ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Discussion Forum => Suzuki 4x4 Forum => Topic started by: bashzuk on April 17, 2005, 12:55:16 PM
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I'm looking at lifting my Samurai.
I'm sitting here pouring through all the manufaturer's lifts I was curious what the opinions of people here are.
I've pretty much ruled out calmini's lifts as I don't want to do a shackle reversal.
I was thinking of piecing a lift together from a variety of Manufactures.
Any opions / real life experience with lifts for the samurai greatly appretiated.
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I only have one thing to say.....Rocky Road Outfitters is the WORST company I have ever done business with!!!! Period. Stay away from them unless you want to part with your money and then beg for weeks (if not months) to get your stuff. Oh and there will be varying excuses depending on who you talk to on any given day.....and don't bother to try to contact the owner (Glen Wakefield), he is like talking to a brick wall and has a screwed up sense of reality.
To top it off....their product did not fit very well (although it did work), all the parts were just tossed in a box twice the needed size, and it is hit and miss whether or not you will get any instructions.
BAD NEWS!!!!!
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go find some jeep cj front springs for the rear and put your stock rears up front... at the same time doin a SPOA..... the only thing I'd really want to buy from a manufaturer would be a nice steering set up, either from breeze or calmini
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I've been looking at the Spider Trax lift mainly because it's local for me and I won't have to pay freight. They seem to all be about the same so it comes down to price for me.
There is one company out there that has a nice perches that just fit into the old perches once you put the springs on the top but they are very proud of them and once you weld them I wouldn't think it matters.
Hopefully we will be looking for a lift in the next few weeks.
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I GOT THE 5 INCH SHACKLE REVERSE KIT FROM CALMINI
ORDERED ON A MONDAY GOT IT ON FRIDAY . BOLTS RIGHT ON NO HACKEN OR WELDING . FIT GREAT
ROSS
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Ross only problem is I really don't want to go with a shackle reversal.
I was looking at www.sky-manufacturing.com at their new SPOA lift for 380
The Stage 2 Samurai S.P.O.A is a new kit from Sky's that allows the consumer to add 4.5 inch's of lift to there Samurai with only minor welding of the spring pads required. The kit includes all parts needed to perform a safe and functional Spring Over Axle Conversion. Our heavy duty spring pads, our single OTS, steering kit, 2 1 inch driveshaft spacers, and longer brake lines. Should you need to upgrade in the future all of these parts will work with add on products. This is the least amount of parts you should have in a spring over conversion, and the minimum to be safe and prevent damage to your Samurai.
Price - $380.00
(http://www.sky-manufacturing.com/images/suzuki/Samuraistage2SPOA.jpg)
Comes with everything I was looking at getting for a basic SPOA.
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Comes with everything I was looking at getting for a basic SPOA.
Well then, what are you waiting for ?
;D
BTW on the steeringsystem: I have the ACME Adapters Extreme Hi-Steer and are more then satisfied with quality/price and the nice communications with Jeff Kerr from www.acmeadapters.com, no "talking to a brick wall" here !!
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Ross only problem is I really don't want to go with a shackle reversal.
I was looking at [url=http://www.sky-manufacturing.com]www.sky-manufacturing.com[/url] at their new SPOA lift for 380
The Stage 2 Samurai S.P.O.A is a new kit from Sky's that allows the consumer to add 4.5 inch's of lift to there Samurai with only minor welding of the spring pads required. The kit includes all parts needed to perform a safe and functional Spring Over Axle Conversion. Our heavy duty spring pads, our single OTS, steering kit, 2 1 inch driveshaft spacers, and longer brake lines. Should you need to upgrade in the future all of these parts will work with add on products. This is the least amount of parts you should have in a spring over conversion, and the minimum to be safe and prevent damage to your Samurai.
Price - $380.00
([url]http://www.sky-manufacturing.com/images/suzuki/Samuraistage2SPOA.jpg[/url])
Comes with everything I was looking at getting for a basic SPOA.
Sky's stuff is very nice. I would go with the kit you have mentioned and see what expense it would be to finish the steering with a complete Over The Top.
This way you will do it once, and not waste money on parts and then upgrade.
I have their complete OTT steering and will buy it again for my next zuk.
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I think it is 180.00 more but if you want the fj-80 tre's you have to send them your pitman arm first and tell them you want the fj-80's, for the 20.00 to bore the pitman arm it seams well worth it.
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I think it is 180.00 more but if you want the fj-80 tre's you have to send them your pitman arm first and tell them you want the fj-80's, for the 20.00 to bore the pitman arm it seams well worth it.
You can do that, but you don't have too.
That is an option. FJ TRE's are huge compared to Samurai ends.
If you go with the complete OTT steering it uses FJ ends for everything except the pitman arm. That is replaced with a new Suzuki end.
