mini-artic-loader

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 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.

Another option would be to use a 3/4 Chevy truck (like GatorS) but modify the axels 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.

TODO: accumulate and tabulate drivetrain specs on these two vehicles.

"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. Chevy Truck/Blazer