To lift, or not to lift...

Something thats been playing on my mind for a while now is the question of installing a lift kit. Aesthetically, a lift kit is awesome. Practically, if you are doing some serious offroading, a lift kit is a necessity.

But, my mind has been on the question of do I REALLY need one.

How much difference does a 2 inch lift make for articulation? I know it doesn't help at all for ground clearance. And I don't want to to go more than 2 inch.
How much does does this affect road handling, especially motorways (I do 70 miles a day on the M25, which should reduce in the next 3 months or so).

Lastly, I will need to get new shocks (and springs) as the outer casing on the rear shocks are a little cracked (low down, not affecting their basic use yet) so I am wondering what are the best for comfort. I was looking at the Trailmaster - Comfort set but at close on £600 I am wondering if there is a cheaper alternative since this is going to be used 95% of the time on road.

Thanks
Chris

You dont NEED anything. My jimny has lots of mods, i dont NEED any of them for my 7km road to work. What i need sometimes, probably 5-10 times a year, is the possibility to run 4wd. Rest of the year i dont need it. But i love the jimny, and had a vision in my mind of how i wanted it to look, and now it looks like that. I have spend over double the cost of the car itself, but thats how it is when passion beats sense :lol:

If you like how the jimny looks with a lift, do it. But you dont need it, the jimny goes everywhere without anything

I do plenty of pretty serious off roading and I don't have a lift kit. From what I've seen articulation is rarely any better than standard on 2" kits, and worse than standard on some.
Always bare in mind that when people fit new suspension, they are often replacing well worn parts with brand new so any comparison in ride quality is relative to the condition of the components they replace.
Also you should consider the extra things needed to lift the car properly. Extended brake lines are a must if you want better articulation. Castor correction is also important, and the castor correction bushes have less movement in them than standard bushes so will limit articulation to an extent. So you should weigh up wether you are happy replacing the trailing arms with non-type approved parts, or running with less castor which reduces steering feel and increases the likelihood of getting steering wobble.

My car had tired suspension (65K) and it needed to be changed. I chose to stay on standard KYB road springs with 15mm superpro seats and got the best dampers I could afford. AVO adjustables, they've been spot on. This set up was about £650 so a similar price to the trailmaster kit.

I wanted a car that looked standard but gives a little more on road, and off. The road manners are as good as you will get with solid axles, it's even surprised the odd hot hatch on tight and twisty bits. Off road, the cars performance is not the limiting factor, it'll drive over pretty much anything that I would choose to drive.

At standard height, the Jimny is a very capable off road driver. So capable that risking damage is my limiting factor, I don't want panel damage and I don't want to smash my drive train. That said, you'd be surprised at what a near standard car, can do......

I have to pick my way along the more aggressive lanes but the 4"+ lifted cars in the group just drove over everything and were all on unstoppable.

sniper

My car drives better on trailmaster comfort, than stock for sure. Most likely due to better shocks as Sniper say.

If you want the most offroad capasity possible for least mods, then good tires and a rear diff locker would be more important i would say.
Modding the car adds up reeaaally fast, but its also very fun to do

Thanks for the replys guys,

@Busta, with regards to the brake lines, I want to replace them anyway with a braided setup. Along with changing the rears to disc brakes. But this is a job for summer, so when I do this I can cater for the extra lift there.
I will look into the trailing arms, not sure on the costs of all this, but will add it into what makes sense here to do. Bushes are most likely due a change anyway, its was reg'ed in 03 and has done 87k miles and its all original under there.

@sniper, do you have a build thread, be interesting to see the suspension setup you went for. I think I would still go for the Trailmaster, but interesting to see other setups.

From what you guys have said, and what I have been reading, the stock setup is going to be more than capable with what I will end up doing. I do want to "upgrade" the suspension anyway but get the feeling that I could get something much cheaper than the Trailmaster (e.g Black Raptor) but comfort is king here.
Also, a lot of what I have read indicates that you need to upgrade trailing arms and do castor correction when you step up to 3 inch, but not much is said for 2 inch.