Ready to make the jump from stock to mods...

[SlimGrim]

I've officially got the bug. After using my sammy as a near stock daily driver now for the past 4 months I have finally come round to the idea of modding my little truck, nothing too drastic however but I can't stop looking at all these awesome modded sj's that have been nicely stripped,sprayed lifted and are 'well endowed' and I just feel like I'm missing out!

The idea sprung from wanting a winch bumper for the front as I have a small 2tonne winch that needs to be put to use and I love the slightly more meaty look it gives them, then the issue of size dawned on me, all this large tackle would make me look like a twat when the car is only 6" off the ground with small wheels , so I'd also need a lift and big boy shoes to match (what's a Shame)

If possible I'd ideally like to focus on recreating the truck in this photo (below) as I'm currently in my last year of college insurance & funding are slightly more of a task but I think a slow and steady build thread is in short order

Everything about the truck below just looks awesome in my eyes, the only thing I may avoid is quite such a high lift as I don't want a roller & im not a massive fan of the checker plate steel round the bottom of the door and rear tub,apart drop that I'm all in!

Any/all suggestions and help is very welcome

[SlimGrim]

Here's my current truck/ the starting point

[andyrew]

Best part to start with modding any zook?

Rust. If youve got any , sort it now and put the money
Towards that first. Once youve got a solid good base
Then the rest is fairly easy but some bits will cost a few
Quid.

[SlimGrim]

Her underbelly is very solid luckily & the few surface rust spots in the usual places such as arches and bonnet hinges & door sills have all been dealt with over the last couple of weekends , that's why I'm now pushing to start doing the fun stuff just on the lookout for a hard top at the moment

[Tramp]

It all depends on what you want, things to consider are
- what road manners are you wanting/prepared to accept?
-how much money do you want to spend?
- how much work you want to put in yourself?
- how tall do you want to go?
-what size tyres you want to fit?

For me, I'm not a big off-roader, I wanted a small lift that would let my Suzuki look bigger, let me fit conservatively sized bigger tyres, be a bolt on solution (so I could return it to standard if I wished) and not adversely handle the ride.

In the end, I ended up buying a calmini 3.5" bolt on kit, it's a great kit, but wasn't cheap, I paired it to some 235/75r15 tyres which are small as 'big' tyres go.



Other common lift options are

-shackle lift, really common but ruins castor angle on your front axle and gives you 'fangs' that can get stuck
-virtual lift, body work is cut away to allow wheels to fit in wheel wells (not a lift but allows bigger tyres to be fitted)
-spoa, SPring Over Axle axles are removed and new perches are welded on to give around 6" lift, this is a big lift for cheap but can damage springs if you don't fit an anti-tramp bar
-uprated/lift springs, basically leaf springs with a deeper curve, can bought in sizes +1.5" +3" but can Give a harsh ride

Other things to consider regarding lifts are
-D shackles, missing links or 'revolver' shackles, all types of shackle that can open up to allow more articulation, but can compromise road holding
-Shackle reversal, sometimes used on the front axle to move the location of the shackles in board,
-coil conversions, not really suitable on a road car unless you want to take it through an IVA test,

Bear in mind if you are lifting it to put bigger tyres on you will probably have to alter the gear ratio to accommodate the bigger rubber

[SlimGrim]

Wow lots of great info cheers, I think I'm looking for a lift very similar to what you've done really just something to step it up a bit in size as with the wheels, did you have to alter your gear ratio for your tyres?

[dan_2k_uk]

Whatever you decide to do its always worth making sure you understand the pros and cons of your chosen option.

In my opinion when only fitting moderately sized tyres to a good solid truck that's used on the road the best option by far is a good quality spring lift.

Then in the future when it comes to the time for bigger tyres you can just trim the arches.

[Tramp]

Wow lots of great info cheers, I think I'm looking for a lift very similar to what you've done really just something to step it up a bit in size as with the wheels, did you have to alter your gear ratio for your tyres?

