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Lift Kits

2214 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  H4
I have a 1' lift on my 05 Foreman. The other day while I was cleaing it I noticed the angle of the rear shaft and the angle of the shaft cover. To me it looks as if it is at of too much at an angle. I have read many post on here about people removing their lift kits, removing just the rear lift and leaving the front lift on. I know that the 2" lift is way too much and will eventualy cause the u-joint to break. So what do yall reccommend? I have only 60 hrs on the bike and made several trips to the WV mnts where I have put the bike through many tough situations that the other Polaris's and other wouldn't even think about. I ride 70% mud and 30% trails. Other than the 1" lift I have the HL Lift Springs on the front and rear and 27" Mud Lites. Would you guys keep the lift on, remove it completley or just removethe rear lift?

Thanks, Rusty
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i personally dont see a lift as being such a great thing on our bikes other then to make it look cool cause you still are going to have the solid axel there to hang you up anyway so i dont thkn that it does much good other then putting more strain on parts then normal plus with alittle bending you can run 29.5s all day without a lift so what is the point? But then again i have broke 3 axels and 1 ujoint and i have no lift so some people just get lucky and some have bad luck but i still wouldnt run it
I too feel the same way that you do about the SRA and not gaing anything from the lift. I assume that is the main reason why some people remove the rear lift and keep th front. I may just end up removing the whole entire lift and sell it.

Rusty
Wouldn't the combination of a 1" lift AND the HL springs give you a 2" plus lift?

Or am I misunderstanding and you are saying the HL springs are the 1" lift?

BTW, ground clearance is most important (to me) in the center(beneath me), not at the diff. Most hangups are due to being "high centered" and not because of the diff. In reality you should be driving the tires on top of the obstacle instead of straddling it. If you drive like that the rear diff is never an issue, but the center (under the seat) is.

Or course you could live in a dream world like the IRS guys who think all rocks are shaped exactly like the dimensions of the distance and angles of their rear suspension clearance

We ride Foremans, an obstacle is not a horse, don't straddle it, drive OVER IT!!
I have the HL Lift Springs AND the 1" lift. When i added the HL lift springs I really didn't notice any gain in ground clearance. The only thing that I noticed was a stiffer ride and more predictable bike which i love the feel of.

Rusty
Here is a quick check for you to see if your lift is too high so that it will for sure cause premature damage.

Make sure you are in neutral, no brakes on, and preferably 2 wheel drive if you can.

Use a floor jack and jack up just the front until both of the tires are off of the ground.

With the wheels straight ahead rotate each tire by hand, if it turns smoothly and easily you are OK for that test. If it feels hard to turn and you notice your CV boots binding you probably have too tall of a lift.

Now turn the wheels all the way to the extreme left and right of each direction and do the same test.

Next do the same for the rear (except skip the left and right thing, duh)

What this will tell you is that when you are up on an obstacle and for example one front tire is unsupported it will hang that low. Factor in the fact it will be spinning in the air and you are turning as you try to get over the obstacle. If you have binding in the CVs this is one of the dangerous times that things will go bad.

A properly setup suspension should have almost as much "droop" as it does upward "compression" . This allows the suspension to drop into irregular areas which doesn't put as much stress on things and also makes the suspension work as designed. It will also make for a smoother and faster ride.

If you have your suspension or lift setup to where you can lift up your ATV and the suspension/wheels/tires literally stays exactly where it was in relation to the body (immediately comes off of the ground), you might have it a "little" high and/or too stiff.

In other words you should be able to lift the front or rear of your ATV a few inches before the tires come off the ground.

Hope that makes some sense.
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928GT

Thanks for the helpful write up and the helpful info. I'll try out your test tommorrow morning before I go to work. I'll post up what I find.

Thanks Again, Rusty
928GT... did you take off you lift? I thought you used to have on listed in your sig? BTW.... any idea when that site will be up?
QUOTE ("homie189":1mhxepyd)
928GT... did you take off you lift? I thought you used to have on listed in your sig? BTW.... any idea when that site will be up?
I was a little excited about getting my ship notice on the shocks, and
I evidently typed over it when I added the Honda Trail Edition Shock line in my sig. Will fix it.

Concerning the site, it will probalbly be a couple more months before there is any real content there. Too many projects so little time.
QUOTE ("928GT":rgdftgi8)
BTW, ground clearance is most important (to me) in the center(beneath me), not at the diff. Most hangups are due to being "high centered" and not because of the diff. In reality you should be driving the tires on top of the obstacle instead of straddling it. If you drive like that the rear diff is never an issue, but the center (under the seat) is.

Or course you could live in a dream world like the IRS guys who think all rocks are shaped exactly like the dimensions of the distance and angles of their rear suspension clearance

We ride Foremans, an obstacle is not a horse, don't straddle it, drive OVER IT!!
I agree 100%. The bottom of my originally round frame was actually flat from the pounding it took from hits on the trail. When I installed the lift with the stock tires I technically didn't increase GC because of the SRA. But the extra clearance under the bike made a huge difference and I rarely took a hit. Then I actually increased the GC with the 27"s and it's amazing just how much difference it made.

Every IRS rider should get a chance to follow his own bike for a while to see his GC drop to even less than a SRA as the suspension works.

Used to "driving over it" as I started off road in an FJ 40 and then a Toyota pickup. SA fan ever since. When the obstacles got too big for the independant front setups I always pushed the Toys further.....just because I could.
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