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Percymon

How do you lower a High Lift ?

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I'll be starting to build my High Lift Hilux in a couple of weeks (already started painting the shell) but the one thing I hate is the comedy look of the extreme body lift. I think its compounded by the small 90mm kit tyres too, at least to my eyes.

I want to get something a little more scale looking, hopefully through a combination of shocks, wheels and modding the mounting of the body.

I have some RC4WD 72mm eye to eye oil filled shocks to go on in place of the kit internal spring friction jobbies - I think they are shorter than the kit items ?

I have some RC4WD alloy 1.9" beadlocks and RC4WD tyres to go on - the tyres are ca 105mm diameter.

The combination of the shorter ? shocks and the large diameter tyres I'm hoping will close the gap from the wheel to the wheel arch by 10mm or slightly more.

I don't think thats going to be enough to achieve the more normal scale stance I'm after - i probably need a further 10mm ?

Is there an easy way to lower the body on the chassis ? Is it as simple as removing the spacers and normal body posts ??

Any advice much appreciated ;)

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The problem you will have is the leaf springs are what determine the ride height of the axles, if you fit shorter dampers it will pull the suspension up, but put the leaf springs under greater load. What you could consider is using king hauler leaf springs. These are far lower than the high lift items, and can be fitted to high lift axles with a bit of careful drilling (2 holes in the middle of the leafs, no mods required to the axles). These springs are also a lot softer than the standard high lift springs.

If you have a look at my 6x6 build thread, I used king hauler springs with a high lift axle and standard wheels and tires on the rear end, this should give a good idea of the height of the axle from the chassis you will get.

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=67794

PS I think the kit friction shocks are about 100-105mm, so 75mm shocks are going to be quite a bit shorter.

Can't help with any advice on the body as both my high lifts were F350s, but on both of them you would not have been able to lower the body as the bottom of the windshield was very close the top of the gearbox

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Thanks Martyn - I'll have to measure the kit shocks, it may be my oil filled ones are too short !

I've seen some guys 'clock' the motor using a custom mounting plate to put the motor at 2-3 o'clock rather than 12 o'clock when looking from the front of the chassis - this effectively lowers the top of the gearbox.

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You can get a full 10mm or more of body drop without even changing the transmission just by changing how the body mounts. Then you can drop it even more with changing the motor mount. You will have to change where the battery goes or make it easier to remove the body so you can change the battery though. I can't remember exactly how any more, my hilux highlift is now on an rc4wd aluminum frame.

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The hi-lift Hilux should have came with 2.2 tires and rims. The stock "way to high" looks right at home with the 2.2's. Otherwise rc4wd makes some really tall 1.9 tires that can fill the space up.

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would the mounty or bruiser sold so well when 1st release with the xc/cc size tires? i guess Tamiya figures buyer will know/do what is takes to resolve any design issues. it seems yesterday's standards are today's preimium or upgrades. Sad.

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