Even before i got my tracker, i've been looking at lift options, and from all that i've gathered, there aren't really any great options.  My idea is to use Calmini's 3" A-arms with zukinations 4" kit.  Four inches of suspension lift is pretty much perfect, but i don't see how zukinations lift kit could possibly work with stock A-arms, the balljoint and castor angle would be horrible, that and an alignment would be about impossible.  Just wondering if anyone has any input on this.

Is Zukination the one from Candida? If so - I never got responses from them when e-mailing or calling. I won't work with a company like that. 3" of lift is the max the CV can take safely - really should drop the front diff 1-2" if you are going that tall to get better CV angles. Don't forget you can do 3" of suspension lift, and an additional 1" of body lift (which I loathe) or virtual lift / cutting fenders - which looks good & keeps your center of gravity that much lower.

That said - Calmini's lifts are actually darn good. The springs are stuff if you don't use a bull bumper / winch, but perfect if you do. Bolts up easy & well designed.

4" of lift is an odd number - what tires & gear correction are you going to run?

At this time and if I had to do it all over again I would go this route, similar to Jeremiah

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=444978


I have the Calmini 3 + 3 and the body lift I would not utilize again.  The front springs I like the rear bind, even though the concensus is the springs are too stiff for most.  The struts are not as good as OME.  Calmini told me to get a better "gas" shock because of my rear coil bind.

Best advice - Research what you are using the lift and suspension for and then research again.  If time is not against you then wait for RockRat to come out with his 7" suspension lift.  It has been about 5 months in research and we get updates every so often.

Might be rambling but hope it helped

I'd give it a shot, I think 4" of lift and some fender trimming will clear 31's no problem. I'm running 31's with 1.5" spring spacers and a 2" body lift and moderate trimming and they don't rub. 4" of lift would be awesome, think of how much clearance you'd get underneath the frame with that.

Pretty expensive though, you sure you don't just want to get the Trail Slayer kit?

PS: I have dealt with the company before...I didn't buy anything from them but I sent an email, no response, so I called them and got through the second time. Don't give up so easily.

At this time and if I had to do it all over again I would go this route, similar to Jeremiah

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=444978

That's exactly the way I went - Grand Vitara (stiffer & taller) springs & all 'cause I knew I was going with a heavy bumper & winch up front. I have the bumper on, but not the winch right now - and the front is a LITTLE higher than the rear. Should be within 1/2" of level (as close as you can hope to get with any bolt-on lift) with the winch in there.

That link to Pirate4x4, he pretty much did a cheap version of zukinations lift is, and i just can see anything over 2" working with OE A-arms, nor on ANY IFS rig.  Of all the vehicles i've had, 3" was the largest lift i've owned, and honestly, i can compare these trackers to Grand Cherokees, they both sit fairly low for 4x4s and have tiny fenders.  I had a 3" lift on my Grand Cherokee and i wish i had went with 4"  Its pretty much the perfect lift height.  That said, after doing a lot of looking around, i don't want to go with anything larger than a 30" tire, basically for mileage reasons, and from what i understand its a good idea to re-gear if you go with anything larger.  On body lifts, i've never had one, and don't plan to, i thought about doing a 1" body lift but even then, i still wouldn't want to do that.  My reason for a lift is obviously larger tires, better snow performance, easier to crawl under, and then of coarse better off road performance, while being a daily driver.  Yeah, i tried to get a hold of zukination to, but i couldn't, and i don't really want to do business with a company like that ether, but what do you do i guess.  Ii'm not trying to get something and then regret my decision,  but my plan seems like a pretty good idea, i'd be able to clear 30" no problems and i wouldn't need any body lift or fender trimming, and thats pretty much my goal here.

Re-Gearing in hi-range is not an option on most Sidekicks unless you swap axles, or go with a Sami T-Case. The exception to this is a 3-Speed auto with 5.125 diff gears (found in most other SideKicks), but I don't like the 3-speed. Not enough gears, so MPG & acceleration suffer. Not sure why you think Kicks and Cherokees are comparable...
Kick: 1.6L 80-95 HP (8v and 16v respectively), IFS front & WAY smaller / lighter / less drag co-efficient, 25 MPG (that's 25% better than Cherokee)
Cherokee: 4.0L 177-195 HP (depending on year), solid front axle, and way bigger / heavier, 20 MPG

4" on a Cherokee is still a mild lift. 4" on a Kick is a Big lift, and just shy of extreme. In fact, I wold argue 4" on a 2-door as being an extreme lift & about the upper end of being stable enough for on-road characteristics. About the only thing the 2 vehicles share is 4WD, sheet metal & glass.

I thought that there was a post on here about a review of the Zukination kit. I can't seem to find it but will keep searching. The ZN kit does lower the front diff and from some pictures I saw last year the rear flexes really well.

Derek

Re-Gearing in hi-range is not an option on most Sidekicks unless you swap axles, or go with a Sami T-Case. The exception to this is a 3-Speed auto with 5.125 diff gears (found in most other SideKicks), but I don't like the 3-speed. Not enough gears, so MPG & acceleration suffer. Not sure why you think Kicks and Cherokees are comparable...
Kick: 1.6L 80-95 HP (8v and 16v respectively), IFS front & WAY smaller / lighter / less drag co-efficient, 25 MPG (that's 25% better than Cherokee)
Cherokee: 4.0L 177-195 HP (depending on year), solid front axle, and way bigger / heavier, 20 MPG

4" on a Cherokee is still a mild lift. 4" on a Kick is a Big lift, and just shy of extreme. In fact, I wold argue 4" on a 2-door as being an extreme lift & about the upper end of being stable enough for on-road characteristics. About the only thing the 2 vehicles share is 4WD, sheet metal & glass.

