you get water vapor in your disty cap.

that's called progression, not a problem.

that's a very conservative estimate, and doesn't include the multitude of tires, consumables (ie replaced axles and stubs, trannies, differentials) or repairs over the years. just the straight to what it is cost. otherwise i'd be sitting here for days trying to run it all up. projects eat money, but in the end they can be worth it.

start a thread and see if you get any intrest organizing a local get together... but no NW get togethers down in cali...

I was being sarcastic about far and hard it is to get to evans. but the cabin is definitely close 45min to an hour. the mud would swallow the zuk right now and the car! when you headed back out there? cabin sounds good, I know I can make it there as long as nothing conflicts on the given weekend and if the roo isn't up and wheeling then the zuk can make it in some of the cop shop trails. I am booked up with a 2 week family campout, fishing and riding trip the 3rd and 4th week of august. can't miss it, cause i've missed it for 5 years due to the marine corp.

soob or nonsoob you'll sink a lot of money. it's the nature of the beast, and the money has to get forked up to 4wheel hard. i don't think i'm even near what i've sunk into the subaru in the toyota yet. it's fairly close though. the subaru has over the years well over $7k. the cost to strength ratio though...

evan's is a blast and i haven't been out there since i rode shotgun in ken's brat when i was home on leave... so that was awhile ago... if i still have the car, it's a maybe. I mean, EC is so far away... a whole hour maybe an hour in a half in my roo...

that'd be sweet! the longer wheelbase of a wagon, with useable approach angles!

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/tahuya_both.pdf about the 6th green diamond note on the right side, has bridge width limits for tahuya other than 4x4 system. and the bridges at walker are no narrower, reiter there is no width limits on trails yet... it has only begun the process of becoming a designated orv park this year.

and i've seen them get tickets and warned to get off of atv trails. it all depends on how much the ranger wants to be a prick, and the fact that you have to be caught... the reason it's 48", is that's the width of the dnr bridges. the bridges at walker and tahuya my atv that's only about 46" wide barely squeezes. tahuya has 3' steel walls on their bridges so 48" maybe 50" if your lucky. the bridges at walker don't have rails, because the majority of them are barely 48" do to the fact that all the trails at walker are converted from single track. also different states have different width limits, our dnr the limit happens to be 48" bulge to bulge of the tire. forest service is about 50". not that there is more than a couple strictly designated atv trails in washington's NF i'm just giving you a heads up. if the dnr says no go, it's just putting a smear on the wheeling community. there has been a big problem with rigs that are wider than the limit and 4x4's running the atv trails in WA.

are you really keeping the roof that high?? you shouldn't need more than 4 inches above your head. but looking good! working right along! :popcorn:

pretty good, lots of camping spots. 2 trails head directly out of the camp area for your buggy. the 311 junction trail and trail 520. the only bummer is the large shelter caved in this winter with all the snowfall... http://homepage.mac.com/jgreening/.Public/MAPS/Evan%E2%80%99s%20Creek%20Map.pdf

been meaning to get out there, and i've been trying to get a get together in the naches area going for almost 4 years now... the place has been on fire twice canceling plans, and the other 2 were vehicle trouble, or some reason to cancel. i was thinking july 4th or another weekend in july?? # of vehicle limit: 15 (otherwise i have to legally get a permit and event insurance to hold an event on forest service land...) soobs would be required to have safety equip, lift, 26" tires, fullsize spare, solid recovery points and a welded rear diff. roll cage recommended... along with spare parts and the proper tools to fix your rig... i'm not planning on running anything like pucker ridge over there. just the easy to moderate trails, and might dabble into some difficult trails. most places you find info on rim rock will give you the word of caution, the difficulty levels of the trails are not because of large boulders, more because they are narrow and off camber on ridge tops. can you say excellent views!! if you are afraid of heights, this is not the run for you. but, overall i'm not planning on running the hard stuff and that depends on what i bring to drive... ie zuk or soob. i figure if i set a date to have the roo back together by... i might actually take it who's intrested and what weekend? i'm leaning towards 4th of july, i hate fireworks anyhow. or a run to naches/kaner flats area and run the naches pass trail over... then run the pwr lines trail, the rocks, kaner flat and tripod flats trails... rimrock is located off highway 12 near rimrock lake.

depending when and where, if i can make time between homework i'll try to make it. i was just going to post a prodding post to see who would be intrested in rimrock/naches ranger district over 4th of july weekend or mid july... i know eric, your gonna be real busy by july! but the car will hopefully be gone by the end of july...

i have 15x8 redrilled chevy's on mine... they aren't too wide for my tires...

well if you want one that is already beat up and has an 8" lift and tcase with 4.11's... just let me know... mine will be for sale soon...

http://www.sky-manufacturing.com/suzuki.htm poly carbonate windshield and seal from sky mfg... $175 though...

where is the said pics of progress... i know it's an unrully crowd... :popcorn: if you don't have a sami windshield to measure... i have one on my sami i can measure for you.