Uh, I have to nominate Daxe and his Samurai. I even wrote to him yesterday to compliment him on the nice little rig and ask him some questions about it. I like his ride because it's somewhat of a sleeper ... looking relatively stock while boasting a number of useful, impressive improvements. It's got relatively large tires while still being spring-under. It's locked up, has a winch, sturdy bumpers, gears, and the Mighty Kong. In short, it's a "sleeper Samurai." Throw in a 2.0L motor and an automatic and it would be near perfect for my taste. He's shown a lot of thought in building the thing and while it doesn't look all that impressive, I bet it's a reliable, useful, comfortable off-road machine.

There's another one I really like ... it's an olive hardtop with Baja Claws on it.

 

I think I would have to say Art's (NCZuk) is my favorite.

The "popsicle" looks so good, it's hard to believe he wheels it!

 

If i were to ever go back to drivin a zuk from the tracker, i'd definately give a second look to Nick's (Grumpy) i love how his truck is set up, he has done a great job and its a capable rig.
NOW if we are talking extreme modified, i'd go with Scott's (rockrat). after he fixes the engine.

 

mine cause its the only one anyone will let me drive

..... actuly my favorite is brent's crustation

 

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Uh, I have to nominate Daxe and his Samurai.

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Wow! thanks. I guess it's not a competition for the biggest mods, so I suppose I qualify.

For myself, I don't tend to idolize any one thing but take the best ideas from several. I do like the trucks that have a nice assortment of mods but pay attention to the appearance, as well. NC Zuk's truck is eye catching, for sure, but I couldn't even list the mods for you. I know they're extensive. Koko's sami falls into this category, too. I really admired zooky's silver samurai before it got all wrinkled up rolling around in the woods and his setup is kind of like ultimate samurai tech to me..1.6 with tracker AT trans, coils, toy axles, dual Tcases, etc. Early on I used bansenshukai's sami as a kind of role model since he was also SPUA with YJs. I like Crowhorse's sami because of it's whole survivalist vibe with restrained mods, but not to the obsessive level he takes it.

I have mentioned before on this BBS a truck I saw when I first started wheeling. It belongs to zooky's friend John, who isn't on this BBS. It has a 2" SR, 30" tires, 4:16 gears and lockers in both ends (at the time). I watched trucks with 33s and no gears, trucks with 35s and open diffs and every thing in between go over the same obstacles with varying degrees of success, but that little SPUA sami just crawled right over everything with very little effort involved. It looked all but stock and kept up with the biggest and baddest trucks on that run. I guess I have to say more than any other truck, that one inspired my vision for how i wanted to build my truck.

Last and of course not least i have to mention wildweasel. Not so much for his fantastic trucks (which dont mirror my own taste, necessarily) but for inspiration on how to go about building things right. I try never to modify the truck in a 'lopsided' way. I started out with boring stuff like armoring up the underneath. I didn't run straight for as much lift as possible and huge tires that I didn't have the gearing for. It only took me one trip into the woods and getting stuck in the mud (and calling wildweasel for help) before I was on the phone getting a winch and bumper onto my sami. I got the winch before I got a spool and front locker to get myself real stuck. I cared enough about the appearance of my truck to import a new body from down south when my old hardtop body was turning into a rustbucket POS. Though I'll never have the cool flash of something like NCZuk's rig, I try to have a clean, tasteful, slightly understated appearance on a truck that works well on and off the road. I also try to buld the truck evenly enough so it's not too likely to break and don't take crazy chances to decrease the breakage factor even more. I want to be abel to drive wherever I want and drive back out..not drive in and break and spend hours trying to get out. That ain't FUN in my book.

That icelandic rig looks pretty good though, huh?

~daxe

 

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I really admired zooky's silver samurai before it got all wrinkled up rolling around in the woods

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That's funny because I think I like it better. It has that well worn look to it now.

 

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NC Zuk's truck is eye catching, for sure, but I couldn't even list the mods for you. I know they're extensive. Koko's sami falls into this category, too.

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Yahoo... I made it too. Sort of.

My favorites are Glenn's tracker, then two LWB samurais over on the POR board. Do a search for Trucktrader. he's got the cleanest/prettiest lwb ever. And Scwafish has the most offroadable (is that a word?) lwb I've seen.

Koko

 

There are so many but if I would have to narrow it down I would say for the extreme rigs, Wildweasel, Zooky and NCZuke. I also like daxe's rig for the less extreme Zuke type as well as Crow's. I have done stuff to mine to make it stay streetable with the occasional offroad trip. My Wife likes to drive it too so I have stayed away from lockers and all for now and added P/S and better seats and very mild lift. Jim

 

Tusker's rig is rad too (over at the PBB).

Koko... you ever check on that cab? PM me here or there. Thanks.

 

I agree Tuskers rig is cool too, plus he just made a real nice cage for it.

Sent you a PM Brent.

Koko

 

It would have to be my son's tintop crawler. Look HERE for pics of him in action. He bought it stock just about 1 year ago, it now has Toy axles, lockers, coils, YJ SR, 6:1, tube front, exocage,35 MTRs and on and on. It's been to Moab, and as you can see every way but up. He's not afraid to try any line and usually does. It's in Petersons OFFROAD mag

in the story about Moab, they talk about exocages and have a little pic of him snugged up against a boulder.

Dad's jealous

 

I am flattered to make it onto a list like this one. It makes all the hard days/nights working worth while. Well, this and also seeing my son giggling uncontrolably as we drop off a ledge or sink behind deep in some mud. Its funny because "Dr. Evil" was my last sammy. This one I built from the frame up from 4 different <nobr>vehicles</nobr>.
Anyway my favorite Samurai is no longer with us. "Fubar" and its owner BillY BoB are two idols of mine. I don't think I will ever see another like either. Some of the brainwork that went into Fubar was very interesting. With all stock parts from different vehicles and a final crawl of around 130:1 it was just cool and very capable. That would be my choice "FUBAR" Ranger Rick's "Big Pink" would have to come in a close second.

 

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That's funny because I think I like it better. It has that well worn look to it now.

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thanks guys. I like it better now too, it was to plain before, now it has personality

I like my buddy Johns too, it was a sleeper. He added aftermarket bumpers and is about to go with 32's so it "looks" like it could wheel now. I told him to leave it the way it was but he wants to go with the big boys. I dont have a favorite rig, but I always liked Jeepins' sami for some reason.

 

my favorite is *silver zuk's* slamurai!!

one of the reasons it appeals to me is how simple, basic and capable it is. no thrills just quality fab work and great driving skills. an emphisis on keeping zuks basic and cheap earns bonus points.

the other is how pounded to hell it is. that is what makes zuks so much fun...pounding the snot out of them and not giving a rip!!

one of my other favorites is studly's v-8 zuk because i think a v-8 would kick arse in a tin can zuk.

 

WOW! Guys, I am flattered to be mentioned in this thread. Believe it or not a lot of people who don't know me assume that I must be some rich guy who just throws money at his Zuk. That couldn't be farther from the truth. I am a non-commisioned officer in the Army and trust me, i'm not raking in the dough. It took me about a year and a half to put the popsicle together and I am still working on it. I hope that I can get it back together sometime this month. It is currently sitting on jackstands with no tranny, no suspension, and no steering. I have a lot of work to do before I can drive it again. Boy do I miss wheeling it!

I think that my alltime favorite Zuk was Billy Bobs duel front end sammi. That has got to be the coolest, most unique Sammi ever built. I only wish it were still alive.

 

I like Freddy's zuk on http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/264537