Suzuki Samurai?

Hello TW
So we just got a lake house and are in need of a rig to get down to the dock and back, and just running around down there. The trail requires some fairly serious rock crawling. We looked at stuff like side by sides but for half the price we can get twice the truck. I found a 1989 Samurai on CL that is pretty well built... Lifted, rear locker on 33s, 4.92 gears in the T-case. I am going to go look at it sometime pretty soon. Anyone know anything about these? I found some common problems with google but just wanted to gain some background. Thanks in advance!

 

I know that they had a problem rolling a lot back in the day. Thats all I know. Don't drive like a tard and you won't roll it.

 

samurai's are like cockroaches.

they never die.

what i would do for a sammi

 

They're cool as shit when they're built & maintained properly.

Aside from being a samuri.... That CL find - make sure you see it in person, drive it in every possible situation (highway, city, 2WD, 4WD, 4Lo, etc) and give it a really good GO-over before you buy it.

Not any different than what I would do when buying a used vehicle.

 

x2 if they are built up correctly, they can go anywhere. A friend of mine had one and he had that thing following the quad runners which were by no means easy trails.

 

Alright going to look at it now... I'll take lots of pics

 

Sorry tried to do it when i got home but the droid was taking forever to upload... so without further delay...

Ahhh it's dinner time. I'll be right back

 

lol so true. we all had them in high school.they are great for trails.really not much bigger than a quad.you cant beat that they are cheap,4x4, convertible, and great on gas. anything lifted will not be highway friendly. shit even stock they arent highway friendly. ive been looking lately too. this one has been for sale for 2 years or so.it just popped up again. so bad ass.it had a rotary motor in it last year

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/1901441359.html

 

ask away..ive got an 87. i know a good amount about them.

 

Paintdiddy, that one kinda contradicts everything you just said about them haha... Still pretty cool though. Anyway this time is for real. I got some of them that didn't upload to work so here it is:









Sorry for the blurry one... but you get the idea. None of the other ones of the underside came out, but it was very clean. Dirty, but free of rust. The driveshaft angles looked kind of extreme, but nothing was really out of order. The owner really knew his stuff and did everything right. I drove it around in a field and tested 4-hi, 4-lo, everything worked. I didn't try to spin it to test the locker because it was basically his lawn in the middle of town. It sure was cool to drive. He's asking $3000 but said he'd take $2800 cash. I think I got the old man's approval, but my mom said its ugly haha. She yelled at me for not looking at the mileage, she doesn't understand how really irrelevant it is. Women...

 

damn at my lakehouse we just walk down some stairs to the dock

 

pretty good deal for 3k! looks like an JX, well at least the seats are out of an JX lol

 

check out www.zukikrawlers.com its a great site!

 

Thats a nice sami.

 

They're great. We have one in Baja for putting around on the beach and in the washes. Goes anywhere... if you get hung up, 2 dudes can lift it off a rock.

 

Thanks guys. Just gotta get dad out to see it and hopefully make it ours. I'm sure he'll haggle the price down too he won't pay over $2500 for it.

 

good luck man

 

Thats a nice find! My dad and I had 5 samurais on our property at one point and now we're down to 3. They are great little trucks just don't take them through deep water or mud.

 

sweet little rig there.

The only experience I have with a samurai is a few years ago when it snowed like 18" and my dad's freind brought his completely stock samurai on bald street tires over. He let me drive it up the road (not plowed yet) and it didn't even try to spin the tires. I was amazed.