Lift?

[louthepou]

I looked at my Sidekick today, and I think that still a best bet would be Rocky Road ones. They are made so that they fit well and snug with the Sidekick parts. Loosening the rear coils isn't too complex, the front ones is a bit more work (ball joints etc have to get disconnected). I'd do that part with the truck on a lift and the proper tools to deal with the suspensions components that have to get loose or off.

My humble 2 cents... (not having done this myself - so anyone with more experience feel free to jump in!)

Louis

[3wheelerdude]

Lou, while looking at Zuharies walkthrough , it didnt mention disconnecting the ball-joint. But I am not getting what he means by "flipping the front mount" .

[louthepou]

I don't get it either. The spring in front is positioned with both ends in "seats", that make sure the spring isn't going anywhere. I don't know what could be flipped, not without any cutting torches anyway!

Louis

[3wheelerdude]

He is talking about the mounts for the struts not the springs.....but I still dont get it.

[louthepou]

Oops, sorry, my bad, I got confused. Bilinguism issue, I suppose.

Maybe it's just so that stock struts will still fit? I'll try to take a look next weekend. I'm under the impression that there's not much that can move there either.

Louis

[Timr]

Well, I got my 3" body lift in place but haven't placed the truck back on the tires yet caus I want to get bigger ones!!!

...So anyway, I have a guy at work who has good year wranglers on his **** TJ and wants bigger ones as well. His tires are 30"x 8.5" with about 3/4 of the tread still on them and I can get them fairly cheap, so my question is... Will they look alright with a 3" lift? I tend to think they will I just wish I could try them first! Anyway, if anyone has advice for me that would be great

Thanks, Tim

[3wheelerdude]

30s should look good!!!

[RockvilleOffRoader]

from what i've heard from everyone who's talked about sidekicks/trackers/"mini suvs", 30's are the ideal size tires, i can't wait to get a set of my own

[Timr]

Thank you

It'll be a while before I can get them, I'm still doing a major body job on my Tracker anyway, she's sitting on stands but I've already installed the 3" body lift ...and she looks goooooood!!! ;D

Tim

[tzuzu]

Hi
I used 1" coil spacers on my truck for a number of years before I broke down and bought a lift. I ran 265/75/15 tires with the coil spacers and a 3" body lift with very minor mods on the fenders. The spacers I used were for a TJ heep with the center hole made bigger .

[bikemon ("Trent")]

I should have read this post a long time ago.

my mud wagon kick has 1" body and 1 1/8 coil over. If you like mud, I can send a pic. we got a little happy with the saw zaw, but forgot to rtv the cap and plugs which I found out how important that is at the custom differentials summer mud rally.


I bought the rocky road spacers and installed them in less than 4 hours with the help of one other person. If I would have had the right tools and known what I was doing, it would have been a lot less time.

Lou is right, relieve the spring tension.
I have a concrete level drive and 4 jack stands that I extended like 7 notches up. Probably not the safest thing to do but it never fell or even acted unsafe and we had plenty of room to pry, push, torque and manuever around.
I would have liked to have had a power washer to clean the muck and make the job less messy.

The back springs were a breeze. super easy. no trouble.

I installed my spacers at the top of the springs with the inner lip flange thingy facing down into the spring. we used the autozone rental strut compressor which was a son of a buck to try and wiggle at the right angle. remember that as you shorten the strut, the tool has a long bolt that gets longer and it needs room to miss your susupension components (a arm?) on the front.
for the front springs we had to also pry a little bit. One was easier. and one was crack a beer open and take a smoke break challenging to loosen from the kick.
We were bouncing on it. (hey, watch this!! Lookie here fellas!!!) not the safest thing to do but it worked.
after the saw zaw, I got 32" in the back and I'm still waiting for the front 32" ones so I don't mess up my xfer case or pumpkins.

this kick never sees the road, it's been rolled by putting it in a huge deep rut on a mud slide. So I cant tell you anything about handling on the road, tire wear or alignment.

but I can tell you that I want a bigger real lift.

30 minutes south I've heard about this mythological tracker that is rumored to have a 10" lift with 35" tires. What do you want to bet that a "short" man measured that lift? ;D ;D ;D

[bikemon ("Trent")]

P.s. I did the lift several months ago and don't remember all the details, but...

I remember loosening only one component on the front of the kick. I think it was a steering knuckle linkage. and if I remember right, with it loose, you get almost 2-3" extra of clearance on the down side of the "a arm" (what's the part called that the spring rests in?).

the real booger was spinning the coil around to loosen it free from that "a arm" pivot point. thats where it was stuck and causing us to take so many beer breaks till we figured it out

[littlered]

take the top strut mount off the strut and knock out the 3 bolts that hold the mount to the frame and flip it over ,...you get an extra in or so down travel,....also iv made my own spacers so i can get an extra 3`on top of that 1"in down travel.