Lifting a grand vitara

[GV]

I've done a search, and got a lot of hits but mostly about either the standard vitara, or lifting every other 4WD built by man.

I'd appreciate some guidance as to what is available to lift a grand viatar, 5 door V6. I have come across the calmini site which talks about 2.5 inch strut lift and 2" body lift, but don't know if this is available in Aus.

Love the grand vitara's V6 power, and while the size is a bit short in the boot i can live with it.

Rig is stock at the moment, but would like to lift it as I find it belly's out on sand too easy, and the front suspension dont like ruts too much. Like to lift it to fit larger tyres, but dunno what the biggest size is before I get into ratio problems.

Any help would be appreciated. I imagine this question may have come up before, but I can't find it using the search function.

GV

[muppet_man67]

with the v6 I think you will run out of space in your gaurds and stregnth in your drivetrain before running into power problems from large tyres. As for lift ring around suspension prducers someone will be making lifts for them.

[antt]

there is a member on here with a gv running the calmini lift kit. his username is GV_qld if i remember correctly. i'm sure he'll chime in with info

[GV]

Thanks to those people who have PM'd me info.

Okay, I now know that Calmini 2.5" for the Grand is definately available in Australia

How high do I need to lift the Grand to fit 245/75R16 tyres on? Will the Calmini kit be high enough on it's own or do I need to also have a body lift (1" or 2") ?

Any guard trimming required?

Planning to change front and rear diff centres to ARB lockers which I expect to be stronger than the standard open diffs.

GV

[fightara]

I'd definitely go for the Calmini kit - it's worth the money just for the control arms (which you can't buy separately). Apparently if you change the shocks to OMEs the ride improves substantially. Plus it's just so blue and blinging. I've got tough dog springs with a 3" lift in my SWB, with OMEs at the front and Ranchos at the rear. In hindsight, I'd go OMEs in the rear too. If you push it hard into a corner now it'll lift the inside front wheel because the setup's so soft.

I've got 235/75R15s on my SWB GV and I reckon you would need a bodylift to fit the 245/75R16s, 'cos no one wants to chop up such a nice car Even with the 235s I rubbed on the front bumper, but I just replaced that with a tube bar. If you wanted to keep the front bumper you'd probably have to trim it a little.

When I looked at doing a bodylift the only major drama I could see was the steering linkages. Liam from Big Balls Offroad has done a 3" bodylift to his GV, so would know more than me.

Another piece of info for you - the only 15" rims that will clear the calipers are F100 offsets. However because the standard GV rims are so negatively (or is it positively?) offset stock, the big F100 offset will stick out like dog's balls - Just in case you want to consider 15" tyres, as there's a bigger range, and secondhand 31s are cheap as chips.

Finally, IMHO the biggest limiting factor of the GV is the front diff. If yours has an alloy casing, expect it to bust. Don't bother fixing it the first time, just bite the bullet and replace it with a steel diff - that's what I should've done from the start. Then again, yours may already have the steel diff, I don't know which models have it and which don't.

The GVs are a HEAPS underrated performer, especially with the V6. I had an absolute blast with mine, and I sometimes feel like my Rangie does things harder than the Vit would've in the same circumstances.

[GV_Qld]

2003 Grand Vitara V6 Manual
Calmini 2.5inch Lift Kit, OME Front Strut, Rancho 9117 Rear Shock.
245/75R16(31inches) Goodyear MT/R Tires
Front and Rear ARB Air Lockers! 5.125 R/P, Manual Front Hubs.



The 245/75r16 will fit without a BL but you'll need to remove most of the plastic bits plus get the BFH out to touch up the inner lip in the rear wheel well.

Now for the bad news....really think about what you want to use the car for. I've been playing hard with mine for over a year and after snapping 3 rear axles in as many trips have retied it to the tow car for my SWB vit. Until I can get spare parts for it a little easier.

[antt]

Now for the bad news....really think about what you want to use the car for. I've been playing hard with mine for over a year and after snapping 3 rear axles in as many trips have retied it to the tow car for my SWB vit. Until I can get spare parts for it a little easier.

too true, the vit gear can and will bust if you eventually try harder stuff. its hard enough to find cheap spares for my earlier (93) model, let alone a new gv

[Gwagensteve]

I would agree. If you need a 245 for the driving you are doing, it might pay to do some thinking about how much you will be damaging/depreciating quite a usable road car to prove a point. 4 door vitaras are now cheap enough to be a much more feasible car to build than a GV, lighter and less vulnerable, and with mostly the same components.

The GV's we have (and have had) in the club here in melbourne have been good cars in stockish form up to medium standard trips, but they have seen their fair share of parts breakages. They are pretty much lightly strengthened vitaras, but are now pretty close to the GVM of an old vitara when "dry", and that weight seems to be their biggest downfall.

I have played around with fitting/modifying a could of calmini kits and they are a mixed blessing IMHO. Whilst the arms are excellent, it seems that clamini don't own any metric drills and consider the imperial equivalent of 10mm to be 1/2". This has led to problems where bolt tension now has to be used to locate a part where previously the bolt acted as a dowel and located the part accurately.

