About 6 years ago I got an internet connection and was dismayed to find so little information on the web concerning Sidekicks. All I could find was samuri's,sidekicks for sale and Calmini. How could this subject be so neglected. In my frustration I decided that this wonderful little vehicle, and its devoted followers, could no longer be ignored. So I started to construct this site; little did I know what I was getting into. It started out very small, but I soon discovered that there we're many of you hunting for sidekick information as I was. I thought to myself ,"Small isn't going to cut it. How am I going to do this?" But with some time, research and a little help from my readers I think we now have a site we can be proud of. With your future assistance I hope to see it keep growing.
A little about me and my truck
As many of you already know my name is Deardre Moffatt and I run this site. I am an artist from Ontario,Canada who has always loved the outdoors. But I was raised in a devout racing family and was taught to scoff at trucks with big knobby tires. The notion of driving off into the bush and getting all muddy was laughable. Why would you want to do some thing so seemingly imprecise and crude? Little did I know that such a cute, unassuming, truck as the Suzuki sidekick would leave me so humble.
I've been a die hard Suzuki Sidekick owner and advocate since 1991, when I first laid eyes on a 1990, white, 2 door ,soft top. It was love at first site! My first year with my truck, I replaced the stock tires with slightly bigger snow and mud tires. Later that year I got heavily into off-roading, and really got tired of getting bogged down and laughed at by the Jeep owners. So, I move on to the next modification: A 4 inch body lift, some 30inch mud tires and custom skid plates in the front and rear. This seemed to do the trick. The laughing had stopped being replaced by compliments and praise for sticking with a truck they had all underestimated. My Sidekick and I now had earned new found respect and we liked it . Unfortunately my contentment was cut short by a four wheeling season of getting high centered(stuck by the frame rails)too many times for my liking. By the next season I'd had enough and the thought of 33" B.F.G.mud terrains began to danced in my head.When asked ,my new found friends who's respect I had so recently won scoffed, "that little truck will never be able to turn 33" tires, they're too heavy".Yet most remained skeptically supportive, but there were still problems with my grand scheme.At the time no one made a suspension lift kit for the Sidekick. I had heard it rumored that Calmini was working on one but it was a long way from production. I was in no mood to wait! I considered designing a custom suspension lift,but this proved to be beyond my financial means. My only option was a body lift, so I wandered down to the local welding shop and had some 7" steel blocks manufactured. As well as the new body blocks I had to lengthen the steering and shifter, as will as install a longer fuel tank filler hose. I was now ready for 33"s! Proud of my new accomplishment,I returned to the trail the next season with my 33's installed,to find my skeptical friends mouths a gape and truly impressed. While washing my truck after my first successful trip with the modifications I discovered to my horror.that the fenders had sliced up my new $250 B.F.G.'s. I, at that moment, decided it would me a good idea to trim the fenders. Even with the best of plans you always forget something. The way I see it ,with all the things that could have gone wrong with my project I got off pretty easy as the slices thankfully were not very deep and didn't effect the usefulness of the tires. I off-roaded quite happily for a couple years with the truck in that state.When the odometer reached 250,000kms I decided it was a good excuse for a rebuild.This is when I had the head ported and polished as well as the block bored over 0.050(1.8L). I had just got the truck the way I wanted it when I unfortunately had to sell it for personal reasons. The good news is I just purchased a 1992 black, 2door, convertible, hard top in October. Not only is this truck my new baby, but when I get to doing the modifications it will become this sites first project truck. Well now you know who you're e-mailing. I look forward to swapping stories and sharing ideas with you.
