Well for the first time with my 2002 XL-7 I hit a trail that I wanted to and had a heck of a time.  So need more lift, gears, tires, etc. Issue no more lift or gears for the XL7.  Do I bail out or press on.  I'm getting to the point with beating my head against a rock to lift this zuk that I don't know if its wroth it.

thoughts anyone?

Geogre

i've been there for 2yrs now, wasting money on shit parts that really don't do anything...  problem is i really like driving my zuk, the only reason i never got is sas'd is cause i'm still running under the manufacturers warranty, for another 3 months.... then it's sas time with a sammi front.  that wouldn't be strong enough for yours though.. but my thoughts are that if you get rid of that you might end up with a pos heep or somebody elses problems, if you like driving it other than this one trail that caused you problems maybe finding a builder is better than buying something else and starting over with that....!?!?!??  leafs, yotas...??!!??!! 

HA, I'm very much in the same boat. I lifted it, and than took the lift back off because I can't get it high enough, and with the lift I had I still couldn't fit much more than 31's under there. But like you, I really love driving it. What to do......

a cheap toy axle sas with leaf springs all around,
then get an ott kicker 2 set up (will give you all the gearing you need)

a set of 35's  and your set

just that easy lol

but i bet you will do all that only to find out you had more fun on 31's

thats what happens to most of us anyway.........

There's alot to be said for your comment sir lance.  I've read others making similar statements about their Trackers and Sammis.  Jon Bell was one as I recall.  He built his insane four door SAS'd Tracker with 36s or 37s about two years ago then drove it awhile and decided to sell it.  He put some outstanding craftsmanship and blood, sweat and tears into it.  It was a beautiful truck.  But after it was finished, he indicated he started getting concerned he'd bust some glass or something on it while trail riding.  He later commented on one of the forums something to the effect that he missed the days of owning a lightly modified Sammy with 29s on it.  He said something to the effect that off-roading was more fun and challenging to him with a lightly modified truck versus one that is more of a point and shoot truck.  I thought they were fairly wise thoughts.  It's damned easy to drop some serious coin into these trucks.  After you're done, you still have a second generation truck with limited wheel wells and rack and pinion steering... unless you drop some more serious coin into them for the staight axle conversion.  In the end it's all about what you're really interested in, how much money you have to do drop on it, and if the coin expenditure is worth it to you in the long run.  Personally, I'm in the "tight coin" end of it.   But if bucks weren't an issue, hell yeah!   I still love my truck, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to improve it in some areas.

Yeah, it's funny because I'm currently running 265/70/16' BFG AT's which are about 31", but thinking of going to a 225/75/16 MT which is about a 29.5" due to the ride, maneuvering characteristics of the larger tires with the rack and pinnion steering.

The one reason I have not sold my xl is because I like driving it on the street and off road.  But after 7 years of "stock" trails and always taking the by-passes.  I want more.  I want to keep it I just don not know if I will be able to build it to the point of where I want to go.  I would guess that 33-34 tires would do most of what I want.  So  what would need to done to get that point??? I'm already running 245/75/16's.  The biggest issue I see is gearing and the only thought I have to fix that is to swap in a 04+ trans.  but what a headache that would be.

George

In your case I would just go for a Jeep Cherokee. You'll save in the long run.

yup, its a cross roads for sure, take it from me, i also have a sidekick, duals t case, toy axles 37's exc exc......

but it gets a bit harder to just "pack the kids up and run some trails" with a rig like that.

so we put 33's on the xl, but dont want to destroy it off road either (body wise anyway)


keep in mind, the better you build it for off road, the worse it will be on road, and its finding that sweet spot thats the problem, for the most part that line is at a 31 to 33 inch tire, after that the fun starts to get taken away with bad on road manners and equipment failures lol

that and the hobby changes a bit as well I find. when every trail you want to run is almost guaranteed body damage of some sort, and things of that nature, is a bit different than running a few somewhat bad trails to get to a nice camp or picnic spot, if you know what im saying, just take a hard look at what you enjoy most about 4 wheeling before you cross a line of no return, to build a truck that can do things off road that you don't REALLY enjoy as much as what your doing with it now.

if that makes sense lol
-Lance

i've been thinking about welding the rear axle. has anyone done that? you would think ARB or someone could make a locker. with that i would be happy and no more bypass roads.