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After bashing the shit out of the bottom of my hilux in some Canterbury river beds, I'm looking for a lift kit to get upgrade to from the factory set. Has a bullbar/winch on front and a low hard cover on the tray.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a decent lift kit to put in? Not looking to spend an absolute fortune, but don't want cheap stuff that will break
Bigger tyres is the best solution without spending too much, helps even more if you have to deflate them.
Trundles is good. Got multiple options at different budgets. Just put a 2” lift in the front of my mates 2014 hilux, levelled it out nicely and got clearance to run 265/70r17s. Stock leaves in the back.
You can lift your vehicle, and put bigger tyres on it. Remember that a lift is 50mm max otherwise it requires certification.
But even then you'll still bash something because you'll go where you didn't want to go last time, and then regret it.
The bet option, before all the above, is to fit this:
https://4wdwarehouse.co.nz/products/...cle-protection
If you could see mine, you'd understand what "peace of mind" means. BANG! And carry on.
I went with Outback Armour in my ranger. Had pretty good reviews and not the most expensive.
Under body protection is most important. Try AC fabrication a nz company
Had EFS suspension in my dmax to start with the beefiest version they sell and it was superb. Much better than the MRA dobinsons I now have certed the ute on (slight regrets)
Just remember, more lift on utes means worse tyre wear and harder to get wheel alignments right.
As others have said, underbody protection is a life saver.
My side steps / rocksliders have saved my sills countless times. I got some stainless underbody protection out of aus and I've only managed to dent one small section sofar with 3.3tonnes bottoming out many times
https://acfab.co.nz/Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobba
I am looking at getting bash plates for my Hilux from these guys - looks pretty good and local too!
There is no limit on how high you can lift your wagon. Only time you'll need cert is with a body lift, adjustable suspension or upper control arms. 50mm is just a general safe lift without having to do the supporting mods that actually require cert.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyblown
Lift wise head into your nearest autolign branch and ask for trade pricing. Recently got a set of parabolic rear leafs and front springs for my Ranger 300-400 cheaper than anything trundles or anyone else had.
I fitted Outback Armour. Very good bit of kit. Mixed trail and expedition so front could handle more weight from bars etc and softer leaves for nicer ride when unloaded.
We've had some real dramas using OME stuff. Simply not up to anything more than mall cruising. We have so many failures. And their backup is non existent.
Yes, and no.Quote:
Originally Posted by J-W-G
If you raise the vehicle >50mm, it requires LVVTA to do a roll-over calculation. If you raise it >50mm and don’t have the paperwork saying its been inspected (and road-tested), you can be denied a WOF until you’ve been to the LVVTA. Which assessor you get is a big deal!
That only gets checked if you take it for a cert.
At a WoF an AVI will only be looking to see if the oem mounts haven't been modified. As long as the components are all "bolt in", they don't need to consider anything else.
Lvvta have a different set of guidelines/rules to work off compared to a normal WoF.
Which… all depends who does your WOF.
The first line of the springs/shocks section in the new regs says LVVTA is not required as long as “the springs or shock absorbers are direct replacements.” Which leaves plenty of vagueness for overzealous inspectors to decide that what you’ve replaced your springs with are not direct replacements for OEM and therefore need LVVTA. i.e. some will let it go, others won’t.
When I brought in my ute with Lovells springs (thicker, higher), I had a terrible time trying to convince the WOF inspectors the setup did not breach the thresholds as set out in the LVVTA documentation. I won, but it took a week. The 50mm thing was a big deal, and was used as a reason to say it requires certification because they need to do the rollover calculation. (My vehicle was actually 45mm higher, go figure.) Whilst technically it is correct to say there is no specific height threshold, 50mm is used as a blunt instrument to push back on 4WDs that sit on high springs without other related mods.
The other thing we haven’t mentioned is insurance.
If you don’t tell them you’ve modified the suspension you can run into problems if a loss adjuster identifies an unspecified lift. A lot of guys will choose not to say anything because they think it’s going to increase their premium, but with mine there was a negligible change of something like $12 a year.
I guess we can argue until the cows come home about WOFs and LVVTA but the important thing is that you don’t do something that ends up landing you in deep shit if you have an accident and hurt someone. And as mentioned above that’s all about making sure that if you do substantially lift your vehicle with higher springs, that you’ve attended to all the other mechanical requirements to keep the vehicle functioning safely and reliably. Which is expensive. Which is why I would fit underbody protection and drive carefully as a first line of defence.
