Vehicle lifting techniques to enhance your off-road experience
While there are vehicles specifically designed for off-roading and can handle different types of unpaved or natural terrains such as mud, rocks, snow, riverbeds, gravel, and sand, modifying the original factory model can enhance your vehicle’s performance and allow you to attempt and take on even more challenging terrains. Specialized vehicles designed for off-roading such as heavy-duty trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, mountain bicycles, ATVs, and snowmobiles, can be further enhanced through modifications like body lifts, suspension lifts with the help of truck lift kits, upgrading tires, and traction control. But before you get too excited and start upgrading your vehicle thinking that every one of these upgrades will allow you to ride through the toughest terrains and conquer any off-road challenge, consider a few important factors.
Assessing your ride and yourself
Different needs and factors require different types of modifications. For one, the different types of off-road vehicles are vastly different from one another other in terms of make, parts, size, mechanics, and components; just compare a mountain bicycle to an SUV and you get the idea. What’s more, even across the line, SUV’s, for instance, there are already thousands of different manufacturers and models each uniquely complex in structure and detail. In addition, you also need to consider your capabilities as an off-road driver. If you’re a beginner, it may be better to stick with easy to mid-level terrains that only require basic modifications or even none at all. As you become better and wish to take on more challenging roads, then requirements for modifications like skyjacker suspension may also increase. It is better to modify bit by bit than to completely overhaul your vehicle beyond recognition. You have to strike a balance between what you want to do or achieve in off-road driving and what you are actually capable of doing. Safety, of course, is always the primary consideration here. While off-roading is an extreme sport or activity that naturally involves risks (it’s part of the thrill, duh!), you still want to make intelligent and calculated risks. Before modifying your ride, know your vehicle and know yourself first! Once you have assessed those, you can now mull over the different types of modifications that are available, and more importantly, appropriate for your vehicle.
Different types of lifting techniques
One of the desired modifications for off-road vehicles is the increase of clearance from the ground to the bottom of the vehicle’s frame or body, generally called vehicle lifts. Lifting the vehicle and gaining higher ground clearance allows the vehicle to go through more bumpy and muddy roads without permanently damaging its bottom frame, or at least lessens its wear and tear. The three major types of vehicle lifts include the body lift, suspension lift (usually done with the help of skyjacker lift kits), and changing the tires into larger ones.
Body lift: The body lift is a cheap and simple way to achieve higher ground clearance for vehicles that have a body-on-frame design, typical of pick-up trucks and for some SUVs. The original points where the vehicle’s body-on-frame is mounted are replaced with larger spacers, commonly increasing the vehicle to an inch up to four inches. Spacers more than four inches are not recommended because it will make the setup less sturdy and therefore unsafe. Body lifts cannot be done in Uni-body vehicles, those that have the frame formed into the body. Examples of these are late model Jeep Cherokees.
Suspension lift: In a suspension lift, the vehicle’s shocks, springs, steering linkage, and controlling arms are modified to increase ground clearance. Smaller parts and pieces of the vehicle’s suspension are replaced with larger and longer items that have similar construction to the original. Because it requires more work and is generally more complex, it is more expensive than the body lift. A suspension lift also changes the vehicle’s driving dynamics and may require an altogether different handling capability than normal off-road driving. It is therefore recommended for more experienced off-road drivers. A few examples of suspension lift modifications include:
Longer coil springs
Longer arced leaf springs
Coil spacer blockers
Longer pitman arms
Longer control arms
Leaf spring spacer blocks
Longer leaf spring shackles
Air bag spring replacement
Reverse leaf spring mounted on the axle
Portal axle
Longer Spindles in the front
Tuff country suspension
Larger tires: Changing the vehicle’s tires into larger ones is probably the easiest and cheapest way to increase ground clearance. Another advantage it has over the other types of vehicle lifts is that it improves the ground clearance of all parts of the bottom of the vehiclethose that are at the lowest points of the vehicle after the tires, including the differentials and axles. Of course, you don’t just increase the size of your wheels to the largest one you can find and expect to get brilliant results. Depending on your vehicle, there is only a maximum allowable tire size you can replace the original with. In some cases, you can change the tires of your vehicle to larger ones on your own without the help of a professional or the need for using special equipment but most vehicles will require a lift kit such as tuff country lift kits. Some may even necessitate bodywork modifications such as cutting back the wheel arches to accommodate larger tires.
Experienced off-roaders use a combination of different vehicle lifting techniques and modifications, with some increasing their ride to as much as twelve inches from its normal height. If you are not an experienced off-roader, lifting your vehicle too high can be unsafe because the center of gravity shifts too much causing the vehicle to topple over more easily. Advanced off-road driving skill is required to gain control over a vehicle that is lifted to a large degree. Once you are able to control the vehicle regardless of the dynamics and height, you’ll be able to take full advantage of vehicle modifications and enhance your off-road experience.
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