It is nice to be able to adjust you steering with the new Toyota ends. They are a Left and a Right hand thread. You don't have to take things apart when making adjustments. Just loosen the jamb nut and rotate the tube to lengthen or shorten.
I didn't send anything in. I am using a Tracker pitman arm on mine. I have a 16 valve with power steering in my zuk.
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I was looking at that kit again and realized that it doesn't come with bump stops or new shock mounting points. oh well can't have everything for as cheap as I am. ;D
I was looking at using these but for the life of me cannot figure out how they are a bolt on lower shock mount for spring over applications like calmini says???
(http://www.puresuzuki.com/UBolt-Skidsfs.jpg)
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http://www.breezeindustries.com/ This is a company located in B.C. Canada. Ive seen lots of rigs using their products. EXCELLENT quaility, and just about eveyting you need for lifts, and steering. Ive even driven a couple of Samis with their products, Im still impressed and i drive a Kick!!! The traction bar kit is pretty sweet too, it even protects the drive shaft a bit. Hope this helps.
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Calmini Shackle Reverse. Smooth ride. Straight bolt on and easily modified with springs to get any height that you want to go.
p.s.-make sure that they actually have the parts in stock before ordering. they have the best parts but the shipping may take forever.
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Spidertrax makes great stuff, always shipped fast, but you do have to have a little welding experiance. If you are looking for bolt on ,I say it alot, I love my Emu springs.
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[url]http://www.breezeindustries.com/[/url] This is a company located in B.C. Canada. Ive seen lots of rigs using their products. EXCELLENT quaility, and just about eveyting you need for lifts, and steering. Ive even driven a couple of Samis with their products, Im still impressed and i drive a Kick!!! The traction bar kit is pretty sweet too, it even protects the drive shaft a bit. Hope this helps.
I have had this on my Samurai since 2002. Got it from Northcoast Offroad. It did require welding. The Breeze draglink does a good job controlling bumpsteer and is a HECKUVA LOT STRONGER than any home-made Z-link.
The Sky Mfg unit looks pretty good if you want to avoid welding. It also looks like they are self-aligning so you don't have to worry about screwing up the Caster angle when installing the front perches. You'll also need a rear shock-mount brackets and the front lower shock mount brackets pictured below (along with shocks) to complete the kit:
(http://www.puresuzuki.com/UBolt-Skidsfs.jpg)
Re-read Cosmo's post at the top carefully. It has some good advice.
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THOSE brackets are no diffrent from the stock ones unless there double walled and are used in spring under to save your u bolts from hitting rocks, Bad pictures.I think petro works sells bolt on front shock brackets, and you can buy shock bolts and weld them on top of your diff to use your stock shocks, if you go lower(weld on mounts) and flip your stock spring plates you will need longer shocks.
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Re-read Cosmo's post at the top carefully. It has some good advice.
I have my own horror story from Rocky Road Outfitters. I ordered my lifted shackles from them took I think 3 weeks to ship them. They were just tossed in a box no instructions and no hardware I had to make a trip to Home Depot to get hardware was really pissed about the whole thing. I also was not informed when I called them about the shackles that I would need shims to fix the castor angle. Any way enough with my rant.
Do you or anyone know how the bolt on calmini shock mounts / ubolt skidplates work.
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U bolt skids are for stock application. I could send pic's of stuff tomorrow if you need them?pm me your home email add.
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Oh ya I have three sammies here and one four door, two of the sammies are spoa and one has the calmini lift springs, I just did A whole bunch of work to it I think he must have calmini's web page and a c.c.. put a c.m winch bumper on it with 8k winch, 5'' lift springs ect. ect. ect.
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so why do they say the come with the 5 inch spring over lift.
I guess I'm going to have to call them to ask how they work.
Also how much lift am I going to need to run bigger than 33 inch tires.
I have 1 inch already figure the sky lift will give me 4.5 for a total of 5.5 then if I look at getting the bonz eye springs from trail tough that will bring me up to 7.5 inches of lift aproximately.
Course if any one can tell me how much lift with what size tires they are running so that I can get an idea of what size tire I should start looking at that would be great.
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There's not much too these mountingplates, just put the one that's on the bottom on top after you grind off the shockmount, bolt the U-bolts back and determine where you want your shockmount to be. I put a piece of angle iron on, welded that to the plate and welded the original shockmount to that.
(http://www.nitromax.nl/SamSPOAShockMount2.jpg)
And I have to say: Had it welded, because I only weld good enough to tack it together to show what I want and have someone else weld it properly ;)
For all different kind of lifts I did on my Sammie, check my website and if you have any questions or want more detailed pics, mail me
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I just put the right side on the left and the left side on the right, no problem. no welding.
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I just put the right side on the left and the left side on the right, no problem. no welding.
Sounds smart to me :D
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You'll like Sky spring perches. Real serious steel, and they are an easy fit. They slip into your existing perchs, keeping the perch parallel so you don't screw up your steering. This also lets you weld them into your existing perches as well as the axel housing, giving you a stronger mount than the perches that just sit on the housing.
