Increasing load capacity

JamesC · Apr 16, 2008

Ok I am beefing up my truck and I'm looking into the rear now, I would like to keep ride height the same But I am ok with a slight lift, I am looking to put in 63" chevy leafs and an explorer 8.8. Now the question is if I mount the 8.8 over the axle could I keep the ride height close to stock and get the strength of the bigger axle and leafs? or would the over axle lower it?

Any suggestions, Ideas and opinions would be great!

94 4.0 5-spd 4wd ranger · Apr 16, 2008

From what i hear the chevy leafs have about the same arch height as the ranger leafs so in turn they dont actually lift the truck all that much. However in order to install them you do need extended shackles so if im not mistaken thats where most of your lift with the chevy leafs comes from. But im not entirely sure, check in the other threads nd the tech library. Also if the truck your talking about doing it in is the one on your profile, some of the users that do the chevy swap ditch their 4wd blocks so this may work out on your 2wd

97BlackBetty · Apr 16, 2008

Actually, the chevy 63's will net you about 2 inches of lift. If you were to accompany that with the chevy 2" drop shackles (lift a Ranger 2") you would ride near stock height. I you were to leave the rear end stock adn swap in an Explorer axle spring under, it will drop your truck roughly 4 inches. So by going spring under, and chevy 63's with extended shackles, you would ride at or near stock height.

metalmacguyver · Apr 17, 2008

I am pretty sure that you need shackles. If you dont use them, the rear spring hanger and the stock shackle will force the spring to be further forward and will move the axle forward. That leads to problems with the drive shaft and where the wheel ends up in the wheel well....

Increasing load capacity

JamesC

15+ Year Member

94 4.0 5-spd 4wd ranger

15+ Year Member

97BlackBetty

15+ Year Member

metalmacguyver

Yeah, I built that.

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