Thought experiment: budget "stadium truck"

I love watching videos of those trucks 3-wheeling around street circuits. Also, this video of the infamous urban off-road VW. Let's say, hypothetically, that I have no designs to do any actual off-roading, or any criminal mischief for that matter... but if I wanted to break from my usual tradition of stiffening everything to the point of ruin, what would be a cheap lightweight platform that could consume a lot of suspension travel and still get groceries? I know FM is selling lift kits for The Answer but IIRC they're still pretty stiff, as are all of the budget OEM spring swaps I'm familiar with (like compact SUV springs on an equivalent c-spec chassis, e.g. Tuoraeg springs on a GTI).

Forester springs on an Impreza?

if i remember right you can get an i-beam ranger and put E-150 i beams and springs under it to get a budget long travel set up. I think the F-150 beams work too but you have to fab a mount for one beam to have it centered right. I'm sure you can use a full size truck leaf spring pack for the back with a few leafs removed.

example:

There's nothing cheap AND lightweight that will give you a lot of suspension travel without extensive fabrication...that's why all stadium trucks and similar offroad vehicles are basically custom builds with a production-ish body draped over the top for looks - they may start from "custom" or "production" but they all tend to arrive at that destination.

If you eliminate the lightweight requirement, most Toyota Pickup/Hilux models and older Ford Rangers will do the job nicely.

Edit: You should also know that the offroad definition of "lightweight" is something like "under 3500lbs." The Samurai is the 900lb bike-engined Locost of the offroad world

Class 11 style baja bug.

BrokenYugo wrote: Class 11 style baja bug.

Was going to say the same. Long travel suspension parts plus 3" body lift plus Baja fenders plus roll cage and tires with lots of rubber.

Throw a set of stock ND springs and shocks on an NA or NB Miata. Crazy long shaft travel (7" in the rear, around 5.5" in the front) and soft spring rates. It can be done, we had a GRMer put NC shocks on one and the mount styles are very similar.

BTW, "long travel" makes for a fun CL search. Especially in rural/desert California and Nevada.

This comes to mind. This also makes me wish I lived closer to a desert. It's heavier and probably less simple than the answer though. Also more likely to break in half than a mini truck.

Toyota hilux and give total chaos a call.

Bro-Lite ranger?

https://www.facebook.com/broliteracing

2wd s10, g body donktastic lift parts, v8, and a t10.

Cheap, light, etc.

In all reality though, that ranger in the first reply speaks to me. I want much more info.

Take the widest body Locost design out there. And then use roll bar tubes capable for a 5000lb vehicle, instead of the small square tubes. You can even make the back of the car longer.

The suspension is really simple- just really beefy. For the most part, the rear end is the 4 link Mustang- but big, long, and long travel.

Front is a big version of the Locost, too. Longer, beefier, etc.

The big thing is pretty soft springs, multiple dampers, and lots of cooling for them.

They are wicked cool in what they can do.

Chadeux wrote: This comes to mind. This also makes me wish I lived closer to a desert. It's heavier and probably less simple than the answer though. Also more likely to break in half than a mini truck.

That looks super fun!

ranger, there popular for building pre runner style trucks. how well they function i have no clue!

Dusterbd13 wrote: g body donktastic lift parts

i've looked into donk lifts to try to make a long travel car and i would not recommend... all they are good for is physically lifting the vehicle with little to no engineering put into them that i wouldnt even want to go over a speed bump with let alone anything offroad

ball joint spacers, spring spacers, whatever is going on with that 'steering plate'? its hard to look at...

In reply to edizzle89:

holy E36 M3 that's scarier than I imagined.

the man that did that should be excommunicated.

please retract my previous post. do not do the s10 lift stuff. for the love of god, think of the children.

Man I knew Donk lifts were hack jobs, but that's worse than I was expecting

So, why are long travel pre-runner style trucks always 2wd?

In reply to Keith Tanner:

I was always lead to believe that them being used for relatively high speed running where they kept a lot of momentum made the extra weight and complexity of 4wd not worth it.

Keith Tanner wrote: So, why are long travel pre-runner style trucks always 2wd?

Long travel suspension means long distances for your driveshaft to move fore and aft. My guess is that it is really hard to handle that movement when you have two driveshafts moving in opposite directions.

I think pre-runner style came from a baja truck type, and I wouldnt be surprised if 2WD was used there simply so less stuff could break.

What if you did a reverse lot lizard and grafted a body on it? Old sand rail and old s-10 cab.

Jeepspeed

Even the 1700s get air.

Honestly for cheap travel, nothing beats the TTB (twin traction beam, 4WD) or TIB (twin I-beam, 2wd) you find in 80's & 90's fords. They call it dirty hooker travel since it's cheap & gets the job done.

Off the shelf they can pull double digits for travel, throw on aftermarket radius arms and get mid teens, widen them a bit and get high teens. I'm not sure of anything that beats their travel numbers for the price.

Long travel Manx