Well that's a bit of a story in itself. I bought some 31" tyres (the 235/75r15's fitted are ~29") and wanted to fit them, but they were way to big for my standard truck, so I bought the lift kit to accommodate the 31's, really the 31's were still to big for my lift kit but I was happy to live with it at the time, driving around the 31's really knocked my gear ratios so I couldn't ever get into fifth gear. I bought a low ratio transfer box to correct it, but driving round on tyres that were still to big and were rubbing the insides of the wheel wells, I decided to reduce the tyre size for a better compromise, so I went to the 235/75r15 but left the low ratio box in, now it's a bit under geared and could really do with changing back to a standard t box,

Whatever you decide to do its always worth making sure you understand the pros and cons of your chosen option.

In my opinion when only fitting moderately sized tyres to a good solid truck that's used on the road the best option by far is a good quality spring lift.

Then in the future when it comes to the time for bigger tyres you can just trim the arches.

I agree with Dan, most people start out with shackle lifts but they really are a poor mans lift kit and everyone knows they have there limitations, in my opinion a good +1.5" or +2" set of lift springs is a sound investment, it isn't enough lift to damage the geometry of anything and should be enough to give some more arch space, in the future if you want to do more serious off-roading you can combine them with d shackles or with a shackle reversal kit, or if you wanted a really tall truck you could combine them with SPOA all though you may have trouble with it tipping over sideways!

I got my kit from LASupertrux but apparently they don't trade in components anymore, so if I was buying new leaf springs, I'd be looking here http://www.llama4x4.com/page6.htm
Dave at llama4x4 is great to deal with and I've bought a number of things off him, including brake lines, and u bolts,

[ScottieJ]

Tramp if you are running a 4.16 this then in high with the 235/75s it actually almost perfectly corrects your gearing, think we all forget that Suzukis are designed to be screaming their tits off at high speeds

if t was me....for a budget and the best performance...actually I would do this even if I wasn't on a budget, it will give you the best on/off road performance and comfort.

2" rear lift springs, possibly with a leaf removed to help soften them up.

rear springs up front conversion.

Longer shocks to suit

Rocklobster/4.16:1 tbox (or just a 410 tbox for now to correct hi ratio and slightly lower low)

With the a ove set up you should be able to run up to 31x10.50 MT tyres but you will have to cut off the ends of the front bumper mounts.

Power steering using Jimmy box (one of the best things to do to an Sj)

.....on a side note with minor trimmng you can actually fit 235s on a standard height SJ, tramps issue is the way the shackle reverse works, with the shackle at the back when the suspension compresses the tyre moves closer to the bulkhead, with the shackle up front it moves away from the bulkhead under compression. I would personally avoid any "bolt on" shackle reverse set up because of these characteristics, you can fit a larger tyre with less lift with the shackles up front as they are originally.

Here's one of mine, standard on 235s, it only has minor trimming to the front bumper and slight tweaks to the mounts, under full compression the tyres clear everything from lock to lock.

[twiss]

I agree with scottie on this one, for budget lift a set of lifted rears and Rears up front is pretty much the best way you can go
Avoid longer shackles and spring over like the plague!
2" lift is about the best lift for a samurai as you get a decent improvement in approach, departure and breakover angles without ruining the handling. You go much higher and you start having to mess about with the steering.
As for shocks, look around for the shocks from a Vauxhall Astra, Mk2 I believe. They are fitted to the Daewoo Racer over here in Malta and you can get them for about £10 each. Look almost identical to the originals, and are a direct fit on the front. You just have to drill the bush out and put a normal Samurai one in. For the rears you need to make an adapter bar to suit, but its pretty much just a 1.5-2.0" L section of steel with some holes drilled in it.
While you are at it, I would consider getting a set of poly bushes. In all likelihood the standard bushes will be old and past their best. Good to replace them while all the springs are coming off, and poly will last a lot longer than the standard rubber ones.
Another point, when you re-tighten everything just make sure not to over tighten stuff. Quite a common mistake and it will reduce the flex of the suspension.
Just me personally, but I would look around for an aftermarket bullbar or even the standard one like on Luke's zook. Gives it a bit more of an off roady look and can give a bit of protection for the headlights. Admittedly it can also damage the wings if it gets knocked back into them, but after I got a branch poked through my headlight I would always run light guards now