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Questions About Lifts


Vegablade
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I want to lift my 90 loyale wagon and was wondering how i could make my own considering i have no money to buy one. if anybody know how to make one some diagrams or directions would be nice. also what changes when you weld your differencial i have heard it help but i dont know what it means exactaly. thanks

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Scott is right on the ball. I have gone the route of building a few as well and without the right equipment the expense is huge. If you are not into already or considering getting into fab work the cost will never equal out. Not to mention the fact that if you do not have welding experience you run the risk of injuring yourself or others.

 

I am not saying you can not do it but you have already stated the need to keep costs down. This isn't a project to cut corners on. There are many stories of lifts gone bad on this board alone.

 

Suspension lifts on these can and have been done. Scott's is about the only one that runs pure independent suspension and has lift and travel. He has done exhaustive research and trial and error. Which all lead to expense. I know what I have into my Brat to date and I am sure Scott has close to double. Read this as expensive little projects. I recommend that you try to save some coin and work up to the lift and tires slowly.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

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what would i need to do to add my 15" pugs with light duty all terrain tire to a brat? i would need to be able to drive it on the highway as well as trails, and if anyone has ever been down i-70 towards baltimore, you need something that is manageable, people are idiots here, well, moreso than every where else.

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I have driven mine through D.C. traffic and up 95 through Ballimer many times. A lifted BRAT with good shocks and tires is going to handle just fine. If you don't already have the pugs I would suggest Toyota 6 lugs to add some track width and further improve handeling. If you have the pugs already go ahead and use them. I would say go with a 4 inch lift and add Rancho or similar shocks front and rear. The front shock install is not hard and at low speeds the Ranchos are very conforming, but at highway speeds they really firm up the handeling.

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I'm going to go against the grain here and say that small body lifts are totally managable if you have access to just a few tools. You absolutely need a chop saw. And access to a welder to make the strut towers. But the rest is basically 3" or 4" x 1/4" wall square tube. The only really sticky parts are the steering linkage, and the strut towers - the rest is cake.

 

GD

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I think you are saying about the same thing give or take a few clamps, grinders and a way to cut the plates for the strut tops. It is managable and the truth of the matter is that a 6 inch lift isn't that much harder other than linkage changes. The deal buster is that the welder, chop saw and other bare minimums cost more than the bolt on lift.

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Chop saw can be had for $50 or less from some of the discount places - or find a used one. Grinders are $20. If you can borrow someone's MIG setup for a few days, and you plan it right you can save some serious $$$ over buying a kit. But of course you need skills too - if you don't have skills with this type of equipment, or know people that have this type of stuff, then you might as well just buy one.

 

GD

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Chop saw can be had for $50 or less from some of the discount places - or find a used one. Grinders are $20. If you can borrow someone's MIG setup for a few days, and you plan it right you can save some serious $$$ over buying a kit. But of course you need skills too - if you don't have skills with this type of equipment, or know people that have this type of stuff, then you might as well just buy one.

 

GD

 

without skill you might end up sans fingers.

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Took me 2 years to affoard a lift kit. Another 2 years to afforad all the 4WD running gear, rims and tires. Several weeks when I finally had it all in front of me to get it all in.

 

Now that I've been offroading regularly it's all worth the wait :)

 

As stated above I dont have access to all the tools and materials required to do these extensive mods. I've found its much more cost effective to just buy the parts you want (3" lift kit, pug wheels, junkyard subaru upgrades) and do the work yourself in respect to installing and quality assurance. Research and development is just fancy words for spending lots of money to figure stuff out :D

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"Research and development is just fancy words for spending lots of money to figure stuff out"

 

 

Man is it ever. I counted up well over a grand (which is a fancy way of saying just a hair short of 2 grand) in wasted or failed ideas or materials or tools and probably 6 months of time in my BRAT build. That is why I enjoy passing along to others the benefit of experience and save them some time and money. Without access to the gear or the intent to use it for other things if you buy it, you are better off just buying the kit.

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Sure, buy a lift kit etc., drive on over and well put it on.

i still need to get ahold of a brat and then some how, get ahold of money to get a kit.

 

on that note, are there any good suspension lift kits out there? or should i go witrh a body lift, i want to run 15" pugs with light truck tires that are good on and off road and arent too heavy

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Getting ahold of a BRAT, that is the challenge. You first need to build up as large a bankroll as you can and sit tight on it. Start doing a DAILY search of sources and make this part of your routine.

 

Check: Autotrader.com

Area paper websites

Valley Trader (or local for sale/swap paper)

Ebay

USMB/SubaruBrat.com etc. for sale forums

etc.

 

As soon as you see one call immediatly and make arrangements to go see it. If it is in good shape rust wise make the deal. BRATs are pretty rare in our area and don't pop up very often so when one does jump on it.

 

As far as a pure suspension lift, there is not a kit out. I have 2 inches lift on mine and it was a major issue and does accelerate the wear of the CV joints. For practical reasons I would say forget about that for now. The lift kit that is called a body lift is a hybrid lift in my opinion. It funtions in someways like a body lift and like a suspension lift in others. Our unibody vehicles are different than a standard frame/body 4x4 and so are the lifts. Just go with the regular 4 inch lift and everything will go fine.

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ive found a few people with brats that thaey are willing to part with, but first i need to A, get rid of my rx to pay for the brat and to make room, amd B. find a way to transports the vehicles to where ever.

 

thats my problem at the moment, i could prolly get one right now if i had a way to transport my rx to the guy and then bring back the brat. but i cant afford the gas even to got to and from the destination. subarubrat prolly knows what im talking about.

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you can look like either of these without doing any welding... (except the bumpers)

 

both have the Ozified/BYB 4"/3" lift kit. the black one had some cutting help, and some major hammering help to fit the 30's on it.

 

the red one has 27" tires, and now has the suspension in rear cranks up, and some front lift/susp adds/mods.

 

tbnew2.jpg

 

PDC_0068.sized.jpg

 

mcbrat.jpg

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I might be picking up a Brat this weekend and want to put a lift kit in. If I get teh BYB 3"/4" kit can i squeeze 235/75R15's under it? I have the tires left over from a dodge i had a few years ago and they only have about 3-4k miles on them. It would be great if i could reuse these, especially because they are snow tires and the brat will be used for winter use mostly.

-Saint

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those would be about 29", so you'd have to do some fender trimming and some hammering....

 

 

I might be picking up a Brat this weekend and want to put a lift kit in. If I get teh BYB 3"/4" kit can i squeeze 235/75R15's under it? I have the tires left over from a dodge i had a few years ago and they only have about 3-4k miles on them. It would be great if i could reuse these, especially because they are snow tires and the brat will be used for winter use mostly.

-Saint

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