Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Suzuki Samurai/4X4 Enthusiasts

There's one in Hopkinsville, KY with 30k miles on it. The bad part is the dealer wants $9k.

Late 80's goodtimes. Did a long part of the Rubicon one year deer hunting in one. Buddy's girlfriend's, his now wife. Rode that thing hard. The Suzuki that is. Killed a lot of beer cans, no deer on that trip.

No deer killin' losers.

You'd have to be retarded to grab that hook.

Sounds like he's fishing the right pond.

Hey! You could park it in a pup tent!

There are quite a few around here, including the version with the tray top. Cockies like them for wet weather and the irrigation fellows like the three cylinder jobs because they are so light you can pretty much lift them out of a wet patch if stuck...which is unlikely.

The lunatics that climb rocks and mountains with them do serious rebuilds and make them just about play tunes.

I find them to be too cramped for shooting, although plenty have been used around here for rabbits.

tag

Thanks for the photos of that wonderful little jacked up go kart. Nothing there to filter out the feel of the road, or not road. Bored with cars that have become cocoons.

Late to this thread cause I been away from my computer driving my Zuki. Quad with a heater. First pic is a few years ago with a called lynx on the hood.



I'm on my 4th Suzuki, one a Samurai and three of them 4 door Sidekicks. Plus my son had a Samurai while he was home and going to college that he let me borrow.

This Sidekick is lifted 3 inches total between larger tires and lift kit. It does not 4 wheel as well as a Samurai but does what I need and I can sleep/camp in it easier. Took the pic below at the point where I had dragged a mule deer to a road. No vehicle tracks but mine in the snow.



Zuki hiding in the grass from bears while I pick wild berries.





This Sidekick has low mileage and apparently had never been in 4 wheel drive till I bought it. Pic of the frame and wheel well below taken when I replaced shocks two weeks ago. Paint/undercoating intact. Rare to find one with no rust like this and I grabbed it at a fair price. An older person had it and kept it in a garage for ten years or more when he could no longer drive. A town kid bought it and put a sound system in it and had it long enough to fix the stuff that had gone bad from sitting. He wanted a cool car, and did not know how to put it in 4 wheel drive when I bought it from him. I gave the big speakers he had put in the back to my grandsons.

I was looking at those 4 Dr sidekicks for a minute. Figured they were about perfect for a hunting wagon. Decent mpg, off-road capable, enough room for a dog and gear....

Never pulled the trigger though. About the time I got over the fact they look gayer than Roc Hudson eating a hotdog I resigned myself to just buy more fuel and drive the truck. [quote][/quote]

Still wouldn’t mind one though.

Up graded to a Jeep?

Buddy had a minty Samuri.
Commuted to work.
Drove it down a rutted highway at 55, got passed by a few semis.
That was the last trip for the Zuk.

Wheeler or putt about, sure. Not a DD rig.
Cherokee on same POS highway, was fine.

Wonder who will be the first to buy a Jimny?

Most of the local Samuri are rotted away. Clean ones got chopped and turned into hybrid cage buggies.
Think Rocky Road Outfitters and Cal Mini had stuff for em.

My dad had a couple of the Trackers, hard and soft top. He liked em (bought new).

I've had a hankering for one for a while. But I've ran old Toyotas so I'm familiar with this small rig non linear thinking. I almost went Samurai shopping a year and a bit ago but ended up with an Grizzly atv instead. A quad without a heater.

I like the bike but still like the Suzuki idea. Doesn't help that just down the street buddy's got a very nice stock 80s Samurai and other buddy on the corner an early 90s tracker. Not the rig for a ton of highway driving for sure but in the bush they just rule. And fine for bootin around town too and give the real truck a rest. Yep, I may end up there some day. Like said its rust that's fugn curse and they're getting fewer to find. Good ones are still around though actually I've seen the snow bird motor home crowd sell nice stock ones fairly regular and their life was mainly being towed and they run from winter driving so are in decent shape. I know a couple guys that scored a Suzuki from snow birds.

I bought one new in 1986. Put 60k trouble free miles on it before trading for something bigger. I had a friend with a Scout and we took some ladies wheeling above Boulder, Co one afternoon. It was raining lightly when we started, really cut loose late in the day. The creek we crossed early on the trail had risen substantially when we headed back. About mid-stream the Zuk started to float and I ended up downstream a ways before getting to the opposite bank. The chick that was with me was not happy. Never saw her again.

Had one around here for a while with a spring over and lockers. I was not sorry to see it go. Piece of junk.

Something I've noticed: when people say a vehicle will "go anywhere", they have no idea what they're talking about.

They do seem to bring a penny don't they?

I'd like to find out about the cars in the background

The Samurai for a Wyoming redneck stranded in South Florida.

Everything has pros and cons. The pros for a Suzuki outweigh the cons for my uses. Enthusiast may be too strong for me but I like to hunt and fish and want good four wheel ability at lowest reasonable cost. Zuki is easy on gas and as somebody said, it has a weight to traction to power ratio that gets it through a lot of places other vehicles get stuck.

Mine has driven me casually where larger 4 heel drive pick-ups have not been able to go in slick snow. However, one time a heavy fall of snow piled up so deep within hours that it trapped me 20 miles out till a tall-tired 4x4 came by and broke trail for me.

It also goes through narrow places and I drove a quad trail for a mile this summer to reach a lake. It can get me into bad places with no way to turn around, etc. A pro is that the short wheel base goes through wash-outs etc. without hitting the bumper on either end.

My original soft top was not good in constant coastal rain, poor visibility out the plastic side windows. When I hunted in deep cold, they cracked like paper thin glass. Fun summer beach rig however that my teen daughter loved.

Re the light weight, it is dicey in deep flowing water because it is so light it will float downstream sooner than a heavier vehicle. My first little soft top Zuki was so light that one time when we slid off the road in mud, three of us just picked up one end and put it back on the road.

It is so light that it will run on crusted snow sometimes and will often run on slightly packed snow machine trails. Bad idea. Do not do that. I learned the very hard way. If you ever break through or need to turn around, you wind up with the body sitting on top of the snow and 4 wheels not touching the ground. I dug out all of the snow under the vehicle and built a ramp up on to the packed snow again and never let off the gas for three miles back to plowed road. I'm a slow learner and drove 40 feet onto crusted snow one more time.

I totaled my last Suzuki on freeway black ice, am glad no truck hit me while I was ricocheting between the Jersey barriers on both sides.