hey has anyone changed their springs from the bottom to the top of axles, i have a 88 tin top and need to get a little lift. will ride quaility suffer, cause its pretty bad already. if it is possible to do this, will the pitman arm work? new to the forum, zuke owner for 4 months, my rhino sucked!

hey has anyone changed their springs from the bottom to the top of axles, i have a 88 tin top and need to get a little lift. will ride quaility suffer, cause its pretty bad already. if it is possible to do this, will the pitman arm work? new to the forum, zuke owner for 4 months, my rhino sucked!

Yes, you can do that. It is more commonly called a Spring Over Axle conversion or a SPOA. It is very common for Suzuki Samurai owners and there are several companies that sell kits (Sky's Offroad Design, Calmini, and Trail Tough, Low Range Offroad) for starters. There are definitely valid and strong opinions on whether or not this is a good suspension choice for your vehicle. If you decide to go with this type of lift I would personally recommend two things, others may disagree or have more ideas (please chip in), first extend your bumpstops so that you do not negative arch your springs (This is a spring killer) and second get a traction bar of some type on the rear so you do not axle wrap and kill your rear springs. Both of these will also help with the driveability of the vehicle too.

Good luck, Eric

I just want about 3 inches, if i buy an aftermarket lift kit, what would be a good one. will pitman arm need to be changed. don't want to spend much this is a hunting vehicle and it sees only mud. no rock climbing.

If you only want 3" of lift you might want to go with a Calmini or Rancho lift springs instead of a SPOA.  As for companies, I like the look of the Sky Manufacturing SPOA kit.

Here's a link to a story on a Samurai with a 2" lift and 29" tires. The only mod other than the lift was to trim a bit from the front bumper. This vehicle has traveled thousands of miles on and off-road.

http://www.zukiworld.com/month_020103/feature_gijane.htm



It's the package (lift type/size and tire size) I've recommended for a lot of people around here local and most are very satisfied.

Good Luck, -Eric

I just want about 3 inches, if i buy an aftermarket lift kit, what would be a good one. will pitman arm need to be changed. don't want to spend much this is a hunting vehicle and it sees only mud. no rock climbing.

The more honest you are here, the better we can advise you...

1) Is this a mall-crawler (mostly for looks), or do you plan on wheeling it often?
2) What kind of wheeling?
3) What surfaces (snow, mud, dirt, pavement) are your tires most likely to see?

What's more important than lift is tire size & type - then matching your lift, gearing & locker options accordingly. After lifting many Zookies, I've learned the lower you can keep them to the ground, the better. Smaller tires = less $$$ wasted, less breakage, better gas mileage, more power & more stable.

Most people go straight for lift & beefy tires - when the money would have been MUCH better spent on lockers, mild tires, armor & trail spares. Samurai is light, and small. Play to those strengths. Don't feed it's Achillie's heel by forcing it's already underpowered 1.3L to try and turn bigger tires, or push more weight than it has to. A Samurai locked F&R on good A/T or M/T tires is nearly unstopable!

Quote from: scooterszuk on June 30, 2008, 08:31:40 AM

I just want about 3 inches, if i buy an aftermarket lift kit, what would be a good one. will pitman arm need to be changed. don't want to spend much this is a hunting vehicle and it sees only mud. no rock climbing.

The more honest you are here, the better we can advise you...

1) Is this a mall-crawler (mostly for looks), or do you plan on wheeling it often?
2) What kind of wheeling?
3) What surfaces (snow, mud, dirt, pavement) are your tires most likely to see?

What's more important than lift is tire size & type - then matching your lift, gearing & locker options accordingly. After lifting many Zookies, I've learned the lower you can keep them to the ground, the better. Smaller tires = less $$$ wasted, less breakage, better gas mileage, more power & more stable.

Most people go straight for lift & beefy tires - when the money would have been MUCH better spent on lockers, mild tires, armor & trail spares. Samurai is light, and small. Play to those strengths. Don't feed it's Achillie's heel by forcing it's already underpowered 1.3L to try and turn bigger tires, or push more weight than it has to. A Samurai locked F&R on good A/T or M/T tires is nearly unstopable!

That last paragraph almost brought moisture to my eyes.. AMEN! Only thing I'd add is lower gears in the t-case.

-Eric

I agree with jeremiah and eric.  You don't need huge tires and lots of lift to have fun.  Samurais are a lot of fun bone stock!

My truck has a 4.5" SPOA from   Breeze Industries, 30" BFG A/Ts, 1.6 8-valve, a used Rocky Road over the top (OTT) steering system, some 4.62 ring and pinions from a Tracker front axle and that's about it.  I DRIVE it to the Zookimelt (900+ miles round trip) and have a blast offroading it!

I started out with the SPOA and, as money was available, added things.  Probably the first thing that I would do is the SPOA (nothing RADICAL! 4.5 inches is about right) then the over the top steering.  Or, as you mentioned, a drop pittman arm.  Both will reduce bumpsteer although an OTT system can get your draglink and tierod up high so it does not catch on a rock.  But I digress....

Incremental purchase.  Drive your truck and have fun, then some more incremental purchases.

