with the 31's and the 4.5 rocksteady combo, are lower ratio gears still needed to maintain freeway speeds like the calmini 6 an 33's?\

my best guess is the 31's are not much bigger than my 235's so probably not....but i'm very curious.  My stock 1.3 Samurai with 31's hung pretty good on the california freeway's so i'm thinking the stronger 1.6 16v sidekick would do even better.

please anyone help.  i'm buying this lift friday and would like to know before i waste my cash.  my kick is also my daily driver so i need it to be able to properly commute.

Hi, Baker, I ran my 94 kick with 30 tsl's which are almost 31" tall without much prob. I didn't like the fact that 1st gear seemed to me to be too tall. I have since went with the 5.83 r/p. But with the stock gears you will be able to keep up with hiway traffic.


   Kevin

Hey im running 31x10.50's on mine and can still run 80mph indicated, so that would be around 87 or so actual. Only prob I have is that the kick really doesnt like steep hills in 5th gear but other than that it runs fine.

with 235's, i was spinning them up everywhere, then with my 31"s, it was just right with stock gears. i think its another one of those suzuki mysteries, where suzuki had a grand plan where they designed the vitaras to run 31"s. hehehe

anyway, i have 33"s, and i can still hold about 120km/h on the highway/freeway. thats about 75mp/h.

but going off road is a different story. i can live with going a bit slower on the free way, but going too fast off road doesnt seem to tickle my fancy so much.

31"s are a good size for stock, and you soon learn to live happily with them. then you can slowly save for some crawler gears, or R&Ps, but i dont think its absolutely necessary.

i dont do a lot of rock driving or anything like that, its mostly mud where i am, so wheel speed is the key.

lift doesnt really influence your gearing, but more so how much clearance you can have for tyres, and a BL sorta sorts that out. obviously, a lifted or higher COG will also require a change of driving style in most cases.

I am running 31" Super swampers LTB.  I have a healthy engine and 2.5" exhaust and a conical cone style filter. I have no problem running around town or 65-70 down the highway. It just takes a little longer to get to that speed.  You do loose 5th on hills. As far as offroad goes I am a big fan of the T-case gears. They make a huge difference.