[Braklin]

Hi all, we have just purchased a late 2005 (JB type) Grand Vitara and am looking for some advice on the following.

1. Looking for a lift kit and have narrowed it down to 3 options. Can anyone provide feedback on their experience with these kits? I am looking to tow an offroad trailer mostly beach work then unhook for the occasional track.
a) ARB - OME 20mm lift. Springs, Struts & Shocks all OME.
b) Dobinson 40mm lift. Springs, Struts & Shocks all dobinson.
c) ODA 50mm lift. Dobinson Springs & Struts. Rancho RS7000MT which i believe needs to be modified slightly to not make a knocking noise? Tim has said he can supply other shocks as well, can anyone suggest some decent shocks to suit the 50mm lift?

Thank you

[Built4thrashing]

I fitted the Ironman 40mm kit to our 2008 GV. It actually raised it by closer to 50mm. Front struts were noisy but they were replaced under warranty for a newer designed ones. Very happy with its onroad handeling and the few times ive been allowed to take it offroad it has worked suprisingly well. At $880 plus fitting it is very well priced.

[zooks4life]

I run Dobinson 40mm springs on my 09 gv3, still have the original struts and shocks though. Obviously this setup restricts my flex but still when its fully loaded doesnt sag at all and it still drives fine. I will be looking at getting the ironman struts and shocks at a later date. I also have a bullbar and winch in the front of mine so it has 3.2ltr spirngs in the front as well as a 10mm spacer to bring it up level with the rear. I paid $400 for the springs i think and $100 fitting as I done the rear myself. I can say nothing bad about Dobinson. Hope this makes it a harder decision for you!

[Braklin]

Thanks for the feedback yeah it is really doing my head in. I heard horrible things about the Ironman lift but it seems they may now have their act together.. although still a few people saying the ride is too firm. The Dobinson system gets a good wrap overall but i don't know enough about this stuff to say it is really the pick i.e. it is a 40mm lift but the struts and shocks are only 20mm longer than stock so it seems counter productive to a degree. I am not sure on the extra travel Ironman provides but will be looking into that further. The only kit that seems to make a lot of logical sense to me is the OME kit but it only provides a 20mm lift according to ARB. Both the struts and shocks are 20mm longer though so you gain the height and travel and obviously the name comes recommended (at a price naturally). BUT i just can't seem to find anyone who has this lift on a new GV that can provide feedback. I mean is 20mm enough for the new GV to tow offroad etc? I do like that I can fit airbags on the rear springs with the OME kit easily from ARB also. Ahhh then we have ODA who without a doubt knows his GV's but at the moment is running Rancho on the rear with 30mm more travel than stock. He offers 2 versions of 50mm lift one with the Foam Cell RS500 and one with the Gas RS7000MT (better choice for towing??) problem is the RS7000MT needs a slight mod to fit correctly without knocking which I am not overly keen on... Really don't know which way to jump on this one.

[Built4thrashing]

The Dobinsons lift kits seem to be very good. They are one of the best for the earlier GV's and seem to offer a good compromise on /off road.

If i was to do my GV3 again id prob get the dobinsons kit.

[christover1]

20mm at shock is more at the tyre,
so terminologies could be an issue.

IFS coils are inboard.

[Braklin]

Of course!! Can't believe I didn't think of that.. The Dobinson rear end makes more sense to me now, as well as having double the clearance gain. I am thinking the existing springs are pretty shagged so the gain from current will be more than expected anyway.

So is 20mm extra clearance enough? Believe the GV3 then has stock Prado clearance or is 40mm much better. Will be fitting skid plates for sure.

[zooks4life]

Also boss make a rear shock for it for the same price as rancho with that 12 different stage thingy on them. There on the gold coast I believe.... I was thinking of them for rear shocks for mine. How many k's have you done for your springs to be shagged?

[Built4thrashing]

20mm can be gained just from bigger tyres. What the OME stuff doesnt mention is the gained travel you will get.

Some of the kits that give 40mm of lift may not give any more travel than stock suspension. They may just sit 40mm taller.

[Braklin]

The car is a slither under 100,000k's with all original springs, struts and shocks. Planning on some 235/70/16's as well (in QLD and want to keep the car street legal). I believe the Dobinsons 40mm kit does not obtain any extra travel but the OME kit does (from what i am being told). Those are the kinds of things i am hoping on getting first hand info on (or whether it is even that important for what i am doing etc). The boss shock was something i was keen on speaking to ODA about fitting on the rear of his 50mm kit instead of the Rancho's as I too have heard good things about them. If i had some knowledge as to whether they fit without modification etc i would probably lean back that way to get the best of both worlds (why is there such an issue with shocks on the GV3? Is it restricted space?).

Anyone have the Boss shocks or their fancy coil overs on the new GV?

[Zook_Fan]

Bringing up an old topic but if people are getting new suspension kits that don't increase travel why are you purchasing new struts and shocks? Are you seeking replacements of broken parts or just want an "upgrade" of sorts?

The GV drives brilliantly and handles the road well it just lacks height. For me that means I'm just seeking a slightly taller spring and I know I won't have as much down travel but will make up for it in uptravel.

[shep]

In our 2.4 lwb I put V6 springs and standard struts in the front and + 100kg load springs in the back with new shocks.
springs and shocks are 40mm dobinsons and the heavier springs compensate for the winch bar and trailer perfectly.
Even when empty it drives awesome. The new suspension raised the car by 80ish mm, pics are in the build thread

[shep]

Opps was a bit over 60mm lift. Also I bought some camber bolts but the wheel alignment fella didn't need to use them.

Build thread
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25416&hilit=bosswoman%27s

[cpc_89]

So what kit actually offers more travel? ?

[hsta]

I got the OME lift kit on mine, got close to an inch of lift which allowed me to fit bigger wheels which gave me close to another inch, been looking at getting spacers, but dont really want to mess with the cv joint angles too much, dont know enough about what the effects would be with the addition of spacers

[HamiHarr]

I ran stock for 7 years and last month replaced suspension with the Dobinsons springs and shocks all round.

When fully loaded up to GVMish for a family trip i went from being unable to squeeze my boot in between the rear arch and tyre (to step up and get at the roof rack) to having lots of space at the same load, an industry standard measure .

With 225/75 r16 tyres (one size up) I have 250mm clearance under the main crossmember that sits under the transmission. The rear control arms are the lowest point however, dropping to around 230mm.

In term of performance, I have run them for around 800kms on ruts corrugations and in the mud. The handling was outstanding, really smooth, while taking punishment. Suspension travel is not great. I’ll add a pic when I am at my pc where there was a wash out that required a cross axle line to give you a sense. Other than that I got very little wheel lift that I noticed. Fortunately all zooks are nimble, plus traction control, so a bit of manoeuvring sorts it out most times.

The only drama I had was the nut that holds the equaliser on the driver side kept coming loose. Took me a bit to figure out what it was - needs a spanner and Allen key to sort it.

Pic as promised:

[Gwagensteve]

Suspension lift has nothing to do with tyre clearance- it simply resets the rest point of the suspension. As you flex off road you’ll have the same tyre clearance issues as if you had no lift.

[atari4x4]

but is does a huge improvement on the under dampened & under sprung standard suspension, even brand new mine was shithouse

[Gwagensteve]

Oh I don’t doubt it at all. It was only the myth that suspension lift fits bigger tyres I was taking issue with.

Having said that the increased spring rate on NGV’s seems to reduce compression travel so there might be some truth in it, but that’s an unfortunate side effect and not the goal.