4x4 North

Honestly it’s just crazy ideas at this point, with multiple options on the table, all of them cool in my books but also fraught with major issues. I’ll do a post for each idea and the issues and questions for each. My grand is going close to end of life and I want to take what I’ve learned and grow and push past the functional garbage can it is. The name is funny to me as this winter a family that I would call my other parents , Dave is fighting cancer and staying at my house and getting treatment in kelowna. His daughter is 46years old and mentally handicapped , was in a funk staying with us as she often gets, so I took her snow wheeling, and she loved it and had a blast and called my Jeep a snow ass. I thought it was fitting for the mule that gets me around with it issues. I want to keep the name and get a decal drawn up for a donkey with big yeti feet stomping a Jeep into the snow.

My oldest idea for this came around taking to friends that wanted me to take my grand further, which means a motor swap and full suspension upgrade. The 4.0 I love but is heavy and the grand with 4 doors , 2 of which get in the way, and has a huge rear overhang. And I said at random, a newer Mini Cooper would be the same work and look cooler. Upon saying that Facebook started showing me a bunch of mini Coopers with blown motors and transmissions complete for $1-1500 range, one of which was in Vernon and another in Kamloops. Now of course I can’t find any for that price. Doing rough measurements getting anything much larger than a 38.5” tire I think will delete most of the front clip making the build dumb in my idea, so it would have to be a super light build, Toyota or jk diffs, thinking Honda k series motor and Toyota trans and doublers. Plate the existing frame similar to what xj guys do with a similar long arm setup. Probably need a front engine cage/subframe to make the engine and suspension work, full on race car gut on the interior just keeping heat/defrost in a basic but functioning form. This is a lot of work, obviously and not street legal which is cool but sucks as we do a lot of loops that use main roads. Plus is the mrs likes the idea but she’s on board with all my ideas. Definitely be one of a kind, wheelbase and suspension would mock my current wj, just cut major weight, over 1000 pounds hopefully and add some tire and less body work to get hung up on, almost 90 degree approach and departure angles.

The next idea is a lot simpler, import a 2000+ suzuki jimny with 1.3L motor, get 2-3” lift springs and shocks, 30” tires and custom suspension arms and modify can am Apache back country tracks off of something like a defender which is similar enough in weight and horsepower to fit. Be street legal and friendly on the trails in the summer but needs trailer for winter. Tracks bother me a bit due to reliability issues and you really need to be careful in technical stuff, like ditch wheeling and downed trees. They are really hard on steering components and with the jimny not being native to this country I’m worried about big delays and expensive parts. The mrs really likes these though so that’s a big plus. So unknown of a platform in Canada though makes me nervous.

Third idea is similar to dirt head Dave’s Mazda grande build. Use chevy leafs, something like a 4” lift, spring under on superduty difs on a ranger extra cab platform, build the 4.5 Jeep stroker engine from parts we’ve got laying around with ax-15 or similar jeep trans and doublers with 40-42” radials. Be a lot easier build, not exactly street legal either but could probably sneak by with it if careful. I’ve looked at Toyota’s but Damn they hate me. Can’t even find anything for under 6 grand for a starting point. And the frame rust really turns me off.

The most likely and latest idea is An older f-250, 70’s- mid 90’s with superduty diffs, 4 link front and leafs rear on 42” radials, this could be made street legal (ish), could toss my 37’s on and do camping in the summer and trips, having a functional truck would be handy, kinda heavy for the snow but I think I’ve got enough experience now to not do dumb stuff often and not bury it. I can read the conditions a lot better now and have a pretty good feel for things.

And then there’s the most unlikely wildcard, a lightweight small buggy with superduty diffs and Russian floatation tires.

ok so this might make me sound like an ass but whatever

what are your fab skills like? as pretty much every options you listed has custom suspension and motor swaps ect, all that shit aint bolt on out of a catalog and will be lots of work. doesnt seem like you have a tow rig and trailer and want to drive it to the trail. if thats the case stay away from the crazy custom builds as thats a large extra cost as well

you seem to do well with your current jeeps and have made them work well for what you are doing. why not find a v8 jeep so give you the extra power ect and spend the money on quality lift kit and axle upgrades along the lines of what Hilbuilt is doing?

Snowracer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:20 am ok so this might make me sound like an ass but whatever

what are your fab skills like? as pretty much every options you listed has custom suspension and motor swaps ect, all that shit aint bolt on out of a catalog and will be lots of work. doesnt seem like you have a tow rig and trailer and want to drive it to the trail. if thats the case stay away from the crazy custom builds as thats a large extra cost as well

you seem to do well with your current jeeps and have made them work well for what you are doing. why not find a v8 jeep so give you the extra power ect and spend the money on quality lift kit and axle upgrades along the lines of what Hilbuilt is doing?

