Thread: Lift recommendations for 2007 hilux

Which… all depends who does your WOF.

The first line of the springs/shocks section in the new regs says LVVTA is not required as long as “the springs or shock absorbers are direct replacements.” Which leaves plenty of vagueness for overzealous inspectors to decide that what you’ve replaced your springs with are not direct replacements for OEM and therefore need LVVTA. i.e. some will let it go, others won’t.

When I brought in my ute with Lovells springs (thicker, higher), I had a terrible time trying to convince the WOF inspectors the setup did not breach the thresholds as set out in the LVVTA documentation. I won, but it took a week. The 50mm thing was a big deal, and was used as a reason to say it requires certification because they need to do the rollover calculation. (My vehicle was actually 45mm higher, go figure.) Whilst technically it is correct to say there is no specific height threshold, 50mm is used as a blunt instrument to push back on 4WDs that sit on high springs without other related mods.

The other thing we haven’t mentioned is insurance.

If you don’t tell them you’ve modified the suspension you can run into problems if a loss adjuster identifies an unspecified lift. A lot of guys will choose not to say anything because they think it’s going to increase their premium, but with mine there was a negligible change of something like $12 a year.

I guess we can argue until the cows come home about WOFs and LVVTA but the important thing is that you don’t do something that ends up landing you in deep shit if you have an accident and hurt someone. And as mentioned above that’s all about making sure that if you do substantially lift your vehicle with higher springs, that you’ve attended to all the other mechanical requirements to keep the vehicle functioning safely and reliably. Which is expensive. Which is why I would fit underbody protection and drive carefully as a first line of defence.