Here's a curve ball: Not lowering, but LIFTING!

[RavenTBK]

And I am sure a lot of you looking at this thread are scratching your heads wondering what the freaking hell is wrong with me asking about lifting instead of slamming my LX. If you have that attitude, that I have spoken blasphemy and should be shot, please go back up one page and read some other threads.

I have a valid reason for wanting to do lift instead of lower my LX. I live out in the woods, beyond the boonies, beyond BFE, and right next door to Timbuktu. As you can imagine, the roads get pretty nasty out here.. since we havent heard of pavement yet. Anywho, I have the issue of dragging framerails and engine cradles on various sections of my road. I was wondering of anybody had thought up a way to LIFT the suspension by 2 inches or so to get slightly greater ground clearance. I am still in the daydreaming phase with this project.. just wanted to post to gather some additional ideas from the group.

I am a performance minded guy, however, this is not a show car, nor a road racer... it is my daily driver, and has been very good at what its supposed to do: get me to work. It would be much better at that job if I didnt have to worry as much about positioning the tires at the perfect spots to clear various holes/ruts/obstacles without hanging a framerail or getting buried in the soft spot of a hole.

I've first attempted just going to a larger tire, and thats helped slightly, but I feel about 2" suspension wise would be absolutely perfect. Not giving me the "jacked up 4x4" look, but just enough to clear most of the things I run into on a daily basis.

Current setup:
215/60-15 All around (25.22" dia / 8.5" width)
Stock ride height

Goal:
Ideally to fit 27x8.5-15 (26.69" dia / 8.5" width) to fill out the newformed lift gap in the wheel wells, but content staying with 215/60s or maybe 225/60s..

The 27s should give me 2" suspension wise, and an additional 3/4" or so tire wise. By my measurments should give me a stance similar to a Subaru Outback.. not overly high, but enough to get through what I need to get through.

Like I said above, this is all still in the daydreaming phase. How possible (read: easy) do you, in the community, think this could be?

[aero]

Now do you want this car to also handle like stock.. and drive like stock (stock suspension settings) on pavement, or is it a pretty much always on dirt car? Also, does if have to ride nice and smooth? It would be relatively simple to jack it up.. but then you end up binding the ball joints since they are getting to their limits of extent.

Now that I re-think it... 2" may not be that hard. Do you have access to a welder or a shop? And how about any extra stock parts?

[GunRunner]

I live out in the woods, beyond the boonies, beyond BFE, and right next door to Timbuktu.

LMAO...lift it and throw on some 31-10.50 BFG All-Terrains...for a real custom look...

hope you can get some help with this..it will be a true custom job....but being a pioneer makes way for many more people

[tommi]

i used to make fun of a guy in my auto class for being stupid for this reason.... but in all seriousness i think it can be done if the world rally guys can do it u can too...

[93accordexcoupe]

LMAO...lift it and throw on some 31-10.50 BFG All-Terrains...for a real custom look...

hope you can get some help with this..it will be a true custom job....but being a pioneer makes way for many more people

F that dude, throw a set of 33" SS boggers on that biotch. while ur at it grab a ford explorer and pull the gears out, and lock it up in the front

yea i think its possible, but the axles might see some kind of clearance issue, i know its fine for lowering but i havent seen what the axles might hit if their at a steep angle up.

[aero]

F that dude, throw a set of 33" SS boggers on that biotch. while ur at it grab a ford explorer and pull the gears out, and lock it up in the front

yea i think its possible, but the axles might see some kind of clearance issue, i know its fine for lowering but i havent seen what the axles might hit if their at a steep angle up.

Well if you think about it.. ya jack up the car, and thats like 3-5 inches before the wheels come off the ground... so its doable, the only thing that wont be very good is the flex...

for example, just weld up some spacers that go on top of hte shock tower hat, between it and the body. One or 2 inches, and you're good to go.

[MonopolyMan]

Get some full coil overs, they allow for raising too =D.

[aero]

Get some full coil overs, they allow for raising too =D.

damn thats very true.. and if the springs that come with it arent high enough.. just stick on the stock ones, maybe cutting a coil or two. Of course, like I said before, this all depends if you drive this much on regular roads, and on the highway.. for highway, i wouldnt want anything lifted, stock height is bad enough.

[cp[mike]]

yeah actually thats a darn good idea... a set of coils raised an inch or two would be perfect... the first thing that came to my mind was spacing everything like aero mentioned...

