I'm really confused. After allot of work and allot of complications I installed the kit. I cant say it went easy but I got it in. I was assured the kit was good to go and 3" was no problemo with 25" tires. I still have to cut some more sheet metal and adjust the A-arms to correct the toe out problem. But now that I've read the threads I see others have ran into joint and other problems. I cant see waiting to see if it tears something up or not. Has anyone out there installed X-roads set up and tore things up? or on the other hand have a success story. I have a 93 carry. I noticed X-roads has refuted such claims of any problems. But I also read about those applications being mid engine models. Is there any difference? Help!!!! True or false who and what do I believe? Thanks Tim
believe your own findings and don't wait for catastrophic failure. with the lift installed put a jack under the center of the truck and lift the front end. with the suspension completely unloaded spin the tires on the truck by hand. if you feel any clicking or binding, it's going to have bigger problems down the road. it's the extreme angles on the CV joints that tear them up, and if you feel any binding in it with no resistance, imagine what it's doing at 40mph while the suspension is working up and down!
Does this mean they are not stating the truth and a recall is order or damages to the vehicle settled?
it just means they are selling a 3" lift kit that worked on the truck they built it for. these are production vehicles, not swiss time pieces. the manufaturer never had this in mind for them and did not design it for this type of wheel travel. if the manufacturer needed 20 degrees of angle for the drivetrain to have longevity, then they get one that will handle 30* that way they know they are safe. the advertised 30* will have an acceptable tollerance... +/- 2* since they never expect that type of travel it's an acceptable tollerance. but when it comes to running the most lift you can, if you get a truck that has the lesser tollerance at the end of the production run for the cv's that is only 28* you may see binding. or if the components are already showing signs of wear, it can cause problems as well. with that said, i'm sure they are selling what they consider to be a "quality product" and see no reason why you would have any problem with it.... since they didn't. go check it out, see what you find. if the cv's aren't binding, you should be ok, but i make no promises. this is why i have been so reluctant to put a lift on my truck. being a fabricator by trade, i'm reluctant to trust someone else's engineering on the truck i spent MY hard earned money on. especially in the current state of everything being "extreme" to be cool. i have run into a lot of problems with FABTECH lift kits on trucks. they get them up and looking cool, but i can't count how many chevy trucks i have seen with broken ball joints due to poorly designed lift kits. JMHO... sorry for the rant
No joke! Before I played with these trucks I played with suzuki samarais. Same deal until I came to PetroWorks in San Diego Ca. Gary the owner made the first lift that works as good or better than factory. So I guess hes the man to make it right or he will not release it. I did raise it and my wheels would hardly turn. Freaking Bummer!! Time And cash what a pisser>
if your wheels hardly turn it may be brake drag or something like that. put the truck on jack stands and make it STABLE. then put the jack under one of the front trailing arms. and begin to lift it. if it loosens up then you know you have a problem. if you load up the suspension and nothing changes the lift may be of good quality.
From what I have been reading, it sounds like a 2" lift works well for 23" tires. Any knowledge of that?
I have installed close to a dozen x-roads lifts with no trouble. The 3 inch is the maximum amount to safely lift. Will you have problems? Who knows? The conservative approach would be the 2 inch with 23's. On my personal I prefer the 3 with 25's (more ground clearance). The absolutely proper way is to space the differential and whatever else (steering shaft, pittman arms, etc)has to be spaced according to which make you have. I would not be afraid of the x-roads 3" lift. With as many lifts as they have sold, this forum would be full of threads about cv joint damage from their lifts. You can check my previous posts on this forum, but I have no affiliation with x-roads this is just my opinion. By the way, opinions are like a$$e$ everybody has one, but some are greater than others!
Mighty Milt, I enjoy reading your response's to questions posted to the various sections on this site, and, find you to be very intelligent on a variety of subjects. Enough said... Tmikewww (tom)
Thanks for all the insight guys. It looks like just about any mod has its pros & cons, But limiting my risk of severe not needed repairs ranks higher then looking cool. Function over form when I'm in the bush makes me a happy camper. Thanks again Tim
when you appreciate what someone adds to a thread you can add to thier "reputation" by clicking on the little scales in the dark blue part at the top of their reply on that post... that helps the next guy to know how much to trust what he's read... i've been trying to add to my own.. but it only works on other folks.. lol
Tim, I bought a x-roads lift for my 99 Daihatsu. Called them up and ordered a 3" lift, wheels, and tires. I installed the 3" lift knowing I was going higher and here is what I found. 1. The rear driveshaft angle was unaccepable. In other words the driveshaft moved into and out of the trasmission output twice as much as the rear axle moved up and down. Very Bad. 2. The front left CV axle interferred severely with the bottom of the strut with unsprung weight removed. 3. 25" tires did not fit as advertised. Not even close. Overall the quality of the cuts/welds were great, and included grade 8 bolts. With a few mods it helped me with achieving my goal of 6 inches of lift. -Greg
six inches SEEMS relatively high for such a small truck without extending the width of the wheel base... how does it handle? does it feel top heavy in turns and on ascending hills on an angle?
