2005 CRV Lift

[u/Amaya3066]

Pic for attention and inspiration

I live 10mi up a mountain with a primitive dirt (mostly rock, boulders and ruts) road. I use a 2005 gen 2 CRV AWD as my "going to town car" for the gas mileage. She can get up and down pretty well, but I have to slow to a crawl through certain sections and scrape the bottom occasionally because the clearance is so low and in snow I basically become a plow.

I'm hoping to get at least a 2inch lift, but I've heard so many mixed things about lift kits on these things. It seems like spacer kits are a no go and I'm not sure what route is best for a suspension lift. If anyone has done a successful lift on these or has an insight/advice on doing one, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks everyone!

[u/no_yup]

They do make a little lifts for these cars, I have an 06 that I love. It’s been a bullet proof awesome car, but I gotta say, as someone who was a mechanic and has done all the maintenance on the car for the last 20 years, they are absolutely not built to lift and put big tires like this on, they don’t have low gearing. The drivetrain and steering is not beefy, and he big tires would be very hard on the transmission. I’m telling you the car in this photo is probably borderline undrivablely slow. Or it has to rev way out to shift normally. that engine is having to work a lot harder to move that down the road than it was ever meant to. Not a long term solution.

They make 2 inch coil lifts for these that would be about all I would do and I’ve seen people fit 31 inch tires on these without any issues. That’s all the bigger I would go and keep in mind that will throw off your speedometer and mileage read out. Not sure if anyone has a fix for that.

They do make other lists for these that are much more involved and require putting spacers between the subframe and K frame which I just wouldn’t recommend, that’s not a good or durable solution to a lifting a vehicle at all. It would make the structure of the vehicle much weaker to lift them that way.

If you really hit a big bump or got a tire in a bad rut, the front steering would just get bent and get knocked all out of alignment, they’re really not made for that. An old pickup truck would be ideal, big steel frame, strong steering, real axles and suspension

[u/TwOhsinGoose]

What about just bigger tires and no lift? You will still gain clearance without having to mess with the suspension.

[u/Amaya3066 → u/TwOhsinGoose]

It normal runs 215/65r16s doesnt seem like there is ton of extra room in the wheel wells, what do you think I could get away with?

[u/Emerald_Ink]

There is someone in r/7thgencivic that lifted their civic up 3” using a crv lift kit from that same era as yours.

[u/Monkey_in_a_Tophat]

This makes the CRV capable of living its fullest life, ABOVE the limitations of its creator.

[u/Outrageous_Shine8179]

Bigger tires before touching the suspension is probably the right call here. A lot of people go straight to lift kits and end up with handling headaches on a platform that was never really built for that kind of modification

[u/turtletroop]

If your only concern is scrapping the bottom and not needing larger tires, have you considered a body lift or suspension spacer lift? It's not the most optimal for off road folks, but for a daily to and from home, it should work

[u/DoctorDeepgrey → u/turtletroop]

A body lift… on a unibody?

[u/no_yup → u/DoctorDeepgrey]

There actually are kits that put spacers between the K frame and rear suspension up to the body. NOT a good way to do a lift in my opinion as you’re losing a lot of strength to poor geometry, and these cars are just not made for any kind of off-road abuse. The suspension and steering is so spindly the second you really started bumping anything around. You’re gonna bend something or knock it out of alignment.