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Homemade body lift???


bullitproofranger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2008
Messages
151
City
JO CO, MO
Vehicle Year
1992
Transmission
Manual
I don't know if this would be the right forum for this or not, but I plan on doing a body lift on my ranger (90' 2wd Long bed) for better tire and off road clearance, but right now the money I have needs to go towards fixing my truck, and I ain't sure I would have enough for a commercial lift kit so I had an idea, what about taking several 1/8 thick by 3 inch wide washers, had them tack welded on the sides of the washers, and then bought some longer than stock Grade 8 bolts to mount the body to the frame, would that work safely, I wouldn't think it would be any worse than those plastic body lift spacers that come with the kit from performance accessories.
 
16 washers stacked and all tacked together sounds pretty redneck to me. That I would believe would allow for alot of vibration especially if the tacks broke loose. Instead of buying a full kit you can usually just buy the pucks by themselves in whatever size you want for fairly cheep. Also they are not just cheep plastic but some sort of heavy duty poly carbonate.
 
Yeah I agree on the pucks for cheap. But the bolts i would get the strongest possible from high grade steel. But You can probably get a PA body Lift from ebay for 50 bucks probably, and it comes with the lift blocks, bolts, steering extenders, and thread locker.
 
Do NOT use hockey pucks for a body lift. They will shift and collapse.
 
Use a proper kit.Do it right the first time!
 
A few years ago (ok maybe it was more than a few) when I was a young individual in high school with a good friend with an 88 4x4 ranger. We thought the same thing, went to the hardwre store, he purchased said box of large washers. Back to his dad's shop, of ourse while said dad was at work and we were skipping school, to stack and tack weld said washers. Project looked pretty good. Said school skipping idiots waited a week to skip another day, having been soaking said 88 ranger body mount bolts in penetrating lubricant for the week. Disassemble, insert stacks, reassemble, lower cab, bolt right up. Well hell that was easy enough. Wheel and deal here and there as only a couple of youngsters think they can do and low and behold he found some swampers and rims. Jack up said truck, install new used package rubber, and away to the good old local mud pit, we called in the twins. It was on forest service land (back before wheeling there was illegal, yes we were partially responsible for new restrictions and rightly so). First attempt through the right one and we have Ranger mud skipping, slinging 4x4. return trip through the left one, hit a rut, weight shifts and cab decides it about wants to remove itself from the frame. Now I had to figure out how to submerge the FJ-40 350ci 5.13 geared 38" TSL wearing recovery vehicle without injesting water in the 750 double pumper, allow him to go swimming (it was november in the Mtns of NC) and attach recovery line.
Moral of the story, seen it done several other times. Buy the BL kit, it's worth the money if BL is the way you're going!!
Side thought Wish my second ex-wife hadn't sold that FJ-40 out from under me. What a mud slinging wallowing tank!!!
 
Hockey pucks work well. Never heard of any problems from people who use them.
 
i did a 4" BL in my tracker back in the day with hockey pucks but i used all grade 8 bolts, lock nuts and thread locker...it worked great for me never had a problem except i guess they rode a little rougher than stock but what the hell it was a GEO tracker on 33s. lol and really nobody makes shit for lifting/upgrading trackers.
 
Hey Bullit,
I'll give ya a couple (ok that's an understatement) other hints since now you are tracking on doing it right. My truck is a '94, didn't notice where ya live and I've already started pecking on this keyboard so I'm not going back to look and start over!
1. Did notice you have a '90, in a few years that's 20 years! Start soaking them mounting bolts in penetrating lubricant now, every couple days, flood them with the stuff. Might even want to pull back the carpet or mat and soak them from the top and bottom.
2. I'd also suggest getting new cab mounts because I'm sure your old ones (if original) are screaming for replacement.
3. You may end up replacing all hardware. The BL kits come with bolts however Ford has some weird washers and fasteners under there. I used some fender washers not only to rebuild my body mount perches that were rusted but also to replace what was dust when it came apart. Also used grade 5 nuts. Yeah everyone going to say why not grade 8, use an engineers handbook and look up bolt tension and work load for grade 5, it will hold a body to the frame and slightly cheaper.
4. I had to use a 1/2 drive impact with 65 gal air compressor, a torch kit to heat bolts, and a sawzall to even cut out some of the body mount bolts! They had been in there 13 years and my truck was originally from Missouri! A lot of heat and cold and salt and sand, blah blah... stuff that fastens bolts, nuts and washers together like welding unless it eats it!
5. If you got arms that are less than adequate to facilitate postioning your ass in one spot, your feet against a pressure point, throwing your back out pulling on a breaker bar, and also holding the other end of whatever your trying to loosen (in the same awkward position as for the other side) that has been welded together from age and who knows what else! Have a competent friend or gorilla on standby with a basket of bananas or cold ones to assist you with said rusted heep!
6. Have alternate mode of transportation, cab fair, or a good pair of LPC (leather personnel carriers, ie shoes) to get yourself back to the hardware/parts store for replacement part of rusted, broken whatever that wanted to screw up your entire installation.
7. Allow yourself one more day than planned or maybe do bed and body on different weekends (even though it will look insane) to accomplish this metally and physically grueling project!
8. Keep your head and spirits up! It will be worth it, your truck will ride better, smoother and without the body shifting around going around the corner! And you'll love peering and drueling down into those little euro cars at those short skirts and less than grandmas table cloth blouses, as they pass you or vice versa or at every red light!!!! Yes there are other purposes for lifting than looking cool or putting on bigger tires to travese less than cooperative terrain! And all of you that already have your stuff up there, don't get all self righteous and say you ain't looking down too! Because everyone knows YOU ARE LYING!!!
Jay
 
I honestly don't know how people have so much trouble with BL, I did mine by myself in 3 hours with out the aid of penitraters or anything. They were rusted alot butif yo take the time to wire brush the exposed threads on the bottom they come out easy.
 
I honestly don't know how people have so much trouble with BL, I did mine by myself in 3 hours with out the aid of penitraters or anything. They were rusted alot butif yo take the time to wire brush the exposed threads on the bottom they come out easy.

Some instances its easier than others, how many have you done so far? I've done two and they both sucked. I needed a torch for one. Maybe you'll end up doing a difficult one someday, idk... =X
 
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Maybe, I've done 2 and they were both easy. Strangely enough alaskan trucks that launch boats and drive on the deiced winter roads year round, not that rusty... But they were both older trucks so I also didn't have to mess with AC lines and other stuff... I'm sure I will some day...
 

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