Offroad-Express

hay
does anyone know what these are like
i have a escudo with a calmini 3 inch body lift already but the stock suspension needs to go
are these worth 2250 beans?
better options?
any imput much appreciated

I just bought a lift kit from some one last month that had fitted a Calmini kit and he loves it. It must be a 3" too by the looks and also has a body lift aswell. The lower arms are so strong and well made. i had a good look under neath while there and took a few photos too. It steps the wheel width out to compensate of the high lift and the welds are very strong. Awesome kit but not cheap. The price sounds about right too. just check the US calmini web site for prices and u'll see the diff.
http://www.puresuzuki.com/3_lift_kit.htm $949 US excluding shipping.

awsome thanks
yea i had a look at the web site im not sure how much i would actually cost to get one over here i might be in chc in the weekend so i will see if 4wd accessories have even got any in stock
cheers

No first hand experience with the calmini kit , only hear say . And that is they are quite hard in the front shocks , no problem if you have a big heavy winch and bumper on there . I have the kit for the Grand vitara in the shed and may put it on one day , I have the diesel so its heavy in the front anyway .

Also that the top A arm in the rear has something like a johny joint that wears out . The guys in aussie say they can't be certed there . Odd , not seen one so can't say for sure .

If I was doing a vitara I would piece it all together . 3" is a bit much for it , especially if you keep the body lift . Aim for 1.5 to 2 inch .

The standard front struts have 2" unused drop so get some strut extensions , seen some pins on the net that seem ok . Looks better than the big spacer Calmini have .

Then get the front diff drop brackets and drop that to balance out the extra droop . Then go to a local outlet and get a good set of lifted coils and new rear shocks and you are all set and should be well under a calmini kit . Oh may need a spacer block on the top of the rear diff .

Chris

Call me a tightasre, but over 2 grand on raising an escudo is a lot of dough. There is a good thread on here about lifting a scud' for cheap
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/ ... =23&t=5626
It has a few options that should net you 2 inches or so without any real dramas or much cost.

Any chance of a pic of the 3 inch body lift? It sounds pretty extreme without a 3 inch suspension lift as well!

I have the calmini kit. its fantastic off road, on road it rides very very stiffly unless your loaded to hell.
the height itself isnt the greatest part of the lift, instead the new front arms locate the front wheels forward in the arch a bit more to allow bigger tyres without trimming guards, also the new arms are longer to help with camber probs of lifting a IFS setup.
ive replaced my rear heim joint(rod end) as it wore out. the comment about jonny joints above was about some the american people replacing the rod end with with greasable jonny joint so they can be serviced instead of wearing out.
It also will requires certification.

i wouldn't buy one of these kits again. the only good bits are the front arms. From an engineering point of view the rear a arm setup for the diff is shit and the first time i took it for some proper offroad stuff i popped the whole ball out. 2 months later front shocks fucked out. crap cheap shit but very exspensive kit!!
Great kit if you dont go hard out offroad but waste of time..

so basically its a shore boy poser kit?

haha yip all bling bling

lincooln wrote:so basically its a shore boy poser kit?

Thats you sorted then Lincoln

Just kidding.

you know it heath. Though I dont' have daddys money like most of the shore boy posers. Besides, beach Haven isn't really the shore

I would go with the FTS lift kit,

I'v never had the Calmini kit, and to me they look pretty as a hole kit, but unfortunately i have heard more negative feedback about these kit's the good.
I would go for the the 3" lift kit from Mike at www.winch.co.nz he's a realy good dude to deal with and i'm happy with the product plus he's based in New Zealand so any problem's you can contact him directly.

Oh p.s
I do not work for Fts or winch.co.cn