Golf Cart Lift Kit Types Explained

Different Golf Cart Lift Kits: Types, Heights and Fitment For Your Cart

Estimated read time: 6 minutes

Key Points:

• Understanding what a golf cart lift kit is
• Detailed overview of different lift kit types
• Lift kit heights and their tire fitment on your cart

Thinking about adding bigger, meatier tires to your golf cart or upgrading to larger golf cart wheels? Maybe you’ve dreamt of being able to drive alongside your ATV in the woods or at the lake house; or tackling larger more difficult terrain. Or maybe you just want a softer, more cushy ride on a set of taller street comfortride golf cart tires.

Whatever the case is, if you are going to add LIFTED golf cart wheels to your ride, chances are you know you will need a golf cart lift kit to do it. And we are here to help make sure you make the best decision when lifting your golf cart!

What is a Golf Cart Lift Kit?

A golf cart lift kit is an engineered set of parts you install on your golf cart that boosts the cart's height up giving you an additional 3”, 4”, 5", 6" or 8” of height. Lift kits provide your cart with higher ground clearance (for driving over rough terrain), a wider and more stable riding stance, and the ability to fit offset wheels and larger tires on your cart. Read on to learn about lift kit types, lift kit heights, and fitment for your brand of golf cart.

There are several different types and heights of golf cart lift kits. In the sections below, we will discuss each of the lift kit types for golf carts, followed by typical lift kit heights and their capabilities. But first we will answer: what is a golf cart lift kit?

Golf Cart Lift Kit Types

Drop Spindle Lift Kits

Drop Spindle Features:

• Easy to install and affordable
• Reutilizes your cart's standard suspension
• Replaces and increases factory spindle length
• Provides wider stance and ride stability
• Allows you to fit larger wheels and tires on your cart

Drop spindle lift kits are the second most popular of all lift kit types. They are easy to install, affordable, and utilize your cart’s standard suspension. Spindle Lift Kits/ “Drop Spindle” Lift Kits replace and increase your cart’s spindle length and size, giving your cart a wider stance and increased stability. The wider stance that Spindle Kits provide also allows you to fit larger “offset wheels” on your golf cart which will open up the possibility of using larger sized (wider and taller) tires on your golf cart as well. 

Basically, Spindle Lift Kits enable you to add those big custom wheel and tire kits you’ve always wanted on your golf cart, but your ride quality / smoothness will remain similar to factory. We sell Spindle Lift Kits in both economy and heavy-duty styles, depending on how hard you plan on riding your golf cart once it is lifted.

A-Arm Lift Kits

A-Arm Features:

• Beefier than Drop Spindle kits
• Replaces your cart's entire front suspension
• Provides same wide stance as Drop Spindle Lift Kits
• Offers smoother ride and larger tire accommodation

Golf Cart A-Arm lift kits are beefier than Drop Spindle kits and almost entirely replace your golf cart’s front suspension for a smoother and more comfortable ride and the ability to accommodate larger tires than you could on a stock setup. 

A-Arm lift kits have been the best selling lift kit type on our website since 2021, as people continue to use their golf carts for much more than just a round of golf. Heavy-Duty style A-Arm lift kits feature larger diameter circular-tube construction to give your cart added rigidity (which looks amazing as well).

This lift kit type is easy to install, and dollar-for-dollar, give you the best performance for the price.

Drop Axle Lift Kits

Drop Axle Features:

• Replaces stock front axle with drop-axle design
• Less expensive than Spindle Lift Kits
• Provides nice lift height, but not as smooth of a ride as A-Arm or Spindle Kits

Drop Axle lift kits are a great economy lift kit solution. These kits replace your stock front axle with a “drop-axle” design. A drop axle lift kit is designed with a longer than stock radius that tapers down to the stock spindles on your golf cart. This lengthens your axle height and allows you to replace your front axle while reusing your stock spindles. 

Most Axle Lift Kits are less expensive than Spindle Lift Kits, but will not ride quite as smooth as a Spindle or A-Arm lift kit will. While they are not hard to install, Drop Axle lift kits do require slightly more time to install than Spindle Lift Kits as well.

Block Lift Kits

Block Features:

• Economy style, quick and easy to install
• Adds steel blocks under stock suspension
• Rides the roughest of any lift kit

Economy style block lift kits are easy to install and give your cart and instant boost in height. Typically 4” in height, Block Lift Kits add block-shaped steel pieces under your stock suspension to give your cart a skyward boost! 

This style of lift kit is inexpensive and effective, but only come in 4 inch height and won’t give you as much flexibility as Drop Spindle, Drop Axle or A-Arm lift kits. While effective, Block Lift Kits do also tend to provide a rougher overall ride quality.

Long Travel Lift Kits

Features:

• Most expensive and capable
• Independent front and rear suspension with long coil springs

Long travel lift kits are the most expensive and most capable lift kits you can buy for your golf cart. These kits are not needed for most daily types of golf cart or neighborhood use. What makes long travel kits so capable is their independent front and rear suspension systems (with long bouncy springs). The extended springs found on long travel kits are used as shock absorbers when driving over extremely harsh or rough terrain.