Breeze makes great product too. I've got the breeze cross over steering, works great. Mounts into both the caliper mounting bolts and the king pin. Beefy, tough arm.
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I liked that the sky spring perches were already drilled to move the axle forward 3/4"
I talked to mrfuelish about the kit, how sky's stuff is among other things.
and then I talked to my fiance`about getting it and we are going to get the sky lift kit for my birthday in may.
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I just put the right side on the left and the left side on the right, no problem. no welding.
But it would require re-drilling the U-bolt pattern as the right one is wider, wouldn't it ?
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But it would require re-drilling the U-bolt pattern as the right one is wider, wouldn't it ?
It would seem like it, huh.
I did the very same thing on one of my super-duper budget lifts. I reused the u-bolt plate and shock mounts by just switching sides.
It works just like that for the rear, switching them.
On the front however, you will need to keep them on the appropriate side. One side is a little bit wider of u-bolts. But what I did is, when you take off the anti-sway bar, keep the bolt that goes into the u-bolt plate. You will use this bolt as you shock mount.
Everything went together just fine after that.
Hope this helps. Jeff
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I've got the Sky Mfg spring pads and driveshaft spacers and I love them (Sky's spring pads were WAY nicer than the rocky road units my friend bought). I'm using the weld-on lower mounts and doesch tech shocks from trailtough. Both places shipped quickly and provided quality parts. I don't like the way sky mounts their OTT steering and dispite previous service issues w/ Rocky-road I got thier kit because I really like thier design. Much to my surprised, it shipped ASAP and got to me early. I also lowered the break line mounts on the frame to compensate for the added height/flex. Everything has worked great so-far but I'm going to get a traction bar for the rear, and soon.
I also am not thrilled about RRO's service. My advise is that if its an item that they don't make in house (ESPECIALLY T-CASE GEARS!!!!) don't count on the delivery date they give you and keep on them to see if it changes. Thier gear manufacturer's are extremely unreliable. To thier credit, I've yet to get a bad part from them.
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i bought the calmini 5.5 super package lift with the shackle reversal and didnt like the reversal (except for jumping whick after 4 axles in front stopped doing) but i kept the springs and added a spoa, the cool part about the calmini shackel reversal springs is when used without the shackel reversal they kick the front axle foreward 1.5 inches or so, with my 33x14x15 tsl boggers i can climb an allmost vertical wall because from the front of my tires out to the edge of the bumper is abouty 2 inches. it also allowed me to not have to cut or hammer in the wheelwells where your feet are for turning clearance.
http://losangeles.tribe.net/template/pub%2CViewPhoto.vm/context/pcard?page=1¤toffset=30&parentid=40415b7d-1433-436f-967f-94272d2869f1&sortby=newest&rows=0&r=10025
;D
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thought i would add that the rear springs are too weak and sag so i use air shocks to help the back out when i am loaded down with supplies (they also leak if you are hauling ass down a bumpy steep downhill but it lowers your center of gravity in a pinch so i like it that way) but for the front the calmini shackle reversal springs are great and can land fine from 3 feet in the air with the exception of the axle many many times over without loosing their arch or eveness from left to right.
calmini on the other hand, thats another story. those spua skid plate thingies are complete crap and when i bought my kit one had the holes crooked but calmini wouldnt replace it unless i sent it in, they evaluated it and then if they determined it was bad they would send me a new one. the turnaround estimate was 3-4 weeks for this process so i just threw them away and put the stock ones back on. i also bought their 4.5? to 1 gears for the t case and they got chipped up after 100 miles. yes i ahd new bearings and yes i know what i am doing, i am a mechanical engineer and work often in our machine shop so i know their tolerances were sloppy on the set (granted its been a few years since this happened, hopefully they have gotten better) i called them to talk about it and eventually talked to one of their engineers there and he was very defiant that their part could have failed and was a real cock about it so i do not buy anything from them any more, i like trail tough and their service dept, theyre the most friendly people around for sammi parts.
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SPOA it yourself!
Order some Wrangler springs,
Make your own spring perches
Make your own shackles
Make your own shock mounts
Make your own spring hangers
Make your own shackle hangers
Pickup your own u-bolts and u-bolt plates locally.
Pickup some Mercedes steering arms,
Pickup and extra drag link and tierod.
Make your own high-steer steering.
Then order some shocks that are the right length.
Extend drive lines as needed.
Who needs a 'kit'
Usually cheaper to make it yourself, AND you can customize it to fit your needs and you can say you "built it" yourself.
~Nate
Or 'buy' a 'kit' from a 'vendor' and 'live with it'.
:)
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Now if I just knew how to weld???
I can make just about anything mechanical work and take apart and put it back together. But I never learned how to weld so I can't fabricate anything.