POLL What is the last suspension lift / leveling kit brand you purchased?

[bobbywalter]

Still OEM for me. Would love to put a 6 inch lift but no money for that part of the build. Considering a new style Ranger in a few years, and that might be the best route and effort to throw a lift at it.

Always heard great things on Sky Jack lifts though

AJ

considering, your generation truck stock is like a gen 1 with 3 in lift and 31's....and more power then any gen 1 could have hoped to have they are awesome stock with just lockers and maybe trimmed fenders and 35's.. they do better then the gen 1 bone stock and the gen 1 were pretty good.

 

[bobbywalter]

the last parts i bought for the TTB was from Villian Motorsports. Joel.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Yeah, I have one of his weld together front end kits. I'll never use it now. I should sell it...

 

[RichnMo]

`2003 FX-4 I installed the Wulf keys and add a leaf form the rear as well as longer shocks wulf brand. Had to install the more + cams form the Alignment as I did upper cont. arms, lower ball joints and outer tie rod ends ass well. No complaints

 

[bobbywalter]

Yeah, I have one of his weld together front end kits. I'll never use it now. I should sell it...

well ....

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

well ....

I need to find it first...lol

 

[steven]

3" James Duff with add a leaf, build quality is great, want to upgrade to better shocks at some point. Sags little in from with the 302, one day get around to working on that.

 

[MT_PLS]

3" James Duff with add a leaf, build quality is great, want to upgrade to better shocks at some point. Sags little in from with the 302, one day get around to working on that.View attachment 123279

Now that is a good-looking truck! What size tires are you running? How old is the James Duff kit?

 

[steven]

Now that is a good-looking truck! What size tires are you running? How old is the James Duff kit?

Thank you, have many hours into it. 31's Lift has been on truck 2ish years.

 

[Dantheman1540]

Maybe put an option for “Pieced together”
The front is Go Fast Explorers cut and turned beams, radius arms, and 5-6” coil springs which I chopped down closer to 4” I think.
Rear is a 64” Deaver leaf pack.
Front and rear has Bilstien 7100s from Wheel every weekend.
Also has a 3” body lift.
Thing works pretty well at just about everything for how simple it is.

 

[Rick W]

I didn’t know if I should post this in @Jim Oaks new category for lift systems, or post it here, it’s not really either one.

When I added the third axle, a floating axle, to the Road Ranger my fear was that it was going to bounce up and down as I went down the road if I didn’t have the trailer. Again, it’s on a four link set up, and it doesn’t actually hold the truck up, it drags behind. You can back over a 8 inch curb, and never take the traction off the front axle.

When I first did it, I used the coil over shocks from the back of a Honda crossover. They were the complete spring set up for that crossover, not “in addition to.” I’m not sure what year or model, they just looked right as I cruised the pull a part. The truck drove around fine with or without the trailer, and as you can see, I was able to jack up the third axle without lifting the original back axle.

While the axle floated, those shocks were attached to the tip of the Ranger frame, and they were too stiff. With the stage three clutch, I was spinning the wheels like crazy. I took them off, and simply replaced them with the standard shock absorber for the rear of one of my town cars (87-88). That has worked perfect ever since. It keeps the bounce out, but I can climb over a railroad tie without losing traction.

I’m sure nobody will be surprised that the red and yellow paint is rust oleum.

I don’t know if you could use some as a lift kit, but it’s got a pretty good amount of support, and I thought somebody might be able to use some for something or other. Mine are sitting in my way in the shed of miracles for the last two years. I envision them going on some version of some light weight trailer contraption I will make in the future.

As always, my two cents, hope it helps

 

[gaz]

Nice find. Do you have a pic of the suspension pieces you salvaged?

SEVERAL YEARS LATER

Rear 2x shocks and trailing arms were removed due size of 8.8" axle tubes. Need to cut the brackets to fit new axle dimensions and get them back on

 

[Rick W]

I didn’t know if I should post this in @Jim Oaks new category for lift systems, or post it here, it’s not really either one.

View attachment 123686View attachment 123687View attachment 123689

When I added the third axle, a floating axle, to the Road Ranger my fear was that it was going to bounce up and down as I went down the road if I didn’t have the trailer. Again, it’s on a four link set up, and it doesn’t actually hold the truck up, it drags behind. You can back over a 8 inch curb, and never take the traction off the front axle.

When I first did it, I used the coil over shocks from the back of a Honda crossover. They were the complete spring set up for that crossover, not “in addition to.” I’m not sure what year or model, they just looked right as I cruised the pull a part. The truck drove around fine with or without the trailer, and as you can see, I was able to jack up the third axle without lifting the original back axle.

View attachment 123688

While the axle floated, those shocks were attached to the tip of the Ranger frame, and they were too stiff. With the stage three clutch, I was spinning the wheels like crazy. I took them off, and simply replaced them with the standard shock absorber for the rear of one of my town cars (87-88). That has worked perfect ever since. It keeps the bounce out, but I can climb over a railroad tie without losing traction.

I’m sure nobody will be surprised that the red and yellow paint is rust oleum.

I don’t know if you could use some as a lift kit, but it’s got a pretty good amount of support, and I thought somebody might be able to use some for something or other. Mine are sitting in my way in the shed of miracles for the last two years. I envision them going on some version of some light weight trailer contraption I will make in the future.

As always, my two cents, hope it helps

I hadn’t seen this in a while, so I thought I’d just throw in that those red and yellow coil over shocks got replaced. They looked great, but with that floating axle, they were actually putting too much upward pressure on the truck, so I swapped them out for just a couple plain-Jane Monroe shocks, the same size as my 88 Lincoln town car. They take the bounce out when I don’t have the trailer on it without interfering with traction on the drive axle. I don’t have a picture, but when I swapped them, then the experiment worked correctly.