Welcome to the Zukin' world of offroading!
Maybe it's just me getting old..
Maybe it's the fact that I have a son who sits around all day playing WOW instead of living the REAL life...
If I were you, I'd find someone with a manual transmission car and learn how to drive it!
When you decide early in life (and you sound like that is the case) that you "can't" do something, you start down a road to failure and disappointment - even if you have some sort of handicap that physically prevents you from doing many things. So ditch that "I can't drive a stickshift" attitude! You CAN Do It!
Back to the topic at hand:
Trackers and Sidekicks (trackers are just re-badged Sidekicks) are decent offroaders with the exception of their limitations in lifting. Yes, you can do a suspension lift of less than 2" on the cheap - but any more and you risk replacing your CV shafts in the front on a regular basis. Yes, you can do a body lift but, if done improperly, you can end up with the body attachment problems and a higher center of gravity that can affect your body lift. The point I am trying to make here is don't just stick some steel box tubing laying around between the body and the frame - research and do it right! If you are not a fabber, check out the many vendors who sell pre-engineered products. BTW, you won't find them here at ORC - they hang out at Zukin' forums like:
http.://www.zukikrawlers.com
http://.www.zuwharrie.com
and
ZUKIWORLD online | Your Suzuki 4x4 Authority - Editorial and Forum
Nowadays, Samurais are pretty scarce and expensive so a "TracKick" is a good choice. In order to get the most offroading fun out of your new ride, spend a lot of time lurking at the above sites reading the articles and posts so that you can get from "factory" to "offroading DD" with minimum problems!
To expedite your search for knowledge, go to Ack's FAQ (
Ack's FAQ: Suzuki Sidekick and Geo Tracker 4X4 offroading information and start searching through the over 570 links to Zukin' information on the internet!
Begin with playing with the search page. A fun way to start is to click on the search button with no input to see all the links! Search selecting a category with no search strings to direct your search a particular topic/category. Finally, use specific search strings to start pinpointing your searches!
It's fun and free. It's also my pay-it-forward project that helps all the new folks like previous oldtimers helped me when I started out with my Samurai!
Cordially,