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May b interested in lowerng the tank a bit. Does anyone know if therse a kit for it. TIA
Is there a lowering kit for my 05 Armada??
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So what do you consider a SUV like the ARMADA? But honestly i believe it's your ride.....do what you like with it!!!! I'm considering lowering my ARMADA too but most likely keep it stock height and just get some 22's with 305/ 45/ 22 tires on them.bluenoser said:To quote our fealess and most prolific poster...: cars are for lowering, trucks are for raising" ..good luck
there is a drop kit for the armada its at http://www.drivewire.com/performanceparts/intrax/nissanarmadaloweringsprings.html
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SUV=Truck.
4WD, high clearance, steel box frame, high mounted motor, off road capable, etc. Its designed to be a truck. Cars are low and designed to be street only. The entire design is directed toward this with motors mounted low, unibodies instead of steel frames, etc. Lowering a truck/SUV is like cutting a hole in the seat of your pants, sticking your head through the hole, and putting the legs over your arms, and saying it looks cool. You are trying to put a round peg in a square hole and call it cool. If one guy does it, sure, for the novelty of it. But soon, like the junky ground effects packages on civics just a couple years ago, everyone does it, and then it isn't cool anymore, just expensive, common, impractical, and resale value lowering.
As for the kit, last I read people were having problems getting the camber correct and were getting bad wear and tracking. The lift kits however have pretty much been perfected.
4WD, high clearance, steel box frame, high mounted motor, off road capable, etc. Its designed to be a truck. Cars are low and designed to be street only. The entire design is directed toward this with motors mounted low, unibodies instead of steel frames, etc. Lowering a truck/SUV is like cutting a hole in the seat of your pants, sticking your head through the hole, and putting the legs over your arms, and saying it looks cool. You are trying to put a round peg in a square hole and call it cool. If one guy does it, sure, for the novelty of it. But soon, like the junky ground effects packages on civics just a couple years ago, everyone does it, and then it isn't cool anymore, just expensive, common, impractical, and resale value lowering.
As for the kit, last I read people were having problems getting the camber correct and were getting bad wear and tracking. The lift kits however have pretty much been perfected.
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Technically, by lowering, if you were to put the armada in a windtunnel and measure Cd, lowering the armada would reduce drag, as well as, increase cornering ability by lowering center of gravity.
Check out Baja vehicles, lots of travel but not raised up.
Check out Baja vehicles, lots of travel but not raised up.
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True, but the reduced drag would be negligable. As for cornering, even lowered, it would handle like a pig. Good tires would do more than lowering for cornering improvement. Lots of the body roll isn't actually in the suspension but in our junky Conti-tires, and the roll hurts the handling more than the center of gravity. Look at an EVO. High center of gravity but it can handle as well as a Lambo due to the lack of body roll. Sure it will help, but again, its just trying to turn something into something it isn't, like putting a 4x4 raised suspension on a corvette. Sure you could, but why?andy said:
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You can also see them here:
http://www.allcityperformance.com/inlosp.html
http://www.allcityperformance.com/inlosp.html
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If you mean they look more like minivans, less rugged, and should be painted pink, then yes. Have fun at the window dressing sale.coleman said:
This thread reminds me of an Armada at the dealer that I bought mine. A guy came in and put $16k down on a loaded LE with dealer installed aftermarket equipment (4 headrest DVD's, 24's). The guy had the truck 2 days and the dealer had to have him return it because they couldn't secure financing for him (even with $16k down :O ). When he brought it back he had cut the factory springs, dropping the truck like 4-5 inches. The rear had an incredible amount of camber. He removed the roof rack and wind screen for the sunroof. None of the DVD screens worked so I have to assume he had already installed an aftermarket AV system. There were a few other things the salesman told me but I can't recall what they were. As it was returned the dealer could not sell it. They will have to spend thousands of dollars putting it back to stock. I just can't beleive the guy did so much to it in 2 damn days!
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I'd use it (adjustable system) for "shows" .. and for the occasional low ceilings or entry ways into garages ...
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Lowering isn't supposed to improve the ride. It will always degrade it. Lowering is meant to lower the center of gravity to help improve handling. However, most people that lower their ride do it for looks, not performance. And most cars are lowered all they should be for roads. Lowering a car further really makes it a track vehicle as rough roads will make it bounce too much wrecking handling and possibly you. Also, the ride becomes substantially worsened and many people don't do a proper wheel alignment after lowering, which gives the car that squashed look, again hurts ride, and promotes poor tire wear.Matrix said:
If you want to improve the "bouncy" ride, get firmer shocks and better tires. This will dramatically dampen the bounce and firm things up. It will also improve handling more than lowering will. Though lowering helps handling, the amount of improvement is slight compared to good tires and shocks.
Remember, lowering:
Hurts ride quality
Promotes fast tire wear
Lowers resale dramatically
makes you a target for law enforcement
hurts off road performance
hurts towing
marginally may or may not improve any handling
costs bucks you'll never see again. (Figure costs twice as much as the actual cost of the kit to compensate for the lost resale value)
Lotta negatives to achieve a "look" that a majority of the population finds comical and undesireable. Similar to a 12" skyjacker with 46" tire look. Mild lifts that are useful off road are one thing. Extremes are another.
Lower trucks are OK for ones designed to be lowered from the factory for safety to compensate for supped up powerplants like such as the lightning, SRT series, Cayenne, etc. but most are just regular SUVs/Trucks that someone slapped a kit on and didn't properly integrate the entire suspension.
I'd say think before you dump your cash. I'd rather get a killer system I could put in my next vehicle, better rims and tires, performance parts, etc. than a dopey lift kit.
A lot of good points here.. I couldn't see lowering an Armada other than for the purposes of making it a show vehicle. I lowered my Mustang for a combination of looks and performance (well, primarily for looks92TripleBlack said:
) but had to change several things and have more to do to maximize the performance. By adding adjustable caster / camber plates, changing out the steering rack busings to polyeurethane and swapping the tie rod ends to more adjustable pieces I was able to correct the geometry issues created by the drop and eliminate the noticeable camber. I have not switched the shocks and struts but will need to in order to see the rest of the benefit. A lot of guys will just cut springs or slap on aftermarket units without thinking about all that is really affected by the change.Attachments
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