LittleJimny grows up

James is now old enough and held a licence long enough (19 years old and 2 years driving) for Adrian Flux to offer reasonably priced insurance on a modified vehicle. Therefore he wanted a lift for his Jimny.

This Jimny will still have to commute daily to work and be well mannered on the road. If you lift over 2" then you are on a slippery modification slope with castor correction etc. being a necessity. If you then go with bigger tyres then the gearing needs sorting. Its all a lot of hassle. I have always believed that a decent set of tyres will transform even a standard Jimny and you may recall we put standard sized Maxxis tyres on it. Therefore I recommended he used the Trailmaster 50cm (2") lift kit as this has an excellent reputation for road manners and quality.

I have sold these kits through the store but never actually seen one. I was really surprised when it turned up as the "fitting components" box contained an extended rear brake hose and bump stop extensions which were not mentioned in the advert but are a valuable inclusion in the kit. The kit also comes with an installation guide so I am not going to go into the details here, after all it is just a matter of changing the shocks and springs!

Here are some "before" pictures...

First the kit itself...(Note: on this kit the boxes had the wrong spring labels on, however the springs were marked with their correct number)

and the car "before"

Ready to install!

Now the bolts on these are notorious for rusting on, therefore I have been spraying them for the last couple of weeks in anticipation of the work, they are nice and soaked.

As a consequence they all undid EASILY!

The guide suggests using spring compressors to get the springs out. I fiddled about with my compressors but realised that with the shock removed and the brake caliper unbolted it was possible to insert a jack into the gap between the axle and the chassis and jack the axle downwards to remove the spring (TAKE CARE NOT TO STRETCH THE VACUUM TUBES)

With the spring out you are supposed to drill and bolt on the bump stop extenders, not all kits have this vital addition (it helps maintain flex)

Then pop the new springs and shocks into place.

Halfway through and a new version of "Jimny Lean"

The finished item

Now as I said, I have never seen and fitted one of these kits before but have heard of their reputation. Once out on the road it became clear why, the handling of the Jimny was superb. There was no crashing and banging over bumps, no excessive lean and no groans and squeaks from the suspension. It is a dramatic improvement on the standard Jimny suspension even before you consider it has given a small lift. It is a truly great kit and a far better ride than my 3" lifted Jimny. I have Trailmaster springs to put on BigJimny so I am looking forward to the transformation for that. The only slight change is the steering is more reluctant to self-centre which is due to the small castor change of the 2" lift.

As you can see it is not the largest lift, but it really perks the car up.