hypermile homestead vehicle
 

Hi, first post, but have lurked for a while. I feel there is a need for a super efficient "real" 4x4 for people living off the grid on a budget, a.k.a. out in the boonies where the land is cheaper. I live in the largest city in Oregon and my wife and I own 12 acres 300 miles away and 5000ft up. It is accessable to commuter cars about 3.5 months of the year, the months which I am busiest with the big garden here in the city. 2 mountain passes have to be traversed, and the last 2 miles are snotty mud and slush, or deep snow. A hybrid 4x4 like a subaru just can't do it. I built an xfi with a full spandex boat tail stinger out the back like they put on recumbent bicycles now, custom hubcaps made by a friend who makes middle age armor as a hobby, and got low 70mpg's from it. I'm a great scounger, I swapped a $300 torch set for a running xfi with cosmetic front end damage. I wan't to do the same thing but be able to get to my land.

The goal, vehicle must be able to haul me, the missus, 1xst. bernard mutt, and ultralight backpacking gear(we pack light when we camp) out to the land
or take me, the fourlegged companion, and a load of dumpstered building materials out to the land.

I have not bought my base vehicle yet, because I wanted to have some smart folks like yourselves look over my fiendish plan first. I'll give point by point my mods and reasons, and any questions for those with more engineering experience than me.

Okay, perameters. 300miles there, 300 back. Last 2 miles in are aweful and beyond an old early 80's tercel 4x4 wagons ability to cope (too bad, they get 32mpg highway with 4x4!) It's so bad that even a stock "real" 4x4 truck without locked differentials can't do it. I'm not lazy, I backpack for fun and have walked that 2 miles hauling literally 600lbs in one day. But I don't trust the redneck tweekers to leave my vehicle alone if I left it out at the road, and I can build more on the cabin if I'm not busy hauling stuff in. Cheaper is better on the build, we are talking real economy hear, not just gas economy. Want economy and 4x4ability mods to not detract from each other if possible. must be smogable in portland OR, at least for now.

Here's the prototype idea

Suzuki Samurai, pre-1989 old fashioned gov mpg rating ( I find them closer to my light foot driving style than the new) of 29mpg highway. post 89 drops several mpg's.

It's a real 4x4, solid axel, lots of aftermaket parts that because of the low power 1.3 liter engine(same as the 4cyl geo) are cheap, they don't have to be as burly as for a big old v8.

Get's great mpg for class with truly terrible aerodynamics(means room for improvement)

It weighs 200lbs more than a geo metro, many owners talk about it floating over mud and snow rather than having to plow through like a larger truck jacked way up with huge tires. My gut is that huge tires are expensive and really bad for mpg, so this floating effect could be very good for my needs.

Mods
try to get a base vehicle with a low mile running gear

Pizza pan wheel covers

track lock locking differential in front. It is my understanding that in the front with the manual hubs unlocked this should not adversely affect hwy mpg at all while greatly improving my ability to get through the muck

full aftermarket exhaust aimed at torq improvement to delay downshifting

get a convertable model for weight savings over hard. Stage one mod get a "fast back" softop, a store bought part that looks surprising like some of the softop pickup bed mods on this sight. Stage two mod is to fold windshield down remove passenger seat, cut some doars in half from the wrecking yard, gangster my seat back a bit, and build a kind of toneau cover that goes from the front to the back of the vehicle with a little indie 500 hole for my head/seatback and stubby shelby cobra style driver only rollbar.

For 100 bucks I can put what's called a spool in the back, it essentially locks the rear differential all the time, I can't say good enough things about them off road, my question for the engineering types out there is, what do they do to mostly strait hwy mpg's?

front differential protector that is stronger and streamlined

grill hole delete whatever temp it will tolerate it at.

spare tire move o interior. If I have the volume I need.

some company makes aftermarket fender flares that are much smoother than factory, haven't been able to track them down yet, only scene theme in a picture.

vacuum guage, I own a scan gauge, but the samurai's that get the good mpg's are carbed.

aggressive tire chains to help make up for staying little with the tires.

some sort of removable cloth "boat tail" or "stinger" out the back, did this with my xfi with great results, built it in a day, and had it mount to a trailer hitch bikerack so it took 2 seconds to remove.

super bright headlights. If you pick right they draw the same watts but if I get into the land late friday night, good lights make trying to 4x4 in the dark a lot more fun :-)

Poly gas tank. lighter than stock. 150% stock capacity. hangs down .5 inches lower than stock, but has a smooth skid guard on it that is cleaner to the air than factory. Another engineering question, stock is 10 gal, poly is 15 gal, does the decrease in stops and starts for gas counter act the extra weight of the 5 gal of fuel, or should I keep it less than full except when venturing far off the beaten path?

skid guard. A company makes one that covers like 40% of the bottom in one smooth sheet of metal. Adds weight, but protects expensive stuff and smooths things up. One article said that if the bottom is smooth, higher off the road is more efficient. Don't have the math yet to know, but since I have to be up a bit for off road reasons, smooth would be better.