The clamini struts are junk and need to be replaced with OME struts ASAP. Calmini also bottom their springs out in lieu of supplying a bumpstop spacer. This is why they quote that there suspension "settles" after 1000 miles. Anyone who knows anything about springs will tell you that this is very bad practise. IMHO there is plenty of "refinement" to be done to get a calmini kit working properly.

Having said all that, CJ's estate wagon is calmini equipped with OME struts (used in conjunction with the calmini spacers) and drives very nicely and the front end wheeltravel is very impressive.

I;m just not sure I would go dowm the path with a GV.

[sierrajim]

Upgrade to a sierra for offroad and use the GV for a Daily Driver

[GV]

Thanks for the responses.

Seems the Grand Vitara is softer than what I thought.

Mmmm, I see that I'm going to have to rethink the whole thing through. Maybe it'll be best if I sell the stock Grand Vitara for a reasonable price (before the next model change comes in) and go for a different 4x4 altogether.

I don't need live axles both ends as it'll be used for mainly touring and forest track work, as well as the daily runabout. I like the compact size (of the Grand Vitara) and so I don't want to go much bigger. Was wanting the 245/75R16 and associated lift mainly for ground clearance when driving over rutted tracks. Definately want to have at least one axle with a locker for traction on the more difficult tracks (but prefer dual lockers for the added control it gives).

Friend of mine in Sydney just e-mailed me this 4x4 idea which might better suit my needs ...

http://www.suburban4wd.com/gallery/Sub%20KJ%20Front.jpg

It's a bit more expensive when compared to Suzuki options but it might suit - anyone got a better idea?

GV

[GV_Qld]

I don't need live axles both ends as it'll be used for mainly touring and forest track work, as well as the daily runabout. I like the compact size (of the Grand Vitara) and so I don't want to go much bigger. Was wanting the 245/75R16 and associated lift mainly for ground clearance when driving over rutted tracks. Definately want to have at least one axle with a locker for traction on the more difficult tracks (but prefer dual lockers for the added control it gives).

If this is what you'll stick to doing you'll be fine.

[TWISTER]

Check out the new 4WD Monthly, with the Victorian High Country Nissan Patrol on the cover, should be out soon. There is a GV wagon in there running 255/85/16 BFG's.

I had a SWB GV and was running 235/70/16 BFG MUddies, with ToughDog 2.5" longer springs and OME Shocks all round, took off the swaybar. Was great truck for the type of off roading I was doing then.

Goodluck!

[jono83]

I just saw the GV in 4wd monthly. It looks awsome. Apparently 4play off road did a bit of the work. I wish they had a website with more info on it.

[Beastmavster]

There is parts available from the US for you to get a GV up to strength - but getting them is a slow process. There are some other options too - like getting custom made here - at least as slow and probably more expensive.

Not good when you've got a broken car.

It all comes down to intent - you'll find GV_QLD busted his stuff up at first doing stuff that was considered pretty hardcore. In those circumstances you'd say "well fair enough".

The BIG problem for his rig seems that the breakages were becoming more and more common and the breakages on easier and easier obstacles.

It's as if something now has been weakened, damaged or misaligned in such a way that new parts are flogging out really quickly. Diagnosis of why these breakages were getting more frequent was so hard he's bought another play toy.

I'm sure when he can justify the SAS he'll be throwing it at the GV though


GV's basically use the same or slightly modified versions of standard Vitara parts for most of the driveline, with a lot more weight to push and a lot more power..... so you can do most of the same things but the required breaking strain always seems a little less than a standard vitara.

[safarikick]

http://www.mrleft.net/gv.html

[Beastmavster]

Nice Pic there mr left

[Gwagensteve]

If you stick to relatively mild terrain GV, you will be fine. However, a calmini kit and 245's are a lot of work to fit and get functional for mild driving. don't be tempted to overbuild your car. There is nothing inherently wrong with a GV in close to stock form, the problems mostly arise when owners, knowingly or not, push their cars well beyond their stock limits.

for some of us, this is the point of teh whole exercise, but if you are looking for reliability, don't overbuild the car - you will spend sooo much time getting little problems out of it that your confidence in the car for longer trips will be severely eroded.

A 225 75 16 and an off the sheft suspension kit ( I would recommend OME) should be fine for the use it looks like you are planning.

[GV]

Thanks very much to all those who responded on this thread (via PM and publicly).

GV

[Mudboy]

does anyone know how much the Calmini 2.5" kitwould cost

[A12]

I have an XL-7, which is a longer GV. I have 3.5" springs in the rear and 2,5" spings in the front, OME strust and ToughDog 35mm in the rear. It rides great, fits the BFG MT 235/70R16 without many issues.

The car goes well, I am not 'hard core', well maybe for an XL-& :-).

Greg

[RIKSTR]

The kit is around $1700 depending on the year model