Long travel kits are typically sold in lift sizes of 6", 7", and 8" heights. These long-travel kits are often referred to as Extreme Duty Golf Cart Lift Kits. Another kit type in this category is the coil-over lift kit. Coil-over lift kits are similar to Long Travel kits... but tend to only have an independent front suspension with a static/fixed rear suspension setup.

Now that we have a good understanding of the different styles of lift kits that can be added to your golf cart, let’s shift our focus to the typical lift kits heights.

Golf Cart Lift Kit Heights

The most Common Lift Kit Heights

3” Lift Kits

3” Lift Kits are popular when adding up to 20” tires to your golf cart and come in many of the same exact styles that 6” lift kits come in (A-Arm, Spindle Lift, and Drop Axle). 3” Kits are the perfect height lift kit when you don’t want your golf cart to be much higher than stock, but would like to have the flexibility of adding a rear seat (extra weight on the back) and taller tires, without rubbing.

4” Lift Kits

4” Lift Kits have grown quite a bit in popularity since 2023. This lift kit height is important, because it allows most golf carts to fit 20" to 22" tall tires, while still fitting into an at home covered garage. These mid-sized lift kits used to be an economy option, mainly offered as Block Style lift kits, that are easy to install and allow all carts to fit up to 20” golf cart tires without rubbing.

More recently, many golf cart accessory companies, such as MadJax, have been making A-Arm lift kit offerings in the 4-inch size.

6” Lift Kits

The most popular lift kit size on the market. 6” Lift Kits enable all golf cart models (EZ-GO, Yamaha, Club Car and more) to fit any of the wheels and tires available on our website. These kits can typically accept up to a 23” all terrain style tire, and give you plenty of extra space in your wheel well when riding around with extra passengers on the back of your golf cart.

Other Lift Kit Heights

5” Lift Kits

You might be asking yourself, “Why did we list 5” lift kits after 6” lift kits on our list?” - to which we’d like to say, “Great question!”. 5” lift kits just aren’t as popular as other heights in our industry. We currently don’t list any 5” golf cart lift kits on our website, but these kits can typically accept up to 22” tires on Club Car and Yamaha Golf carts; and up to 23” tires on EZ-GO golf carts.

7” and 8" Lift Kits

7" and 8" Lift Kits are considered Extreme Duty or Long Travel lift kits. These kits are designed for use in the most extreme environments and will typically be a long-travel or coil-over design (to help absorb the impacts of the big bumps / rocks they are used to drive over).

Matching Lift Kits with Tire Heights for Your Golf Cart Brand

Below, please find a list of general tables we have made for you (by golf cart type) so that you know which wheels and tires you will be able to fit on the lift kit setup you choose for your golf cart:

EZGO Tire Fitment & Lift Kit Height Needed

EZGO golf carts are the most forgiving when it comes to having space for wheels and tires. They can accept larger tires and wheels on a stock setup than most other golf carts (usually up to 20.0 inches without a lift kit).

The table above applies to most EZGO models, including:

• EZGO TXT / Medalist
• EZGO RXV
• EZGO Valor
• EZGO Liberty
• EZGO Marathon

Club Car Tire Fitment & Lift Kit Height Needed

Club Car golf carts are a little tighter on extra wheel well space on a factory height setup, so using tires taller than 20" will definitely require a lift kit on most Club Car models:

The table above applies to most Club Car models, including:

• Club Car DS
• Club Car Precedent
• Club Car Onward / Tempo
• Club Car Carryall

Yamaha Golf Cart Tire Fitment & Lift Kit Needed

Yamaha golf carts Pre-2007 are also tighter on space, and will need a lift for tires above 20" tall.

But newer model Yamaha golf carts, such as the DRIVE (G29) and Drive-2, can fit up to a 20.5” tire with no lift kit needed:

Evolution Golf Cart Tire Fitment & Lift Kit Needed

While Evolution golf carts are newer on the scene since 2018, they do offer these carts from the factory in both non-lifted and lifted variants. With the latest 2024 Evolution D5 golf cart coming in the LIFTED format 90% of the time when delivered to customers. 

Non-Lifted Evolution carts can fit up to a 18.5” tire with no lift kit needed.:

Please note, since Evolution golf carts have disc brakes, you will need to make sure your wheels have a minimum offset of 3+4 (-15mm) in order to clear your brakes.

Conclusion

There are only a few things you really need to think about before you lift your golf cart:

• What size tires do you want to fit on your cart?
• Will you be parking your golf cart inside? (If so, we recommend staying at 4" lift height or below.)
• How high do you want your cart to sit?

Once you answer these key questions, you are ready to add the perfect lift kit to your cart. Be sure to check out all of our Club Car Lift Kit, EZGO Lift Kit & Yamaha Golf Cart Lift Kit offerings for your cart today.

Written by Alex Sturwold

Alex Sturwold is the President of Golf Cart Tire Supply, and founder of the Golf Cart Sellers marketplace. Alex is a lifelong gearhead and vehicle expert, bringing over two decades of practical experience to GCTS including serving major industrial companies, such as Carlisle, during his years as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. A resident of beautiful Arizona, Alex enjoys hitting the trails in side-by-sides, hiking, shooting guns and driving anything with a motor strapped to it. You can find him on LinkedIn