Rear seat delete. it's heavy, none of my friends are small enough to fit in it, not even my dog.

basic tuneup stuff. make sure everything is running tip top, so I have a chance of breaking factory mpg claims.

Mud terrain tires with the stock factory tire size, (may have to go a little bigger if I can't get in with them.) try to find which tire/wheel option is lightest


weigh front seats and see if one of the plastic racing seats is lighter.

carpet delete for roll in bedliner. have to do some calculations on weight first, but I know bedliner is lighter than wet carpet :-)

rock my ipod knockoff. delete factory radio and antena. weight and wind resistance.

make sure it dosen't have power steering.

bumpers. weld up some bumpers that flow better but protect better too.

Come-along instead of winch and big alternator and second battery.

Dynamic bead tire balancers. Suposed to work better for big 4x4 tires, and you don't have external lead weights to get torn off in the mud.

led lights to draw less from the alternator? haven't looked at the numbers, just brainstorming here. more waterproof though too.


Well that's what i've come up with in the last 2 weeks I've been thinking about this. Let me know what you think. I know you guys will come up with some stuff I have missed. I know those little metros are the best for highway flyin', but I think that this project could fill an important role as well.

oh, and a coolant heater too.

What do you guys think is a reasonable mpg goal for my project?

Sounds like a lot of work. Is there mud, rocks, streams? Why would a suburu not make it?

Another option might be to park a cheap metro/civic/whatever at the edge of the "badlands". You will have to get your maintenance in while you can though :)

So, for example, if it is 2 miles of unavigable stuff and 298 miles of hardtop then this might work out for you. The smaller car would probably pay for itself in a few trips.

Sounds like you are on the right track. Since your 297 miles is at speed, focus on the aerodynamic stuff and don't spend $ on weight reduction. If you're really handy, try lowering the seat and cutting the windshield and top of the doors down to go with the fastback canopy. Heck, put a metro body on the Samurai chassis!

dcb's idea is pretty inspired. I like! You may even be able to save on insurance / registration if you're not driving the 4x on public roads.

I also agree (and you likely already know) that if you do end up driving the 4x4 to/from, aero should be the focus (moreso than weight).

Pictures? I'd love to see pictures.

In a straight line, my understanding of these things is there would be zero difference in drag. But we never really drive in a straight line for very long. So you're bound to see some added drag. Can't comment on how much.

One EM member, palemelanesian, keeps meticulous records and has documented the MPG penalty in his car (90's Civic sedan) of a full vs. closer-to-empty fuel tank. Weight is weight... less is better.

FYI: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...sion-7086.html ... has some power draw comparisons.

Pictures of that XFi tail, please! :)

Maybe have the road fixed. For the cost of an extra vehicle you could have someone drive a bulldozer in there and fix the worst spots.

The original developer who cut up the section into little sub 20 acre lots just cut "roads" through the brush and trees with a cat, unfortunately this makes them lower than the surrounding relatively flat terrain, and turns them into goo with all the freeze/thaw cycles. I had an old 1985 subaru wagon with a 5 speed. pulled the shot 1.8 liter out of it and put an earlier 1.6 liter engine in, because a friend told me that they came from the factory balanced unlike most engines I guess? anywho, that setup with factory roof rack on top got 36 highway, and that was back when I was dumb and driving it like I stole it. Just too deep and slippery for a suby

I've essentially been doing this for a few years now, at least in winter. I am a renewable energy engineering student (just getting started) and my wife has massive medical bills so I buy my vehicles as non runners usually and nurse them back. I'm not a very materialistic person, and a pretty mellow guy, but the thought of someone just counteracting all that hard work through vandalism/would tee me off. time for an alternative.

I thought about a suzuki 650 dualsport motorcycle, but can only haul like 200 lbs of non-me weight, and my wife is a big viking chick, let alone the st. bernard/camping gear/building materials.

I ride my bicycle everywhere, my wife is a city girl she grew up in tokyo and austin tx. I'm a country boy, and I pretty much only drive to get out to the woods because of time constraints/have to take care of the pup. Something like this project could allow me to spend more time playing out in the woods too.

