Page 1: Intro & Latest Offroad Pics (YOU ARE HERE)
Page 2: More Offroad Pics (tipped over pics...)
Page 3: Old Offroad Pics (before paint job)
Page 4: Restorations!
Page 5: Modifications (interior & exterior)
Page 6: 2nd Restorations!
Hii, welcome to my page... I owned a 1983 Suzuki Sierra, it is similar with Samurai as people in the US and some other countries use to call it, except Sierra run on 1 liter engine (SJ-410 engine) and has a shorter track distance (9 cm shorter than Samurai). Suzuki Indonesia never officialy sell the Samurai here..:-(
I used to nickname it krucil (means "small" in slank Indonesian), but recently my 3 years old daughter start calling it "Tigger" because of the color (as Tigger, Winnie the Pooh's friend), so its "Tigger" from now on... whatever pleases her..:-)
I use the Sierra on daily basis on-road and off-road in the weekends.
The engine is stock 970 cc, but it is a pretty good off-road vehicle (although some pushes needed here and there sometimes..:-).
Even, often times I still can kept my little AC on during off-roading!!! (so no dust choking from my friend's ride up front:-).
Well... enough talkin, enjoy the pictures, sign my guestbook & tell me what you think & please rate the vehicle :-)
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Offroad trip 26 March 2005
This is a replay of the trip we had on the 9th of February (see below...). This time we're slightly better prepared, got all the food and the gasoline enough for all the people and cars for at least 2 days. And..... 2 days indeed :-). We left on Saturday morning, and didn't come back until Sunday afternoon. Quite a long off road trip, with light to moderate, then hard and finally unpassable track.
Seven cars & 14 people were involved, 4 TLC FJ40, 2 Suzuki Sierra, and 1 Suzuki Escudo (4WD). At the beginning, the track is quite modest, we’ve been there and conquered it (on the 9th of Feb). But when we reach the new area, we go a bit slower, more careful, and took wrong turn here and there. The aim is still the same, we were trying to find a passage way used by an oil company about 10 years ago to go to one of their rig site. Off course now everything is covered by trees. Lucky enough, the oil company left a trace by planting a unique tree along the path (we call it Akasia tree in Indonesia, don’t know the name in English…). But through out the years, this tree now can be found scattered around the track, makes it a bit difficult to find out which way is correct.
Around 19:00, we reached an obstacle almost impossible to passed. After 5 or 6 broken wooden bridges (yep we do the hard work of re-building them, enough for our vehicles to pass through), the track in front of us had been washed out (by water) creating around 3 meter deep hole and around 2-3 meter wide for about 30-50 meter long. We almost gave up, until we find out a way to pass through it by climb up the hill on the left side and run over (and cut) some dead trees (most of them were burned during the big forest fire last year).
So off we go, wasn’t easy, but we finally passed it around midnight. Then one of the FJ had problems with the brakes or axle or locker, not sure that time. So we stopped for a while and try to fix it, but later on seems it is OK, then continue. All of us were exhausted by 3 AM in the morning. So we camped out for the night (errr morning actually..:-) in the forest. Nobody had the strength to build a tent. Just SLEEEP !!
Some of us slept on the road under the stars and the bright moonlight. I prefer the tiny cabin of my Sierra, not fancy of seeing snakes and its friends play around my feet…brrrr.
In the morning after praying and breakfast, we’re in shock to know that around 150m in front of us there is a BIG HOLE in the ground, looks like a big meteorite had strucked the earth!
Well of course not, it’s another landslide, but BIGGER! Whats left was a 25m deep hole with 10 to 50 m wide and length. I cannot even see the end of it!
There is no way we can go over this one. Jeeez, its actually only about 750m more and we might see the nice big river, and around 5km from there is the big asphalt road (according to our GPS). But now the hope is gone, no choice, we have to come back…. Defeated once more…:-(.
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This is the trip we had on 5 March 2005
We're surveying a village nearby Balikpapan and do a bit offroading along the way :-)
Along with the Sierra is the brand new, company vehicle, Isuzu D-max. The D-max is completely stock with AT tires. Its 3000 cc turbo diesel engine and 4WD system is more than enough to conquer the light offroad track. It got stuck only once (due to the tires), and my Sierra just give a little pull to get it free. But, ooops the body was full with "signatures" from the trees branches.. :-)
And then on the way back, we decide to go alone, the D-max took the easy way home, and 4 guys in the small Sierra decide to took the nasty off-road track. The track is old and we've passed it many times before, but the rain has caused some erosion and change the track. An obstacle that used to be easily passed, now becomes a nightmare. It's a combination of sands and mud that creates a grip to the tires like a concrete. Impossible to move! To make things worst, my winch suddenly refused to work. We spent more than 4 hours to get it free without success :-(
When the dark is closing by, we gave up and pick up the phone, screaming for HEEEEELP!!!
A nice friend with his FJ-40 comes from Balikpapan (35 km away) and help us out. Thanks mate !
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This is the trip we had on 9 Feb 2005
Got lost... A friend is reading a GPS trying to find a way out. We're trying to re-open an old track used by an oil company to go to one of their site. It was never used again since 1995. The plan was to use it for an offroad event sometimes in July 2005.
A custom made utility box (made from aluminum diamond plate) and a cheap plastic jerrycan for fresh water was added at the back of the Sierra.
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These are the off-road pictures from trip on 18/11/2004:
This time 4 guys in 3 Sierras, trying to pass an old track (used in Indonesian Borneo SIMEX RFC 2002?). Boy.. the track already full covered by trees and very difficult to pass. After many hours trying (made just about 10 km in 7 hours) and since we're not ready to spent the night in the forest (and no one really sure where to go), we decided to return home...:-( But, we'll be back...
And these pictures from previous trip:
A friend's cool Sierra laying on one side, taking a rest after a hard work..:-)
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Pics from another trip on 06/06/04 (before the roll cage installed)
The "Pig Pond" local off-roader used to call it, is deep and had a very soft mud at bottom, nobody get away from it without a winch (even FJ-40 with double lockers...)
A friend's Sierra in the pig pond
Almost tipped & swimming (well... stuck actually...very soft mud)
Two FJ-40s, two Sierras, one cool trip...
Page 1: Intro & Latest Offroad Pics (YOU ARE HERE)
Page 2: More Offroad Pics (tipped over pics...)
Page 3: Old Offroad Pics (before paint job)
Page 4: Restorations!
Page 5: Modifications (interior & exterior)
Page 6: 2nd Restorations!