I hope that this helps!

hey, I just want to make the ride to the deer stand a lot better. 3 inches and new shocks will tame out the stock ride won't it, the zuk has 215 75 15 bfg a t tires. wife just got 2 new toys for me to play with and i don't want them around her navel. how much would it cost part wise to lock the rear and front, ive looked up air lockers but i don't want to spend that much, this little zuke goes just about every where the rhino's go with their stock tires, if it was locked i could go anywhere almost. ha ha

Lift Kits:
In order of price (lowest to highest), articulation & comfort (stiffest to softest). All kits will be a good improvement from what you have (don't expect miracles, it's a light & short wheel based vehicle) - just pick the one that fits your budget.

* Calmini's shackle reversal ($260). Bolt on - 2" of lift.
* Old Man Emu (OME) lift springs ($300) + Monroe shocks ($80)
* RUF: Rears Up Front - your rear springs are longer than front, and re-used up front with this setup, and replaced with stock Jeep CJ or YJ springs in the rear. Look in Jeep forums for someone that's lifted their rig, and is selling their old springs. Not sure the price, it's been a while since I looked at it. It's the Cadillac of small lifts, and it's cost reflects that.
http://www.puresuzuki.com/shackle_reverse.htm
http://www.trailtough.com/suspension1.htm: used to sell RUF kit, but I don't see it listed. Call, (don't email - Brent's (phone) super cool, his wife (answers email) isn't... at all) to see if they still have some laying around or who else sells them.

Warning
Don't be tempted by the prices of the incomplete SPOA kits in those links. Discussion here: http://bbs.zuwharrie.com/content/topic,84285.0.html



Tires
If this will see a lot of road use, get the 29" (235 75 R15) Dakota M/T or A/T from Pep Boys (Made by Cooper). Great tire for the price - about $450 OTD on their buy 3 get one free sale. http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=20578.0. Super Swamper makes their 29" (215/85R15) LTB in Radial for about the same price. BFG also makes great M/T and A/T tires - but they're more expensive. Do searches here & on google for ratings & opinions.

Lockers
Welded (aka Fozzy & Lincoln) gears = free with a welder (or a case of beer if your friend has one), spool $100, mechanical (get Lockrite, not EZ locker) $250, selectable (I'd go with KAM, not ARB) $1200. Please do searches on this site for the benifits & drawbacks of them. This issue is covered weekly, and we don't need another thread about it. If you have q's about lockers, ask in those threads so we keep the info contained where it belongs. That said, my recommendation: Lockrite in the rear. If you want to do the front, get a spool & twin sticks for your transfer case. Great info here: http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=16564.0

Other
If you're deer hunting, consider rhino-lining your truck. And, DO IT RIGHT - cover up the bolts & screws or take them out when lining. You'll thank me later.

PS
As a new zook owner, this is a must read: http://www.zukikrawlers.com/showthread.php?t=14056

I just sprung over my buddies sami last weekend, and we spend 0 dollars!

We made some spring perches, welded them on rolled the axles back under.
We reused the U-bolts and plates.  For the rear we switched the U-bolt plates so left was on the right and so forth.  That way you can run your stock shocks. You have to do a little bit more work to the front  plates.  Then for break lines, you can get the rear line off of Toyota trucks.  The line is male/female so you can extend your Suzuki break lines.
For the steering, i do not suggest you do what we did but...
Anyways we ended up making our own death link (Z-link) aka Drag link.  We put two bends in it, then cut the middle of it and extended it, then pressed a sleeve over the gap and welded it.  It works like a charm!
We then slapped some 31x10.5s on it and it looks pretty darn good

Heres what it looked like with his little 29" swamper's

Oh yeah theres a 1' shackle lift on it too.

Like you this rig is hunting rig, he wanted to spend as little money as possible.  And im pretty sure we achieved that. 

If you want more info on this just ask, ill be more than happy to get pics or whatever.

Amilla

You can also get some high steer arms from a Mercedes for a cheap high steer setup.

There was a post a while back using Rancho springs by baltz526, he seemed to like that setup.  The springs where 1.5" over stock, and he threw longer shackles on at the same time.

Low Range has them on their site at http://lowrangeoffroad.com/samsuspparts.htm along with quite a choice of lift springs.

Amilla - things are a little different if you have a shop, welder and spare steel stock laying around to make stuff    For a hunting rig, I'd still consider SPOA, RUF, shackle reversal & locking the rear. If it was more of a rock-crawler, SPOA's nice.

I was just saying that it can be done for nothing.

If you were to buy the stuff we made it would still be very inexpensive.

Spring perches - $50

2 Drive line spacers - $50

Z-Link - $95

4 Break lines -  $85

Grand total - $280

Then have the ability to run a bigger tire, have diff and ground clearance.
I agree 100% with the more aggressive tires and locker(s), you will be pretty unstoppable.
But all the traction in the world isn't going to help you if your hung up on your frame or axles.

Just my 2 cents

Amilla

I've been SPOA'd, and I've been stock. Soon to be locked in the rear on a 4-door on 35" tires...

It's just been my experience bigger tires = big head-ache. I've never cared for the lower MPG, loss of power, and peripherals - like backspaced wheels, wanting power steering, stressing axles & u-joints (making me want to upgrade those too), added weight (31" tires are way heavier than 29"). If I ever do a Samurai again, it'll be shackle reversal SPUA & locked on 29" with 4:1 t-case gears. I'd never worry about bringing the kind of trail spares I do now... like axle shafts. Won't be breaking them with 29". But, hey - that's just me