I have a samuria, and It will go anywhere within reason. I have pulled out of the snow a full size chevy pickup with it. He sank in the snow I did not. I have had a few, the previous one got way better milage, It was an 87 the one I have now is an 88.5. In late 88 they changed a couple things, the dash got diffrent vents, the springs got a little softer and 5th gear got a little shorter. I currently get any where from 15-20mpg (it's been getting cold so there is some significant idle time, and My trips are pretty short). The hubs are almost always locked, and it is usually in 4x4 as we have lots of muddy roads and plenty of ice and snow in the winters.

The soft top is not much lighter as the roll bar and what not add a little weight.

I would lock the front first. If you are driving on pavement with the hubs unlocked no penalty for the locker. When you need the 4x4 there is much more weight on the front so you will get tremendous traction up there with the locker. 31 inch tires fit with no mods or only slight mods on the inside of the bumper. With a set of 2 inch longer shackles you get one inch of lift and that would let the 31s fit very well.

I have pulled mine out of mud holes that I knew I should not have gone into with a 1500# come along and a couple snatch blocks.

I would not worry about the wind resistance of the antenna, the samurai is not a speed demon and the thing is so draggy anyway it likely would not matter.

There are a few cams designed for low end torque (these motors need it for slogging in the muck) My understanding is that most exhausts help with the higher end of things. In the low end there is not as much volume of gasses to flow.

I had a friend who did something similar, in the good times you could drive a chevy astrovan in, and out. In the bad it was a dodge truck with full time 4x4 and locking diffs. At the end of the trail where the road starts (still a dirt road) he had an econobox waiting.

Sorry, no pics, but I can describe it. square hitch mount, hitch mount bike rack, contoured square frame of electrical conduit hugs back corners of geo around the edge of the hatch. frame tubing is bolted at corners so it can be removed and fit in the geo. frame is ubolted at bottom edge to bike rack, then a telescoping awning pole comes from the center of the top edge of the frame, so middle of hinge area of hatch, past center post of trailer hitch bike rack, extending about 4 feet past, so it was about 6ft all together. then made a spandex cone, easy to sew only one seam. Point goes on the tip awening pole, spandex has enough stretch that round base fits fine on square frame. Didn't really flap much, it was smooth enough and I drove slow enough that it worked great. Totally removable/storable in the vehicle too.

Thanks, for the tips on the led's and gas volume.

A spool, in a rainy climate, with a short wheelbase.

You know, a gun's faster and a pie plate full of coke is more fun.. but hey whatever floats your boat.

Sadly, I think the days when one could leave a vehicle unattended in the wilds are behind us--too many meth labs and too many people who think it's fun to destroy other people's work.

Samurais are a bit too trendy in the market these days, I think you could get an equal Tracker/Sidekick for less money and it would convert more easily into a streamlined two-seater with a covered cargo bed--make the cover a Kamm tail and accept a bit more drag when you have to transport a piano (or anything else that would require raising the cover).

+1 on the locked front diff and open rear diff. With locking hubs left unlocked on roads and locked in the poop, you'll have the best of both worlds.

I think a high mileage 4x4 is a fabulous idea--go for it, man!

A spool is about a hundred bucks and a lock right is about 220, I never drive around town, I ride my pedal powered infinity mpg mobile, that's why I got rid of the xfi, was making me fat :-) this mud is so hard to get through that I think I will end up doing a spool in the back and a lock right in the front. At least one poster here thinks that the spool shouldn't cost any mpg on strait highway, and 500 of my 600mile roundtrip is on strait interstate-5 for those of you who know Oregon, it's very strait.

Another thought, If theres significant woods, any old rat bike can probably forge a path that isn't part of the washout. I used to hit the trails on my suzuki 1000 all the time. I wasn't doing over the handlebar heel clicks, but I always got where I was going.

The kicker for me was when a week long cabin building trip was ruined by us finding a pot grow on our land, had to call the sheriff, he recommended we not hang there till after the grow season, total pain. Want to get out there more, and make more of a presence felt there. In the poor yahoo's defense it looks like the blm land all around it. Need to put up some fences and signs etc. Oh, and work out a sweet high mpg 4x4 so I can be out there more :-)

could you build a lockable shed on your property to store the 4x4? then drive a high MPG vehicle out to the area, then walk the 2 miles to get the truck to do the hauling?

It'd have to be a connex box with a padlock inside a welded anti cut box like how the forest service does there fire road gates.

