Anyone come across VX type lowering kits out there.......I know this sort of reverses the general trend.......but......
Printable View
Anyone come across VX type lowering kits out there.......I know this sort of reverses the general trend.......but......
:nop: ;puke2;
say it isnt so.........
There has been talk about it before... someone found springs that did not work and some people have tried cutting the bump stops, no one has successful done it yet... as for me i would LOVE a 2 inch drop, as long as it did not ride like crap.
BigMeatVX knows of a way...
Quote:
ATTN.... All who want to lower the VX.......
YOU CAN LOWER THE VX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2-3" lower is ALOT easier than everyone is making it sound....
The "bounce" that some of you have felt, when lowering, is the A-arms bottoming out on the bumpstops.
In the front, all you have to do is remove the bump-stops and trim them with a saw or grinder (I did this on mine to increase the wheel-travel) and turn DOWN the torsien bars a bit...
Also another slick trick is to do a Ball-joint mount flip ON THE LOWER A-ARM, this will allow more up-travel while still using your stock bumpstops and shocks.
To drop it even further than 2" the torsen-bars will need to be re-indexed.
In the rear, the VX has a rather large bump-stop that can be trimmed also, or removed altogether and replaced with a lower profile one (Ive tried both)
Shorter springs can be had at a reasonable cost.
To drop more than 2" in the rear, there is a square-tube piece right above the rear bump-stop that could easily be notched out (w/o sacrificing frame strength), and on the rear axle the "bump-stop pad" on the top side of the axle could be trimmed off for additional clearance.
I have a lot of experiance with the Vehicross' suspension as I have had several different lift kits and shocks on it and ran at several different ride heights, and am always playing with the suspension to achieve maximum articulation.
Also, I am the guy that drove to Calmini Manufacturing to get them to make/install the prototype lift kit they now offer for the VX. (They also offer lowering springs for some other trucks and may be able to help source a good set for the VX)
No, the shocks don't bottom out...it seems Isuzu had the forthought to allow the shocks to travel farther in each direction than the stock suspension components do.
Anyone seriosly interested in "dropping" the VX is more than welcome to e-mail me with questions.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by VX crazy
I'm with him.
Good luck with that.Quote:
Originally Posted by mike6187
They don't actually make one for the VX.
PK
I was wondering WTF too. Call it a morbid curiosity but I had to look, it ain't there.Quote:
Originally Posted by PK
Thank goodness now it is harder for people to ruin our beloved VX's. Why in the world try to make a good looking and performing off-road vehicle lower? Just looks tacky, not different, just terrible.Quote:
Originally Posted by PK
The post with the link looks like Spam to me. Funny that someone would actually think that we would want to ruin a VX by lowering it. If you can't reach the handle buy a car :)
Thats true, I know I have done some crazy stuff to mine, but it is all to enhance offroad performance, what it was meant for. You want to lower something, you should get an S-10, or a Typhoon, or a Rubicon. (I saw a lowered late model rubi on 22s or some such the other day, it made me cry, he couldn't even turn all the way around in my intersection, cause his wheels were too big).Quote:
Originally Posted by LittleBeast
;wtf;:_thinking:_mecker::_mecker::_thinking;wtf;
But its your truck, do what you want, even though a new honda civic will smoke you off the line...
Many people would think that some of the "popular" mods implemented here on this Forum on the VX would be considered "ruining" them, for the record...Quote:
Originally Posted by LittleBeast
To those who think lowering is a sin but are okay with jacking the Vx up 3 or more inches to improve pewrformance. I call foul. For one the designs did not call for jacking up so thats wrong. Adding hieght to an already turn over prone vehicle makes it more likely to flip. Hardly an improvement one would like to make. I think a lowered VX would take us back to an era of cool hot rods with modern amenities. I havent done it yet but once I take the VX off the road as a daily driver I am thinking lowering it adding flames and winning a few area contests
Why couldn't you buy some stiff OME 919 and cut the spring down to the height you want? Then just lower the IFS with the torsion bars. Seems pretty easy to me as long as you make sure there is clearance for the body & suspension.
