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.

[rokcrlr]

A guy I know used 2" square tubing and angle iron to make his. The tubing let him be able to put a reciever hitch in the front if needed.

[Mike Mac]

Nice work Jim, be proud!! Bet you learned allot!

[Mike D]

That's way cool. I thought about making a lift for myself. Today I finished fabricating and munting a trailer hitch. I got the receicer from one of the sponsers, but with ny rear sea I couldn't find the hitch long enough to clear the footrest and the safety bar. So I got my hands on some scrap 2 inch square steel, drilled it for the hitch pin, and installed. My cart is not lifted, so I made spacers with 2 short pieces of 2 inch that welded on top of each other. The spacer are bolted to the main hitch with holes that I tapped so I wouldn't have to worry about reaching nuts inside the tube. I pulled the trailer around the block for a test like a charm. It pulls the 6x10 alll steel trailer(incuding deck) well. Between building the trailer myself from 2 free trailers, and the scrap pieces of metal from a fire training simulator that I'm helping to build at the fire school where my side job is, I've invested about $200.00. Keep being creative, especially now with the budget issues. All of this is also giving me the opportuinity to teach my 3 year old twin boys how to beat on some metal to make stuff. The only thing I have to work out with them is that the welder is not a big sparkler.

[stuff4mason]

Sparkler?? Oh boy!

My boys haven't been all that interested in helping me, until today they saw me use the impact wrench to remove the wheels. Then they were all over it! When I turn on my welder or the grinder, the wife and kids bail into the house. Fine by me!

[Mike Mac]

Same with mine. 2 13 yr. olds at the time. They wanted to sell the 2 carts I bought and go buy a Yamaha hot rod all ready done that was for sale at the Yamaha store. I couldn't believe it. These things are so much fun to work on, I couldn't imagine going to buy someone elses hot rod. Neighter one had any interest in working on or learning how one worked. Oh well!

[Skins19]

Hey I am currently lifting my g8 almost identical to the lift you made. I am curious what did you do to extend your tie rods up?