Raising C34 Suspension? Ever Been Done?

[floody]

Just following a train of thought here, wondering if anybody has raised a C34 above stock height, if so how, and what issues did they encounter?

[Duncan]

I run mine a little higher than stock and have no issues. It's nice not to worry about parking, gutters, driveways, speedhumps etc

What sort of problems were you thinking?

[joshm35]

Like a lunchbox on stilts

[Trex]

Why would you want to go higher? 400mm is the stock height and is enough to get over gutters and not scrape.

[Trex]

Be careful going higher because if you go too high the stock shock will be at its full length of travel and won't work at all, it will bounce everywhere. My friend and I tried it on a commy ute and the rear lifted off the ground when braking hard

[Duncan]

To me function was more important than looks; running it higher than stock helped a lot when towing very large loads.

[floody]

Well now they're getting cheaper at the bottom end, I think a grubby C34 would make a great softroader, basically.
Some slightly larger diameter all-terrain tyres (235/60R16 looks good and fairly common) would get a little clearance but at the same time would need a little more height to help guard clearance. I was thinking along the lines of stiffer springs and some strut top spacers.

[XRATED]

I actually had a think about this as an option for a touring wagon/beach buss/camping wagon.

My stag is reasonably low. Honestly I don't have too many issues with driveways, speed humps or parking bollards (my front lip will clear a standard height concrete parking bollard by 2-3mm). We started taking it camping and day trips.... perfect for a blast up the east coast (Tassie) then cruise into a camping spot, most of the camping places are down dirt roads, on sand and washed out potholes. I'm surprised were I was able to take it..... the center diff lock and snow mode is great in rolled gravel or sand, just as long as you straddle the rutts . A couple of times I could actually go places the big 4WD guys couldn't go under fallen trees etc.

We ended up buying the missus an xtrail, suits her gutter riding duties better ( my poor volk GTC's).

Long story short:

I was going to space up the sub-frames and between the shock and shock tower. Throw on some more off roadish taller tyres. Then use some aftermarket arms with slighlty longer stroke shocks/springs.

J

[zoomzoom]

Hmm, I have some spare front shock absorbers for the stagea lying around. Theyre stagea specific ones and theyre slightly longer than GTR shocks. Longer stroke to the piston.

I guess theyre for what youre talking about. Most stageas are/were family wagons and snow cars, not sports cars.

[XRATED]

Your biggest issues will be keeping the correct geometry if you change the relationship of factory pickup points/shock-spring length. The rebound geometry past horizontal gets squew wiff pretty quick.

If you space the sub-frames the same amount as the shock spacers, it keeps everything relatively sock for geometry/bump-steer etc If effect a 'body' lift.

[XRATED]

I also measured up a GU and GQ chassis.... GQ ute looked like it would be the best candidate for a chassis swap.

...hmmm 38" tyres, 5" lift, 3" body lift, VH45 or 6.6 duramax.

[floody]

XRATED, thats the same kind of thing that got me thinking, I've crawled into a few places it by all rights shouldn't have been, it seems very competent getting around on gravel and sand, through muddy paddocks and up and over stuff.

I think the rear subframe could be spaced down, isn't the upper arm in the front mounted to the chassis though? so I'm guessing that wouldn't work for the front. Ours seems to have a little negative camber on the back at stock height so I'm guessing a little bit of lift via spring/strut there wouldn't hurt, front I'm not so sure how much you could lift without going into positive camber.

Clearance wise I think with early bumpers, no skirts and no lips it wouldn't be too bad, sump does hang pretty low but could always run a bashguard tied back to the crossmember.

Edited June 23, 2013 by floody