I haven't got any work done on the Zuk since the last update, but I have put a ton of km on it in the last 3 weeks.

Some hard miles:














I had a lot of trouble getting up the creek bank in the last few photos. The 1.8:1 low-range just doesn't cut it for technical stuff like that. But at least I got to test the durability of the drivetrain, including the welded CV axle...nothing broke despite several hard attempts at the creek exit. In the end I got hung up on a rock between my fuel tank and rear diff and had to get pulled off it, and instead of beating on the Zuk more, I let my buddy with the HJ60 have a go at it and he nailed one of the rocks so hard that we were able to roll it out of my path and then it was no problem after that. The mosquitoes had a hey-day while we were trying to stack rock for the XL though.,,shoulda put a locker in the front while I had it all apart!

More hard miles:

Telkwa Pass








Took my Dutch cousin to see the Salmon Glacier up by Hyder, Alaska, 4 hours from my town.






And the lesser known Bergeron Glacier just down the road:

Love that last post... great pictures; great adventure!

-Eric

Finished my skid plate last week, feels like I lost a whole bunch of clearance...I'm also not too happy with the Alter Ego springs, they just keep sagging and sagging. Had to adjust the camber it sagged so much. Now I'm thinking about swapping to OME springs for a little better performance. In the meantime, did some more wheelin!











The Yotas made things look easy with their lower gears, bigger engines, and rear e-lockers...but the XL7 held its own alright!

Last week I was in Alberta for a family event so I capitalized on being nearer to the Rockies and checked out a trail I've been meaning to get to for the last 2 years: Ruby Creek, about 2 hours south of Hinton, AB. You basically follow a creekbed for about 20km until you get to a massive rock wall and a beautiful waterfall. We camped there. There is also a nice lake on a side loop which we hit on the return.











Another Suzuki! A classic LJ80 along for the trip...along with 2 Jeep Tj's and 5 Jeep XJ's...we were very much outnumbered


Sank my rig in this hole. My story is that all the puddles before this one were all shallow and hard-bottomed, so I charged into this one expecting the same results. For a second the hood disappeared under the bow wave and I panicked and tried to back out, but was hung up in the ruts on the bottom. As I was shifting from 1st to reverse, the engine died (due to water coming up the exhaust and creating excessive backpressure), but I wasn't sure if it had ingested water or not so as soon as we got the truck pulled out, I checked the airbox and it had water in it. Pulled all 6 spark plugs and they were all dry thankfully. Cranked the motor over with the plugs out just to see if anything would come shooting out, was all good. Reassembled and ran the rest of the trail and the way home with no problems other than the catalytic converter got full of mud and wouldn't let the engine breathe, so I could barely do 50km/h up mild hills. I cut the cat out on the side of the road and got my power back and a very sweet sounding jake brake noise on decel that had a few people looking at me funny. I just replaced the cat with a 2.25" pipe so I will not have to deal with that again!





Ruby Falls in the morning, great way to wake up:














Big unnecessary mud hole; I took the go-around since the only guy who made it was running 40" military tires and about 4' of clearance under his doors


Ruby Lake, another really nice place to camp




A few minutes later there was another really nice lake right along the trail:


Heading home, nearing the old town of Cadomin. Would be a fantastic place to spend a week exploring around.


After this trip I decided I needed to get my front end up higher since I was scraping the front skidplate over things I should have no problems with. I ordered a pair of OME 956 springs (the XL7 light-duty ones) from Low Range Off Road. I wasn't sure if I should have got the 962's (the GV HD ones) but they recommended running those only if I had at least 150 lbs extra weight on the front. Here's hoping this cures my suspension woes.

That looks like an absolute blast. When I get the diesel samurai done I need to try out some trails like that. Down here in Florida ever thing  is just flat dirt.

cool pics thx for sharing

That looks like a good place to spend more adventure time in.

