Skyjacker 6” m95 performance lift kit thoughts?

[RangerRough]

Hello community!
I am having a difficult time choosing a lift kit for my 96 ranger 4x4. TRS recommends skyjacker and I am new to building a ranger. I was thinking of buying the 6” m95 performance lift kit for $2400, so I did some research about skyjacker kits and got some disturbing results, mostly people saying the bushing get wrecked super fast and the kits tend to sag fast as well mostly jeeps and non ranger vehicles. A lot of these posts were pretty old and prolly not too relevent to the current kits. I trust TRS and their vast knowledge about rangers, so i am here to ask you the community about their experiences with skyjacker lift kits and their performance and lasting durability. Or does anyone recommend other kits? Or like a ranked list of lift kits. I want to build my ranger to last because I dont have unlimited amounts of funds and i like to do things the right way the first time.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I used a Skyjacker Class II kit on my 1996 Ford Ranger and loved it. I would get the M95 shocks with it. People will probably chime in and say Bilstein. The M95 are great shocks.

I didn't notice my kit sag any, even after it was 10 years old.

 

[Curious Hound]

i used the Skyjacker class 2 kit and I like it also. The front coils may be a bit soft for my truck. I'm fine-tuning a pair of spacers to get it right. But that's no big problem. I feel like the kit quality was excellent.

 

[4x4junkie]

Agreed, Skyjacker is currently best you can do if you're building a trail rig.

Skyjacker isn't without a few issues (an incomplete steering correction for the lift probably being the biggest one), but for the most part these issues are all well-documented and can be dealt with to turn the kit into something quite decent (none of them affects durability of the kit).

The Skyjacker kit on my '94 Ranger, I bought over 20 years ago. No spring sag that I can tell or any issues with brackets or where they attach to the frame (and the truck saw plenty of hard use before I got my BII, which it too also runs Skyjacker springs).

Camburg and Autofab are two others also worth considering if you like to do the go-fast-in-the-desert thing. These kits are more geared toward high-speed running and so are built somewhat differently (modification to the axle beams themselves to provide better clearance for landing jumps, better shocks, bumpstops, etc). They tend to be a bit more spendy though, and may not handle quite as well if the trail is very off-camber or steep.

 

[RangerRough]

Thank everyone for your help!

 

[Shran]

It really depends on what you're doing with the truck. Rock crawling? Desert racing? Daily driver/light wheeler? Or just want the look of bigger tires?

If I was building another TTB rock crawler, I would not bother with a lift at all. Cut the body to fit your tire of choice, extended radius arms and coilovers/air shocks in the front, soft leaf springs in the rear. Ground clearance under the diffs is the major thing here.

Probably would do the same thing for a race truck but stiffer rear springs and a lot of bump stops, and really good rear shocks.

If you are just looking for bigger tire fitment without cutting the body then the Skyjacker kit is the best performing option although I am probably one of the most outspoken critics of Skyjacker and lift kits in general on this board: I think lift kits are for looks mostly and good offroad performance can be obtained without using much of a lift at all.

 

[holyford86]

I've been using a skyjacker 6 inch kit with long arms for the better part of a decade and over 100,000 miles, only issues I have had are with the radius arm bushing sleeves. The sleeves have cracked, when I replaced them I put a hose clamp around them for support and I haven't had issues since. I did not use the lift blocks that came with the kit, instead I opted to use 63 inch Chevy springs, belltech shackles, and factory blocks. Are the more expensive and better options? probably, but this system has worked well and has been a great value in my opinion.