Believe it or not, top heavy it is not, considering the roof line is higher than my full size Chevy 4x4. I needed the height for the aproach angle (The bottom of the front bumper is 23" off the ground). There's been a few times where I felt like it was going to go over, usually when one front wheel goes into a gully and the opposite back wheel comes off the ground about 18 inches, I wheel it pretty hard though. It handles great on the straight line backroads @60mph+, but on the curves its a different story, its down right scary. It drifts really bad. The average TN back road curve requires speeds < 20mph or 30mph less than your average veihicle. I believe its due to the low air pressure I keep in the tires (15 psi). It feels like the front tires are folding under the rim. Other than that its an off-road beast. -Greg
You have to remember you are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The trucks were neither designed or built to be lifted 3". When you change the geometry and COG you are doing so at a price. That price is stress on the machine.
I just installed a 2-1/4 inch front lift on my 90 Climber from X-Roads. It came with no instructions at all, which was no problem for me but I can see how it could be for some. Good quality and good hardware. I installed my 23x8x12 Carlisle All Trails in ICP wheels and was hoping I wouldn't have to install ANY lift at all because I had heard both sides that I did and didn't need a lift with these tires/wheels. No such luck. The front wheels couldn't turn at all without hitting the doors. I then hoped to just be able to install a front lift and no rear but wow was I wrong on that. I didn't think 2-1/4 inches was that much since it was a little lower in the front then the back anyway. It looks WAY higher in the front now, so it looks like I'll need to lift the back too, but nobody can give me a decent answer on how to do this on a Daihatsu. The add-a-leaf kit will keep the pinion anhle the same but will put far to wicked of a driveline angle on it. Shackle extenders will keep the driveline angle acceptable but will really make the pinion angle extreme. Any Ideas? Also, what do I have to do to get the toe/camber on the front tires at least close to straight now that there's the lift on it. The control arm rods look like they can adjust a bit but will they adjust enough? Same with the tie rods? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Get some longer metric bolts and some shims/sleeves and install them on the rear tranny mount. 1-1 1/2 inch shims/sleeves should get you back to where you need to be.
if you can't make the shims / sleeves that greg is talking about, i know McMaster Carr (www.mcmaster.com) sells standoffs... not sure what diameter you need for the trans mounts but they have a good selection.
I actually bought everything to do it at Lowes. I think the sleeves were actually steel bushings but they worked well as spacers. -Greg
OK, shims/sleeves. Got it, that won't be a peoblem. But my real question is for the back which is the best way to go, add-a-leaf or shackle extenders. I've also heard the add-a-leafs make it ride alot rougher with no load in it, which makes sense.
i don't like how the shackles look, but function before fashion... my truck rides bad enough as it is, and i seldom carry enough weight to warrant any stiffer suspension, that would rattle my teeth loose
One thing I forgot about. If you lower the tranny mount it will also lower the front driveshaft in which you may have an issue with it hitting the crossmember. I have a C-Notch in mine so the front shaft will clear. The add-a-leafs do make the susp. tighter. On the other hand it looks alot better than really long shackles. -Greg
Stress, you want to talk about stress. Stress is when you take time and hard earned cash and end up with something that's not even close to advertised. That's why there is recalls. This means releasing a product that has not been tested inside and out. So the only thing I can say is buyer beware and stay clear of broad application products. If it was not tested on your particular truck don't assume the pioneers of the after market world have it all figured out. That I don't mind, what I do mind is them doing their research on our $$$$$
Unfortunately, the mini truck market is so small, the truck models are so different, and aftermarket products are so limited, there is a certain amount of consumer testing being applied. The problem is that most consumers do not want to pay for research and development.
This is a good example of why you use this forum for information prior to doing anything to your truck that one might have questions or concerns about. Hind-sight is 20/20 but I lurked around the forum for hours searching old posts prior to my purchase of my Carry and any modifications that I have done.
in the imortal words of my dad referring to EVERY vehicle i have owned for the last 20 years... (Papa Milt) "i don't know why you can't leave $hit alone! those engineers knew what they were doing... don't mess with it" (me) :shoulder shrug: "dude, it's gonna look awesome when i get done!" (Papa Milt) :shaking head: "whatever, dude!"
Has anybody looked into a body lift? It has been my experience that you should be able to get away with a 2 inch lift on most four wheel drive trucks, however when you go higher than 2 inches you have to do other modifications to the drive-line. A 2 inch lift shouldn't effect your alignment except for the camber. Add a body lift and you could get the desired three or more inches of lift?
I haven' used the X-roads kits yet. For no other reason than i love my current supplier and am indebted to him for the advice he has given me on my biz and trucks over the past year. But the 3" lifts i've istalled always leave me cussing, the 2"'s are fine. I reply'd to this to talk about the handling though. I have a '92 Suzuki dump with a rock box. It's all camo'd out and has a 3" lift and 25" ITP MudLite's on Stock Rims. Looks cool, has function for low speeds and going through muck potentially carrying a buck or some fire wood in the back dump. But when i put the hammer down the thing handles hillariously. It really reminds me of walking up a flight of stairs with stack of 20 fluffy towels. It shimmys and shakes and bounces around. I blame this mainly on the stiffer back end and also because the stock rims were a cheap solution but it perks the tires up to much.... tooo much side wall even if it has 6 ply tires Has anyone been able to get a hold of "icon" the site sponsor. I've checked the site, sent and email, and left a voice mail. And scoured this site, but found out no info ________ vape
Papa Milt sounds like my daddy did, his favorite expression was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" I guess lifting these little trucks has caused more heartburn than any other topic on the forum. They can be lifted within reason and there will be issues to deal with once it is done, plain and simple.
