i am working on some long travel struts for my kick and looking to see if there is any interest from the zukiworld challenge guys, or any one else. they are based on 2 in rebuildable resi shocks and mine will have 12 in stroke, but different lengths could be done as well. i would love to work with someone who has a racer already and do some hard core testing. i am in portland oregon so if there is anyone...

Who isn't interested in longer travel struts, and you have a couple of teams right in your backyard.  We are up in Washington (North of Seattle), and don;t mind experimenting.

this has been attempted many times. I really hope you can make something cost effective, what are your plans for overcoming the limited travel due to the coil springs and very limited CV travel?

I will be watching your progress.

i am using t100 cvs in my ride, they can handle 12 in of travel. also a longer a arm/ taller coil. these will be desert race quality.

sounds promising, especially if the price is reasonable enough to fill the niche between the "blue lift" crap and a trailslayer.a complete package or piece work would be nice also beings there is no good option for aftermarket control arms.(calmini wont sell them alone and zukination's are higher than giraffe balls).
I am assuming the control arm will move the front tire (wheel base) foreward too?

good luck and post pics.

ya a arms will push frond end forward 1.5 in. when i am up and running i will sell everything seporately or in a package. calmini sucks so i aim to destroy them. lol.

So, are you developing upper A-arms to eliminate the struts?  How much are you going to push the wheel out?  Have you done any fitting yet?

.(calmini wont sell them alone and zukination's are higher than giraffe balls).
 

That is the main reason I went with the complete lift pkg from Altered Ego/Zukination because of the absurd price of the a-arms by themselves.

I have another Sidekick frame i want to get ready and another alternative would be awesome.

no upper a arm, keeping to the original design of the end. on mine the track width will be around 5 in wider because of the toyota t 100 axles. i want it to be very tough for the rocks and i am considering building my kick zukiworld challenge legal so i can race it as well. when i get mine done and start on kits i will offer different setups, stock width for stock axles, widened like mine and have both versions available for standard trackicks as well as sports.

Hello,
I am interested in your long travel shocks. I'm new to Suzukis (6 mos).  My wife and I just came to the agreement I need to build something that  is right for us. I've bought / traded / sold 3 sidekicks trying to find the right one.  If I can put it to words, I want a baja spirited wheeler. I've been pondering how a person could run indepedant suspension front and back. Your T100 axles and shocks might be the ticket.  I am in Portland .

awesome! i am in gresham. i will be ordering the last pieces i need soon. is your trackick a 2 or 4 door, sport or regular? i will need a non sport to prototype parts off of. interested?

Great topic, glad someone is stepping up to add to the vendor listing
for our trucks.  I have wanted to do this for quite some time now, let
me help your R and D process and some of the issues you are going to
come up against. When you move the front A-arm forward, the strut is
going to be angled the wrong way, slightly, but enough to cause a goofy
steering response, mine does this now from just doing the Hagen Widening
mod.

The real solution is an upper A-arm in addition to the lower A-arm, and eliminate
the strut in favor of a good shock, and incorporate a set of 930 CVs instead of the
T-100 and a sliding plunging CV shaft. I was working with a company to develop
the high angle CV shafts, but have done little to further the work, a set would be
close to $1000 which I think is cost prohibitive in our demographic group.

I'm open to suggestions and criticisms

Wild 

The funky strut angle can be corrected just like the AE4.5" lift that I installed that uses angled strut spacers. It drives and handles far better than stock!

$1000 axles are far too expensive for the trackick crowd. i got my axles for under $100 ea new. waaaay bigger and stronger than stock. the toyota 4x4 prerunners use them with the total chaos kits and pull 12 in travel.

what kind of funky steering are you having? pushing the bottom of the strut forward gives more caster and that helps straight line stability. i am thinking that if you have a strut spacer and stock struts most likely the problem is the increased inclination of the strut and the KPI. on my kick i will have struts that are much longer than stock and no spacer, in fact the  strut will mount higher, almost touching the hood so the KPI will stay very near stock and with the long strut the castor will be very nice.

i want to keep the struts to keep costs down and have fewer parts to fail off road. i have drawn up an upper a arm and nailed down the geometry but i just want to keep it simple, and prove that suzukis design can ikick ass with some help.

for the doubters these struts will have a 2 in shaft, not bending these babies.

OK, I'm definetly ready for an alternitive.