front diff drop down kit

[Longranger1]

While I would love to have a 4" lift the fact is that when you are offroad and in a situation where you are teetering, then a 2'' standard lift suddenly makes a whole lot a sense.

Had a couple of situations on the weekend that took a cool head to drive out of. Afterwards, I was glad to only have 2" lift. Any higher and it would have been close to a rollover in a place where you sure wouldn't come out of it too well. Teetering... when your bum tries to munch the seat.

A lower centre of gravity will do a lot for traction as well by reducing the rocking moment thereby keeping the wheels driving better.

It blew a few drivers of highly tricked out Patrols and Cruisers on the weekend just how easy I did some of the gnarly climbs. Big lifts and running 35's or bigger tyres and they were spinning and bashing their way up where I almost idled up on 31's with bugger all wheel slip .

Unless you want a comp truck, well...

Big lifts look cool though.

[mcraig]

Ouch...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mitsubishi-T ... 2a2fecffe4

please don't direct any anger at me

[oldplodder]

Ouch...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mitsubishi-T ... 2a2fecffe4

please don't direct any anger at me

With an option listed of going to 7" lift !!!!!!!
Centre of gravity higher on the almost same wheel base?

[AussieTriton]

Ouch...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mitsubishi-T ... 2a2fecffe4

please don't direct any anger at me

Unfortunately, that type of kit is the "correct" way to lift a IFS. To do a diff drop requires the lower arms to move with it. Doubts? Look at the major kit makers in USA, almost every IFS lift drops both front diff and LCA's as a unit, and uses longer knuckles to bridge the gap. Unless you make the control arms longer, travel will always be the same, limited to factory specs. If you are worried about CV's, leave the diff in it's factory position and convert to Porsche 930 CVs, these have almost double the angle capability of factory CVs and are significantly stronger. Dozens of rear-engined buggies cant be wrong

[AussieTriton]

Ouch...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mitsubishi-T ... 2a2fecffe4

please don't direct any anger at me

With an option listed of going to 7" lift !!!!!!!
Centre of gravity higher on the almost same wheel base?

Uhm, when you refer to wheelbase, do you mean the distance from front axle c/l to rear axle c/l, or the "track width" between the tyre c/l's ? This is the theory behind the wide-track conversion..... wider track means more stability at higher lift, with a side benifit of more wheel travel.

[chrisdoherty87]

Body lift!!

[RHKTriton]

This obsession with extra high lifts is almost as bad as the wide tyre /small dick ratio back in the 80s eg Hollywood inspired I think.

Just get a vehicle fit for purpose.

These guys running around on the road in their super lifted Patrols etc are going to get a nasty surprise one day when they have to perform an evasive manoeuvre.

From what I've read elsewhere, correct me if wrong, you can get your floor up to an extra 150mm off the road with the combination of body lift, tyres and suspension, without engineering. (Vic).

[macca002]

This obsession with extra high lifts is almost as bad as the wide tyre /small dick ratio back in the 80s eg Hollywood inspired I think.

Just get a vehicle fit for purpose.

These guys running around on the road in their super lifted Patrols etc are going to get a nasty surprise one day when they have to perform an evasive manoeuvre.

From what I've read elsewhere, correct me if wrong, you can get your floor up to an extra 150mm off the road with the combination of body lift, tyres and suspension, without engineering. (Vic).

Body lift isnt for everyone. Even with a standard 2" lift, the amount of downwards wheel travel is decreased.
I can see why some people would want a diff drop kit even if they have only fitted a 2" lift.

A 2-4 inch lift isnt a stupidly big lift. Personally I would prefer a 3 inch suspension lift and diff drop than a 2" lift and 2" body lift.

Body lift creates all kinds of dramas, both short term and long term and to do it properly ends up being a pretty costly exercise. For example: raise bar work/radiator mounts/steering column. Then you have to deal with the extra body flex created if you wheel your vehicle hard...not to mention running the gauntlet with if/when one of the body lift blocks punches through the underside of your cab if you use those 50x50 blocks.

[Bazzer87]

This obsession with extra high lifts is almost as bad as the wide tyre /small dick ratio back in the 80s eg Hollywood inspired I think.

Just get a vehicle fit for purpose.

These guys running around on the road in their super lifted Patrols etc are going to get a nasty surprise one day when they have to perform an evasive manoeuvre.

From what I've read elsewhere, correct me if wrong, you can get your floor up to an extra 150mm off the road with the combination of body lift, tyres and suspension, without engineering. (Vic).

some people like sitting in coffee shops sipping lattes... other like pushing their cars to the lmits off road with big lifts ...

each to their own

[belvo]

so has any one in australia successfully done a diff drop on a Triton and kept it on and tested it out.?

[Cowboy Dave]

I think the answer is probably yes, but I've not read about it here. Superior are selling Thai kits so I assume someone must be buying them.

[ultimate]

I believe superior have stopped selling the Thai drop kits.

I can't speak for superior but I know a couple of other companies who bought in similar kits and have also stopped. They just couldn't get ADR approval and ran into lots of problems with the kits.

[Cowboy Dave]

Well I think we always thought there would be problems - there kind of had to be, but there will always be owners out there prepared to run iffy or even illegal mods so I would bet money on there being some in circulation somewhere.

[belvo]

I believe superior have stopped selling the Thai drop kits.

I can't speak for superior but I know a couple of other companies who bought in similar kits and have also stopped. They just couldn't get ADR approval and ran into lots of problems with the kits.

how come other companies haven't been able to get ADR approval for there diff drop kits for tritons but you have been able to get you dropped cross member approved and engineered whats to difference between the to just trying to understand.

[Cowboy Dave]

What dropped cross member approved? Not for the Triton.

[belvo]

sorry for hilux what processes is so different from a hilux to a trition in that one can be approved and one cant

[Cowboy Dave]

Pretty sure Brendan explained this once before but I can't pretend to remember what he said. It will probably be a combination of things like timing and the potential size of the market given the expense of doing all the testing etc to get the engineering through. From memory though one of the real problems was the electronic stability control in that the rules wouldn't let you do as much to vehicles equipped with that. One disadvantage of the Triton having been such a market leader when it came to safety.

[ultimate]

how come other companies haven't been able to get ADR approval for there diff drop kits for tritons but you have been able to get you dropped cross member approved and engineered whats to difference between the to just trying to understand.

The main difference is our Hilux Smart Lift is all Australian made (except for the leaf springs, U/bolts and Shackles which come from Malaysia). All of the cross members, diff mounts, steering rack ends and spindle supports are manufactured in house or through local engineering firms. We use the best steel and the welding is carried out by qualified personal and companies with ISO certification. The kit itself is overkill and covers all bases. We also spent a lot of time and money on the testing and approval stages. Just getting our Hilux engineered for road use cost us over $5K with all of the swerve and brake testing. Now about 60 vehicles have gone through engineering with this kit in NSW so it's a lot easier and cheaper now to certify them.

The cost of getting a kit ADR approved is what holds a lot of companies back. Most of the imported kits need to be heavily modified to fit and work correctly and all of the welds have to be x-rayed. It's an expensive exercise.

ESC was the main reason why we stopped the development on the Triton kit. We had fight to continue doing 2" lifts on Tritons and were not keen on injecting so much money into a kit which may not be legal for road use.