When I Think of Lift

And that's the wonderful thing about this amazing little car. It's just as possible to tune it to do that kind of terrain as it is to set it up for pristine ribbons of finest tarmac, the only limiting factor being how badly you want to do it.

Honestly wasn't trying to single you out when I mentioned your name Dave. I know from some of your previous posts that you went with 31s to get as much axle lift as you could and then did the rest of your modifications to accommodate those tires - - including a little hammering and pounding. I also agree that how you approached your mods doesn't conflict with only going as far as necessary. By default, that would mean that your lift isn't "excessive". You have modified it as much as necessary for your use.

I'm mostly curious why some go to extremes without having a vehicle use well defined in their minds. Is it a philosophy of "more lift is obviously going to mean better performance"? Is it simply they think that a sill sitting at chin level is manly? I'm stuck wondering why they go after this. The couple of times I (very diplomatically) questioned some of the club members, it went directly to a very short defensive discussion. I don't slight anyone for modifying their Jimny however they want. If someone does it for looks only, more power to them. I have no right to judge. I'm just hopeful that they are aware of the disadvantages created.

I am still curious what the mindset is for most that pursue lift.

I think that for some people because of the relative affordability of the Jimny it's easy to get one and have funds left over to start modifications which is often considered culturally important because everyone knows that you've got to have ground clearance to go off roading and what's the point of having a 4x4 if it can't off road. This misses the fundamental greatness of a Jimny in that against the current crop of alleged 4x4s now more than ever before, a standard Jimny can go a long long way off road that only much more expensive vehicles can sometimes manage. It's just that people often don't give it a chance before turning it into a skyscraper.

Thanks Zukebob

With my Gold ‘daily driver’ Jimny I had a picture in my minds eye of how I wanted it to look aesthetically, but also wanted it to be capable in all weather conditions, and possibly a bit of gentle (read non-damaging!) greenlaning...

I knew I wanted 235/75/15s and I didn’t want to mess about with castor correction bushes or arms (for a daily driver), so went for a 2” TrailMaster lift and a 2” body lift, so a comfortable ride and near stock suspension... longer springs and shocks, but standard radius arms and bushes and up to now standard panhards, although I’ve just bought some standard length HD ones from 4x4Outlet (JimnyBits) on eBay, so that’ll be the suspension sorted, strong enough for a bit of ‘laning...

That gives me 4” of lift to get my choice of BFG ATs under it, and it ‘looks right’ (in my opinion)...

I think its such a wide discussion on why people do what they do to there jimny even if it's right or wrong or any form of transport, from lowering your car so you can't get over speed bumps, to lifting a jimny and need a ladder to get in it. I lifted mine so that it made a capable off roader a little bit better and because i wanted a certain look. I think a lot of people like to get involved with modding and can tinker about with there jimny and it just progresses into other things along the way, the same with any other 4x4 like land rovers, land cruisers etc all very capable but people like to add there own personal touches like lifts etc. If some one adds a massive lift but never goes off roading then thats there prerogative, I couldn't define what i was going to use/do to my jimny until i had it for a few months and found this fine forum.

So really i don't think there is any definitive answers to why people lift there jimny as it sits in the broad spectrum of why do people modify their cars? ..

You make a choice when modifying a car, are you improving the cars performance or the cars appearance?

I enjoy the anonymity of a standard looking car when I'm pootling about, people hardly notice me. Having a car that performs beyond it's standard appearance is also one of my "things". I already get looks from hot hatch drivers after a series of B road bends, the car now has little roll or pitch and it can follow pretty aggressive lines through a series of bends. I'm just about used to the sidewall flex on the tyres and how it changes with temperature, the car is quite predictable now.

Others like the Paris-Dakar look, I do and would build one in a heart beat, but as a second car only and sadly funds won't allow.

An abundance of cheap-ish modification parts is not always a good thing (I have spent years sorting out poorly modified mini's). Cars that are modified with little or no real plan in mind, end up with mismatched components which often encourage drivers to think a car is more capable than it is. I'm sure a lot of jimny's fall into that bracket, the route to modify is easy and requires little technical knowledge to start down.

I'm looking forward to finding the off road limitations of my standard height car, with the bits I've changed and am planning to, I think it will show the odd lifted car how to do it.

sniper