What do raising kits do to on road ride & handling?

[Kermit power]

I like the idea of this, but due to the imminent arrival of a third offspring, the Shogun is also the main transportation for the family, leaving me with my 2 child family friendly estate as a weekend toy!

Do lifting kits have much impact on on road ride, handling, performance or fuel consumption?

I've also noticed people talking about having both suspension and body lifts. What's a body lift?

[MaximumJed]

Suspension lift is where you use either longer or stiffer springs, usually with extended dampers to lift the whole vehicle higher. A body lift can only be performed on a vehicle that has a seperate chassis, and involves putting spacers inbetween the body and the chassis where they bolt together in order to lift the bodywork parts away from the rest of the drivetrain.

Body lifts are sometimes known as Budget Boosts or BBs as they give a quick lift to prevent bigger tyres etc from rubbing on the body, but don't really offer more ground clearance. Suspension lifts will lift everything that is above the axles further off the floor, but are more expensive.

Ride and Handling wise, depends on the car, my old SJ was almost impossible to drive above 30mph, the Vitara starts to get a bit wayward over 60, and I haven't got any actual experience of any other lifted vehicles on road. The cherokee was reported to be a kind of luck of the drawer thing, where some people got vibration and problems even though other people with the same kit didn't.

[Kermit power]

Thanks.

I could do either on the Shoggie, but as it's the main family lugger as well, I think the better option might be to do neither!

[MaximumJed]

Plenty of people seem to do them for road use though, The SJ and Vitara have gone up quite a long way and are small, light vehicles, which probably doesn't help. Unfortunately I've only seen one lifted Shogun at a pay and play, which was done by LA Supertrux so can't offer very specific advice.

[normalbloke]

Body lifts can come into their own.If you have just a suspension lift, and fit bigger tyres,you can still be seriously limited when your suspension becomes fully compressed.Your now larger tyres will have nowhere to go.A body lift can allow larger tyres to travel further upwards.

After all,the ONLY way to get better ground clearance on non independant suspension(solid axle),is to fit a larger radius tyre.

We won't go into portals.......

[MaximumJed]

Very true, a combination of the two seems to be the accepted norm, though you can adjust the bumpstops on a suspension lift to prevent the wheels crashing up into the arches - even though it reduces articulation.

normalbloke said:

We won't go into portals.......

What are portals?

[mechsympathy]

MaximumJed said:

normalbloke said:

We won't go into portals.......

What are portals?

A solid spine with articulated half beam axles. Basically a way to make beam axles work independently, or to give independent suspension more articulation depending on your POV. Pinzgauer and IIRC Volvo use them.


Back on thread, the only raised car I've driven was my 110 landy and the raise improved its road manners no end. That might have been because the shocks were knackered before I did the lift though

[normalbloke]

A portal axle is a live axle,which has a gear box at the end,thus allowing the centreline of the diff to be be signicantly higher than the centreline of the wheel.ie better ground clearance.Advantages are greater ground clearance, ans the axle can be made of smaller components for a given strength, given that the full torque isn't realised until the it reaches the axle end, due to the extra gearing on the end.

Unimogs have them.

[Hooli]

the 2" spring lift i had on my old disco resulted in a lot more body roll & more oversteer - so all good really
i did reuse the original shocks though, as it was a bargian thing. proper lift kits come with different shocks to help the handling but id still expect more roll.

[Hooli]

i know a load of the people who helped lay those sleepers