You could just cut the stock springs but would probably loose too much spring and bottom out everywhere
Makes about as much sense to me as the 'slammed' Chevy dually running around Fredericksburg. Gotta admire the effort & engineering that went into doing it ... but what's the purpose.
The only justification for lowering a vehicle (other than looks) is to improve cornering and decrease wind drag. The VX is never gonna be a street performer.
On the other hand, lifting a VX does provide increased performance in terms of ground clearance and allow for installation of larger and more agressive tires. That is - it improves the capabilities that it was designed for.
Someone has a great photo of a lowered VX with enlarged cladding flairs that looks pretty sweet to me...but I like most of the "tuner" cars anyway.
:smilewink:bgwo::bgwb::bwgy:
The extra ground clearance works well for rock climbing or low speed 4 wheelin. It also makes the VX as nimble and well baalanced as a hippo on roller skates. A look at the driver side sun visor will show a warning about the instability of the VX. Raising the center of gravity makes it worse. As for larger more aggresive tires they weigh more tax the little 4L30E tranny and actually decrease performance. So basically jacking it up and slapping big wheels actually decreases performanceQuote:
Originally Posted by tom4bren
Every 4x4 sold since '96 has those.Quote:
Originally Posted by circmand
As for the rest ... we'll have to agree to disagree:)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marlin
I don't know if I totally agree with those statements. I remember commercials of the VX rocketing across the desert, and magazine articles showing VX's in dirt and snow, but I don't remember any ads or photos of VX's doing heavy duty rock crawling, mudding, etc. If that was in fact "what it was meant/designed for" why would Isuzu give it IFS, no full-size spare (like the Trooper, Rodeo, Amigo, or even Axiom), etc.? Sometimes I think the offroad-focused nature of this site leads people to think that Moab and other places like it are the VX's natural habitat. I think it's pretty clear that the VX was designed as an all-purpose vehicle, combining nice handling on the road and good capability in the dirt/snow, but without being amazing at either. You can certainly build up a VX into an amazingly capable off-roader, but that potential doesn't mean "that's what it was meant for" out of the box. I think there's a big difference between slamming a dually vs. lowering a PUV.Quote:
Originally Posted by tom4bren
I'm not saying I would like the look ( ;puke: ) but I think criticizing it because it doesn't enhance one half of the VX design is a weak argument.
I understand what you are saying, but the marketing of the VX (the slat flats ad) was not a good idea, it is not fast by any stretch of the imagination, maybe in 99 it was quick, but certainly not now. That is how they marketed it...not a very good strategy IMO.
Here we go again.... I think I am gonna start pissing and moaning when someone lifts their VX. ;)
If you live in the midwest or southwest, anywhere but here, more power to ya. Reach for the sky. In and around Washington, DC, the best I could do is crawl over a mall curb. Little to no snow, but when it does, we are such a pu55y area that everything shuts down anyways. Plus, we actually have painful laws restricting vehicle height when it comes to lifting. In any case, lifting just is not a popular thing here. Hell, looking out my office window here at 10:30am at the Capital Beltway, it's rainy and gridlocked. Again, welcome to the concrete jungle.
If I had the opportunity to lower mine just a bit, I probably would. I would only go as low as I could keeping everything functional. Being the owner of a slammed STi, it's really not that much of a change for me (not that I would "slam" the VX). Sorry, lifting just isn't my thing, and around here, lifting is typically linked to Dixie flags and white hoods anyways. :(
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...1spyhunter.jpg
I repeat
Quote:
Originally Posted by tom4bren
I disagree with your repetition.Quote:
Originally Posted by tom4bren
BTW.... sure wish I caught a picture of the lifted VAN that I saw on I270 yesterday evening. Matte black w/ perhaps a 7"-10" lift and what appeared to be 33" rubber. Had like 10 CB radio antennas. Included, it had a sticker on the back window that said "A Country Boy Can Survive". Just goes to show ya.... anything is possible. ;)
Sounds more like the A-Team... :)
Btw, I saw a convertible Dodge Caravan running around town the other day. Like most crazy stuff in this area, it wasn't a newer model but one of the original body style Caravans, circa 1986. Truly awesome.
