[sidgarth]

Has anyone installed a Calmini 3" super arc kit into there car? I guess i just want to know if its worth the money
getting the EDSES kit installed as well? and what kind of benefits having the EDSES will have on my car. Will it give
even more flex compared to the same raised kit without it?

Cheers
95 vitara
30" bighorns
2" BL
2" SL

[Gwagensteve]

I've played with the calmini kit on a few cars.

The struts are RUBBISH
The rear shocks are average
The heim joint on the rear A arm is rubbish
The rear A arm mounting bracket that attaches to the diff is a worry - I had one crack tested for engineering approval and it was cracked
The springs are kind of OK, but lots of people find the rear springs a bit too soft
The front A arms are great
The strut spacers aren't required if you use proper (i.e OME or similar) struts that are longer than standard
Camber bolts are still required to get the front end aligned.

So all up, after time, you might just be left with the front springs and front A arms. Also consider there are no other spring rates available, so in a light car this system rides high and hard.

IMHO Calmini only have a elementary grasp of suspension design. This system suffers from two problems that prove my point, but are also a concern. Firstly, the system relies on fitting rims with less backspacing in order to get the front end to align and sit right. effectively they are using the wider wheel track to add leverage to the front end and crank everything down. It's not a clearance issue, it's just leverage. If you don't fit offset wheels as they suggest the front will sit high and have tonnes of positive camber, especially if the car itself isn't heavy.

Secondly, Calmini use the springs as the bumpstops, front and rear. I've ranted on about spring bind for years - it's bad for the spring and bad for the car. It's why calmini claim the car has to "settle" once you've fitted the kit. This is the biggest load of nonsense on the history of nonsense. You don't pick up a new commodore that's sitting 2" high and the dealer says "it just has to settle once you drive it"

Having said all that, In a car that's heavy, and with OME struts, it rides well, massively improves the handling due to the raised front roll centre, and flexes well. You'll need to be careful about the front RHS CV falling out though.

As for the EDSES, I think it's a dumb idea that only exists to remove Calmini's terrible struts. I've read some user reviews who found it almost impossible to fit. Other than adding a whole bunch of blue junk in the wheel well to oooh and aaaah at, I don't understand the point. It doesn't add travel, the camber path of the front end isn't a problem that needs fixing, and I have no idea why you'd make a system like that and allow no camber adujstability.

Just my 2C.

[jimnynutter]

I love that info Steve. Straight and too the point

[Rhinoman]

You don't need the offset rims or a winch anymore because they use different springs these day. The rear A-arm mount was also redesigned some years ago, maybe you had the old design? The strut spacers give more travel than the OME struts, I do have the OME struts now but I don't rate them that highly, they are no better than any other two-way damped gas strut, I added a 1" spacer to get back the lost travel. Bumpstops should definitely be extended. The longer GV shafts can be used on the front.
I've had my Calmini lift for nearly 10 years now and I still wouldn't change it for anything else.

[Gwagensteve]

The A arm bracket looks the same in the current photo on their website- maybe it's an old photo? In any case, the A arm is a pointless place to use a $5 heim joint. I'm completely convinced it's there because heim joints are "cool" because the application doesn't need one, especially not one that bottoms out on full flex and gets all ginked up.

I agree with running an OME strut with a 1" spacer, although I thought the OME strut was near-as-dammit as long as the Calmini strut with the spacer. The owner I was working with was able to run the OME strut with the Calmini spacer once he had the tripod mount and bearing support on the RHS. The car certainly travelled very well then. I wouldn't recommend it though - the front CV angles were scary at full droop/full lock. Rode very plush at speed.

I think if I ran a vitara I might well start with the Calmini kit, but its frustratingly built down to a price and heavily compromised. If calmini spent less time designing parts for visual impact and more time drilling holes with metric drills, supplying bumpstop spacers, and speccing struts that didn't fall apart in a month their product would have a much better reputation.

