LUVTruck.com

On the 8th I'm takin' my truck to my bosses and we're gonna install my body lift kit. 3" I'm gonna take my little digy camera and take some pictures of the process. Then I'm puttin' some 31" BFG All-Terrains that I got from a customer work last week. I'm stoked. When I'm done with that and get the new pump jet for the carb and the elec. ignition that "where's all the luv at" is struggling to get out of the truck to sell me I'm SOO taking it off-roading. I haven't been able too since I had the 225/70r14 tires on it. Not a whole lotta chance when you're up against K-5 blazers and 70's bronco's.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

well i hear you bout not bein able to offroad with tires like that but i take my luv out with passanger car tires still get places nobody thought i could
jus cant go through deep ruts lol bottoms out

well cool cant wait to see pics man good luck have fun

Where I went out, if you couldn't go through the deep stuff, you had to park it outta the way and hop in with someone else. no room to either side of the big hole so you had to go through it.You had to make it through this bog to get to the obstacles on the other side which is where all the fun stuff is and there's no other way to get to it since some asshole fenced off their land to either side. That's my bosses Bronco, him in the ford coat. He got stuck the night before, wouldn't have if he wouldn't have had bald tires.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

right on that sucks gettin stuck in the bogs but its fun once you get in town and see a dude you dont like and it flings mud on him lol

we should have a gallery of pics from 4wheeling and pics of people stuck in there luv's just an idea. what do you think?

That, and pulling other people out with our luvs'. I've seen it happen!

I think that would be a totally awesome idea.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

Notice:
You are going to need 9"x1/2" bolts for the the front cab mounts, i just finished my 3" lift this weekend (finally it only took 2 months!!!!!) the bolts that came with the lift are too short, like i said you will need 9" bolts, they should fit perfectly, well atleast they did on my truck. well i hope it works out for ya. oh yea 31's!!!???? your gonna have to do some fender trimming to get those to fit right!

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'80 Luv 4x4, 3" BL, 1.5" SL, 32/36, 2.25" exhaust...and fuzzy dice.
'95 Toyota 4Runner Limited 5-Speed.

I had 3" shackles, 3" body, and 31s on mine. I don't think they would have fit otherwise...

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Kuranosuke
Grampa's Driving:

1990 Luv 4X4 "Family Cab"
with the big 4 banger on 31" Dueller A/Ts

1989 Dodge Raider with some junk...

"Urban Fighter F.P.C" coming soon to a road near you...
got BOOBIES?

I have the 3" shackles too. And the fenders have already been trimmed back quite a bit before I bought it. I think I'll be ok on clearance.

http://www.luvtruck.com/Gallery/Richard ... c_002.html

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

I was planning on doing a body lift as well... what's the biggest tires i could clear with just a 3'' body lift? Maybe ill just wait till i can get a few inches of suspension too if its really not worth it

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It's better to have LUV'd and lost than to have never LUV'd at all.

hey narcisist where did you get that roll bar? that looks sweet... did you bolt it just to the bed, or right through to the frame or what?

The shackles only cost ~$20 at Autozone or the like. Just look for universal lift shackles. Install the shackles, crank the Torsion bars to match, and align the truck. Isuzu's are easy like that...

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Kuranosuke
Grampa's Driving:

1990 Luv 4X4 "Family Cab"
with the big 4 banger on 31" Dueller A/Ts

1989 Dodge Raider with some junk...

"Urban Fighter F.P.C" coming soon to a road near you...
got BOOBIES?

I actually got it from my brother-in-laws wrecked isuzu p'up. It's just bolted to the bed, but it's got a cover plate underneat that's twice as big as the place at the bottom of the bar, so to come off it has to take almost a square foot of sheet metal with it.

I actually took the middle light off cause I thought it looked a little goofy with three.I'm gonna get two more and a grill and headlight trim off an older luv and put two more in the grill.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

I was planning on doing a body lift as well... what's the biggest tires i could clear with just a 3'' body lift? Maybe ill just wait till i can get a few inches of suspension too if its really not worth it

No response?

