4x4 Cross / Build a beater ?

SHINTON

SHINTON

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Location
Triad area of NC
Well, I am 90% sure I will just go watch the carnage instead of BEING the carnage, but it makes for interesting speculation to make the week go by faster, eh?

Class A: Street
Up to 33” tires
No lockers (factory posi ok if it is an option for your vehicle)
Stock suspension design (no longarms)
No extensive motor mods (i.e. strokers or nitrous) or motor swaps

So IF...you were gonna buy / build ya a beater for this or Class B...what makes the most sense? Budget being a consideration obviously....nice part is when you are done, you then have a beater to impress your neighbors with too!! BONUS!

I believe this is a SPEED competition, so shorter wheelbase might be more of a disadvantage because of handling?

XJs... biggest selling point is CHEAP, coil front already, and lift is not a problem just stock style. Put on some 6" springs on the front to soak up the bumps (think baja) and maybe bigger leafs on rear with axle still at same wheelbase.

Strip the interior, weld in a cage for safety (then you could remove windows for weight) Cut the fenders and WHEEL with Zeal on the 33s?

Or ZJs....and you get a v8 to start with...? Just a 'crappier' tcase/awd..and I figure this will be a mostly 4HIGH event..possibly 2HIGH most of the time with 4wd engaged only on the technical stuff?

Just figured this would be a fun topic for all, would love to see any threads in the photos area of folks building specifically for this?

Same exact vehicle except 'long arms and 35s' to soak up bumps even better and go with B class? Weld up the rear and manual a manual disco for the welded front for easier steering?

Class B: Modified Street
Up to 35” tires
Lockers ok (front and rear)
Stock suspension design (longarms ok)
No motor swaps
 
csudman said:
We were thinking about it, I'd like to do an IFS toy, strip it down, and run nitrous.
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IFS not really an "issue" here either since this is not 100% rockcrawling, lots of bajas out there running IFS...and nitro the 4 banger would get ya some good high rpm power. I have a feeling you will be in 2nd/3rd mostly anyway in the upper end of rpms
 
All suzuki....

You either need a sami on 31's or 32s and no fear....

or.

you need a sidekick with 31's and no fear.

these little things will go just about anywhere in stock form and FAST at that.
 
I was gonna say zuke on 235s... or the 31s with some gears.. A smoothed out belly.. No questions.. BTDT with the right pilot a zuke would do very well..
 
My vote is to spend the money on your rig to help it survive, and then you reap the benefits every other time you ride.
 
I was thinking of a 4.0 XJ or V6 Ranger/Exploder. Remove everything you can to cut weight(rear hatch, rear doors, tailgate, grill, rear seat and more), cut out fenders for a set of 31 or 32 inch tires, then add some 2 inch lift springs or spacers so you get a little more up travel. The ranger twin traction beam front suspension if fairly good for going fast, look at all the prerunner trucks that use it. I know when I ran the stock front axle in my ranger with 32 inch Bfg tires and no lift it wasn't the greatest thing in the rocks but did do a good job of going fast and jumping water bearms. The sami would be smaller to fit in tight spots at speed but I think the draw back would be less power on the open sections and hill climbs.


Sam
 
It's my opinion that the vehicle winning the A and B classes will be an XJ setup similar to the Jeepspeed stuff. I have an XJ, but the last thing I need to do is throw money at it. Anybody wanna sponsor me?
 
I would say Samurai. Unfortunately, I would rather not trash the one I have. :bounce2:

My sammi on 31's and a Spring over will go anywhere out there and not drag bottom. (Ok, maybe not straight up Budweiser or Kodak rock) I might have entered it in Class A but the rear locker DQ's me and the Class B rigs on 35's would probably eat me up.
 
I signed up for class B. Then the specs changed. I e-mailed the guys about this to see if I could change my class. I guess we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm feelin good about this... I might run both classes... Anyone have a sammi for sale about 1000. Their's no way one could take the beating of two classes.
 
Im thinking about the unlimited class....I wonder if I couldnt rent a pro stadium "trophy truck" for a day for a couple Gs.......then win it all and make 10k...

just a thought
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
haha if i was a betting man, id put my money on stump in his sammi in class A... esp if he puts some new plugs in it
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Even better, he's got my old motor, which supposedly had been rebuilt and we are swapping it in tomorrow night!
 
Sounds like the price of the local "beater" just went up because of this event.
 
SkyHiK5 said:
Im thinking about the unlimited class....I wonder if I couldnt rent a pro stadium "trophy truck" for a day for a couple Gs.......then win it all and make 10k...
just a thought
Click to expand...


This assumes that you could actually get enough seat time in it to get the feel of the rig before hand. I've seen LOTS of really built rigs end up junk out on the trail because the driver didn't know how the rig would act in different circumstances. I've also seen some really good drivers in a mild built rig that they were comfortable with spank all sorts of trails.
 
My salvage title Taco would appreciate some hi speed lovin.
 
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