washer body lift ?

[michael holcomb]

ive heard of using washers to lift front end. has anyone tryed welding washers together and using them as a body lift
?

 

[PanamaExpat]

ive heard of using washers to lift front end. has anyone tryed welding washers together and using them as a body lift
?

Why not do what I am doing and use some 3" square structural steel tubing cut into 3" chunks? You need to make 12. 6 for the cab and 6 for the bed. Cut the steering column below the first rag joint and weld in an additional 3 inches. Then fab up bumper plates to move the bumper up to match the body lines or do what I am doing and fab up some REAL bumpers. The stock ones are as flimsy as newspaper. You may or may not want to extend the shifter as well.

 

[4 bangin]

if your gonna go through the effort dont use washers. as said above some nice lookin blocks are not to hard to make.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

For what it would cost to buy washers and weld them together plus your time, you'd be farther ahead to just buy a body lift kit and do it right.

 

[daniel3507]

For what it would cost to buy washers and weld them together plus your time, you'd be farther ahead to just buy a body lift kit and do it right.

This. You're going to try and be cheap on an already cheap lift. You will have to fab up all the linkage and bumper relocation brackets too. Way too much effort for just a body lift.

 

[shane96ranger]

If you must be cheap, I personally would go with hockey pucks over washers.

But yeah, a body lift isn't bad price-wise.

 

[PanamaExpat]

Maybe for you but an additional $80 to get one shipped out of the USA makes it cheaper and easier to fabricate your own. Plus you BUY IT OFF THE SHELF guys probably also ride OFF THE RACK Harleys and call yourself bikers. Some of us actually enjoy doing it yourself and come from the old school before you could just go online and buy one. Besides are you a consumer or an innovator?

Oh and for those of you that will say you are modifying steering, brakes or what have you. If you don't know and trust your own work well enough to put your life on the line for it you are probably better off buying one.

 

[shane96ranger]

I don't recall the OP saying he was basing it off shipping charges.



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[85_Ranger4x4]

Maybe for you but an additional $80 to get one shipped out of the USA makes it cheaper and easier to fabricate your own. Plus you BUY IT OFF THE SHELF guys probably also ride OFF THE RACK Harleys and call yourself bikers. Some of us actually enjoy doing it yourself and come from the old school before you could just go online and buy one. Besides are you a consumer or an innovator?

Oh and for those of you that will say you are modifying steering, brakes or what have you. If you don't know and trust your own work well enough to put your life on the line for it you are probably better off buying one.

I would rather spend my time reinventing a scramjet than a wheel.

Something that simple and uninspiring to make I would rather buy so I can spend my time and money on something more interesting. It was about $100 when I got mine and all I had to do was put it in.

If you want to really cheap out all the Ranger kits are set up for extended cabs which have two more mounts than a standard cab truck... so if you find a bunch of guys with bodylifted standard cab trucks they each have two extra pucks sitting around.

 

[daniel3507]

Maybe for you but an additional $80 to get one shipped out of the USA makes it cheaper and easier to fabricate your own. Plus you BUY IT OFF THE SHELF guys probably also ride OFF THE RACK Harleys and call yourself bikers. Some of us actually enjoy doing it yourself and come from the old school before you could just go online and buy one. Besides are you a consumer or an innovator?

I since we struck a nerve? $80 bucks for shipping is a lot i will give you that. But i dont think shipping was the issue here originally. And I wouldnt call yourself an innovator since youre making something thats already been invented and mass produced.

 

[michael holcomb]

guys i wasnt trying to be cheap or wasnt even wanting to do it just wondered if anyone on here had. after owning over 20 lifted truck ive learned to do it right the first time. this ranger is my 16 year olds hunting truck and on a bagboys sal ary his has to do it alittle at a time

 

[shane96ranger]

guys i wasnt trying to be cheap or wasnt even wanting to do it just wondered if anyone on here had. after owning over 20 lifted truck ive learned to do it right the first time. this ranger is my 16 year olds hunting truck and on a bagboys sal ary his has to do it alittle at a time

I personally think hockey pucks are your best solution then.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Maybe for you but an additional $80 to get one shipped out of the USA makes it cheaper and easier to fabricate your own. Plus you BUY IT OFF THE SHELF guys probably also ride OFF THE RACK Harleys and call yourself bikers. Some of us actually enjoy doing it yourself and come from the old school before you could just go online and buy one. Besides are you a consumer or an innovator?

