Offroad-Express

HI, Me and my partner are keen to ger into this off roading buzz, people suggest a small suzuki to buy, but what does it cost roughly to put a 2inch lift kit on?

hi there, cant help ya with your question, but there's plenty of switched on Zukers here who will be falling over themselves to get you on the right track.

Welcome to ORE, and the 4x4 world!!

Im getting a lift done Tuesday for about $400.00. And he is doing all the work. Not mates rates just a std prive. I think a kit is around $300.00 and you do it yourself.
I dont think its that hard, plenty of very good help here i have found, and fast too - not bull shit.
All your help comes from guys that have been there before, its like a workshop manual at your finger tips.

Good luck

ps: i will let you know how i get on and post pic

Hey welcome to the forum:)
Just a few questions so we can help you better...
Firstly what kind of suzuki are you thinking about?
Do you want to keep it road legal?
Finally are you talking about a body lift or a spring/suspenion lift?

Also what area are you in?

Cheers
Chris

welcome aboard. i can't help you much iver. but welcome.

im thinking a escudo/vitara 1990 onwards, prob the best lift i can to fit 31x10.5 mud tyrs on..is a body lift or susp best. im in wellington and id perfer to keep it road legal.

Hiya,

Don't want to be the one to bring up the "C" word but body lift and big tyres mean, needs cert if you want to stay legal. So you can add $400 to the cost of the mods.

I have a 95 vitara lwb which I put Old Man Emu shocks and springs in which I think is a fifty mm lift = $1400 but if you search around the site there is info on using springs and shocks from different cars to achive the same result.

When I got muds I went for 245/70/16 which was a mistake they are 14% bigger than the original tyre and really effect the gearing, say goodbye to 5th gear on the road and using anything other than 1st on anything near steep offroad. big tyres also mean the speedo will be out which is another cert issue.

I since got some 235/60/16's AT's for day to day driving and they work really well, I was supprised just how well it went offroad with them.

The 1600 vitara/escudos have 15inch wheels so there are way more options but I would be weary of going bigger than 30/9.5 unless you can change the gearing in the transfer case or diffs which is not cheap.

Good luck and Welcome

Alan

Sweet. What area are you in?
Are you planning on doing the work youself? (its not that hard)
Definaltely at least start with suspension lift and then look at body lift or vitual lift (cutting the guards)

If you go with 31's pretty sure you will need new rims too so you can get the offset of them correct so the tyres don't rub on the chassis

I'd also recommend having a read in the Suzuki part of the forum there has been lots of discussions about lifts etc recently.

Guess the big question is what kind of budget have you got? students on here have built trucks up on here relatively cheaply that perform well, and i have seen other people spend $35,000+ on a vitara which perform very well.. and then there are heaps in between....

You can check out what truck-fixer has done to my truck here.

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8855

Calmini Suspension=$1700
Wheels and tyres=$700
Radio=$300
Snorkel=$300
Bars=$400
Having a hell of a good time offroad=Priceless

From all the web shopping and reveiws I have checked out the OME struts seem to be the best (they will be what I fit to mine (sniff - when I get another one -sniff). Apparently they are longer and have a better damping range (I think that is the term) for the smaller zuks. The others are similar to the origional zuk ones but only shifted in their mounting brackets and are no longer. OME ones give another 30-40mm movement over the others.

Part of the fun is to trawl the forums, books and conversations to get an idea what is the right way to do something... and then just do what you want to.

The biggest problem will be the damned "C" word. No matter what you do the buggers seem to have a way of getting at ya. Mind you for piece of mind and so the insurance company will cover you it is really the only way to go to be 100% sure of the quality of the mods (and of course their safety).

For me this wont be too much of a problem as mine will be either trailered or A framed.

Have fun and good luck.

Heath