I'd take a military half-track to get one of those in though :-)

My land was cheap with awesome trees, so road is bad ,wells are deep

According to the epa samurai get 3.5% better mpg, have solid front axel and carb(much less scary for me to work on) if you swap to the webber carb you don't even need a computer! Sidekicks get worse mpg with better aero's I think the samurai has more potential for an ecomodder.

Or you can do what this guy did:

http://www.skyhawg.com/sam1.html

He is a regular on some of the homebuilt aircraft forums I frequent.

As far as I can tell, you've already talked yourself into whatever it is you're going to do and there's not much point in discussion.

I don't think a spool will cost you MPG's, but I do think a spool on rainy highways - particularly in a vehicle with a very short wheelbase - is a good way to cost yourself a whole lot more.

Spooled (and lincoln locked) 4x4's here in AZ are great on the rocks, and manageable on the road because it's dry 99% of the time so a little scrub on highway corners gives you some "fight" on the steering wheel and reminds you that you're spooled up. In the rain.. not so much. A short wheelbase vehicle differentiates more left to right when turning, and for the same reason will scrub more on turns if locked. Can you get away with it? Sure, the same way you an probably get away with putting 5000 more miles on a bald set of tires. It's just pants-on-head retarded.

very cool, and good for just the fabrication education, but not really practical for my application. Revtech engines are like 3800 bucks plus serious fabrication, and no idea what it would get for mpgs. but thanks for the link anyway.

I had a first gen toyota 4x4 pickup with a spool in the back and lock rite in the front. These are just a smidge longer than a samurai. I started off with a lock right in the back but didn't like the unpredictable windup/letoff that happened sometimes while cornering at hwy speeds. Moved it to the front, tried out a friends rig with a spool in the back here in the rain, it was a little slippery but very predictable. I threw one in the rear of my truck and had no problems. The previous owner had put bigger tires on without changing gears, so it was impossible to spin the tires and made it very easy to drive it like a little old lady.

On several suzuki forums guys are running similar setups on there daily drivers and haven't had any traction problems or even noticed any additional tire wear. They guess it is the samurai's gutless engine and light weight helping out again.

I am confident that this could be a safe setup for me, and my driving experience. But I do value your guys opinion greatly on the mechanical efficiency of this differential setup, And am very open to change when I get better info from people smarter about that stuff than I am. I'm solid about putting a lockright in the front, because there are just about no negatives to it, in keeping to the "real" economy aspect of this project I would put that in first and try it out before I even messed with the rear diff, who knows, it might work out just fine with the samurai float on top effect, with an open rear diff. I'll have to experiment first to find out.

Don't worry, I'm going to keep playing with this project, and will get pictures as soon as I have any to post. The only reason I haven't bought my base vehicle yet, is again because I value your guys opinion so much, I wanted to make sure that somebody out there didn't know of some different vehicle that would make a better starting point.

Where would we be if all the great innovators had quit the first time they were called "pants on the head retarded" :thumbup:

What about a diesel from a VW in the samurai? Diesel swaps are common and pretty cheap, and people report 35~ mpg with mud tires and probably no regard to hypermiling.

Or better yet, how bout a mini truck with a cummins 4BT in it? 40 MPG isn't out of the question and you get a 6 foot bed.

I had a samurai, it was great. But highway was something it did nto like. And that was with "Just" 33's, rear locker, and a 6:1 low range. 55 MPH was about the top speed in the little fella. Unless I was drafting a truck.

Very cool engine swaps, The vw diesel I have thought about for some time, but when you read the suzuki forums about how much people ended up spending on them they don't fit my real economy criteria well. And I know the cummins diesel swaps are expensive, people are like groupies about those engines. plus, for economies sake, we should really be talking about dollars/mile not miles per gallon, cause diesel is usually more expensive here in the states. Although why is a mystery to me, since you can make more with a barrel of oil :confused:mI love diesels though, goodbye electrical ignition system!

I worked for years as a shipwright mostly on old wooden sailboats and salmon trollers. old fashioned low rpm marine diesels are awesome. my favorite are the old saabs. Flywheel start=goodbye electric starting system, the cause of 80% of motor vehicle breakdowns. they have a little hole in the bottom of the block to insert a flaming cigarette or splint of wood instead of a complex glow plug settup. heck yeah!! change the injectors out every 1 YEAR OF CONTINUOUS RUN TIME for $45 then when you die give it to your kid and they can do the same. That is good engineering. In the old salmon trollers they had to be super efficient, because that was before all the ma and pa outfits got kicked out by the big corporate setups buying regulation that favored them. And if your engine conked in bad weather, you died. I wish I had the machining skills to throw one of these in a truck.