Recent WoF failure on a landrover, aftermarket fox air shocks fitted on factory springs with the aftermarket more robust fox upper shock supports bolted into the factory chassis points. These are I believe sold locally as a no-cert-required bolt in upgrade / direct replacement for OEM fitments. As I said, direct bolt in replacement, not more than 50mm lift, failed WoF for the above mentioned reasons and inspector requested LVVTA inspection. LVVTA Inspector agreed, saying it needed a cert as well - result factory (underperforming) shocks back in. Huge improvement in safety there, gone from a driveable vehicle to a wallowing complete POS for reasons I can't work out as there is no adjustment to the rollover stability or height and the chassis is not modified. Slightly beefier upper shock support has no bearing whatsoever on performance, and a airspring shock absorber that can be adjusted by air pressure to firm up the shock or soften it is to the best of my knowledge not something that is in the vehicle inspection code as a failure point. It's not affecting the spring preload or ride height...
Another one for the AC Fab plates.
Not bad price , easy enough to fit and I've seen them in action previously. Took the knocks.
They don't cover transfer case on hilux though & muffler gets pretty second hand.
I did shorten the bolt directly under the front drive shaft , just looked a bit close.
With N70 hilux too much lift stuffs up the front axle angles unless you get into diff drops & other spendy stuff.
Pennyless
God I love mechanic sarcasmQuote:
Originally Posted by No.3
I had dealer fit 7 leaf + overload spring packs to my Ranger to try and top it smashing towball extensions when backing into driveways and be able to actually connect trailers to the thing - the factory springs are 3-leaf + overload. Each leaf is good for say 75Kg as a rule of thumb, all things and spring curvature being equal. The aftermarket has slightly more curve on each leaf (more of a parabolic than the factory) so there's quite a bit more height in it. For my standard load (canopy, towbar, tray liner, and ute drawer for about 225Kg) it was enough to fully engage the bump stops on the ute on factory springs with nothing else on board, which makes sense as 3x75kg leaf springs = 225Kg capacity. Designed to run around central Auckland empty only loaded with 'street cred' and 'climate change nightmares'. The back end lift fully unloaded on the 7-leaf pack would be 70+mm I expect, but it comes out at standard load under 50mm and it's dealer fitted so not aftermarket.Quote:
Originally Posted by pennyless
Where that falls over, is the dealer did nothing with the factory shocks in back or struts/springs at the front end - which turned the ute into a widow maker. F**ken lethal, the front end alignment was so far out from the nose droop that the front end would just let go and try and spit you off the road with the only way to recover it a quick switch to 4x4 and plant boot. Foam cell shocks at the back fixed the pogo sticking, and the front end got aftermarket springs and foam cell struts which fixed the alignment but turned the front end into a forklift. No suspension to speak of as insufficient weight to preload the heavy coils (no winch or steel bar - I still have those springs if anyone is needing a set of PX Ranger winch bar coils). Ended up putting the factory coil springs back in on the foam cell struts with a 10mm spacer under the lower spring seat, not adjustable so no requirement for cert and the 10mm extra preload at the spring equals a 20mm adjustment at the hub (2:1 ratio on the wishbone movement) which is enough to bring the wishbones back into the factory alignment adjustment range.
I don't know about mechanic sarcasm, more resigned disappointment...Quote:
Originally Posted by 308
More than 50mm lift will require a cert at an awful lot of WOF places. If you think that's not correct, enjoy the debate, and the waste of time arguing it. Best of luck.
We use ARB Old Man Emu in Hilux's & Cruisers, it's an off the shelf solution that complies, and makes a huge improvement to ride & handling. New trucks get driven to the local ARB agent, the Old Man Emu suspension fitted and the brand-new Toyota stuff goes in the recycling bin. Job Done.
Highly recommended. There will be better technical solutions I'm sure, but for us running half a dozen trucks it's a cost effective but very noticeable improvement. For a winch challenge truck, not good enough, but for a work truck that tows boats, goes hunting, and has to serve as an all-rounder, it's mint!
Same with the Jimny even!
Attachment 245288
If it works and it's cost effective its technically a bloody good solution. Agree the factory fitted crap is just a place holder between the chassis and the axles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistral
