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.

Benefits, issues and risks

Vehicle lifts come with many disadvantages and costs. They might require extensive modifications of suspension, steering and driveline components. They will make a car more unstable on the road.

Higher lifts severely

Also, the 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.

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. Larger lifts typically can't be made road legal in any country.

Warning: If you drive a vehicle which is not road legal, and you have a collision or crash, you can expect severe legal consequences if the authorities determine what you have been driving on the road, even if the accident is not your fault at all. This is especially true if someone gets injured or killed on that occasion, because consequences can mean prison sentence.

Additional considerations

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" lift kit which is supposed the be the most "sensible" option (least amount of vehicle modifications required to accommodate the lift), 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 circle of re-modding the vehicle to compensate for the lift.