Seen a guys rig (Sidekick) pic. from the UK that extened his a-arms longer & axles. Has anyone done this & what was the gain? Im getting ready to do this for more travel but thought I should ask here as Zukiworld has a few "customizers"

Generally, the longer the arm, the more travel you get. Look at desert racing trucks, the A-arms pivot right in the middle of the vehicle and they have gobs of travel. Most of them are 2WD though so they don't have CV angles to deal with.

The guy is from La serena , Chile He posted that picture in another thread on this board http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=19881.0. He has promised to post some more pictures and info about the design. He also said that he basically used the Calmini design to extend the stock arms. This would indicate that he used a flat plate on the bottom and vertical bars on each side for reinforcement.

Being as the veh. does not have a spindle I don't see how it can maintain correct camber let alone keep the struts from binding as it allows more travel. Would love to see some "up close" pic's of a "working system for cheap. (added flat plate onto lower a arms)

http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=12928.msg120394#msg120394

Here's a link to what he did.

Eric

Check out the 'Rockstar' threads and articles. Mike did this on his Tracker and it is VERY strong (to hold up to his abuse, it has to be)

Also search for 'Orange Rig', I think the original build of the front end was posted under a thread with that in the title.

Zig

I don't think Chilekick's intention was to gain more travel - the limiting factor is still the strut. What it does is make the track wider which gives more stability.

Mike used his 3" Calimini lower control arm for his upper and built a new lower.  That got rid of the strut.

WOW. This is all very interesting. I think I'll take a stab at it. I liked some of what people have come up with & feell it's time for a desert truck fabricator to "kick down" some ideas to help out. They mod. IFS front ends that take a beating. I know a few of them & I.ll see what they say. Integrity,travel, lift, stance, & lowest poss. cost is what I will request. Building custom arms & coil over shocks will be big $"s.  So a pre-made 1/2" thick plate relocating the ball joint out of the stock arms is a start. &  a uni-ball or heim at the top of the strut is a guess but lets see.I'll post what I find out.

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_050106/feature_hagen-newfrontend.htm

Here's a link to Mikes front end build

Unbelivable! That took some time, and looks very nice. Mike has taken the Sidekick front end to a new level. Im still going to try a less $ & time setup. Something between stock & Mikes.  Thanx for the link!