Kid crawler

[muddinmetal]

Anything over SKINNY 32s is a hard fit on a kick/tracker with fenders and sheetmetal. It takes 4 inches and slight trimming just to clear those. Extending the wb and building bumpers helps alot with fitment over stock though

 

[Rockwells607]

Idk if you have seen CJs ACE but it turned into the easiest way fo get him on the trail and riding . I was saving parts to build him a mini buggy ( yota axles dana 300 and air shocks ) this came along and I was able to build a throttle stop and it just bridges the gap till he's running something full size

 

[Rockwells607]

 

[Eddyj]

I seriously considered that.
However my 11 year old is taller than my wife and also I have a 9 year old so I wanted to be able to haul more than one person.
I just can't bring myself to put the kiddos in the buggy... it's a death trap.

I did pick up 4 bfg 255/75r17 for $100 and luckily a buddy has some dual pattern 17s

 

[Eddyj]

Update:
people In the off-road community are awesome.
I had a buddy donate a Sami front axle.
I had another buddy who gave some rims that fit the goofy tracker/Sami pattern.
I drove to another buddies house and destroyed his garage for 4 days.
Original plan was to load everything up I've gathered in my hot rod and do a 5 day build. I stopped by a fellas house and grabbed front axle went to another fellas house and grabbed rims. I was going to keep rear axle in the tracker and throw the 6.5:1 Sami transfer case in it and front axle, which the stock steering and brakes would have bolted right up to surprise my daughter with a driving rig. On day 2 we were 75% of the way done. Things were going good....

 

[Eddyj]

Had the front axle in.

 

[Eddyj]

Tracker is rotted from the knees down. But everything worked on it like it should before I got a hold of it. I drained the old gas, checked fluids and drove it for a while to make sure it was a decent rig.
if I haven't mentioned it someone of HL that I've never met in person donated the tracker!!!

last time it was on the road BURNOUT video!

 

[Eddyj]

And then fatallybutthurt showed up and stuck his little schnitzel in my plans...

 

[doubleud]

What are the odds this tracker wont work even close to as well as the perfectly good Sammy you destroyed to build it?

 

[Eddyj]

107%

 

[Eddyj]

So on day 3 of a 5 day build we rip out everything we had done and spend 87.2% of the day stripping parts off of a donor rig that had some fab work Robby Bobby's cousin would be ashamed of and start over.
We were so damn close! If I would have stuck with the plan my daughter would have a driving little rig right now.

 

[Eddyj]

So I was going to use the stock rear 3 link suspension and just swap axles. Which is a cool little setup if you've never seen under a tracker. I get half way through fabbering up the mounts and notice the frame cross member is more jacked up than Richie Keith's roof panels.
So cut every out and the rear has a proper 4 link. End of day 4.

 

[Eddyj]

Fur link.
I cut up some links on the Sami buggy and they had some material like pvc inside. Damn near choked us out when we cut it. It was pliable when hot but hardened back up.
anyone have any ideal what this is used for?

 

[ridered3]

Very cool and I wish I had access to a crane to work on stuffs and such.

 

[Eddyj]

The access to the crane was a major reason we choose to cancel original plan and strip buggy for parts. No doubt made that job easier.

 

[Eddyj]

Day 5 was get it into a roller cause the next morning my ass was headed south to warmer weather.
I went with a radius arm front suspension for simplicity. Went with generic bushings at axle and 1.25 heims at the frame. I stopped by off-road connection and talked with Keith. (Who is awesome for advise and helping out with half assed builds. If you live in Alabama and don't support Keith you might as well be a democrat)
Because i have never done a radius arm setup. He said he thought they use to do a 9inch spread at axle. He had a stockish super duty in his shop and we measured the radius arm bushing spread at 7 inches. I did a 8 inch spread on tracker and with no track bar or springs the axle would articulate exactly 1.5 degrees with a jack stand on one knuckle and me jumping on the other side. So after speaking with an angry Frenchman he strongly suggested to remove upper half of link on one side. Which we did and the axle articulated like MattO dodging questions about selling a forum.
we did spring perches that except 2.5 coil over springs so we can adjust ride height and spring rate easily latter on. We did have some random springs we shoved in to make it a roller.

 

[zukimaster]

How you going to feel when this little unit out performs your bouncer

 

[Eddyj]

Define: out performs?

I have wheeled with multiple light weight rigs. All of whom told me about the far superior and multiple benefits from wheeling light weight rigs. To this day they have never been able to go or do anything I wasn't stupid enough to do in my big dumb overweight bouncer.
besides this one time on boat ramp at Choc. But we don't talk about that.

 

[Eddyj]

Got that Carolina squat.

 

[Eddyj]

Got to mount transfer case, hook up orbital and going to completely redo brakes.