[crazynic]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for a truly great riding lift kit for my early model grand vitara v6.

The first lift kit i tried was an Iron man lift kit and the ride was s*&t to put it bluntly, the front struts were noisy and the rear shocks topped out badly, also the rear end lifted 50mm and the front only 10mm.....so i sold most of the components on the bay.

Then i cobbled up my own kit based on new stock struts with strut spacers and front coil spacers for a 50mm front lift and the rear has the iron man coils and 20mm coil spacers for 70mm rear lift, rear bump spacers and 8.5" travel DT3000 shocks.

My current set-up provides decent clearance and awesome rear travel with no strange clunks or creaks and rides far better than the iron man kit did.....but the ride still leaves a little to be desired..

I need a kit that provides at least 50mm lift and actually rides nicely.

I have considered the calmini kit but so far have not found many great reviews and don't like the way it replaces so many stock components making finding spares down the track difficult if not impossible.

It seams good things are said ride wise about ARB's OME kit and also Lovell's to a lesser extent but neither give a 50mm lift.

So I'm calling out to owners of these two kits for info and ideas as I'm enjoying building up this little rig into a great off road toy but it's not easy finding good suspension.

Cheers.

[steak_knife]

Lovell's spring's are awesome, the shock's & strut's let the whole package down.
King make a very nice touring spring.

Haven't tried OME but from what I've been told thay are the best bolt in strut, I have the "extreme" shock's & strut's from ODA & don't like em.

The only kit's in Oz worth buying are only 40mm, for a reason, unless you are going to replace your control arm's, drag link's & pan hard arm's that is as high as you can go with out starting to stress things & bust things.

As for noisy, the Gv's twist a LOT, so get used to it.


Hope that help's.. Steve

[crazynic]

Well it does help......

Its seems most kits leave something to be desired in one way or another and kits providing a good ride have very little lift and kits providing lift have a stiff ride and other problems...

It is possible to get a full 50mm lift in the front with no issues providing you get the alignment in spec and the rear can be lifted 60-70mm no problems at all it just seems know one wants to take the time to engineer a decent 2 inch lift kit for these vehicles and probably with good reason.....They would not sell many!

Life without a Toyota or Nissan is hard

[gravity_powered]

I've got the full Old Man Emu Kit with extra 30mm spacers in the back giving 50mm lift front and 60mm back. It rides very well when loaded but is a bit too harsh when empty.

The shocks are pretty right other than needing more down travel in the back (still better than stock). The springs are perfect with a full load or when hitting big g-outs hard but a bit too hard for daily driving. I seem to remember that I had the option of softer or harder springs when I had the kit fitted and that I chose the harder.

My ideal setup would/will be OME struts, longer rear shocks than OME. More progressive springs with a softer initial rate and 50-75mm lift on the front and 75-100mm on the back.

[atari4x4]

gravity_powered wrote:

hitting big g-outs hard

spoken like a true downhiller

[banga]

i was speaking to a place the other day they do fulcrum suspension which the bloke was obviously raving about they do a 40mm lift don't really know much about them what they ride like and stuff like that. but i don't really see a huge benefit of and extra 10mm in height its not going to change your approach departure angles and your ramp over angle by all that much. the only kit i how found that is actually 2" is the calmini.

[MacDaddy]

Most lifted Suspensions, wont say 50mm, or 2in, even though they are in fact a proper 2in, its because they give an average after the springs have settled, so if they say 35 or 40mm lift, but they are in fact 50mm or 2in, but they will settle or bed in, down to 35 or 40mm... if you want a 2in lift after the springs have settled in, you may have to 3 or 4in... but some states have rules about how much you can lift legally... and i would think anything over 2in lift on a GV would make give it more body roll, and generally not feel good onroad...

[gravity_powered]

I think the OME kit was Advertised as 30-50mm lift. I got 50mm on the front and 30mm on the back. That's why I put the extra spacers on the back.

[gregdixon]

I run the OME front struts with 35mm king springs all round. Still have the Monroe shocks in the rear as ARB are having trouble getting rear OME shocks or so they tell me!! Other than the shitty rear shocks the car handles really well and flex's well. I would say not far of the standard if I refitted the sway bar

[lizzard]

Had a OME 50mm kit (shocks and springs) fitted to the 2002 SWB GV and it rides better and the nose doesn't dive when breaking Also fitted 235/70/16 very happy with the result . Kit was fitted by ARB and they said if I wasn't happy with the set up they would change springs or shocks