Torsion bars- noob questions

[b3million]

Hey all. Got some questions about tbars. Sorry if these are stupid in advance.
I'm planning to crank the bars on my truck to get 2" of extra lift out of the front end. But I got to thinking- if cranking the bars makes the front suspension stiffer, what's the chance I can just buy a stiffer set of torsion bars that will yield the same result and potentially allow more give in the suspension?
Second, is there a way to buy a set of torsion keys that are indexed differently from stock to change the ride height without screwing with the give in the suspension? I know the last three years of rangers had factory torsion keys indexed lower than the mid years (my truck's an 02) and so they needed keys with a different index to lift, but I'm more curious about buying a set that are indexed higher than the ones on my truck to achieve a similar result without obliterating suspension rebound.

 

[superj]

i lifted mine up for a while by just tightening the bars and the ride didn't get stiffer.

its as low as it can on stock bars now and conversely, the ride did not get softer

 

[b3million]

i lifted mine up for a while by just tightening the bars and the ride didn't get stiffer.

its as low as it can on stock bars now and conversely, the ride did not get softer

Good to know, thx. throwing everything at it this weekend so i want to be sure i've got everything together before i go ham.

 

[superj]

if you tighten and keep going past a certain point then it will get stiffer but it stops lifting by then

 

[Roert42]

Raising or lowering the ride height in the front only moves you closer to the top or bottom of the suspension travel. The total suspension travel does not change.

For example.
If you think of the stock ride height of the 0 position and you can go 3" up or 3" down. So you have 6" of total travel.

You raise the front by 2".
Now you have 1" of downward travel and 5" of upward travel.


The spring rate and shape of the torsion key do not have an effect on overall suspension travel.

 

[rubydist]

Also, the torsion bar is the spring, and as you are not changing the spring, there is no change in the spring rate. However, as you lift the front, the angle of the lower control arm changes and it effectively gets a little shorter, which effectively raises the spring stiffness. But that is a few percent, not a large amount.

 

[JJMaine]

Don't fall for those torsion bar "lift" keys. All they do as clock differently so it allows you to crank the bars WAY too much. Just use your stock keys and save the money. I went through this when I bought my truck that came with the lift keys in it. The bolts are backed all the way out and the front of my truck is still lifted 1.5".

I bought a set of stock keys to switch but haven't gotten around to it as I like where they are set now and changing the keys to get the same amount of lift will only change the bolt positions.

That's a long way of saying use your stock keys