the advantages of longer springs without the use of spacers seems to spark heated debates on this forum for some reason.  for the sake of simplicity i think the spacer route is fine, it's not like we want the extra travel upwards so what advantage does a longer spring in this case make.. 

hey guys, i'm looking for a 2" front coil spacer.. i figure the 2" front spacer with the softer OE coils will be a safer bet with the 'short' Calmini struts..

can someone recommend a set of 2" spacers for me.. i prefer to purchase from somewhere in the US..

thanks

I think you can just cut your coils down and be ok. This is what I am trying right now. I removed one Calmini spring and my dad took the Calmini spring and the factory spring to a custom spring shop and the guy there analyzed them with his CNC spring machine. Turns out that the Calmini spring is barely any stiffer than the OE spring, this would probably be because the OE spring is 9/16" diameter steel and the Calmini spring is 5/8", and the Calmini coils are wound slightly closer together.

What this means is that the Calmini spring is simply too long for our 2.0L applications, not too stiff. I think Calmini designed the spring to be long enough to absorb the weight of the 2.5 V6, plus skid plates, plus a big heavy winch bumper, and still have decent amounts of travel. However, without all this extra weight, our little 2-liter beaters simply don't have what it takes to compress the springs enough to overcome the built-in preload of the springs. The only thing holding the springs in the vehicle is the maxed-out struts, really. So my conclusion is to cut the springs down by 1 coil. I tried half a coil on the driver's side and it didn't make a huge difference, but I think a full coil should be just right. I also tried putting the factory spring in just to see where it sat in the strut's travel range.

The difference between the factory spring and the calmini spring is huge though. Even just cutting half a coil off the Calmini spring makes it A LOT easier to install the spring. An untouched Calmini spring definitely requires spring compressors to install, whereas with half a coil cut off I used a prybar to keep it in the lower bucket while my dad jacked the A-arm up. With the stock spring I didn't hardly need to use the prybar cause it slipped in so easily.

3stagevtec, I'm sure Jeff will sell you some custom spacers.

All right, another update. I cut 1 coil off my Calmini front springs and my suspension travel is looking pretty good. The downside: the truck sits a little raked. With stock size tires (215/65/16) the back is 11 5/8 inches off the ground at the framerail underneath the rear doors, and the front is 10 1/4 inches at the framerail just behind the body mount behind the front wheelwell. So it's sitting an 1.5" lower in the front. I don't have insurance on the Vitara right now so I couldn't do much driving around but I hit the gutter at the bottom of my driveway a few times and it feels pretty good. My front suspension actually works now, and when I slam on the brakes it actually dives like a normal vehicle would. I think once I put my spare tire back on, and put my toolbox in the back of the truck it should level out a bit too. I also busted out the articulation ramps (just 2  12" high ramps that I set up on diagonally opposed wheels) to see if I have any down travel this time around, and low and behold, yes I do!

My conclusion would be to try cut 3/4 of a coil off if you don't want the slightly raked look. I have to see what it looks like and if the tires still fit with my 31's on it and then decide if I will add a small spacer to level it out or just leave it as is. If you need pics let me know.

Olija, if you slip a small spacer in won't that defeat the purpose of removing a piece of the coil spring up front?

All right, another update. I cut 1 coil off my Calmini front springs and my suspension travel is looking pretty good. The downside: the truck sits a little raked. With stock size tires (215/65/16) the back is 11 5/8 inches off the ground at the framerail underneath the rear doors, and the front is 10 1/4 inches at the framerail just behind the body mount behind the front wheelwell. So it's sitting an 1.5" lower in the front. I don't have insurance on the Vitara right now so I couldn't do much driving around but I hit the gutter at the bottom of my driveway a few times and it feels pretty good. My front suspension actually works now, and when I slam on the brakes it actually dives like a normal vehicle would. I think once I put my spare tire back on, and put my toolbox in the back of the truck it should level out a bit too. I also busted out the articulation ramps (just 2  12" high ramps that I set up on diagonally opposed wheels) to see if I have any down travel this time around, and low and behold, yes I do!

