Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Side by side ATV's ...... I don't understand the utility or draw of them

I did, until I saw the prices. Properly rigged easily approaching 15K. Bought a 2009 Jeep Rubicon, had a full camo wrap. Best thing I ever did. I've got more hauling capacity than any atv, heat, air, doors and I can legally drive it on the street.

Depends on where you buy. Bought my Big Red out the door for $10 300.00 including windshield, roof and upgraded instrument package. The winch, mount and extra battery was about another $450.00. I've seen 4-wheelers approaching that price.....

I've seen several loaded, low mileage, Rhinos sell around here for under $7k. Lots of guys out of work and selling toys to survive.

If your at all mechanically minded, buy a used Suzuki 410 or 413 for about $750, and then spend another $1000 -$1500 max lifting it and putting decent off road tire wheel combo on it..Add a home made snorkle, fits breathers to the diffs, gear box and anywhere else needed and change the fan to an electric unit with an "over ride" switch in the cab...A set of lockers for the rear axle would be nice but would probably bust your budget, but you'd end up with a small cheap 4x4 that will generally run rings around a side by side ATV and at a fraction of the price. Parts will probably be cheaper as well...

Found this pic on another fourm, but it shows the type of conversions that a popular here in the UK. Many have far more extensive modifications done to them, but something like this would be still a reasonable ride "on road"



Edited to add the official Honda homepage lists the width of the Big Red as 64" which is 162.5cm..

Yahamas website gives the 2009 Rhino as being 54.5" wide, which is 139cm

The Suzuki owners club lists both the SJ410 and SJ413 as being 146cm wide!

So even if you went with wider tires on the Suzuki, its still only going to be as wide as the Honda Big Red!!

WOW, 7 pages later and Pete E makes the point I started out with better than I did/could. I said Suzuki Samurai in my original post but was thinking of these little beauty's when I posted, did not know what they were called. PLUS, the rig is street/hwy legal.

Cool pic! Could go a lot of places with that little buggie, including down to the grocery store and back!

Suzuki called these various names in different parts of the world..In the UK they were also called the Samurai and the Santana, but SJ410 and SJ413 were the "official designation" for all the markets and as they refer to the engine size, if helps avoid confusion..

If you want to see a few others, try googling "Suzuki Stockman"
and that should show the "trayback" version which was available down in Oz...

Are Samurai's sold made over there? I thought they quit making/selling them here in '87.
I love mine and wish it had less miles.

stumpy

I have been looking for a Samurai for about 3 months now, I will not stop until I find one. They will go more places that a UTV and have heat and defrost

Neither the SJ410 and the SJ410 have been available new for some time in the UK. I *think* all production has ceased, but I hesitate to say that in case they are still being built under license in some obscure third world country somewhere.

As far as I know, the Samurai's were made in Japan, and the Santana's were built in Spain...Google is probably your best bet for the exact history..

In the UK, both models have been replaced by the Jimny, which I have..its not quite so basic, and now has coil springs all round instead of leaf...it has retained the beam axles, so is still a choppy ride on the road, but it generally excellent off road.

The down side is that some of the drive drive is supposedly not as tough as the SJ413's. That said, at least here in the UK anyway, there is a increasing availablity of after market upgrades for Jimny should such problems be encountered...

My main dissapointments with the Jimny is they don't do a five door version and neither are they available with a small diesel engine only the 1.3 petrol; a diesel would really be the icing on the cake for off roading...

Regards,

Peter

I know for a while, the hot ticket in the Samurai over here was to lift it 6 inches and add a diesel from a VW Jetta.

Teal,

Those sort of conversions were popular over here too..The trouble is once you get too "radical" especially with larger wheel and lift kits, it then looses its practicality for onroad use...

I could never understand why neither SJ413 nor the Jimny were offered with a small deisel as a factory option...It was only with the Vitara (Sierra?) that Suzuki eventually bowed to demand to go that route...

Regards,

Peter

I looked for a long time for a good Suzuki Samurai or Toyota FJ40 but for someone like myself who can't do body work or detailed mechanical work, it just didn't make sense.


Beyond that, there's just something about the way these UTV's drive and go that make them so much more enjoyable. Sure I can drive my truck across a muddy, bumpy field(my own fields) but it's just totally different doing it in an UTV.


I know where you're coming from as I use to rail against people stupid enough to spend 'ALL' that money on an UTV. No way they were worth what you could buy a good used truck for.

Then you drive one....