When I Think of Lift

Years ago there was a lot of discussion on the Difflock.com board about people doing a "virtual lift"... the idea being you basically fitted large tyres - which afterall are the only mod that can get the axles and diffs off the ground - and cut the body away to suit...

That would give good ground clearance, good articulation with the right springs and shocks, whilst still maintaining a low centre of gravity, to stop the vehicle having a little lie-down, as in the OP.

Food for thought?

A Jimny on 32"s with a 6.1:1 crawler box and arches cut to suit the tyres (under articulation) ?

I think a virtual lift is ultimately the best solution, but it's a lot more work than fitting bolt on parts.
Tim Hardy get's it spot on with this SJ:



There are very few people that modify their cars with a sound understanding of what they are doing. Like Lambert says, most people fit a cheap lift kit to their Jimny before they even take it off-road, and most of the cheap kits seem to offer worse articulation than standard springs. I've found the more I learn about suspension geometry, spring rates, gearing etc. the less inclined I am to modify a vehicle at all. My Jimny gets everywhere I want on standard suspension and 215/75r15s. I'm very happy with it, and know that to gain extra performance in any particular area would be either expensive or lead to compromises in other areas. My ideal Jimny would be on skinny 31s with a virtual lift, lockers, lower gearing and 120hp, but I don't have the time or money to build it at the minute. Some are happy putting lots of time and money in, buying the right kit and build great vehicles as a result. Many others are clueless, fit big lift, big tyres then wonder why their clutch has gone or they keep falling over.

My Jimny's on 33" silverstones. But the actual height is only 32". Didn't have to cut the arches all that much. More like trimming around footwell and similar at the rear wheels.

All that talk of lift. Don't always understand why. From time to time there's the usual talk of how massive and huge a jimny is om 35" tyres. But in reality it's still a Fiat Panda sized vehicle with big tyres. some even call it a truck.. seriously!!??

I like the idea of lifting it to serve a purpose.
I've always run on 30" Special Tracks, and worked great. Wasn't too tall or too wide. Worked great for danish mud, all on a 2" lift and a 10mm bodylift mainly due to easier cleaning and maintenance.
Then when going to Croatia last year for the WBVC I knew I had to fit bigger tyres due to all the rocks. Turned out to be a good idea. Also fitted Zanfi +3" diesel springs. Turned out springs were too soft for a challenge ready jimny at 1600 kg's incl driver and co-driver. But other than that. It went pretty well.

Now on 33's we attended a winch challenge here in denmark. With more technical sections than we experienced in croatia. More driving along sideslopes and such, and as such. Due to some bad luck, driving error, co-driving error, we rolled over 3 times that weekend. Never before had I done something like that.

So long story short. big tyres and lift is not always the way forward.

And if you want massive tyres and lift to make it look huge. Buy a bigger 4x4

BTW:
Soon having lots of axle parts up for sale. ARB lockers, HD shafts, 22/26 splines, disc brake conversion and such

Any who i bought these new tyres,

Do you think i'll need to trim the arches and alter the gearing, The car is bog standard.:whistle: :whistle:

I think you should go for it... Definitely

Jezz wrote: Any who i bought these new tyres,

Do you think i'll need to trim the arches and alter the gearing, The car is bog standard.:whistle: :whistle:

Don't think you will be able to hang the spare on back door though