[luke3411]

Well here we go again.
Ok was going to get the calmini super articulation system until a guy on the local forum said "why waste your money on that? I saved a heap of money and got better articulation unless you want pretty blue bits".

So I got that just about as I was going to send the payment to lowrangeoffroad.com for the Calmini kit.

So I had a hunt around and this is what this guy has set his car up like...

3" body lift
3" suspension lift

FRONT:
OME Front Struts
Flipped Mounts
2" coil spacer

REAR:
Longer shocks (26" extended, 12" compressed)
2" lifted coils (soft spring rate)
1" coil spacer
3" A-Arm spacer

15"x8" Steel Wheels
31"x10.50"x15" SIMEX Extreme Trekkers

3" Fuel tank lift"

So luckily enough I found another guy selling some bits and pieces off his car and I'm seriously considering buying this kit as a base to work on....

the lift is made up of 50mm body lift, 50mm strut spacers, 50mm A arm spacer
and some sort of springs. all parts are nearly new. $300 for the lot except for shocks/struts.

So would this be a good platform to start getting my build going? I'm also gonna have a winch and a bull bar in next to no time fitted as well I thought I should mention.

I reckon if I get some diff drop brackets for about an inch it will just about all fit on. What would be some good struts and shocks to get for this car and I will also have to replace the rear springs as they are out of the front of a honda accord or some crap like that.

In short basically I want to get the diff off the ground and be able to get to a few places that your stock Vitara cant. I'm not looking for something that looks cool or is a legalized rock crawler. This head ache is getting bad as I never thought Suspension choice could be so fkn insane.

Any suggestions people would be great. If I can use stock parts with bolt on stuff thats a bonus. cheers.

[monley]

I don;t know much about vit suspension, but these guys have some diff drop brackets and stuff.

http://www.jimnybits.co.uk/shop/vitara-/-x90/cat_2.html

[shep]

if you want to see how
sikids set up drives get your self to katherine and have a drive of my vitara.

it has the twitchiest steering of any vechicle i have ever driven and i used to race karts.
works well in the bush and flexes well but is very scary over 80kph

[luke3411]

good pick up that it was sikids setup that I was going for. How much money did you pour into your setup to achieve this sort of suspension setup?

[shep]

i bought the car so i could put the motor in my sierra. vitaras are girls cars

[luke3411]

lol it's not to bad for my first 4x4. Did you chuck the rest of the components into another vit? Just sent Arb an email about getting a suspension lift. Dunno what the pricing is gonna be like though. Shits just so expensive in Australia.

[shep]

i am supazuk on darwin4x4

[luke3411]

Righto I'll look up your rig on that site. Fkn small world lol

[shep]

luke3411 wrote:

Righto I'll look up your rig on that site. Fkn small world lol

it is in the project car section and is bright orange. vits suck and sierras are awesome.

[atari4x4]

one thing that the calimini kit does provide over lifting a stock set up is the front arms return your wheel track back to standard, there are a few other benefits as well, but Sikid's set up did perform very well & you need to remember that flex isn't everything.

[sogone]

Ps. Shep went down to 200. So your saving a hungy. His also selling me the wheels for awesome cheap, as I'm a prince of africa.

[luke3411]

Im starting to think more and more that maybe I should get an ome 2' lift with one 1' spacer's, front diff drop (think 1' should do) and then get a body lift if need be and just leave it at that. I only want to fit 31's under it. Just waiting on email quotes to come back.

Would I have to extend anything in the rear like the arms with a setup like that?

[shandy92]

nah should be right, brake lines should be good but just check them. might need to get a rear a-frame spacer and some bump stops.

im running 2" sus and 2" body and 31's on my vit. got massive scrub atm, but thats with stock bump stops tho. you will need to un screw your steering stops to, but thats easy.

im thinking about adding a 15mm and 30mm spacer to my springs to get that extra clearance tho. have been trying to find a set of honda accord springs, they give 3" apparently.

[luke3411]

Funny you should mention about the honda accord stuff. The 2nd hand kit that I mentioned has Honda accord stuff I think but it's in a lwb vit. In a swb apparently it gives up to 6' of lift!!! To much for me.

I keep hearing awesome things about ome and have a little soft spot for them as my dear old dad had them on his patrol (still remember the trips from alice springs to sydney every xmas at 80kmh with no air con!!).

Ok so ome 2' lift including shocks and struts
1' spring spacers
2' body lift
1'-2' diff drop
keep eye on brake lines
2' A-arm spacer.

Anything else I should be thinking of?

[christover1]

A few of us have had OME front struts fail early,
but the rest of thier gear is brilliant.
I run OME but have replaced struts with the dobinsons equivalent.

[luke3411]

Ok. Do's anyone know or heard of the trail master kit's? I looked around on a few other forums and they apparently work pretty good. Being made and mostly used in Europe (as far as I can tell) can they cope with Australias climate? I watched youtube videos of people crossing Ice but I dont think there is much chance of me doing that in Darwin lol.

[christover1]

I got trail master front diff drop brackets.
They are good quality, good fit.
I know nothing of the rest of the stuff.

[luke3411]

Righto. I've got scouts out back in Darwin asking around at suspension setups for the vitara. In case you've missed the painfully obviouse, I'm as green as they come to building cars. I had a look at jimnybits.com.uk and noticed there 3' suspension system. It's got parts that are interchangable before purchase and after looking at a quote to get it to my door step it seems very well priced.

Ok so has anyone used there 3' springs or the kit in general and how did it perform? Again I want to know how the European designed shocks and struts would be like in our climate. There good for cold weather but what about the other end of the scale?