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It's better to have LUV'd and lost than to have never LUV'd at all.

You can get around two inches of lift from adjusting the torsion bars on the from and some 3" shackle kits from Autozone for the back and that's really the only suspension lift you can get out of these things without serious modefication, i.e. solid axles of choppin' your frame a bit, (ask gordo). The 3" body cost about a hundred bucks from JC Whitney.

That gives you about 5" of total lift. That and trimming the fenders will give you enough room for 31's. But beyond that you go into some heavy changes for anything more.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

Damn... a friend of mine said i could clear 31's with a 3" body lift, but i was eyeing it the other day and i really couldnt see how. I dont really know if i wanna f*** with the torsion bars, and i also dont see myself doing any cutting. Shame, shame. Ill probably just wait till i can get sum suspension lift on er and raise it 5-6in

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It's better to have LUV'd and lost than to have never LUV'd at all.

The easiest way to get 6" of suspension lift is to find a messed up early 80's Toyota with solid axles and swap them onto your truck.

They have spring over axle setups so that's a couple inches right there, plus I think their springs will give you a little more. And lifting the toyota suspension is alot easier cause they have much more after-market part support.

I think you'll need everything from the axles down and all the steering linkage from the steering box down. If I'm wrong will an expert correct me?

I plan on doing this anyway, with my tax refund next year, so I might as well start asking questions now.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

You can also get the shackles at calmini.com , they have a lot of stuff for isuzu's there, your can even get heavier duty T-bars that will raise the front 2" or so, and thats without cranking on them, i 'm guessing that if you cranked them up a little you could get about 3" or 4" without any problems. combine that with 3" body lift and your looking at about 5"-6" in the front, and another 5"-7" in the back, thats pretty good for a lill ol Luv. i only have a 3" body lift and i can really tell the difference in ride height, imagine what an extra 3" or so would be like!

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'80 Luv 4x4, 3" BL, 1.5" SL, 32/36, 2.25" exhaust...and fuzzy dice.
'95 Toyota 4Runner Limited 5-Speed.

I don't think you can lift the front end too much even with different bars cause there's some bumps stops that keep that A-arms from lowering too much. Mine are touching on the truck now, So I can't lift it anymore without cutting them off, and I think that would be bad.

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Richard Barnes Salt Lake, Utah
1980 Luv Mikado 4X4
http://geocities.com/luvtruck2004/

I think you can get just about 3 inches in the front by cranking the torsion bars all the way and touching the bumpstops. More would have you riding on the bumpstops all the time. My 79 was like that when I got it, rode like crap and you could hear road noise way more. The front end was so tensed up, it took up all the noise and amplified it like a violin string. The only way to go further is to change the geometry up there. You can cut a bit off the stops, but you don't gain much from it without hitting metal. On the newer Isuzus you can move the upper ball joint below the UCA or even add spacers as well. This gives you more wheel travel by putting more space between the control arms. On a LUV though, the upper ball joint is not easily lowered into the UCA further. You might be able to cut up an upper control arm and build a spacer, but it would get ugly fast. I wonder if a later isuzu UCA might fit in place of the LUV part...

On the upgraded torsion bars. They don't get you any lift advantage over stock bars cranked more. What you get is a stiffer front end, which might help keep you from stuffing a tire into the fender. The stock bars will flex more, so you have longer wheel travel. For crawling over stuff, this is a big advantage. A stiff front end will have you on three wheels more often, and the one in the air is the one that spins. I've seen more than one torsion bar 4x4 that went to lighter bars in order to get better wheel travel.

I think 2.5-3 of torsion crank in the front, combined with 3 inches of body lift is about the best you can get for the front. The back is easier to go much more, but you need to get a solid axle under the front to keep it balanced.