01-05 Sport Trac 4x4 Lift Options Discussion

[MidnightRebel07]

Since you're in Alabama and you probably go mudding I strongly suggest staying away from airbags.

Mud, Water + Air Bags, Air lines = tons of headaches and money on replacing parts.

 

[bambangs334]

Don't live in bama anymore and the exploder is no more mud. Nothing more than dirt roads. But it's mainly for this ****y guys at the red lights so I can just raise it up and piss them off lol

 

[05dakotatrac]

honestly that much custom work for a street light show off isn't necessary in my eyes. if you plan to functionally use it off road great but my honest opinion is you can save tons of $$$ going leaf and SOA rear this alone nets you 5-6" compound that with body lift now your at 8-9" then larger tires if you build your axles right you could run well over a 35" probably up to a 38" tire all this would wow anyone that looks

sorry just my opinion. cause thats my plan if i deploy is come back do a built HP dana 30 leaf sprung front SOA rear, re-gear to appropriate ratio to match 35" and throw on a body lift too.

 

[bambangs334]

Im mainly doing it for the ride, for the adjustability, the pure awesomeness and the accomplishment of doing it. Lol

 

[bambangs334]

Ight guys. Until my sport trac becomes my project truck with the air bags I need some help. I just want to off road upgrade my suspension. No lift. I'm throwing some 31 in grabbers on it with the front sitting higher. Just need some ideas on what to do to let it handle better on dirt roads and such

 

[OffTrac]

Do NOT crank the torsion bolts at all. You'll get much better handling on dirt roads if you don't lift the front. Leave the sway bars connected. Basically, just put good tires on it and leave it be. My $.02

 

[bambangs334]

As of right now, torsion bars a cranked a little and I'm cranking them more to get the front up higher than the back. And now sway bar right now until I get new bushings and end links. And puttin 31s so I want to make sure they have room to male around.

 

[bambangs334]

And can I get fox racing shocks for stock height

 

[WidgetTrac]

Has anybody tried changing the front differential to an '02-'05 expy/mounty IRS rear diff?


You know the one - the housing and cover are aluminum, and the cover is finned and heavy-duty, with built-in mounting points. It's designed to be solid-mounted,, and is very lightweight compared to iron housings.

But the important thing is that the whole unit is only about a foot wide- it's just a center section, without the tube & axle on the right side, so the CV axles would be longer, so the angles would be straighter, so you could have longer travel without hurting the CV's.

Yes, you'd need to make mounting brackets/adapters, but that could be combined with relocated LCA mounts.

The front spindles look like a good swap too - they're about 3" taller and use the same lower ball joint, so in theory you could do 3" of lift and still have stock UCA angles, or do 5" of lift and have the angle of a 2" lift... the upper ball joint stud is different, but that should be fixable.

 

[yucko]

My quick story is my wife and I are getting a new "family car" and so I'm going to take my 05 ST and make it my "project car".
No serious off roading. Mostly deep sand and snow. I do care of course about looks also.
After reading every single page on this thread, of course I'm still confused! Ha, ha!
Not being able to afford a true lift kit, I think I am best off with: 1) 3" body lift 2) rear shackles 3) upgraded shocks 4) front and rear lockers, and of course 5) upgraded wheels and tires.
My question is....it seems everyone has a front torsion twist but mostly read bad things about it?
I would think if anything, I would want a longer suspension range.
Before I go all in on this project, any final suggestions?

 

[shooterdude199]

Well if you mean suspension travel then doing any of the lifts (torsion twist, body lift, or superlift) won't give you any. The reason why the torsion twist is frowned upon by many is it's harsh ride. The cause of this is because when you crank the torsion bars you limit or almost eliminate the downtravel. Meaning the suspension hardly droops. Getting the superlift simply drops the crossmember, a arms and torsion bars 4 inches and uses taller knuckles and retains stock suspension travel (around 4 inches.) the body lift doesn't do anything to the suspension so it also retains the factory ride. The only way to change wheel travel is changing the geometry of the suspension. Aka a mid or long travel kit.

If you were referring to longevity of parts on the suspension, doing the torsion twist puts stress on parts such as upper ball joints and lower ball joints. The superlift and body lift doesn't put very much stress or any on suspension parts.

 

[01STrunner]

Except the super lift is crazy expensive. Personally for your scenario I would do an inch and a half torsion twist and instead of using shackles in the rear do an add a leaf so that you don't flatten out your springs. Only an inch and a half TT would reduce the amount of stress to the IFS parts vs a full 2". Don't forget a TT will settle a little after you initially twist it up too so that'll lessen the strain a little too. That coupled with the body lift should give you about 4.5" of lift for under $500 if you do it all yourself. That would be enough to put some 33s and you'd be looking at a very capable truck.

 

[01STrunner]

Shooter is right. You will lose a little travel by doing the TT. The ride will also become a little stiffer but honestly it feels like riding in a real 3/4 ton truck instead of a light SUV. The add a leaf will also add a little stiffness but from what I've seen it doesn't limit suspension travel. Overall the ride becomes more like a mix between a half ton and 3/4 ton truck as I said before. It's not really harsh, just stiffer.

 

[OffTrac]

You don't lose any travel. It's just already closer to full droop. If stock is 4"of droop and you twist 2", you still travel down to that same 4" but were already 2"on the way. You only "travel" 2" but still get the same droop as you would have stock. Hope that makes sense.

 

[shooterdude199]

Well to clarify there isnt 4" of droop. There is about 2 to 3. I should probably be a bit more generous and say around 5" of all around travel. when you do the torsion twist it pushes the a arm down in a sense. At stock height the a arms and the crossmember are at almost 180 degrees. Around 2.5" of up travel and 2.5" of downtravel. When you turn the torsion bars or lower you get either or. So say if you did do the torsion twist to about 1.5", that means you'll have about an inch of downtravel and about 4" of up travel. I can post pictures to show you

 

[shooterdude199]

So off trac is right, you don't lose travel but doing the torsion twist will lose droop and gain up travel.

 

[shooterdude199]

I just probably confused the heck out of you lol

 

[01STrunner]

The way I understood it made the TT sound tons more complicated than it is lol.

 

[shooterdude199]

I'll see if I can find some pictures when I'm on my computer so we can clear up this "confusion" lol

 

[Newfy Trac]

Here's a dumb question, how do you know when you've hit 2" with a TT ? My trac is sagging, I suppose Torsion bars are weak. I cranked the Left side up until the bolt bottomed to level with right side. I just got in the Zabtek bolts, but have no idea how far to install or how much lift I have or don't have. :scratch: