Outer Limits 4x4 Board

is square tubing illegal for a body lift?

I have heard from bigballs that engineers are frowning on RHS. Apparently if ya roll the vehicle it has no strength from lateral forces.

HRZOOK

I dunno NT road rules but yeah the engineers normally prefer something solid.

Having said that, if the engineer is worried cos the body lift *might* squash in the event of a rollover I reckon you've got bigger things to worry about already than squashed body lift....

Suzuki Viagra wrote:I dunno NT road rules but yeah the engineers normally prefer something solid.

Having said that, if the engineer is worried cos the body lift *might* squash in the event of a rollover I reckon you've got bigger things to worry about already than squashed body lift....

I don't think it is a case of them squashing it is the RHS beig pulled sideways so you end up with a diamong shape

HRZOOK

theres 8 body mounts for a vitara.

the square tubing is going to be about 100-150mm long. and i think about 50mm by 75mm. or it could be 75mm square.

so if i position the front and rear mounts (square tube) left to right ways (openings at sides), and the middle four front to back ways (openings at the front and back), would this make a difference?

i can't really describe it.

also, if i cap one end of the square tube off and weld it (some sort of reinforcement), seeing as i need the other side open to get to the stud/ bolts, will this also make a difference?

i'm a poor little bugger with no enough $$$, and seeing as the studs on a vitara body aren't long enough for some serious lifting, this might be the only budget way of doing a body lift.

some suspension place up here wants $500 for a two inch body lift, and they've never done one before (on a vitara). so what makes their work better than mine? as with mine, i can only blame myself.

i also believe that a calmini 3" body lift also uses square tubing! pretty average. (info from safarkick)

so what do you guys think?

thanks

Just fitted 3 inch body lift blocks to my Vitara, sourced from highnmighty here on OL. Cutting the floor to replace the six centre and rear bolts with longer and slightly thicker HT bolts was no real dramas and using two longer bolts with the same diameter for the front made the job straight forward.

Bolts, double washers and nyloc nuts cost $29 from pretty much anywhere

You can buy body lift block material as a complete rod and cut it up yourself to whatever length you need. It works out fairly cheap.

If you want them, I have my old body blocks here somewhere. 55mm across and 50mm tall. they aren't cut exactly flush and the centre holes may be a little off centre on a few but if you want them you can have them for free. Postage will be up to you though

JUST CUT

I have built about 3or 4 2" vitara body lifts using solid alloy and machined "socket bolts" They cost about $130-150 in parts, and access to a small lathe. ( and about 4 hours to make it and a day to fit) I only make them for members of the vic Zuk club, as I am not making any money out of them and have limited time. I would not feel all that comfy about a 3" one - the body studs will be sitting totally clear of the chassis .

We have a car in the club with 33's and no body lift - if you are willing to cut, you don't need a lift.

If you can't do it without RHS, I reckon you don't want a body lift. RHS is not designed for significant strength in compression and they fit and work sooo much nicer using 75mm round stock.

What Steve said. His is a beautiful piece of work and I'm lucky enough to have one of his lifts but you may like to check out RockyRoad http://www.rocky-road.com/kicksus.html as their 2" lift seems to be favoured in the US or Calmini for a 3" although it involves more mucking around. Alternatively have a look at this http://www.whitepineclub.com/offroad/te ... /index.htm

Here's what I designed for mine after looking at the crap RHS ones people were marketing. I could probably draw up a 25 and 50mm version when I get time if anyones interested

Shane