If I do the collapse-able spandex boat tail again, I think I will do it with strong magnets on the front edge instead of an electrical conduit frame for the front edge. Just have an aluminum expando awning pole to support the tip of the cone. way less work, no holes in vehicle, fold up smaller etc. and I can dumpster strong speaker magnets till the cows come home. samurais are so much blockier than my xfi was it should work even better.

Seems as though you're still going to be up against some fundamental problems. First, any 4WD that will handle your too-bad-for-Subaru road is going to have really crappy aerodynamics. If you jack it up and put big off-road tires on it, that's just going to make things worse, as will your lockups &c.

So here's an out-of-the-box suggestion. (Or maybe I should say "in the box"?). Get one of those used metal shipping containers, and park it at the entrance to your property. (You could even pour concrete to mount it to.) Keep a small 4x4 for the property (maybe even a quad with trailer?), drive a small car to & from the city, and put whichever you're not using in the strong metal box.

I'm intrigued by the spandex boat-tail, because I've been thinking along those lines myself. I ride recumbent bikes, and those are pretty popular in those circles. With car design it seems like most of the aero features focus on the front, but in the bicycle circles it seems like more results are netted from quasi-boat-tail contraptions. It's easier to feel how effective these modifications are by the seat of the pants, when all the power for the vehicle comes from within those pants.

I hadn't thought about magnets, but that's a great idea. I like the hitch mount, and I've been checking out used hatchback style bike racks for part of the support structure. This will be for my minivan. The reason I drive a minivan is because I have to haul stuff, so I need modifications that won't hinder the access to the hatchback.

I live in the mountains of CO, so I know what you are talking about as far as bad roads and terrain. It really sucks that the days are gone in which you could leave a vehicle out and people would just respect that it's not theirs and leave it alone. But when the "help" that the sheriff has to offer is a suggestion that you stay away from your own property while the pot growing season is on, I begin to wonder what is his cut?? If you leave a vehicle out and something happens to it, you might not get much help...

Thanks for an out of the box solution :D

As I said earlier I am going to avoid big tires/lift at all cost. As you say, they shoot mpg all to hell. My hope is that a combination of more agresively treaded tires/locking differentials/tire chains/samurai light weight floating over the goo compared to bigger trucks effect, will counteract the lack of conventional big tires/lift solution to off road performance.

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. If I put a shipping container on it, it would be confiscated and I would get a fat illegal dumping ticket.

Also as I mentioned earlier in the thread, in my neck of the woods the contianers cost 2500, plus several hundred for delivery, several times the budget for my project.

Keep the ideas coming guys, brainstorming is good.

I don't realistically see you getting good MPG out of anything that can off road decently. At least not while also staying cheap.

My samurai could go anywhere up the side of a mountain, but got 23 mpg doing 55mph (top speed was probably around 60~65 or so) and it was pretty mild for an off road vehicle. It also was properly geared for the tires it had. It cost way too much for what it was. Rusted all through out. Beat to hell. Laughable interior, or rather lack there of. Non running condition when I got it. No shocks. No brakes. Bald tires. 600$

So a decent running one in decent condition is probably 2 grand minimum. They carry a premium because of their fan base and its hard enough finding them in stock condition anymore.

I loved it, but it was a four wheeler with heat. And not something I'd ever consider driving 300 miles even if the world ended and it was all I had. I'd rather walk.

The goals seem to be working against each other. You can smooth out the belly all you want but you're still going to have not one but TWO solid axles that you can't do anything about, along with the brakes/shock lines connected to them. It's shaped not box shaped, but just box. You really can't get them any lighter than they are. A few pounds here and there. I cut the bolts to the doors so I could lift out the doors and enjoy the off road and they couldn't have been more than 30 lbs. The tub couldn't have weighed much of anything. The metal on the entire vehicle was paper thin.

Re: Cummins fanbase: Theres a reason for that (: Same with the samurai fanbase, 4BT's arent that expensive and I've seen the entire swap done for less than 2K into a full size pick up.

I just don't see this as a realistic goal, and much better way of getting what you want.. but what the hell, go for it. We're Americans right, aren't we supposed to be pioneers?

For what its worth, anything I could call a 'road' I wouldn't hesitate taking my Subaru over. I've hauled 1000 pound oak trees with it without issue. Pulled a 3500 dually driving the other direction, and stayed with the big boys in mucking mud. (I cheated there and actually had swampers on it at the time.) And thats with my daily driver outback, with the girly AWD. We had a mid 80s GL 4WD subaru on the oak farm that I could absolutely not kill and it was more useful on the farm than the K5 Blazer we also had there.

This post is way too long.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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.