body lifting

[03fx4ont]

So i just got a ranger and i love it its a 4.0 automatic fx4 completely stock besides a small system i put in it. she lacks the ground clearance so i looked into some suspension kits and they are a bit out of my price range. i see quite a few of you guys on here with 3 inch bodylifts and 35's. 35 seems likea good size but i need to know what the milage is going to be like. currently im getting about 400kms- a full tank. also how do the u joints like that angle? do you go through u joints quickly? does the package come with axle shims? if not what did u do to resolve that problem? For the front end, what bottoms out first? controll arm to bumpstop or tire to wheel well? can the ball and cv joints handle it? i know this is alot to ask but id hate to do the lift and everything goes for a crap this is my daily driver.

Any info helps thank you.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

With a body lift everything on the frame stays where it is your only lifting the body, so all the angles and stuff stay the same as stock. as for fitting 35's I think you'll find that most if not all people are running the suspension lift's and body lifts to clear the 35's. you can do it with a 3" BL but be prepared to have the tires crush fenders and rip of valence/fancy fender peices.

And without regearing I would suspect you would proabbly take a pretty big hit in both the MPG's and driveability of your truck... like alot! if you wann run 35's its gonna cost ya. You can get away easily with 33's and a 3" BL with less of an impact on your truck. But for 35's your gonna need:
Body Lift
Suspension Lift
Regear Both axles to 4.56 or higher
Tires
Rims
and probably some dealer only work like recalibrating the speedometer.

Edit: If its your daily driver (unless you take it off road from time to time) why lift it? Your only gonna hurt MPG's and stuff by doing this. personally I think rangers look good with 31's and little else changed on them... I park next to other rangers with the stock tires and mine looks 100% more badass.

 

[ChrisR1S]

You beat me to it

 

[Scotty J.]

2003 should be fine with a 3" body lift and 33" AT's, as mentioned above. That's the route I took. As far as the speedo, you should be able to pick up an SCT-3 Tuner and have someone program it to compensate for your bigger tires. You'll also want the tuner if you go with engine mods, they can also reprogram the shifting point (IMHO the best part of the tune) as well.

My 02 Stock:

After a 3" body lift and BFG AT KO's 285/75 R16:

 

[03fx4ont]

Thanks for the help original ranger, maybe the 35's are a bit overkill i do take it offroading quite a bit and it does some serious work already with the 31" mud kings so maybe ill just go with the 33's get a little more clearance andd look as badass as scotty j's truck. besides the speedo being off how did you find the rest of the truck took it scotty j? do you have enough torque to crawl around with the 4.10:1 axle ratio?