[ehulst]

its funny this topic comes up tho, my friend has a subi outback and he wnats me and a couple of other of our auto truck friends to jack up his subie and put some super swampers on it, 3" exhaust set up, fogs all in the front, roof rack, brush guard, if u haven't noticed yet i def live in the sticks of maine.....should be fun....sry for the thread jack...

[RavenTBK]

Okay, as for Subarus, I've already got that side covered. I've got an 84 Brat, with a 6" lift, and 30x9.5 Goodyear All-terrains (for picture, clicky). That was easy as hell to do.. just unbolt the front and rear subframes, and install 6x2" square steel tubing as a spacer. The front struts also had a 6" spacer installed where they bolt up top. Since the whole subframe dropped, no other spacers were necessary. All suspension geometry stayed in their (relatively) stock positions, and life is golden. Anywho, back on topic..

I just wasnt aware if the CB frame had similar mount points.. I am by no means wanting to jack it up so high you could park on top of a miata, but just a tiny tiny bit, to allow more room for error when traversing the terrain I do on a daily basis. The tiny bit suspension wise, and the tiny bit allowed by a slightly larger tire would give me a stance, like I said before, similar to a Subaru Outback. Not really high enough to be noticed by the average Joe.

I have no problems if it doesnt handle like stock.. hell, this accord is the only car in my fleet that remains in its stock form. The first thing that gets modified is larger tires are put on to increase clearance. In this case, thats not quite enough. If I wanted to make a mud monster out of it, I'd do it right by slapping the body onto a truck frame decked out on 49.5" boggers...but thats nowhere near the plan.

I've done some quick research on some coilovers. I noticed I'd be in for anywhere from $450 for a basic spring/mount kit (skunk2/groundcontrol) to around $800 for full coils (Tein). Anything cheaper, or is this really what I should plan for? I've also noticed that all the kits I've found are drop only. I havent found any specs that would allow a lift. Any pointers on this one?


@ehulst:
Tell your friend with the Outback to check out http://www.ultimatesubaru.net Theres some very active forums, for old gen and new gen rides, as well as a very active offroad section. Don't worry about the hijack.. in a way, its related to what I'm wanting to do here.

@aero:
Well, its primary fuction is my commute car. It gets the bast mileage out of the fleet.. but also gets stuck the most on the way. I would have to say it sees a 60/40 mix of pavement to dirt. However the need for success lies more in the dirt portion.. as even if it handled like a schoolbus on the street, but didnt hang a framerail on this one particular rock in my driveway, Id be a seriously happy campter. I'd just have to adjust my driving style to allow for safety with its new handling characteristics on the road. No biggie.

[SoapyToast]

Have you ever thought of having someone grade the dirt road you live on? Meaning they even it out and compact the soil so it's a bit harder.

[Chazzworth]

You can Call GC and let them know what you are trying to do. If they do not want to work with you just send me a pm and I will stop by and talk with them.

[aero]

Well, if you get a cheap set of coilovers.. even used, all you want to do is slap them on. They wont say they allow for raising, but my tokico coilovers would raise the car if at the top of the perches. BUT, in my opinion, the best way to go about this is see if some people have measurements of stock shocks and coilover shocks. I would say use a coilover sleeve with a more stockish height shock, maybe cut a coil off of it.

If you used the shorter shocks, and put the coilovers at the top of the adjustment, IMO it would be more likely to fail. If all the pressure is exerted on teh bottom of the adjustment rungs, and into the base of the shock, that would be best especially since off roading isnt smooth.

Edit:

Now that I think of it.. typical kits will lower 2.5-3.5 inches when dropped at the lowest level (coilovers). So if you put the stock spring on it at that level(all the way down), then your car would be at stock height. Raise the coilover up 2 inches, and you have a 2 inch lift. Only problem I could see with that is the shock not being long enough when the suspension does flex(wheel will have an extra 2 inches to drop, but I dont think the shock valve would).

Only way to do that and keep the stock settings would to be to use coilovers, with their respective lowering springs, and then use the spacers at the top of the shock boot between that and the body. Then the shock would have the same travel as usual, and the control arms/axle should have enough room for 1-3 inches of lift without binding.

[maroonaccord2.2]

H&R makes OE replacement springs as well, so you could get back to stock height and get a bit of stiffer spring rate I think.....