G8 - Home made lift kit

[stuff4mason]

Well, I guess I am too cheap to dish out the $299 for the Jakes lift kit, so I opted to spend $40 on bolts and a 2" pre-drilled steel tube and build my own.

The lift is a total of 4 1/2 inches which allowed me to put on 20-10-8 tires on front and back. I may be able to fit bigger tires and wheels, but I am using what I already have.

I used the shocks off my G9 for the front, which where a little more stout and thicker than the stock shocks. Same size, but were a bit stiffer. All I did was move everything down with aluminum plates and moved the shocks down with steel plates. The front sits a hair cocked, but you put people on the cart and the tires sit perfectly flat.

The rear was a tad bit more challenging, as the correct angle of the shocks puts the top of the shock an inch or two behind its stock position. I left the shocks where they like to sit and built 2" tubes down to them. Bolted these to the stock mounts on the body. I ensured nothing is going to move side to side, by using more 2" tube from shock mount to shock mount. It may have been a little overkill, but I feel its safer this way. I then cut a peice of flat steel from the rear of the cart down to the sway bar to stop any kind of roll.

When I was done and mounted the 20-10-8 tires and 8" wheels, the cart is perfectly level. I did have to shim the front wheels with washers to keep the steering knuckle from hitting the tires, but now they clear easily. I took the cart for a ride yesterday, and wow! She's stable and a very comfy ride!

Now to clean and paint everything up, she's ready for the upper stuff.