Their product is cheap enough that it's still appealing to ship around the world, and it fulfils a need, but it falls short of what it could be IMHO.

Steve.

[Rhinoman]

I tried the OME struts with the Calmini spacers and the stock shafts and the CVs were limiting the travel, I can't believe they would last very long like that.

[sidgarth]

Wow cheers for the feed back! So what do you think would be the best way to go in ways of 3" lift?

[Abraxix]

I don't want to DE-RAIL but talking about Calmini Kits.....

they do offer a Bumper / Bull Bar for my model XL7.... has anyone bought a bull bar / bumper from Calmini it lists that it's recommended with their 2.5"lift.... is that just due to the weight and such or would it have something to do with the way their kit would lift your car ?

[Chop]

Weight, thats why. The thing that worrie's me about thathose bars is there is no mention of airbags?

[sidgarth]

Gwagensteve wrote:

I've played with the calmini kit on a few cars.

The struts are RUBBISH
The rear shocks are average
The heim joint on the rear A arm is rubbish
The rear A arm mounting bracket that attaches to the diff is a worry - I had one crack tested for engineering approval and it was cracked
The springs are kind of OK, but lots of people find the rear springs a bit too soft
The front A arms are great
The strut spacers aren't required if you use proper (i.e OME or similar) struts that are longer than standard
Camber bolts are still required to get the front end aligned.

Gwagensteve so what do you reckon I shoulddo in terms of getting that extra clearance?

[Reubs]

sidgarth wrote:

Wow cheers for the feed back! So what do you think would be the best way to go in ways of 3" lift?

If you don't care about some cool front control arms, then you may as well just piece something together and save yourself some money.

I currently have Ironman lifted front struts, lifted springs, front 12mm bumpstop extensions, camber bolts, diff drop brackets, Rancho RS5179 rear shocks, 50mm offset rear ball joint spacer, rear lifted springs, rear 30mm spring spacers, rear 37mm bumpstop extenstions, modified handbrake cable mounts and a rear diff breather extension. This gives about 2" of lift and some ok articulation.

Next step will be some Procomp ES3000 rear shocks with 10" of travel, 50mm rear coil spacers, rear extended brake lines, more stuffing around with handbrake cables, 10mm front coil spacers (or fitment of GV springs), some 12mm strut spacers, and possibly some additional front bumpstop spacing and adjustment of the steering stops. That should give some excellent articulation and about 3" of lift.

[Rhinoman]

Its not simply about the front arms being 'cool'. A 3" lift with the stock arms leaves the arms at a very nasty angle which reduces the front track and ruins the suspension geometry. The springs will also be badly bowed and in a number of cases thats led to them rubbing on the brake caliper at full lock causing brake failure. A few people have modified the stock arms to correct the angle of the spring seat, Dave Jones at bits4vits.co.uk has an article on his blog.
If you want a cheap lift then I would suggest a 2" spring lift, 2" strut spacers, extended rear shocks and a rear diff spacer with camber bolts. I ran a setup like that for 3 years with a lot of hard off-roading before I upgraded to the Calmini setup.

[Gwagensteve]

Which is why I said the a arms are the best part of the kit. 3" of lift isn't cool on stock arms.

I see you already have 2+2 of lift- what's the reason you're looking at the calamity kit?

Steve.

[sidgarth]

the shocks are on their way out, the springs are stock with 2" spacers and all installed by a guy in albany. Main reason how ever is i swapped it for my supercharger commi, he blew up the motor and in 2 days it was up on gumtree for 8k! saying the car was perfectly fine never had any issues... So i want all the suspension redone PROFESSIONALLY same as the trans and what not for peace of mind that the car will not fail in the mlost F***** of times. The car car is getting some serious TLC

[sidgarth]

Have a kind of "replace before they can fail" attitude.

[got_bar_work]

Look at the kreator kit on Zuiworld
Heaps better kit
He also does coil overs but I would brace the towers if u use them