& a bumper sticker that reads: "Caution - Driver chewing tobacco"Quote:
Originally Posted by WormGod
It was a treat seeing that on the Clara Barton Pkwy. Usually it's nothing but Mercs and Beemers at that time, but THAT made my day. A unicorn to be sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by tom4bren
As much as it hurts me to do this, there is a very easy way to lower the VX, would take less than 30 minutes, pending rust.
Crank the torsion bars down to desired height. You can get the spring compressors at pepboys for like 30 bucks. I lowered my honda civic with those when I was in highschool, drove it that way for 4 years, no problems...and you would have to cut the rear bump stop...
With those rims it starts to look reminiscent of a hatchback/roadster... or maybe a larger PT Cruiser. :(
Here is mine when I got it:
http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/s...Z/IMG_0114.jpg
I think lowering it just a tad, turbo'd, 5spd swap, would be one hell of a fun toy. There's a difference between lowering and slamming. Doesn't need to be tucking tires but hovering the tops of the tires with the right wheels/tires would look killer. I'd just trim the rear springs a bit and remove the isolators and lower the T-bars up front.
I've lowered mine 3"-4" with no problems at all. I just took out the lift kit the PO installed. For my uses, the stock height works best. While I am an avid off-roader, I still enjoy riding the twisty pavement as well. As a PUV, I appreciate that the VX is capable both on- and off-road. The stock height is a great compromise that performs great for me. Raising a vehicle doesn't automatically make it better off-road either. On off-camber trails, a raised VX is more prone to tip over; and sometimes you need to drive under obstacles as well.
We all chose a Vehicross as it is unique, so it shouldn't surprise us that owners want to make it even more unique. When I first read the post, I too was like "what the hell". Then I saw the lowered white VX posted above. While it's not what I would do with mine, I can appreciate all the work and attention to detail that it's owner obviously had when creating his own version of the VX. Did you notice what looks to be motorized retractable running boards?
As far as this site being off-road oriented, it only makes sense on a vehicle that has low-range 4WD stock. That however, isn't the only application that the VX excels in. If we all had the same vision and all wanted to do the same mods, this would be a very boring site. So I say go for it. Show us your vision of the VX, and while we may not want to do it to our rides, we certainly can appreciate yet another unique VX, and a job well done.
p.s. The quickest way to lower it is to put a few bags of cement in the cargo area and start dating fat chicks.
Having just finished the IFS install, I don't think lowering the VX without major front end changes is practical. I had my front pretty low after the IFS kit install. It rode like garbage. Even with rancho9000s at 9, it was a verysquishy ride. The lower the front, the less tension in the torsion bars, therefore a much softer ride. It would defeat the purpose of lowering it. The only way I can see to go would be a shorter torsion bar mounted to a new, closer to the front crossmember. Its doable, but not easy.
Once i saw costie costa roof scoop all i can say is ANY THING IS POSSIBLE.
Well said. But why you got to hate on the bigger girls man? Don't you know fat bottom girls make the rockin' world go round? :pQuote:
Originally Posted by RallyDude
Mine was lowered when purchased. De cranked torsion - compressed springs. Just an inch or so.
I'm not hating on the big girls, in fact I'm condoning it. Like the earlier poster said, go buy a spring compressor.
Then it seems like a spring compressor would be unnecessary... :D
DONT use a spring compressor. It "works" but eventually they will move around on the coil and heaven forbid you hit a huge bump and bottom out on top of them.
Just tack them into place, you are already taking away the performance of the VX anyway by releasing tension on the torsion bars, what is one more thing?Quote:
Originally Posted by RamAirZ
safety. The heat from the welder could effect the spring tension, and I personally don't like the idea of limiting the springs travel basically. Just cut a coil off. That's just my opinion though
I would think it more effective to lift it, put some 26s on it, put some starburst stickers all over it, and then make 12 point turns to get into a parking lot, meanwhile backing up traffic while we wait for them to get the hell out of the way.
No starburst stickers, Skittles all the way:
http://autoculture.org/blog/wp-conte...k_skittles.jpg