Lifting the vehicle

Introduction

A lot of people dream about lifting their 4WD vehicle, as they consider that to be an epitome of off-roading - a main beneficial mod for off road use.

Types of vehicle lifts

There are three types of vehicle lifts:

1. Body lift
2. Suspension lift
3. Longer suspension (often inaccurately called "suspension lift")

Note: The vehicle can also be lifted by installing larger (taller) tyres, which is the only way to lift the axles as well as the entire vehicle. See wiki article "Tyre selection and usage - best practices" for full details.

Body lift

Body lift is the simplest type of lifts - it consists of installing spacers on the body-to-chassis mounts (on vehicles which have separate chassis and cabin, like the Jimny).

Therefore, body lift does not raise any component of the chassis or the underbody away from the ground.

The only two purposes for lifting the body are:

1. To look cool or mean on a budget (if that turns you on)
2. To increase clearance between the wheels and body panels around the wheels. This then enables fitment of larger tyres, which in turn lift the entire vehicle.

Suspension lift

Suspension lift means installing spacers under/on mounts which connect axles or chassis with suspension springs and shock absorbers.

Suspension lift raises the entire vehicle apart from the axles, and is a cheap way to effectively lift a vehicle, but only for small lifts.

Beware that installing longer suspension is commonly wrongly named "suspension lift".

Installing longer suspension

Typically wrongly called "suspension lift", this procedure consists of removing your factory springs and shock absorbers and installing aftermarket-made longer springs and shock absorbers.

Installing longer suspension raises the entire vehicle apart from the axles, and typically significantly changes all dynamic driving characteristics of the vehicle, both on road and off road.

This type of lift provides the most flexibility and choice when purchasing parts and building the lift.

Benefits, issues and risks

Introduction

Vehicle lifts provide one technical and several sociological advantages.

However, vehicle lifts come with many disadvantages, costs and some serious real life risks.

Benefits

1. Vehicle lifts make your vehicle look cooler or nastier (if that turns you on).
2. Vehicle lifts increase the ride height, increasing your self esteem.
3. Vehicle lifts improve vehicle's off roading potency, as well as your own.
4. Vehicle lifts make you feel you've finally done something significant to your vehicle.

Issues

1. Suspension lift or longer suspension can significantly distort or even disrupt some vehicle's systems (steering, brake, transmission).
2. Suspension lift or longer suspension can financially quickly spiral out of control, as they might require extensive modifications of suspension, steering and driveline components in order to compensate for technical issues.

Disruptions of the brake and transmission can be remedied by installing extended brake hoses and installing propeller shaft spacers.

Distortion of the steering system can be remedied (or only partially mitigated for larger lifts) by installing offset radius arm bushes or (aftermarket-made) offset radius arms.

Lack of financial funds can be remedied by buying a new loan at the bank or by various crime activities.

Risks

1. Vehicle lifts will make a car more unstable on the road. This is especially pronounced with suspension lift and longer suspensions.
2. In some countries, in order to make the vehicle road legal, it is compulsory to perform some vehicle recertification after applying any modification the vehicle. A vehicle lift is certainly a BIG modification.
3. Larger lifts may not be made road legal in any country.

UK readers: Most modifications, even extreme ones, are permitted if they are bolt on and your insurance company will insure the vehicle. A rule of thumb is that once you start cutting main body parts such as the chassis itself then an SVA is required.

Modifying a vehicle can have legal consequences in some countries!

Additional considerations

The driving benefit of a lift highly depends on the extent (severity) of off road terrain. Jimny is already quite capable in its stock form, and slightly larger tyres might be all that is needed.

It is advisable for the driver to first drive his vehicle a bit, and experience all of his intended off-roading situations before deciding if a lift would truly be required.

If you do decide to lift the vehicle up, then it would be a good countermeasure to widen its stance (to stabilize it) by installing wheel spacers on all four wheels or by using offset rims.

For road use, it is technically not recommended to lift Jimny above 2" or to use spacers thicker than 3 cm.

JimnyBits has a 1,5" suspension lift kit which is supposed the be the most "sensible" option (least amount of vehicle modifications required to accommodate the lift and least amount of side effects), so consider that first.

Conclusion

A stock Jimny with no lift nor spacers (apart from slightly larger tyres) can still get to most places where you intend to go, just with more skill or attempts applied (and that's the name of the game).

If you insist on lifting the vehicle, than you are most probably going "off the legal road" and you are probably entering an enchanted techno-financial spiral of re-modding the vehicle to compensate for the lift.