Difference between lifts?

[Ranger Kip]

Whats the difference between a Body Lift and a Suspension Lift, other than the obviousness that they are two different lifts that deal with suspension AND Body lifting.

 

[legoms013]

The method of how they "lift" the vehicle: either by making the body farther from the chassis or by dropping down the suspension away from the chassis.

Oh and price too.

 

[Ranger Kip]

I meant in detail.... I knew that information =P Like whatsthe advantage and disadvantage to both?

 

[ThatGuy]

I was going to be a smartass but lots of the folks on here run body lifts. They are OK for being able to fit a bigger tire or to give a little more room when doing engine/tranny swaps. Purely cosmetic, does nothing to improve off road ability.

The disadvantages to a body lift are mostly to do with the prople that run them. Lemme explain that, a body lift is a cheap way to get a bigger tire on. This somehow appeals to the tightwads that don't wanna do it the "right" way. Instead of spending $1500 to buy a suspension kit or $200 to buy a real body lift, you get people that tell you to use products that have never been intended to be used as body mounts for a vehicle. This, in turn, creates hazardous vehicles not only for you and your passengers but for others that share the roadway. If you're going to do something, do it the right way.

Suspension lifts are the way to improve the off-road ability of your vehicle. Not only do they lift you up so you can fit the bigger tires, they also improve the ride, flex, and handling of the vehicle. You need to take into consideration that the suspension lift will affect other areas of the vehicle which may need to be addressed. Number one for the RBV--steering, a couple of others are driveshaft mods and brake lines. The only real downside to the suspension lift is the price.

 

[trail B2]

The good part about a body lift is it's affordable and it doesn't change your handling.The bad part is it doesn't change your off road capability except a little bigger tires.Suspension lifts are better on all accounts especially the full ones with radius arms.You have to be OK with spending more on a lift than your gen 1 is worth and will be worth with it on.

 

[nate09]

Suspension lifts are the way to improve the off-road ability of your vehicle. Not only do they lift you up so you can fit the bigger tires, they also improve the ride, flex, and handling of the vehicle. You need to take into consideration that the suspension lift will affect other areas of the vehicle which may need to be addressed. Number one for the RBV--steering, a couple of others are driveshaft mods and brake lines. The only real downside to the suspension lift is the price.

this.

IMO theres nothing wrong with a body lift if done properly. the goal of a lift is to be able to fit larger tires and a body lift is a cost effective way of doing it. but like ThatGuy said, a suspension lift will improve the ride, flex, handling, and overall off road capability of your vehicle (the overall goal of lifting and putting bigger tires on your truck).

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Except for the 95% of people that have run body lifts with absolutely no problems what so ever. The other 5% improperly installed them and it cause some problems or they Modified the lift in such a way that makes it unsafe anyways...

I have run a 3" body lift on my 84 for 3 years now, I don't do any hard core wheeling but you kow what. It gave me room for bigger off roading tires, It made the truck look better after the tires went on, and I have SO MUCH room in my engine bay its not funny! I recently did a 1" hockey puck lift on my 99 and it gave me even more room, I actually test fitted a 35 under it. Also there is no change to the body mounts... all your doing is putting a 2-3" spacer thats the same size as the body mounts between the body and frame.

Body lifts aren't bad... people with money just think they are really bad or people that just go and read the horror stories of people that didn't put them on right or did something stupid that probably would have resulted in some sort of injury anyways. Suspension lifts are better then a Body lift I agree, it can improve your off road capability greatly and give you more flexability and the ability to put on larger tires but it will affect street performance negatively. You will have more body roll because you moved all of the trucks weight up and not the just sheetmetal body... But a suspension lift will allow you to go places you couldn't if you had a stock truck or a body lifted one.

It really depends on what you are going to be doing with the truck, If you just want room for bigger tires then a Body lift is the way to go, if your going to be doing hard core off roading I would go with a suspension lift, if your going to use your truck for any type of towing or loading either a smaller body lift or leave it be. A suspension lift usually has softer suspension components and not really meant for towing...

 

[Nhaz]

I am Not trying to talk down to people here but I am seeing almost pointless arguments.

A body lift is important if you want larger tires.

