Calmini 3" Suspension System - Review

[honduraspathfinder]

I had been driving my stock 91 2.7 Turbo Diesel (400,000 kms) here in Honduras as a professional working for an NGO in local community development efforts, for a couple of years now and decided to go ahead and upgrade the suspension with Calmini's full kit (NP12600) after a significant amount of research on this site. My thoughts are below.

 

 

Height

Significant difference. Easily 3-4" over stock. I personally chose to use 31x10.50 (Dunlop Grantrek MTs) on the stock steel rims, but have no doubt that 33s would easily fit all around as most seem to concur (although the 31s do rub a little on hard turns, but the steering stops haven't been touched). Clearance with these tires installed is much, much improved over stock. Many obstacles that I previously scraped over or had to avoid on a daily basis are now a non-issue.

 

Install

Very easy. I live in the middle of nowhere here with no other local vehicles or public transport, so if something gets broken or goes missing during an install - things get difficult. So, I went into the city (1.5 hrs away) and worked with an experienced mechanic to install the kit. Within 8 hours we installed the entire kit, plus two tie-rod ends, a new tie-rod and auxillary arm, in addition to (snapped off) stabilizer bar screws. The only tricky/disappointing part of the kit is the lack of the rods that connects the UCAs to the chassis. Removing the stock rods is a real pain, and we had to modify a couple of damaged washers to get the spacing right on the stock bars. Overall the CALMINI parts seem to be very high quality. The UCAs in particular are awe-inspiring. I certainly don't feel that the torsion bars are a necessity if you can avoid it. Just re-index. The springs are great and easy to pop in.

 

Ride

Woah. I feel like this thing is much stiffer, so, as would be expected, on-road handling is dramatically improved. Off-road driving is much more... rattly. Let's just say you won't be wondering where the loose pieces inside your vehicle are... they'll be audible. I'm somewhat disappointed with front-end flex and give - a real log wagon, alarmingly stiff. The back end flexes incredibly well and has much more give. If I throw all my 200lbs on the front end, it maybe dips 1/2" - 1", the back drops considerably more (double?) and is much smoother. To be fair, CALMINI warned me to expect 25% increases in rigidity, which is probably true for the rear, but I feel like 100% increases in the front end would be more accurate to expect.

 

Customer Service

I do not want to complain about customer service, but in my difficult international location, I was hoping for a little more cooperation from CALMINI. When I called, they were very knowledgeable, but over half of my e-mails seem to have been missed or ignored. The delivery was delayed nearly a month (I was told that it was due to a powdercoat that had to be reapplied), but I was never informed of the delay. Only after multiple e-mails over a two week period did I finally call to get an answer. Even then, I received no further updates. In addition, they did no send the two rear shocks. So in order to get by, I had to purchase a couple of Monroes until my US coworkers can bring down the Calmini units.

 

Overall, I would say that my experience with Calmini craftsmanship is excellent, but poor with customer service.

 

Overall

I live 15 minutes up a dirt/rock/mud road in a small rural community. The road occasionally becomes unpassable to 2WDs due to rutting, road surface conditions, etc, and even with a 4WD recent rain events had caused the rutting to begin to tickle my Pathfinder's underbits, so a lift became a priority since torsion bars were already reaching their aligneable limits. I was looking for a complete kit due to replace the very old, very used suspension components on my existing daily driver that both hauls me to remote mountain communities and takes my wife and little daughter into town to do some grocery s. I decided on a full kit to not put myself in a bind finding bits and pieces. Parts are very hard to come by here.

 

Overall I'm very pleased with the result.

 

If anybody else has thoughts or questions about their experience with these kits or its respective components, feel free to chime in below.

 

Before After

 

 

 

[patqx4]

That is one great looking truck! Makes me wish I had a wd21 too

[MY1PATH]

If your want a smoother ride on the trail with more flex front and rear go back to stock T-bars and buy some 3" or 4" Jeep Cherokee (XJ, not grand) lift springs from rough country.