Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Mike Hagen has done it again. a crazy machine.

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_050106/f ... ontend.htm

i think if ever i have enough money for a project off roader, this would be where i would start. he has also built other vits, like the rockstar, which was chopped in everyway possible, but still had solid rear and IFS.

Do you have any shots of it on the side to show how tall it is?

Looks tall given the height of the tire and the distance between the guards.

It survived a Petersons offroad ultimate adventure with little breakages, so it is pretty well built. Not too bad flex at all. His club (think RPM 4x4) has a fair few sidekicks/trackers in it with some crazy work done to them. It is a bit tall from the side, but seemed to work okay when it was on the ultimate adventure (havent seen and video of it recently, just a bit from the ultimate adventure DVD)

Layto....

Is it 18" of travel or 18" od clearance. From the looks of the flex pics in the article the rear has heaps of flex but the front isn't flexing anywhere near 18"

From website wrote: This is a close up of the finished product. By adjusting the weight jacks, I can change ride height by 12 inches. Here is a look at the adjustability. This is the ride height I like it to be at. I can lift one tire 37 inches while keeping the others on the ground.

Layto....

Looks like it wouldn't be all that difficult to do in the grand scheme of things.

There is a picture on pirate of it flexing in the zuk section under the best zuk section I think.

DeWsE wrote:There is a picture on pirate of it flexing in the zuk section under the best zuk section I think.

This one???



Layto....

here are sum more pics









evan..

The bump stops look like house bricks, I had to have a second look.

Not flippin bad at all.

sierrajim wrote:Looks like it wouldn't be all that difficult to do in the grand scheme of things.

have a read of the link - he welded a new chassis in, up higher, new steering gear, two new A arms and mounts, new axles, toyota knuckles I think to allow for the upper A arm. There's a lot of trial an error here I think.

Looks like a great deal of work to me. I understand why he built it the way he did, and I am sure it is supreme at speed, but I can't help wondering why if you you going to go to all that trouble why you wouldn't build it with Hummer portal boxes to fix the ground clearance. That would do the CV angles and strength, knuckle and whole shebang all in one hit.

Still a very cool car though.

PS, it 15" of travel according to the text of the article.

He is a Suspension Tech and as he is wheeling the RockStar most of the time he decided to build something specifically for rallying and jumping (which he loves) based on the Pre-Runners. How would the portals go in that application? He runs a custom CV/driveshaft and with the centred diff the angles are not as bad. It seems to hold up to the abuse he dishes out to it. He has done a lot of custom work to get it where it is and he acknowledges that it is not an easy build.

Here are the links to the RockStar Build. There are now a few of these running around in various froms.

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_010105/f ... artone.htm

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_020105/f ... rpart2.htm

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_050105/f ... _part3.htm

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_080105/f ... finale.htm

travel is still damn good for IFS.

well, on all of his other projects, he has cut the chassis, and re-welded up higher. this is a lot like a UK suzuki club, and that is how they do their 8" BL.

he is using stock vit knuckles, and the upper arms are calmini arms. the upper arms are mounted on the stock frame mounts, and the lower section has been fabbed.

lower arms are sort of made the same as the upper arms, but slightly longer. CVs are toyota hilux CVs, with custom shafts. the steering rods are vit ones cut and extended.

the front diff is a calmini steel housing, the anvil, which has been shortened and modded to be a centre mount diff.

the reason why he has built this one, is for speed and jumping. he like to jump his vits a lot. he has several other projects, one of which is the rock star, which was made for rock crawling and wheeling. its the whole mini pre-runner styles.

SiKiD_01 wrote: CVs are toyota hilux CVs, with custom shafts. the steering rods are vit ones cut and extended.

the front diff is a calmini steel housing, the anvil, which has been shortened and modded to be a centre mount diff.

I thought he was still using his custom CV's, not Stan's Hilux conversion.

The front diff has also been modded to take a Vit rear with the bigger R&P.

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_050106/i ... pocket.JPG

ah yes, I see, there is a conversion to bolt the vitara ball joint to the old strut mount.

Skid, I wasn't bagging the build at all- it is very impressive. I was mostly pointing out that Jim's comment that it didn't look like all that much work in the scheme of things might not be all that accurate. When you add in the custom parts that Mike already had on the car, there is an enormouns amount of work in replicating it.

I just crunched some silly numbers re the portal thing -

front running 3.7 WT sierra into hummer portals would equal a Dana 70 7.17 in the rear At least that way you would have 8lug wheels all round and plenty of gearing for big tyres

PS those Rockstars look like pretty good bashers - they look like they reall capitalise on the the good points of the vitara. Having said that, they don't really match my idea of what capability is about though- they lok like you would have to really boot them through stuff - not really elegant.

I still don't see thae 15-18" of travelin the IFS. I see lots of ground clearance and lots of flex in the rear but the front is not flexing anywhere near those numbers. Impressive build none the less. He certainly has progressed alot from when I wheeled withhim in Moan in 97. Then he had done no hard 4wheeling and nearly sh*t himself on any hard obstacle

Grimbo, look at how much spring its got and were the springs are located on the arms, Im shure it has got 15" of travel, ramping a car does not tell all, if they lifted a back wheel im shure it would force more flex out of the front, just cuz its got it dosent mean its using it.


Mock

Gwagensteve wrote:

sierrajim wrote:Looks like it wouldn't be all that difficult to do in the grand scheme of things.

have a read of the link - he welded a new chassis in, up higher, new steering gear, two new A arms and mounts, new axles, toyota knuckles I think to allow for the upper A arm. There's a lot of trial an error here I think.

Looks like a great deal of work to me. I understand why he built it the way he did, and I am sure it is supreme at speed, but I can't help wondering why if you you going to go to all that trouble why you wouldn't build it with Hummer portal boxes to fix the ground clearance. That would do the CV angles and strength, knuckle and whole shebang all in one hit.

Still a very cool car though.

PS, it 15" of travel according to the text of the article.

Less work than building a buggy. And he finished it before you finished your zook

Just thought you might like to see the latest of the Star series ready to roll, the "DarkStar".

I like it

Mock

awesome, is it still IFS or straight axle?

Just need somewhere to drive it here.

grimbo wrote:awesome, is it still IFS or straight axle?

IFS

The Darkstar is awesome if I ever built a vit I'd be aiming for a similar looking beast. I love the way the front grill is sitting

Wher's the link to the tech thread on that rig?

It's cool!

PS: still has no up travel...

Holy

Looks sweet.

Whats it made for? terrain wise

Nic

DeWsE wrote:Wher's the link to the tech thread on that rig?

It's cool!

PS: still has no up travel...

http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=9273.0

IFS with hilux CVs and shafts.

and i just loooove the narrowed tail gate. wicked.

i'd LOVE to see the front setup hold up to those tires on rocks