hypermile homestead vehicle

[bondvagabond]

It'll only work if I can avoid big tires/lift. The vw diesel swap guys are getting mid 30-mid40mpgs with big tires/lifts, depending on the engine/tires.

Acme adapters, the swap kit company with the best reputation for tech support is about 15 miles from my house, so that's a plus.

If I end up having to go diesel, I would go with a 1.6 normally aspirated engine. They get the best mpg's, and have really similar power specs to the stock 1.3 liter gas engine, something important with samurais because when you just bolt monster torq on you have to start upgradeing other parts like axles and it snowballs on you.

I looked into the price stuff some more. It looks like the actual build cost is thrown up by guys covetous of power. real world, just today found
running diesel car 1.6normally aspirated 500
swap kit 595
intake manifold adapter 200
exhaust manifold adapter 100
flexible collector adapter 200
gas vw intake manifold (for height reasons) cheap
gas vw exhaust manifold (fitment reasons) cheap
so about 1700 ish with a used engine
not bad, 29 to 45 mpg= 35% mpg gain.

It would take about 42500 miles to pay for itself if I didn't run into any complications. very cool, and If I had an engine blow up anyway, or had to go to big tires to make the project work it would be the way to go. as it is though, I think by staying stock and adding aero mods and everything I can think of for traction that won't affect mpg negatively, I will get there with less. My cheap solution that I will try out first is, all complimentary to a diesel swap later too with the exception of a torq specific exhaust system.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by bondvagabond

I'd love to do the box solution, unfortunately the land at the beginning of the 2 miles of bad road does not belong to me.

OK, how about neighbors/nearest town? If you're in the muddy part of Oregon, it can't be that far, can it? So find someone who will let you park at their place for a few bucks. (Small airports used to be pretty good about this: people who'd regularly fly in would leave older cars there for transportation.)

The only other solution would be a complete rebody of a small 4WD like a Subaru. Tall & fairly skinny tires, narrow body, lots of ground clearance. Think Stutz Bearcat Stutz Bearcat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia with a more aerodynamic body.

Oh, and BTW, a late '80s Toyota 4WD doesn't get that bad mpg. I've been averaging 27 mpg with mine, with driving that almost always includes at least a couple miles of mountain dirt at the end, sometimes hauling big loads of firewood.

[bestclimb]

Suzuki made an on road version of the tracker/sidekick. The x90 I think. Uggly things, looked like a barbie car. The drivetrain and suspension were the same as the sidekick but I wonder what the millage was? A small pickup would get nearly the millage of a samurai and be able to haul a load out to the homestead. One thing the samurai lacks is cargo space and load hauling.

[bondvagabond]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Oh, and BTW, a late '80s Toyota 4WD doesn't get that bad mpg. I've been averaging 27 mpg with mine, with driving that almost always includes at least a couple miles of mountain dirt at the end, sometimes hauling big loads of firewood.

epa on 1988 toyota 4x4 is only 24 (using the older epa stats that I find closer to what us eco freaks do.) The samurai by these same specs gets 29, 17.24% better from the getgo. It also has way worse aero's (I'm assuming), meaning it might respond even better to earo treatments. I've owned a 79,80, and 84 toyota 4x4's so you can say I'm a fan :-) I have also gotten high 20's with all of them, two were on 31x10.5 mudders too! This makes me think I could get similar gains over epa with the samurai just by driving style, without making a single mod. The misses loves to lean her seat back and put her feet up on the wife footrest(dash to you single types) harder to do in a pickup.

[bondvagabond]

Thinking about some sort of base plate to attach to my hi-lift jack that would keep it from sinking in soft ground in jack mode, but allow me to use it like an anchor point for winching with the hi-lift.

No spare isn't really an option out in the boonies, bring it inside for aero improvement unless space is a problem. Around town could rock the AAA/fixaflat. Another perk of not doing the big tire lift thing if it works, no ginormous spare tire.

I am a bit of a backpacking gear modder, and probably have a lighter setup than 99.9% of backpackers out there, so that is an easy/light/small/tested emergency gear setup for the humans.

Any tricks on getting the weight of car related tool kit down to minimum, without compromising? I can think of some basics, like only take sockets/wrenches for sizes of bolts on your rig. If its not too tight, good quality crecent wrench instead of combo wrench sets. Spare fuses are light. maybe towstrap instead of chain. cheers

[bondvagabond]

Originally Posted by bestclimb

Suzuki made an on road version of the tracker/sidekick. The x90 I think. Uggly things, looked like a barbie car. The drivetrain and suspension were the same as the sidekick but I wonder what the millage was? A small pickup would get nearly the millage of a samurai and be able to haul a load out to the homestead. One thing the samurai lacks is cargo space and load hauling.

