On early ice, Chevy Tracker is the little SUV that can

In 2004, Shawn Peterson ponied up $3,000 for his first Suzuki Samurai. Then he convinced his mom to drive him from International Falls, Minn., to Rockford, Ill., to pick it up.

He was 18 years old, and his new ride was his daily driver, his hunting vehicle and — especially — his ice-fishing machine.

That was many Samurai ago.

“If there’s a ‘Sammy’ for sale in Minnesota, there’s a pretty good chance I’ve owned it,” Peterson, 37, said.

Growing up in International Falls, Peterson learned at a young age that a Samurai — or its 4x4 cousins, the Chevy and Geo Trackers — can be as important to successful ice fishing as a minnow impaled on a quarter-ounce jig.

For proof, scan the frozen horizons of Rainy Lake or Lake of the Woods any early December, before either border water has enough ice to support “Bombers” — the go-to track vehicles that resorts use to transport anglers to rental fish houses when ice reaches a foot thick and more.

Built in Japan or, in the case of Trackers, in Canada, beginning in the late 1980s, these dwarf SUVs might not be much for freeway driving. But they’ve got killer low gears and are propelled by four-banger power plants that are easy to work on.

How much in demand are Sammys and Trackers?

Just before Christmas, Shawn met his dad, Dave Peterson, of International Falls, at Adrian’s Resort on Lake of the Woods to bond over a couple of watery holes bored in the ice.

To meet his dad, Shawn drove from his home in Grand Forks, N.D. — he works at the Chevy dealership not far away, in Oslo, Minn. — in a 2002 Chevy Tracker whose odometer displayed 220,000 well-maintained miles.

“I was looking to sell that Tracker, so I figured while I was at Lake of the Woods, where a lot of Trackers are in use, I’d put a ‘for sale’ sign on it and see if anything happened,” Shawn said.

Adrian’s Resort already has a fleet of Trackers, which weigh about 2,500 pounds apiece and can tow December anglers onto the lake in small trailers. But Brian Ney, who co-owns the establishment with his brother, Cory, bought Shawn’s ride on the spot, no dickering.

“When it’s early ice, Trackers are a necessary piece of equipment on Lake of the Woods,” Cory Ney said. “Without them, you’d have to use full-size side-by-side UTVs [utility terrain vehicles], and you can spend $50,000 on one of those. Whereas you can buy a Tracker, pay a few thousand dollars to several thousand dollars for it, and achieve the same result.”

The story of how Suzuki Samurai and, more commonly, Chevy Trackers found homes in the frozen North Woods begins in 1986, when Suzuki introduced the 4x4 Samurai in the U.S. at a base price of about $6,500.

The pint-size but plucky Sammy was powered by a 65-horse engine that grew ornery at anything over 55 miles an hour (Motor Trend magazine clocked the Samurai in the quarter mile at a yawn-inducing 20.47 seconds), and leg room was in short supply. But the new imports were cheap and looked cool when outfitted with lift kits, outsized rubber and custom paint.

Soon, Sammy sales rocketed past 8,000 a month, far more than Suzuki had forecast.

Enter shortly thereafter the Suzuki Sidekick, which was slightly larger than the Samurai and which was branded by General Motors as the Tracker. Most 1989 and some 1990 Sidekicks and Trackers were made in Japan. They were later produced in Canada by a Suzuki and GM joint venture.

Certified as light trucks, Trackers bore reliable 4x4 systems and rugged suspensions.

“Plus, Trackers have body-on-frame construction, which keeps them tight and strong,’’ Peterson said. “The rubber bushings where the frame bolts to the body really help. I can unbolt the body of a Tracker and lift it entirely off the chassis.”

Tracker production ended in 2004, though the vehicle — bearing various nameplates — lived on for a time in Mexico and elsewhere.

Suzuki Samurai, meanwhile, died in the U.S. in 1995, in part due to a Consumer Reports review that said the vehicle rolls over easily. Suzuki disagreed and sued, and years later the conflict was settled out of court.

But the damage was done. Sammys in the U.S. were history — though the vehicle, bearing its forerunner moniker, the Jimny, can still be found elsewhere in the world.

Today, in good shape, Suzuki Samurai are considered collectors’ vehicles and can bring $10,000 to $25,000. Trackers, which are far more commonly used by ice anglers, generally are worth less.

“My first Sammy, an ‘86, I sold to a guy in International Falls, who sold it to a guy in Little Fork [Minn.], where I saw it for sale eight years later and bought it back,” Peterson said. “I later sold the same Sammy to a buddy in Grand Forks, who sold it to another guy, who uses it for rock crawling.

“I also do a lot of rock crawling, oftentimes at the Iron Range OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) park near Virginia, Minn. Right now, I’ve got a Sammy torn apart in my garage, so my crawler is a Toyota T100. Its advantage over a Sammy is that it’s bigger. I’ve got a 500-horse Chevy engine in the Toyota that I could never get in the Sammy, which is just too small for an engine that big.

“In the Toyota, with that Chevy engine, I can go just about straight up. I’ve rolled it 12 times. But that’s OK, because I’ve got a roll cage and seat belt.

“As we say, ‘If you’re rock crawling and not rolling over once in a while, you’re not trying hard enough.’ ”