h1. Donor Vehicle

The Preliminary Thoughts page has basic ideas and criteria for a donor truck/SUV, as well as some background on the thought process surrounding this project. This section is to lay out the pros and cons of various potential vehicles that could be used to make this happen. Doing this ahead of time will allow us to have a rough idea of the tradeoffs involved when decisions must be made quickly to acquire a vehicle for parts.

The main candidate for the build -is- used to be a Suzuki Samurai. The reason for this is that the stock axles are the perfect width for our design. There is an extensive community of rock crawlers that modify these machines to handle the higher forces involved with larger tires, altered gear ratios in differentials and transfer cases, and so on. Aftermarket parts seem plenty available. The question here is whether the stock components are up to the punishment a medium-duty loader will experience. It turns out that they are not. See Chassis for some technical details.

-Another- The best option is to use a 3/4 ton GM/Chevy truck (like GatorS) but modify the axles to get the narrower stance we want. Chevy truck parts are commonly available and relatively inexpensive, including ancillary parts like master cylinders, wheels, and such. The downside here is that modifying the stock axles will require remaking them if we ever break one. However, being stronger, they will be less likely to break. Also, the drivetrain components are bigger than on the Samurai, making fitting them under the chassis more challenging. However, this doesn't preclude using a Samurai transfer case - though cost might. They are in high demand from the rock crawling crowd.

The main criteria with the GM axles is that they be full floating axles, not semi-floating. See "here":https://lugnut4x4.com/axles/corporate-14-bolt-axle-explained/ for a detailed description of these axles. See "here":https://lugnut4x4.com/axles/14-bolt-axle-identification/ for how to properly identify them. If we can find them it would be best to get the slip on hub variant.

h3. Other helpful info

"Samurai Specs":https://www.zukioffroad.com/tech/suzuki-samurai-specifications

"Chevy Truck Specs":https://www.chuckschevytruckpages.com/73-87specs.html

Things to confirm:

Availability and cost of ag tires for the wheels in question¶

Availablility and feasibility of using two rear axles, instead of a front steering axle.¶

See the artic.loader.calcs.odt spreadsheet for gear ratios and expected speeds.

h2. Samurai

"These":https://www.amazon.com/BKT-AS504-Lawn-Garden-Tire/dp/B00D6OQBXW/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=15%2Binch%2Btractor%2Btires%2F&qid=1668983941&sr=8-10&th=1 tires should fit the stock Samurai wheels, and be about the same diameter as standard tires. Rated at 1280 lbs, that should put the machine 's weigh rating right around 5000 lbs - pretty much right on target.

h2. GM/Chevy Truck/Blazer