(i hope)
I am sure that most of this will be redundant to most of you seasoned vx.info patrons...or that most of it will seem juvenile for most of you offroad pros and experienced mechanics, but I feel that I (and many others) need a little help. I spent about 3 hours last night reading nothing but threads on lifts...all different kinds, here in the forums. I have several questions, and please don't take this as another guy saying "man I want to do that some day" and then never getting around to it. I finally got an everyday truck that I can rack the miles up on, so I am ready to verticalize the vx.
Basically, what I found is this:
There are 4 main types of vx lifts:
the calmini
Nice, all put together, though a bit overpriced and has some unnecessary stuff in it. Good for the novice looking to buy it and have a garage slap it on, but not anything a real car guy would go for. Kinda the way Windows works for the majority of computer users but most true techies prefer Linux or Mac. I found a great price on them here .
ball join flip
I found a wonderful thread here that pretty much holds the hand of even the most inexperienced mechanic and walks you through it. Nice, inexpensive, quality, low-time lift that will also give you more suspension down-travel and not require any major tweaking.
Torsion cranking
Being a non-mechanically-inclined person, I could use some explanation on this one. (or is it not a lift at all, just supplementary to the bj flip?)
OME 919s
Again, could use some help with this one. As far as I can tell this is simply replacement shocks and coils that are larger? Does this require much work/modifying? I found a good place to find an OME 3" suspension lift, though I am not sure if these are 912s or 919s. Ldub tells me you can get the 919s from INDY 4x4.
My Question In All This...
How much of this is redundant? I mean, if I get the calmini, it seems like I would be able to do the BJ flip and add an extra couple inches to that. Is that right? Is the BJ flip more or less a leveling modification, bringing the front suspension as high as the rear suspension (since there is no info on flipping the back ball joints, if such a thing even exists)? The OME suspension lifts (both 912s and 919s)...is that all there is to this lift? Getting the new suspension and installing it? What is the technical difference (aside from the obvious) with the heavy and medium duty coils? The difference in the 912s/919s? Could you make an uber lift with the calmini, ball joint flip, torsion cranking, AND 919s? (I told you that I was a mechanical newbie).
Speaking for myself and anyone else scrambling around the forums trying to decide which is best for them, I thank all of you pros in advance for your help.