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Tuff Country?


RavoHimself

Well-Known Member
RBV's on Boost
Joined
May 5, 2010
Messages
1,084
City
enfield, ct
Vehicle Year
2003
Transmission
Manual
any opinions on this lift. i know rough country is infamous for punching out diff covers and such due to drop plates. how about the TC. does it have plates or brackets? cuz i was originally planning 2" suspension and 2" body but i think i want to just go 4" suspension in a few months. the tuff country is only like 550 with the pitman arm and no shocks(i've heard they come short so i'll get them somewhere else). also how is the ride on the street? smooth? harsh? somewhere in the middle?
 
watch out for tuff country, they magically stopped including springs in their kits recently without updating the marketing materials or websites.

I think both TC and RC have drop brackets now instead of the drop plates which means I dont think a newer version of either will have problems with the differential.

THere's no shame in piecing together a lift either. Keep your eye on the classified ads o this website and you'll find decent deals on used drop brackets from skyjacker, james duff, etc, then grab some springs, shocks, and before you know it you'll have a kit put together and ready to install.
 
If you go tuff country, cheapest place is jc whitney! it comes with springs so it says.
 
any opinions on this lift. i know rough country is infamous for punching out diff covers and such due to drop plates. how about the TC. does it have plates or brackets? cuz i was originally planning 2" suspension and 2" body but i think i want to just go 4" suspension in a few months. the tuff country is only like 550 with the pitman arm and no shocks(i've heard they come short so i'll get them somewhere else). also how is the ride on the street? smooth? harsh? somewhere in the middle?

tuff country is crap! most of their stuff ive seen anyway. i bought a pair of add a leafs from them once, they were not even rounded on the edges, its like someone just cut the ends off of an old leaf spring and sent it to you. plus they were so short and thick that they bent the other main leafs and wouldnt allow it to flex at all! junk in my opinion! i bought a 4" rough country (got it for christmas this year, great girlfriend i have!) and i put 2" spacers under it with explorer leafs in the back. and quality is great. im sure its not as good as skyjacker as far as brackets, but ive been wheeling it pretty hard and nothings broke so far! plus liftime warranty!

watch out for tuff country, they magically stopped including springs in their kits recently without updating the marketing materials or websites.

I think both TC and RC have drop brackets now instead of the drop plates which means I dont think a newer version of either will have problems with the differential.

THere's no shame in piecing together a lift either. Keep your eye on the classified ads o this website and you'll find decent deals on used drop brackets from skyjacker, james duff, etc, then grab some springs, shocks, and before you know it you'll have a kit put together and ready to install.

rough country still has a plate for their passenger side... although its thicker than the old one, and they now include bumpstop extensions to its impossible to hit the diff with the bracket (unless the extension colapses). rides nice too. comes with lift blocks for the rear, but id get the springs if you could afford it. shocks are decent, not the most amazing things ever, but what do you expect for $450? im 100% happy with it. all holes matched up perfectly btw, i read a whole bunch of stuff online that none of the predrilled holes line up on rough country.... but they did.
 
i'm not really planning on wheeling it much or hard so i'm really not too worried about it punching the diff. i'll be sure to keep my eyes out on here and else where. i just feel like a suspension lift is the right way to lift it as apposed to a BL.
 
Tuff Country's kit is far better than Rough Country's.

It does not use a drop plate, it uses an completely new drop bracket for both beams and you will have no problems with interference.

For the price, Tuff Country's kit is hard to beat, just be absolutely sure when ordering you are getting the full kit with coils. Don't forget a drop pitman arm, longer brakelines and shocks.

I owned a kit and had it on my truck for 1.5 years. It rode pretty good, and flexed fine (even with the AAL). It definitely doesn't ride the best, but its far better than other cheapie kits out there.

Another good thing about it is that they use a adjusatble cam on the axle pivot bolts, allowing for an even better degree of alignment than what is possible with the eccentric alignment cam/bushings alone.

All in all, its a good kit and will hold up to some moderate abuse, but keep in mind if you are gonna go hard core wheeling, you will either want to beef it up with gussets ect or just buy a Skyjacker class II kit in the first place.
 
for the most part she will be a road queen. but some weekend class 6 roads and such will more than likely be in my future. i might just sell the aal and get some ex leaves and shackles depending on how much i need. or maybe go all out for some 63's. glad to know its a good kit and doesnt ride like crap. for the price you really cant beat it
 
Even if it don't have coils... You'll probably want xj coils anyways. Something softer...
 
And for the money, I've liked my RC lift. Other than the stiff coils.
 
It's fine other than the stiff coils. Been beating mine offroad for 5 years now...
 
well my skyjacker springs are already pretty stiff so i'll get used to it. just avoid as many potholes as i can
 
well my skyjacker springs are already pretty stiff so i'll get used to it. just avoid as many potholes as i can

Mmmmm if you think skyjacker coils are stiff you won't like the tuff country ones. They have a higher PPI # than the Skyjackers. Pretty sure ALL of Skyjackers coils are "softer" than any other lift kit manufacturer. They just have their coils manufactured at a lower PPI.
 
The best option is to piece together your own kit...

With 4" of lift, you would want to change up your stock leafs. Explorer leafs+shackle/small block if needed, 63" chevy leafs, or aftermarket lift leafs like skyjacker softrides...

Do you have fabrication skills/equipment? If so, you can extend your radius arms and make a new crossmember for them (or extend them all the way back to the tranny and make a new crossmember for the tranny that does both) Or buy extensions from Stonecrusher...
http://stonecrushersteering.com/OTHER_PRODUCTS.html

Brackets you can find on the classifieds here sometimes. I paid $135 for skyjacker brackets shipped... That included both pivot and rad arm drops, because extended rad arms arn't getting done yet, that'll be stage 2 of my build.
 
yes, im very good at fabricating. i can weld like ive been doing it for years. ad i'll keep looking around here and if i dont find anything by the fall or that i can afford by fall its tuff country
 

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