Yeah, i'm not going to make excuses, it was a pretty poor comparison.  However, 3" of lift with a G Cherokee will get you 31" tires and a some small rub, 3" of lift on a tracker will get you 30" without rub (i think??)  thats pretty much all i was getting at. In my eyes, 4" is 4" regardless of vehicle size.  You could argue that 4" of lift on a wrangler isn't that extreme at all, but is a fairly common lift, but 4" of lift on a Cherokee or G Cherokee is a pretty big lift, just because you don't see it that often.  I can understand what your saying about road handling, but i still stand pretty firm, i've driven wrangler and shortened Toyota pickups with 6" of lift and it wasn't to crazy, but i wouldn't go making it a daily.  Thanks for the info on the gearing though, no one offers any final drive gears??

I thought that there was a post on here about a review of the Zukination kit. I can't seem to find it but will keep searching. The ZN kit does lower the front diff and from some pictures I saw last year the rear flexes really well.

Derek

Awesome, thanks, i'm still out on there suspension lifts in the mean time, i just can see a lift over 2" working on stock A-arms.  Honestly, if Calimini's springs weren't so stiff i would have already made up my mind, but again, what do you do.

To get diff gear options, you really need to switch out the axles to D44, or yota axles. The gearing options out there have been dis-continued, and are rare / expensive (like - the cost of an axle swap) if you can find them. And, it's not going to do much - odds are you're going to end up with 5.125 diff gears stock anyway - so you still don't have much room to go.

This is the BIG reason Trackers & Sidekicks aren't gaining popularity- there's not an inexpesnive way to get gearing options. I learned this AFTER I bought my kick  :'( The best way to do it (with big tires) is to run a samurai t-case, because they have 1.4:1 reduction in hi-range, and the aftermarket gearing changes both high and low range. Pretty sweet - wish Samurai wasn't the only one that did this...

Awesome, thanks, i'm still out on there suspension lifts in the mean time, i just can see a lift over 2" working on stock A-arms.  Honestly, if Calimini's springs weren't so stiff i would have already made up my mind, but again, what do you do.
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get a softer spring, or run a front bumper/winch/rear bumper..... IMO ZN's stuff is SUPER over priced.... there are many other options that are much cheaper......

List:
lifting springs of your choice
or
Jeffs coil spacers
extended travel rear shocks
jeffs diff spacer
- strut spacers


10 TIMES less than ZN kit, and you get to pick your parts......

Not a chance that the ZN kit is 899.99 dollars worth of parts.....sorry to rant but these kit prices kill me......cant wait for rockrats 7" kit...... bet any amount of money it will be less than the ZN kit..... and it will eliminate many problems we have with lifting the IFS

7" of lift is extreme on anything really, and there is no reason for me to have that amount of lift.  On IFS lifts, there are a couple good options out there, but only available for a few makes and models.  Chaos Fab makes long travel IFS kits, and there are options to retain 4wd and get like 13" of travel.
http://www.chaosfab.com/95200.html
Whats is this "Jeff's" stuff?? but i don't want to go anything less than 3" nor do really want to buy a bumper i could make myself, that and i'm not sure how i feel about adding 100lbs to the front of a tiny vehicle, especially a daily driven one (mileage)  I dunno, if i could find a replacement spring for calmini's lift i'd do that route, or i could just make a bumber, but in all honestly, i don't have the time to fab up a bumper right now .

Chaos kits are for Toyota. Trackers are VERY limited by their gearing. The max the 1.6L likes to push is 29/30" tires (which require 0-1.5" of lift depending on brand of tire, and your wheel offset). The only gearing option is to use a 3-speed auto trans with the 5.125 diff gears (which will let you run up to 31" tire without bogging down too bad). 2 door is more tolerant of bigger tires than the 4 door.

From there, your options are expensive:
* Bigger engine that doesn't mind bigger tires
* Yota or Dana axle swap
* OTT III style doubler (samurai T-case has 1.4:1 reduction perfectly re-gearing you for 35/37" tires)

Our lift options far exceed out gearing options. It's a bummer - but that's the way it is.

Honestly, i didn't really think about it until that last post, but if i'm running 30" x whatever, then 3" is all i need.  Like i was complaining about early, i'm still not sure about the front springs.  However, i really don't know how bad they are, i might like them. I would love to put solid axles under it, but its i wouldn't want to drive it daily, otherwise i would have just looked for a samurai..  Lastly, a calmini x zukination kit would be a cool combo, but i wouldn't need to clear 31" anymore.

I know that chaos fab doesn't make anything for suzukis, and that link/kit specifically is for 2nd gen pickups, but i was just using it for reference to what a very good IFS kit is, and about the only form of a "really" good IFS lift.  Technically Chaos fab is still a fab shop, you could pay them to fab up a long travel kit for a tracker/sidekick. (You could do it)

I haven't been able to find the write up on the Zukination kit. It is pissing me off now because I can't remember where I read it

Derek