Bravo Body Lift
Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 05, 2005 at 00:40
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Member - Glenn P (SA)
Anyone know of a commercial body lift kit for a Mazda Bravo, I am limited with IF front end with
suspension lift so thought this may be the go!! If not a kit has anyone done this lift..
Reply By: muzzgit - Wednesday, Jan 05, 2005 at 01:13
Wednesday, Jan 05, 2005 at 01:13
Check the
forum on 4WD monthly website. I Have seen kits to lift IFS vehicles around but not sure where they're from.
Cheers,
Muzz
AnswerID:
91365
Reply By: geocacher (djcache) - Wednesday, Jan 05, 2005 at 19:51
Wednesday, Jan 05, 2005 at 19:51
Hi Glenn,
What are you trying to achieve by doing this?
I have a Courier so know exactly where you are coming from.
The main reason most go for a body lift is to run bigger diameter rubber/wheels on the end of the axles there by raising the diff centre and cross member by the difference in the radius. The down side of this is that every bit you go up in diameter you raise your overall gearing thus reducing effectiveness of all gear ratios and therefore torque. (I'm electronic not mechanical so someone will correct me if I've stuffed this up.)
The body lift will otherwise improve rampover, approach and departure angles but I don't find that's what really impedes progress. I have had more trouble getting stuck when the ruts are deeper than the diffs and the tyres end up loosing contact with the hard (or soft) stuff.
I'm spending the money on an ARB Airlocker instead. (They are in development at the moment and will be available soon - Place a back order on ARB Part # RD123 at your local dealer and a rear airlocker will appear as soon as they are finished doing the development work on it. Last I heard this will be about April.)
I also added a leaf to the rear spring pack to get it back to factory height after I added canopy, bars, _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx, gear, fridge etc to the full time load. It was amazing how much it had dropped, and the local frontend joint here wound the torsion bars up in the front to compensate for the winch, bar and extra battery as this was never done by the original owner so the front was riding low when I bought it, and I added a 12" battery and side rails/steps to the bar and winch weight.
Very interested in your thoughts though.
Dave
Dave's Courier Page
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Glenn P (SA) - Saturday, Jan 08, 2005 at 00:11
Saturday, Jan 08, 2005 at 00:11
Hi Dave,
Ramp over angle is my main concern at this point in time. Having just returned from the Otway Ranges after some wet stuff from above, I had the Bravo drop her Tow Bar on the mud on three occassions and had to be towed back down the
hill. I have a fabricated tow bar being made, to help with the clearance, just thought a Body lift would also help out. I agree with you, if I had a locker up front, I would have probably dragged the R-Send over the mud. Had a look at your page and like the things you have done to your ride. I am in the process of making my own roof rack to carry my boat. Last year was the Simpson, this year is 6 - 7 weeks during May etc, doing the Tanami, Kimberleys,
Gibb River and across through to Borraloola and Hells
Gate, Dragging my Camper all the way with a Tinnie on Top.
Regards Glenn
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350676
Reply By: GaryInOz (Vic) - Thursday, Jan 06, 2005 at 17:31
Thursday, Jan 06, 2005 at 17:31
Dave,
Do you have any tech details on the airlocker (front/rear?), notably things like ring dia, axle dia, axle spline count, etc? I am trying to find out how similar it may be to a Kia Sportage rear or front (front similar to MX5 93 +, rear Series 3 RX-7 +)
Any assistance greatly appreciated.
AnswerID:
91629
Follow Up By: geocacher (djcache) - Monday, Jan 10, 2005 at 20:20
Monday, Jan 10, 2005 at 20:20
Sorry GaryInOz,
I just kept badgering ARB and telling them to add Bravo & Courier sales figures together to look at how many of these trucks are out there and after 12 months I got an email to say that they are going to make one.
It will be a rear airlocker, RD123 is the part number and I got the email in November with about 6 months of development time to wait - nearly there.
I'd like to think that it was my whinging that won them over but I think realistically the market in the USA was the driving force in their descision.
Dave
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