Made a front skid plate a while ago, and as you can see it's been trail-tested. If you look further back you can see the cat-delete pipe too:



Found back a nice picture from late July on the Telkwa Microwave tower trail of me and my son

I got a few more pics sent my way from the Alberta trip. Some of them I thought were really nice so I thought I'd share:





This bridge was challenging to get perfectly lined up to and with a 3' drop on both sides there was little room for error. It still seemed a better option than going through the mud on the go-around. The LJ had a easy time with it though, his axles were so narrow it just fit right between the guardrails, but I had to carefully drive on top of them!

That sure looks like a great time!  I look forward to being able to spend time with my family soaking up some great nature!

Great trail pics and an interesting rig.  Thanks for posting.

It's been a long time since I updated this! Since the last post, I've put the Zuk away for winter, and knocked a few items off the to-do list:

Removed the crappy AE springs and put in a pair of OME XL7 light-duty front springs. Gained 1.5" of lift and the ride is way more controlled instead of soft and sloppy. The CV's now point slightly down instead of slightly up. Here is the AE spring, stock spring, and OME spring side by side.



OME installed:



Here is a pic of the AE springs at full compression. Notice how the coil is completely bottomed out on itself. Very bad.



Compared to the OME spring under the same compression, just on the opposite side:


I've even got over an inch of unused travel that I could tap into with some strut mount spacer modification, if need be.

The next problem to tackle was that with these corny aftermarket wheels that are 1" wider than stock (17x8), when combined with the AE A-arms, the inside edge of the rim hits the back edge of the A-arm when making tight turns. I tried grinding some of the excess material away from the lip on the back of the arm, which helped, but didn't solve the problem. I looked around for a set of 17x7 wheels but they don't seem to exist. I didn't want to buy a new set of tires in a different size, so I ended up just getting a set of 1" wheel spacers from Titan Wheel Accessories on eBay. It was a good price and easy to justify compared to what 4 or 5 rims would set me back, even used. Here's a pic, sorry it's not the best, but you get the idea.



No more contact between the rim and the A-arm, hooray! I haven't had a chance to try it out on the articulation ramp, but I'm sure I'll have to heat up and bend, or cut, some plastic to get them to fit without rubbing at all. But at least the main problem is fixed now.

Today I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of OME 2936 Jeep Grand Cherokee WJ Heavy Load Front Coil Springs for the REAR of my XL7. I'm crossing my fingers that my guesstimations are correct and that they deliver the perfect ride height and spring rate for this application! While we wait...I found some more summer wheelin' pics!!!

First outing with the new A-arms, back in June or July:


Way, way high:


My son seems to love wheelin' as much as I do!

Been a while since I posted an update, but the rig hasn't been worked on or driven that much between January and May.

I had some trouble with the wheel spacer studs being just long enough to hit the inside end of the lug nuts and damage the threads on the tip of the studs. Had to fix this problem by replacing a few damaged studs and I also replaced all the nuts with the splined anti-theft nuts (that every common thief has a key for). These are a bit smaller in OD than the nuts that the Ultra wheels came with when the original owner installed them, so now there is a little bit of wiggle room between the socket used to install the nuts and the bore of the wheel. Should make things alot simpler.

I see my last post had to do with trying some OME WJ HD front springs on the rear- they didn't work as I hoped. The top of the coil was too large in diameter to fit nicely in the factory spring pocket so I returned them and am still running the mystery junkyard springs that have the same problem. For now I'm just keeping friction at bay with some rubber pads between the spring and the frame. Not ideal but I haven't found a better solution yet.

The latest and greatest news: Today I converted my XL7 from a 5 seater to a 7 seater by installing all the factory 3rd row seat parts. I bought them used off a guy from BC Suzuki Club for $100. Was super easy, not sure why all the google results said it was nearly impossible and not very cost effective. Will be seeing how the rig hauls 4 adults and 2 children next weekend

BEFORE:


DURING:


AFTER:




And oot n aboot