That’s all fair points, there isn’t really bolt on stuff that I like in what I have. Crazy ideas like the mini, the fab is enough I probably wouldn’t do it, my welding is getting to the point I think I could do a lot of my own stuff, I probably won’t bend my own tube work, the motor swap stuff doesn’t really scare me and I could handle most of it. I don’t really need more power, but I definitely need more capability, seems kinda crazy to me swap all the one ton parts into a Jeep, to have something as heavy as a one ton, might as well just run the full size stuff. All of the Jeep stuff is kinda cheezy built and the hardcore stuff is damn pricy. The grand platform is really hard to keep low enough for my liking. My preference is more to the point of going wheeling and less about building , so simplifying the build is a key aspect. I find for the deep powder snow, off camber and steep stuff that I could get into it’s hard to find cookie cutter stuff. I’m already way past what most people do for capability aside from a handful that aren’t 100k dollar rigs. I think starting leaf springs at least in the rear would help me save build time and ease.

The reality check is a lot of why I posted this, there’s a lot of talented builders on here that spend a long time and have a hard time finishing projects.

first or second gen tracker sas the front and swapping to leafs in the rear aleast in the first gens is super easy
id go for a second gen with a 2.0 tons of mods out there to make more power. and when it blows up yank a 2.3 out of an donor car

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Honestly I have to agree with Snowracer, you do more wheeling than any of us and your jeep seems to work really well from the vids Ive seen. Something new is always fun though. Out of your ideas I like the F250 idea, keep it simple and spend money on selectable lockers and big tars and it will work well and would be cheapish as there is plenty of SD around.

On the suzuki Jimmny with tracks idea have you looked into it?
I was so close to pulling the trigger on a Suzuki Carry and tracking it. Its spendy though, way more than I thought it would be. For a Carry with the Turbo and rear locker, lift and Tracks was going to be roughly 20K after I picked it up from RedDeere (Importer) and thats me installing all the parts. My snowcat came up while I was dealing on it and went that route instead. Not sure what a Jimny goes for but the tracks alone were 7k for the camso brand, its a bit ridiculous. Im sure you could find some used cheaper though.

pointsnorth wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:44 am first or second gen tracker sas the front and swapping to leafs in the rear aleast in the first gens is super easy
id go for a second gen with a 2.0 tons of mods out there to make more power. and when it blows up yank a 2.3 out of an donor car

That’s actually been an option I’ve been eyeing up. I like the second gen with the 2.0, is got decent power and common enough to get parts and there are options for a double tcase which is a mandatory thing. I thought of a 4 door and cutting it down to a 2 door extra cab, the body work I feel comfortable with. I’ve been having a hard time finding cheaper ones though.

HillBilt wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:55 am Honestly I have to agree with Snowracer, you do more wheeling than any of us and your jeep seems to work really well from the vids Ive seen. Something new is always fun though. Out of your ideas I like the F250 idea, keep it simple and spend money on selectable lockers and big tars and it will work well and would be cheapish as there is plenty of SD around.

On the suzuki Jimmny with tracks idea have you looked into it?
I was so close to pulling the trigger on a Suzuki Carry and tracking it. Its spendy though, way more than I thought it would be. For a Carry with the Turbo and rear locker, lift and Tracks was going to be roughly 20K after I picked it up from RedDeere (Importer) and thats me installing all the parts. My snowcat came up while I was dealing on it and went that route instead. Not sure what a Jimny goes for but the tracks alone were 7k for the camso brand, its a bit ridiculous. Im sure you could find some used cheaper though.

The jimny is 7-10 grand on the a street. 2 grand into suspension fairly easily. Chromoly shafts , tcase gearing and stuff get really expensive and the can am tracks are 7 grand before modifying them to fit. It’s not cheap for sure.


That’s kind why I like the f-250 option. Mostly stock, lots of room to work with for big tires. Using stock parts really helps keep the cost of wheeling down and one thing I really like about my wj build. Even breaking the carrier it’s still only $200 fix including 2 new ujoints. I don’t think I have more than $200 into almost any part on it.

i like the tracker idea as cheap to get into and lots of aftermarket support for gearings and solid axle swaps. they are also fairly light so with your 37s it would be a wicked snow rig for sure

the idea of the full size truck is great but have to be carful if you want to do snow wheeling as you have to think you are starting with a truck in the 6500 pound range and then adding more weight from there. nice part is like you said you can run your 37s for mild wheeling and camping (overlanding bro) parts are cheap and easy and most of the stock parts are strong to start with.

depending on your budget id just buy some aftermarket diffs for your current platform and tweak the suspension to move the diffs out and run a larger tire for snow bashing. oh and a real tcase

don't forget the colorado/canyon platform is a really overlooked option imo. local guy solid axled his using toy axles from a rolled truck and trail gear parts even the steering was a breeze with a Toyota box and the tacoma width draglink worked perfectly