New product from Proud Rhino! The SYA Off Road Extension Kit

[zelatore]

The kit definitely does as advertised in that department. I'm running 33s as well and with it installed there's plenty of room to roll on the bumps. So much in fact, I think the kit could have been more like 1" and still worked. You run into other clearance issues than bumpstops if you want to push beyond 33s. So far, that's the biggest tire I've heard of anybody running on the LR3/4.

(of course somebody will now post a pic of an LR3 on 35s just to prove me wrong)

 

[NickH]

My tires are 32.6 and I'm not going to run the straps because of issues people have been having with those. Why did you pull the kit off?

 

[morrisdl]

I wouldnt recommend skipping the straps. With out straps, a wheel can drop below the operating range of your CV joint. The damage would be a VERY BAD day on the trail.

 

[NickH]

I wouldnt recommend skipping the straps. With out straps, a wheel can drop below the operating range of your CV joint. The damage would be a VERY BAD day on the trail.

I don't plan on doing and type of rock crawling, but I need the larger tires for some of the creek crossings I have and the Army ruts out some of the roads with their vehicles. This is more of a hunting rig for me.

 

[perkj]

I don't plan on doing and type of rock crawling, but I need the larger tires for some of the creek crossings I have and the Army ruts out some of the roads with their vehicles. This is more of a hunting rig for me.

Rock crawling is NOT the only scenario you'd run into where you'd utilize the full travel of the suspension. This can happen on a simple looking rut. I personally think you'd be crazy and asking for the worst to run this without the straps to ensure a CV failure doesn't occur.

 

[zelatore]

I'd have to agree with perkj - these trucks are prone to lifting a wheel anyway when off-road; they simply don't flex like an old solid axle rig. I understand the biggest risk is to the rear CVs, but that's from talk with Lucky8, not direct experience. While I don't like the design of the limit straps I think I'd either keep them or design my own if running the spacers. Allegedly Lucky8 killed a few CVs before adding the straps.

 

[NickH]

Guess I'll order some straps then.

 

[techniq808]

Got mine installed with 32"s!

So I've been sitting on my Proud Rhino lift rods for a year debating pros/cons of the lift until they came out with this Kit. Ordered and installed with lift rods and had my Cooper Discoverer RTXs (275/65/18) installed the next day. Got some good pics included max extension while on the lift @NTB so you can see the limiting strap and the CV angle. Thanks to everyone for all the input on this thread, especially Zelatore (for his walkthrough in this thread) and Lucky8 of course for getting the kit to me before my tire install. And of course kudos to Lucky8 & Proud Rhino for making this kit available.

Only difference I had to Zelatore was I didn't cut the air lines, just cracked nut on the voss to let them depressurize before unbolting from the strut housing. I went through the engine bay to undo the back bolt for the front strut housing (just remove one heat shield on each side). Used a couple of socket wrench extensions and I found that a flex-head ratcheting 15mm wrench to be invaluable for accessing the upper strut bolts - especially in the rear. Also, as stated by everyone be careful with the compression sleeve in the Voss connector. I broke one in half, but luckily had a spare from replacing the air strut on my wife's L322 with one from Arnott (yes, I kept the voss connector from her old strut).

Pics for reference:

 

[techniq808]

Also Zelatore was spot on with using a lubricating spray for the 15mm bolts that come with the kit. I used Liquid Wrench silicone spray before installation and anytime I had to remove bolts during the process (yeah I got ahead of myself a few times).

Sent from my ME173X using Tapatalk

 

[perkj]

Also Zelatore was spot on with using a lubricating spray for the 15mm bolts that come with the kit. I used Liquid Wrench silicone spray before installation and anytime I had to remove bolts during the process (yeah I got ahead of myself a few times).

Sent from my ME173X using Tapatalk

Are you seeing any of the problems stated by the others in this tread? Mainly the inability to go down to access height?

 

[techniq808]

Are you seeing any of the problems stated by the others in this tread? Mainly the inability to go down to access height?

I'll let you know tomorrow. I just parked it after the tire install until I get my alignment hopefully tm.

 

[dsm02c]

(yes, I kept the voss connector from her old strut).

Considering LR wants $32 for each one, I'd say it's a good idea... I horde all the extras from changing out valve blocks...

 

[techniq808]

Are you seeing any of the problems stated by the others in this tread? Mainly the inability to go down to access height?

Unfortunately I experienced the same issue. I went to lower and it detected an obstruction and went into extended mode. I was then able to get return to normal height. It has to be the angle, but getting my lower strut in line to insert the bolt was no big deal - so I'm not sure.

 

[perkj]

Unfortunately I experienced the same issue. I went to lower and it detected an obstruction and went into extended mode. I was then able to get return to normal height. It has to be the angle, but getting my lower strut in line to insert the bolt was no big deal - so I'm not sure.

Too bad to hear. let us know if you figure out how to resolve.

 

[JAK]

Too bad to hear. let us know if you figure out how to resolve.

I think you have to use adjustable rods to get it to go into access mode and stay there. The height sensors are putting out a value that is being calculated as an obstruction by the suspension computer. By requesting access mode the computer thinks that the sensor should rotate to a value in range for access height, lets call that -60. With the spacers your only going to -40. The computer says no wait I am expecting at least -20 more, bing bong, obstruction, and into extended mode.

So what you end up doing with an adjustable rod is dialing in -20, or whatever the number is, to accommodate the physical lift. This tricks the computer into thinking that the sensors are reading stock values. When I changed the bump stops inside the airspring I had to play around with my adjustable rods quite a bit to be able to go down to access height. Which in my case is just shy of the bump stop.

You can also try changing the values in the computer but you can end up running into out of range values for the senors throwing sensor faults. Enough of those will fault and put you on the bump stops.

I am not sure if anyone makes adjustable rods anymore. Take this all with a grain of salt, I have no idea what the actual algorithm is doing. The change in upper strut to a-arm pivot points could also introduce more binding/friction causing a time to lower fault. I do know you can fault when raising the vehicle too slowly. Perhaps there is a portion of the algorithm that works in the opposite direction.