By the earlier epa stats that I've been using, they got 28 highway. They have independent front suspension and are low compared to a samurai, like a subaru. Only made them for 2 years, so parts finding would be hard. Samurai's have awesome aftermarket support like vw bugs or something another very important factor to me whenever I consider buying an older car. What use is them being nice and simple to work on, if you can't get dang parts?

[tasdrouille]

In Japan the Samurai have been available with a 660cc turbo engine for a while. That would be a pretty good engine to get you hands on, but it might prove hard to find in the states.

[bestclimb]

Originally Posted by bondvagabond

Thinking about some sort of base plate to attach to my hi-lift jack that would keep it from sinking in soft ground in jack mode, but allow me to use it like an anchor point for winching with the hi-lift.

No spare isn't really an option out in the boonies, bring it inside for aero improvement unless space is a problem. Around town could rock the AAA/fixaflat. Another perk of not doing the big tire lift thing if it works, no ginormous spare tire.

I am a bit of a backpacking gear modder, and probably have a lighter setup than 99.9% of backpackers out there, so that is an easy/light/small/tested emergency gear setup for the humans.

Any tricks on getting the weight of car related tool kit down to minimum, without compromising? I can think of some basics, like only take sockets/wrenches for sizes of bolts on your rig. If its not too tight, good quality crecent wrench instead of combo wrench sets. Spare fuses are light. maybe towstrap instead of chain. cheers

The spare could be used as an attach point for a light weight boat tail on a samurai.

I have seen light weight boat anchors used to wench against. But it took several. I would be very impressed with a light weight foot attached to a high lift jack that was an effective winching anchor. There are screw in anchors that look like they would be useful for a light vehicle. Many times found objects can be used. I have buried tree limbs to anchor things in the past.

For towing and pulling stuck vehicles out I prefer a strap to a chain. I have found that with a strap there is stretch that reduce shock loads to components (such as the chintzy anchor located on a stock samurai) and the stretch and rebound helps in recoving the stuck vehicle.

[bondvagabond]

Originally Posted by bestclimb

The spare could be used as an attach point for a light weight boat tail on a samurai.

I have seen light weight boat anchors used to wench against. But it took several. I would be very impressed with a light weight foot attached to a high lift jack that was an effective winching anchor. There are screw in anchors that look like they would be useful for a light vehicle. Many times found objects can be used. I have buried tree limbs to anchor things in the past.

For towing and pulling stuck vehicles out I prefer a strap to a chain. I have found that with a strap there is stretch that reduce shock loads to components (such as the chintzy anchor located on a stock samurai) and the stretch and rebound helps in recoving the stuck vehicle.

I think the stock spare tire racks are pretty wimpy. I wouldn't want to tar up the sheetmetal in the tailgate if that's all that was supporting the boattail structure.

Anyone got good data on the pro's and con's of increasing there final drive ratio by putting on bigger tires? you'd have more rotating weight, but fewer rpm/mile=less gas.

I'm wondering about mildly bigger tires to lower cruise rpms. just what I could get away with without a lift. Someone was mentioned on here that the reason the samurias had the same mpg's even after the swap to fuel injection was that they lowered top gear. I don't mind gutless if it gives me the sweet mpgs

[bestclimb]

Originally Posted by bondvagabond

I think the stock spare tire racks are pretty wimpy. I wouldn't want to tar up the sheetmetal in the tailgate if that's all that was supporting the boattail structure.

Anyone got good data on the pro's and con's of increasing there final drive ratio by putting on bigger tires? you'd have more rotating weight, but fewer rpm/mile=less gas.

I'm wondering about mildly bigger tires to lower cruise rpms. just what I could get away with without a lift. Someone was mentioned on here that the reason the samurias had the same mpg's even after the swap to fuel injection was that they lowered top gear. I don't mind gutless if it gives me the sweet mpgs

If you go with taller tires but not wider I think you could see some slight gains. I am making the assumption that the aero is so bad on a samurai that the slight increase in drag from taller tires will be lost in the noise so to speak. I know the guys modding the samurai like the shorter 5th but that is for much larger tires, where they are trying to get some torque back.

I currently have 225 75 15s with out any lift. I have no trouble with the tire touching. If you could find a 225 70 or 65 you may see some improvement. If the tires are wider than stock I would bet you would loose a little mileage. This is assuming that the increase in tire drag is lost in the rest of the drag of the rig and that the engine is still in an effecient rpm range for your speed. I know these things love to rev and need to be wound up a bit to make head way.