Buyer's guide to body lift kits

Getting a Lift Kit for your 4x4 or SUV is comparatively easy, however, making sure you have the one that suits your purpose and is mechanically safe is important.

The most common reason for fitting a lift kit to your car is so that road clearance is improved allowing for the crossing of rougher terrain. The lift itself does not make the clearance improvement, bigger wheels and tyres do that.

However, if you do not raise the height of your vehicle body, the bigger diameter wheels and tyres will not fit, and they will rub on your wheel arches.

The height of the lift is important to calculate, as, small lifts, up to say 2" involve less mechanical changes to the remainder of your vehicle. Once you go over 2" then far more has to be changed to accomodate the lift, and the cost of the modification goes up.

An important thing to remember is, generally, although the body of the vehicle rises, the chassis, engine and running gear remains at the same height. This is certainly true for ladder chassis vehicles. This means that you will need to check for clearance within the engine bay. For instance although the engine has remained at the normal height, the radiator will be fixed to the body, so you will need to check hose lengths. It's also possible that you will have to remove the fan shroud as this too will have lifted, but the fan will still be at the original height.

These checks also apply to brake hoses (very important), when moving to a lift of over 2" it is quite likely that you will have to replace all the brake hoses, and this can be costly, as it is possible you will have to commission custom hoses.

You will also have to check inside the vehicle too, as handbrake attachments may have to be adjusted as will the gearstick length.

Lift kits for vehicles with a ladder chassis are usually quite simple. All you generally need are blocks that will fit between the chassis and the body, using the original mounting points, and longer bolts to accommodate the lift height. Most are either made of aluminium or resin. Due to the simplicity of the lift and parts required, cost is not normally too high. You may also have to adapt the bumper brackets, as the bumper is normally mounted on the chassis, so without modification you will have a gap between bumper and body.

To source a lift kit for your vehicle, simply contact your local 4x4 shop via the yellow pages, or search on the web by having a little google. Ebay too will be a useful source for your kit. Many 4x4 clubs also have a club shop and may be able to supply a lift kit for your SUV at discounted prices.

As a final caution, once you have fitted your lift, drive with a bit of caution until you have mastered the new handling characteristics of your car. It will probably sway more in corners, and of course it's centre of gravity will have been raised, so the likelihood of tipping over is increase, proportionate to the amount of lift you have provided. Also, periodically check all mounting bolts to make sure any slack has been taken up after driving for a while.