My conclusion would be to try cut 3/4 of a coil off if you don't want the slightly raked look. I have to see what it looks like and if the tires still fit with my 31's on it and then decide if I will add a small spacer to level it out or just leave it as is. If you need pics let me know.

thank you for this review! i was pretty scared to cut the coils, but it was on my mind..

the reason i was looking into the 2" coil spacers was because i didn't want to damage the calmini coils, if incase i wanted to add a heavy steel bumper / winch in the future..

post some pics of your vehicle to show how it sits.. and the rear springs are pretty soft, so drop in a lil music subwoofer box and you should level out nicely 

So my conclusion is to cut the springs down by 1 coil. I tried half a coil on the driver's side and it didn't make a huge difference, but I think a full coil should be just right. I also tried putting the factory spring in just to see where it sat in the strut's travel range.

did you cut 1/2 a coil on BOTH sides or just one when you tested here?? if you only cut one side, the sway bar & uncut spring on the other side will actually lift the cut side.. thus hiding the true results..

i have a few questions,
- what is the new suspension down travel? i remember we both measured 1/2" with the full length coils..
- when you sort out your insurance, give another driving review on the cut springs..

i'm very interested to try this myself as it will save me some $$ in purchasing coil spacers and i will get to continue using the calmini springs / shocks..

thanks again for this review! very helpful..

Ok first off, pics as promised:
(I have my 31's on my Sidekick, going wheelin this weekend! If you need, I can post pics with the mudders on when I switch it over. I have a few other things to figure out still though.)





As you can see my front suspension actually has DOWN and UP travel now.  If you look at the frontal shot the angle of the A-arms makes this quite apparent. One CV was parallel with the axlehousing and the other one was angled down quite nicely.

Olija, if you slip a small spacer in won't that defeat the purpose of removing a piece of the coil spring up front?

Depends how big the spacer is...I have determined 1 coil to be 1.5" of lift. So if I put in a spacer that gives less than 1.5" lift, it wouldn't defeat the purpose.

did you cut 1/2 a coil on BOTH sides or just one when you tested here?? if you only cut one side, the sway bar & uncut spring on the other side will actually lift the cut side.. thus hiding the true results..

First off I don't have the sway bar installed. Much easier and nicer that way. Second, I first tried just half a coil off the driver's side, tried it out and decided a full coul would be the way to go. So I took both sides out that night and took them to work and used a zip cutter to cut the remaining half a coil off the driver's side, and a full coil off the passenger side since I hadn't touched that one yet.  You can try cutting half a coil on both sides...just remember, you can always cut more, you can never get it back.

- what is the new suspension down travel? i remember we both measured 1/2" with the full length coils..

I'm getting sleepy but I recall it being about 2". So, quite an improvement over the full length spring!

your truck looks really good with that 2" body lift! did you ever post a review / install log for it?

2" down travel sounds great! i think i will try cutting two thirds of a coil 1st, measure and evaluate the new down travel / ride quality, then adjust again if necessary..

Um, I don't think I've ever made an official review on the body lift but I have positively commented on some people's threads. It's without a doubt the best, most complete body lift you can get for these trucks. Costs a bit more than the simple ones, but you DO get what you pay for!

And hey, just in case you don't know this...I'm assuming you do since it isn't rocket science: make sure you cut the BOTTOM of the spring, not the top!

lol, that's for the tip.. and the review on the lift kit, i'll look into it for sure..

this thread was VERY helpful 

Just to add to the helpful-ness of this thread...I discovered the outer tie rod ends Calmini uses are just some generic off-the-shelf units you can pick up at your local auto parts store. So I upgraded them to some nice Moog ones with grease nipples since I was being a dumbass the other night and stripped the thread on one of them. So it might be worth thinking about doing if you feel the need...your truck's gonna be in pieces anyways. I should have my junk back on the road next week hopefully, then I will give my 2 cents on how it drives with the chopped springs. Cheers!

haha, ok, i don't wanna get in trouble for vendor bashing here but what good is the calmini lift, the tie rods are nothing special, it's obvious that the control arms don't do anything for the track width, otherwise all the other parts would need to be longer to match..  struts are crap, front springs are very questionable, diff drop & panhard brackets are nice and can be purchased elsewhere....  sorry, i am not trying to put down your lift as i know with the bugs ironed out it will work but that is crap in my books. 

Is that Calvin peeing on your truck?

it's obvious that the control arms don't do anything for the track width, otherwise all the other parts would need to be longer to match.. 

Well, don't forget that the diff actually gets dropped a bit, too, which mimicks longer axle shafts for the same lift compared to stock a-arms.