Oh and for those of you that will say you are modifying steering, brakes or what have you. If you don't know and trust your own work well enough to put your life on the line for it you are probably better off buying one.

Take a chill pill and STFU. Yes, we are all aware that you have to pay crazy shipping charges. About every third post you make seems to mention that. But not everyone has to deal with that. I do plenty of my own fab work. But if I can buy something simple that has been researched and tested, why reinvent it? Yes, there are some things that I can buy off a shelf but I choose to fab myself because I can see a way to improve it for my needs, so I do. But something like a body lift? It's on a shelf, tested and proven and it's not worth my time to fab something that does the same thing.

A perfect example would be the mounts for my extended radius arms on my choptop. I could have bought a tested and CAD designed, laser cut and all that bracket. But it would not have fit my needs since I wanted to incorporate an easily removable transmission crossmember to it of a particular design and the bracket simply did not have what I needed. I could have bought an expensive kit that would have done everything I needed it to. But I chose to fabricate it myself. I have the tools. I also have the tools I would need to fabricate a body lift. But I chose to buy it because it simply didn't pay for me to fashion the lift pucks I needed and to buy the bolts. My time is worth something to me. IIRC I spent around $75 back when I bought the 2" body lift. It was just the lift pucks and the bolts. I could have spent a couple hours fabricating it, but being I was working construction back then, I made that much in a couple hours of working. In terms of employment, it made more sense to me to work and pay for it than to fab it myself - my employer was happy and I was content to get the package in the mail.

guys i wasnt trying to be cheap or wasnt even wanting to do it just wondered if anyone on here had. after owning over 20 lifted truck ive learned to do it right the first time. this ranger is my 16 year olds hunting truck and on a bagboys sal ary his has to do it alittle at a time

I've been there and done that. Building on a shoestring budget can be a pain at times. But I also learned that with a little research and creativity, much can be accomplished even on a small budget. My choptop was built on a shoestring budget. With being in college, despite working construction in the summer, my funds were limited. My time was also limited for actually working on it (I had another project truck up at college with me). But my time to research and scour for the parts I needed was not very limited.

I bought the truck with a blown up motor for $160. Yes, one hundred and sixty dollars. I picked up a parts truck for $200 and stole the axles to convert the 2wd choptop to a 4x4. I traded the 2wd front suspension for a transfer case and some other parts. I sold a few parts from the parts truck which covered my cost to buy it. I picked up a set of Explorer leaf springs from a junkyard for peanuts, picked up some new spring parts for under $80 (new bushings, new anti-squeak pads, etc) and fabbed my own leaf pack together for a net of 3" of lift. I picked up a used 3" lift kit for the front from someone going bigger for $120 shipped. I used info on here and the tech archives to add another 2" to the front and back. And a host of other information eventually got me to a 7" lift (5" suspension and 2" body) on 33" tires and running for a grand total of..... $1,650. Of course it took a couple years. But that was half the fun.

 

[jhammel85]

I say do a real body lift or nothing at all. Personally, I don't like the idea of hockey pucks or tubing holding up my trucks body. Works for enough people though, so....

What about a small suspension lift instead? Level kit in the front alone will make a difference and can be had, used, for cheaper than an actual body lift kit. Check out the lifting for cheap section in the tech library. Might give you a few more ideas!

 

[shane96ranger]

I say do a real body lift or nothing at all. Personally, I don't like the idea of hockey pucks or tubing holding up my trucks body. Works for enough people though, so....

What about a small suspension lift instead? Level kit in the front alone will make a difference and can be had, used, for cheaper than an actual body lift kit. Check out the lifting for cheap section in the tech library. Might give you a few more ideas!

He already did level it with washers (he has another thread that states that).