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Small lift

Discussion in 'Suzuki Carry' started by boatman, Oct 29, 2008.

  1. boatman

    boatman Member

    Hi - ok, forgive me up front if this is a dumb question. I am a mechanical engineer, and I do design and manufacture a lot of stuff in industry, but I am not a very experienced motorhead (yet); so the cans and can-nots of the auto world are still new to me. If we were talking marine diesels and yacht systems, then I'd stand up tall and speak out, but this ain't the right forum for that...

    Regarding a small lift on a '92 suzuki carry. Front end. I don't want too much of a lift - just a little more road clearance for snow on the dirt roads and the odd muddy trail I find myself on. I'll likely move to 13" rims from the stock 12's, and I realize this won't in itself require a lift, but a little would be helpful.

    So all the lift kits I'm seeing on the market appear to be basically spacers on the front, and longer shackles or an add-a leaf on the back. no disrespect intended to those on the site who have developed and market them, but I'm thinking that there isn't a lot of magic here. So, if I wanted to get, say a 1" or maybe 1.5" lift, what's to stop me from dropping a strut, making a pattern from the head of it, and having a pair of solid steel (or aluminum for that matter) spacers with tapped bores made up, and bolting them in with new bolts? Ok I know nothing really is stopping me, but is there something patently wrong with my simplistic plan here? Camber adjustment, I hear the cry. for a 1.5" max lift - is that really an issue?

    Again - I'm not trying to dump on anyone, just trying to get my alleged brain around the intricacies of the task. To be frank, I can have two nice steel or Al blocks milled up for next to nothing as favors from machinists I deal with daily, and that's a lot more appealing than fighting with UPS, Canadian Customs and various other agencies involved in getting a kit shipped from the U.S.

    Looking forward to the comments - thanks a bunch for all the useful stuff in here already. FYI - I'm also having a nice aluminum custom toolbox made for the back, and a tonneau cover so I can hide stuff from greedy eyes when making breif stops around town. I'll post pics when done. I'm also toying with skid plates... but they aren't simple...
     
  2. Timetripper

    Timetripper Moderator

    I would say you have the perfect plan.
    I would measure the camber as it sits right now with something simple like magnetic degree finder.
    Fab up your spacers to suit, install then see how much difference there is. My guess in the overall scheme of things probably not enough to worry about.
    If your rear springs sit on top of your axle then you could probably make a sweet aluminum spacer for between the springs and axle - need to find longer U bolts though.
    I know on the full size truck lifts this is done in the rear - on the bigger lifts they machine the spacer as a wedge to keep the driveline angles correct.
     
  3. boatman

    boatman Member

    good plan on measuring Camber- I'll do that when I start the job. Now if I could get rid of all the *&*^*^#^# work that is piling up around me and get some time to work on this truck already, things would be sweet.

    thanks-
    bg
     

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