Siena:

Grinding off the welded spring platform, and welding it back to the strut, say 2" higher up. Welding a spring platform to a tube with an oil or gas-filled damper. If that gets hot enough, the ram could actually explode, and the "mechanic" would likely get one heck of a shock. What do you do about the damper ram? With the car's stock height, at full rebound, the ram is at its maximum extended length. What do you think the results would be, if you raise the spring platform by 2"? You hit a pothole at even moderate speed, there's no rebound left!

This is when the car takes an excursion off-road. The wheels will literally leave the road surface, if the car's in mid-bend when this occurs, what do you think would happen next?

bebrief:

@Siena, in my own case, I grinded off the welded spring platform like you said, and welding it back about 1" higher to the strut. And to avoid any damage to the tube it was colled off with water as the welding is done. This works perfectly well. As I said, a good mechanic workshop does this well. If you reside in Abuja then visit Apo mechanic village.

icemann:


Traction control Kicks in. And you don't roll over   

That was a joke LOL

Bro, you don kolo.

Wallie:

See the post below.


With regards to traction, I don't think that would change except as it relates to your tire and suspension choice, and to the extent you need an alignment. If you have too much negative or positive camber, you might not have enough tire ground contact.

The braking will also change as your car will pitch, roll and dip more when you step on the brakes but going with a suspension kit instead of just springs can solve that. I guess I also left out changes to the suspension geometry. With a lift, you will probably need to re-align the wheels to get the right camber, caster and toe.

bebrief:

@OP, I think one can justifiably raise the base of his/her car, especially if it was bought fairly-used. For example a 2001 Ki Optima that has been used by the original buyer must have suffered suspension slack over years of use. This wuld have naturally reduced the CofG of the car, making it consume more fuel nd unfit to be driven on bad roads.

One thing you can do if you operate on a slim budget is to pad the shock with a rubber padding. Or better still you can rise the shock by adjusting the welding of the spring to a higher level. This can be done at a good mechanic workshop. However, the best option is to change the entire spring, if you can afford it.

bebrief:

@Siena, in my own case, I grinded off the welded spring platform like you said, and welding it back about 1" higher to the strut. And to avoid any damage to the tube it was colled off with water as the welding is done. This works perfectly well. As I said, a good mechanic workshop does this well. If you reside in Abuja then visit Apo mechanic village.

bebrief:

@Wallie, I have done the above on my car and I have used it very satisfactorily to travel to the east and back this Xmas.

It's either you don't understand what i'm saying or you know little or nothing bout a vehicle.

bebrief:

However, I disagree with you that the spring will be overloaded. You will agree with me tht. Spring naturally loses its tensile strength over time, nd what you're simply doing by adjusting the spring is regaining lost tensile strength as well as achieving your desired purpose of raising the car base.

akin33:

It is a good idea 2 raise ur car base a little. If ur car base touches ground in a bad roads or galoping, jst raise it a bit in order 2 avoid damaging. Especially d tank and boot.

Ikenna351:

@Somorin.

No one is saying it cant be possible to properly modify a vehicle's factory suspension.

datola: One car that I like is Toyota Avalon from 2005 upwards, but my problem is that their tires usually touch the body of the car. That's the only thing I hate about the car as it makes the car look so ugly looking at it from the tires.

@all, please how can I overcome this?

Siena: Raising a vehicle is not only bad practice, it's also dangerous. You're raising the centre of gravity, which makes the car unstable at speed, more vulnerable if driven in cross winds or bad roads with negative camber. A sudden change of direction (like swerving to avoid an obstacle) could cause the car to over turn.

The suspension of an automobile is a safety-related aspect, the ride height is set buy the manufacturers, based upon extensive testing, involving several hundreds of hours of R&, and millions of $$$. Do you honestly feel you can better the factory settings, by raising the height artificially?

Siena:

Replace the springs with new ones, as the old ones may have become soft, and are sagging. Also fit brand new gas dampers, as these resist pitch and dive much better.

Are you sure the tyres fitted are the correct size? They may well be too big.

domack99: Hello House, just want to find out if their could be negative effect by raising the base of a car away from the ground. And what exactly do you adjust when raising the base and is their any alternative means or is their any car that cannot be raise or not advise to raise.
your comments and advice will be helpful

Inception:
SiENA!

Loads of opinions on this thread, which is a very good one by the way.

To OP, the answer depends on what vehicle we are talking about and to what level you are going to go with your modifications. One caveat, with suspension, one thing affects the other as they are infinitely related. So say you add tires with a bigger circumference as is common in Nigeria, then you've affected the designed sprung weight of the car, many nasty things can occur at speed when the wheels start oscillating up and down since the shocks might not be able to deal with the extra weight of the now bigger tires.

CAR:
Most cars, except for a relative few like the Audi All Road, are not conducive to being raised.

Pick Up Trucks:
Most pick up trucks, especially those with solid axles can easily be raised with a combination of body and suspension lifts. I had a Toyota Pick Up Truck , that I installed a 6 inch body lift, 6 inch suspension lift and the new tires also gave it an additional 4 inches of lift.

Did I affect the center of gravity? Loads! Did I once felt unsafe while driving it? Absolutely not!

So what car are you thinking of raising?

PS: I smile when I see a lot of people with their new fancy cars in Nigeria and wonder how they manage to get around unless they plan their trips carefully.