Why? One of the primary reasons for the suspension lift is to move the chasis away from the ground.

Secondly you generally want larger tires to increase the distance from the ground on top of the suspension lift.

But at this point the tires are now going to smack into the body or not fit at all inside the wheel wells.

This is the true purpose of the body lift. To give the tires and suspension the space to flex without hitting the body. Fender cut outs help in this.

So in effect you want to keep the body lift to a minimum possible while still allowing for flex. This will also help keep the center of balance low as possible for what ever you have set up.

 

[Ranger Kip]

I want to increase my offroading ability, keep my ability to tow (as little as it may be with such a badly done towing system on first gens), AND keep my ability to pull around 15 or 20 haybales in the bed.

From the sound of it, a bodylift is useless for me, I'd be better off with a used suspension lift, because there is no way in heck I will ever jeopardize my passengers, myself, OR my truck for some looks. Function over Form.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

I want to increase my offroading ability, keep my ability to tow (as little as it may be with such a badly done towing system on first gens), AND keep my ability to pull around 15 or 20 haybales in the bed.

From the sound of it, a bodylift is useless for me, I'd be better off with a used suspension lift, because there is no way in heck I will ever jeopardize my passengers, myself, OR my truck for some looks. Function over Form.

Yeah except a Body lift is in no way dangerous...

In your case... I would... wait what size tires do you want to run?

If it were me... I would go with explorer springs in the back and 2" lift springs in the front. So you can run 31's with that. and if you add a 2" body lift or get 1" hockey pucks you will also have much wanted room under the hood.

 

[Ranger Kip]

I run 15's for my 4x4, came from the factory that way, and I can fit up to 16, maybe 17, depends. =P

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Tire size....not rim size.

 

[Ranger Kip]

oh, I never thought to size my tires, I am gonna guess they are 31s because that is stock for rangers right?

If so, I can run a 31, 32, or a 33, I could do a 34 pending on rim size.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

oh, I never thought to size my tires, I am gonna guess they are 31s because that is stock for rangers right?

If so, I can run a 31, 32, or a 33, I could do a 34 pending on rim size.

No rim size really only has to do with the brakes. A 2wd came stock with 14" rims and 4x4's have 15's. 15's are cheap to get tires for in the standard (31, 33, 35 and so on) sizes and 16's you can get a good selection of metric (235, 265, 315 and so on) sizes.

I ask what tire size you are running and what tire size you want to run because it will help us decide what route you should take... Also tire size is not dependent on rim size, you can have 18" rims with 31's or 33's or you can have 15" rims and still get 31's or 33's.

A stock gen 1 ranger came with I think 215/70R15's which is about a 26" tall tire. You may have 235/75R15's which is about a 28 or 29" tall tire. 31's don't fit under a stock gen 1 ranger.

I think you would be happy with some 31's I think they look pretty darn good on gen 1 rangers... With a 2" lift it would look perfect. Get some 15x8 rims with 5 on 4.5" bolt patterns and 3.75 or 4" backspacing and 31x10.50R15 tires.

 

[ThatGuy]

Instead of spending $1500 to buy a suspension kit or $200 to buy a real body lift, you get people that tell you to use products that have never been intended to be used as body mounts for a vehicle.

I stand by my comment. I have no real problems with an actual body lift kit per say. They are manufactured by companies that put actual R&D into coming up with materials that will function properly as a spacer between the frame of a vehicle and the body. I do have problems with Joe Schmoe telling someone to use products that are intended for something completely different as a spacer for the vehicle in which they will be driving on the road.

Using the wrong product can lead to the body shifting which can lead to interference with steering controls, shifters, etc. I have run them in the past but after spitting 2 spacers out on the trail, my vehicles will never get another one. I have seen many types of "engineered" BLs over the years, most of which I wouldn't ride in.

Some examples that I've seen: conveyor belt rollers, galvanized pipe unions, hockey pucks, pressure treated wood (seriously! at least it was PT), and cutting round or square tube and welding it between body & frame. ALL of these are bad. I'm all about budget wheeling but I'm also about doing something correctly. Body lift kits are cheap enough. If you can't afford to get one, then save until you can.










Body lift wreck