Vitara body lift
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VitaraJLX89
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Vitara body lift
Hi Guys, i am new to this club. i have a Vitara soft top 89. have a plan to have body lift. any suggestions???
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gwagensteve
- Financial Member
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Re: Vitara body lift
What do you plan to achieve by fitting the body lift?
michaelpiranha2000 wrote: The rear is in great condition. but has a broken crown wheel and pinon
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gwagensteve
- Financial Member
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- Joined: Mon 13 Aug, 2007 5:20 pm
Re: Vitara body lift
OK, in front of a computer, I can elaborate.
You can buy body lifts from various sources. I think BYE products offers a legal body lift for Victoria. (Victoria only permits steel or alloy)
A body lift is pretty much 100% a tool for fitting bigger tyres without resorting to intrusive guard cutting. On a car like a Sierra, a 2" body lift allows you to increase the size from 28" to 31" without significant guard cutting.
However, things get a bit more complicated with a Vitara. A body lift will help fit a larger tyre, a little, but in the case of a vitara, there are two other "hard points" that limit tyre size - the rear of the front guard, and chassis clearance at full steering lock.... and a bigger issue, which is gearing.
So, depending on the tyre size you want to run, a body lift might help a tiny bit, buy it might make no difference at all and if you maximise the tyre size the body lift allows, you might have other clearance problems which still require cutting/other work.
And then we get to gearing. If you have a manual 89, it already has 5.12 diff gears, the shortest readily available gears. Running any tyre size the body lift requires will reply mess with your gearing. You can fix off road performance with tall tyres by fitting transfer case reduction gears, which are excellent, but they don't fix high range, so on road, 5th gear will become pretty useless. Expect this to be noticeable at a 30" tyre (which doesn't require a body lift) but by the time you're at 31 or 32" where a body lift is useful, you'll find 5th gear pretty useless.
anyways, I've body lifted a load of Vitaras over the years and its not a hard job, but there's rarely a good reason.
You can buy body lifts from various sources. I think BYE products offers a legal body lift for Victoria. (Victoria only permits steel or alloy)
A body lift is pretty much 100% a tool for fitting bigger tyres without resorting to intrusive guard cutting. On a car like a Sierra, a 2" body lift allows you to increase the size from 28" to 31" without significant guard cutting.
However, things get a bit more complicated with a Vitara. A body lift will help fit a larger tyre, a little, but in the case of a vitara, there are two other "hard points" that limit tyre size - the rear of the front guard, and chassis clearance at full steering lock.... and a bigger issue, which is gearing.
So, depending on the tyre size you want to run, a body lift might help a tiny bit, buy it might make no difference at all and if you maximise the tyre size the body lift allows, you might have other clearance problems which still require cutting/other work.
And then we get to gearing. If you have a manual 89, it already has 5.12 diff gears, the shortest readily available gears. Running any tyre size the body lift requires will reply mess with your gearing. You can fix off road performance with tall tyres by fitting transfer case reduction gears, which are excellent, but they don't fix high range, so on road, 5th gear will become pretty useless. Expect this to be noticeable at a 30" tyre (which doesn't require a body lift) but by the time you're at 31 or 32" where a body lift is useful, you'll find 5th gear pretty useless.
anyways, I've body lifted a load of Vitaras over the years and its not a hard job, but there's rarely a good reason.
michaelpiranha2000 wrote: The rear is in great condition. but has a broken crown wheel and pinon
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christover1
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Re: Vitara body lift
I find the extra sill clearance handy with my body lift.
And keeps feet drier when water gets deeper
But the low chassis isn't improved with body lift, unless larger tyres are fitted.
Mine came with a body lift, but I would not have fitted one for 30's.
And keeps feet drier when water gets deeper
But the low chassis isn't improved with body lift, unless larger tyres are fitted.
Mine came with a body lift, but I would not have fitted one for 30's.
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