Half body lift/SOA plausible?

Nick26 · April 5, 2004

hey guys, I've been throwing around ideas to gain clearance, and lately what I was thinking was what if I did spring over axle in the rear and took out half of my body lift cutting more and more off the blocks as I worked my way from front to back. So the front most block would still be a full 3" then the A-pillar block would be 2 1/4", B-pillar 1 1/2", C-pillar 3/4" and no block in the rear. With my torsion twist, my front would be lifted about 4.5-5". Then if I switch back to the stock shackles (glad I kep those) or even used lowering shackles it should be about 5.5" giving me a little rake. Or even if I took a leaf out of the pack, that would soften the ride some to bring it down some and if nothing else lower it by the width of the leaf.

potential problems I forsee:
steering caster angle - will this be significant enough to matter?
braking - albeit important, but would the change in weight distribution and angles cause problems?
handling - center of gravity will be higher in rear now
gas guage - gas tank is attached to frame so now it would go down hill and make it look like I have less gas than I actually do. not a biggy, maybe I'll be able to hold more gas too

so what do you think??

P.S. one more thing, can a 1-1.5" spacer be used between the rear driveshaft flange and the diff to extend the driveshaft. I know people have run the stock driveshaft with SOA but worry about it slipping out, so would an extra inch or so take care of that?

Trckmagik · April 5, 2004

Do not do this! This is a big no no. Either save for the complete suspension lift or just do the body lift all around with the torsion twist and shackles.

Nick26 · April 5, 2004

well a sas is down the road eventually (already have a hp d44 i got for free just got to cut it down and clean it up), and I can't see wasting money on a suspension lift for IFS when all it basically is, is another body lift, since its all drop brackets.

so whats so bad about my idea? does the weight shift at weird anlges break blocks or something? cause PA advertises the blocks can hold 50,000 PSI.

Hokie · April 5, 2004

Nick26 said:
well a sas is down the road eventually (already have a hp d44 i got for free just got to cut it down and clean it up), and I can't see wasting money on a suspension lift for IFS when all it basically is, is another body lift, since its all drop brackets.

so whats so bad about my idea? does the weight shift at weird anlges break blocks or something? cause PA advertises the blocks can hold 50,000 PSI.

haha... i've had this exact same thought sometime for my Ex... then I just learned to live with the front end sitting lower

Alec · April 5, 2004

Don't do a crooked body lift.

Hotweels · April 5, 2004

look around for a mono leaf spring from a sport... more to it then that you should be able to figure it out if you have a look at one

Nick26 · April 5, 2004

trckmagik: I already have a body lfit all around with tt and shackles incase you didn't notice it in my sig

hokie: well it sits pretty level as it is now, it would only be if I tried this...

alec: I'd glady cross the idea out if someone could just tell me why its bad, does anybody have any reasons, or just cause they heard from someone else was a bad idea to mix and match lifts?

hotwheels: yeah that would be a good idea too, and i think i could get my hands on a pair if i had to.

So someone tell why its not a good idea? This is just a research phase, im not planning on doing it tomorrow or anything. I scoured a bunch of other sites and only found word of it being done once because some guy didn't lift the bed of his truck too, which is kinda a whole different scenario. I have extra blocks so if it didn't quite work out for some reason I could still go back to an even 3 all around and SUA.

Hotweels · April 6, 2004

alec: I'd glady cross the idea out if someone could just tell me why its bad, does anybody have any reasons, or just cause they heard from someone else was a bad idea to mix and match lifts?

#1 you increase the chance of the body sliding on the lift block's

#2 your lift block's will not sit flat thus creating a possible fatigue crack arount the body mount bolt's in body's sub structure

#3 the body lift block's are a nylon composite that is molded to the specific size of the lift and the block is kinda like fiberglass.. it will splinter over time if you cut into it :nono:

#4 it's pure booty fab to do this...you are looking at a full day's labour if everything go's right if it does not well..... i know it takes me 1hr to drop my 8.8" out and i would rather pull that sucker 2-3 times then rip my X appart again to do a body lift.

do the mono leaf thing then post up and show everyone that it realy work's be a hero for a day and maybe get yer name in the list of usefull thread's instead of on the pirate4x4 darwin award's list

what ever you do just make sure it's safe..... :chug:

jimbo74 · April 6, 2004

dont try to design your own raked body lift... that is the a darwin award nominee right there.....

Nick26 · August 13, 2004

I forgot about this thread and forgot to post the picture I was going to show because not everyone seemed to understand....

Hotweels said:
#1 you increase the chance of the body sliding on the lift block's

increase? if anything its decreased because now the body is actually bolted directly to the frame in the rear as opposed to having 3 inches of leverage pulling on the body mounts.

Hotweels said:
#2 your lift block's will not sit flat thus creating a possible fatigue crack arount the body mount bolt's in body's sub structure

why wouldn't they sit flat? first i'm sure there is plenty of flex in the mount for that and even so i can compnesate that with a slightly angled cut.

Hotweels said:
#3 the body lift block's are a nylon composite that is molded to the specific size of the lift and the block is kinda like fiberglass.. it will splinter over time if you cut into it

this is a possiblity but I have cut them open before and the ones I have are just straight plastic like PVC. Besides people hack them up all the time to convert a 3" into a 2" and stuff like that.

Hotweels said:
#4 it's pure booty fab to do this...you are looking at a full day's labour if everything go's right if it does not well..... i know it takes me 1hr to drop my 8.8" out and i would rather pull that sucker 2-3 times then rip my X appart again to do a body lift.

do the mono leaf thing then post up and show everyone that it realy work's be a hero for a day and maybe get yer name in the list of usefull thread's instead of on the pirate4x4 darwin award's list what ever you do just make sure it's safe.....

the labor I don't care about.... are you saying do the monoleaf with out cutting the blocks? that wouldn't really do me any good because you gotta figure the sag on a mono leaf wouldn't compensate a total 5 inches from the axle tube, and that won't be as useful for ground clearance. not to mention how that weaker mono leaf would be prone to axle wrap. And Yes saftey is important but this seems potentally less dangerous than a complete body lift.

diagram: (the measurements on this aren't exact as the mounts aren't actaully placed exactly 25% apart. I figured out the real percentages and and measurements but they are at home)

Alec · August 13, 2004

I understood perfectly, I still think it's dumb.

RangerX · August 13, 2004

Guess what, everybody. My truck has the exact body lift that Nick is thinking about! It was the first mod I did to my truck, so it's been on for nine years.

Off Road Warehouse in San Diego used to offer these specifically for 93-97 Rangers, to level out the stock truck. They did mine.

Sure it's a funky idea, but I've had no problems. I have over 200,000 miles on it, two plus rollovers, lotsa hard wheeling, etc.

Nick, if you still want to do this and need any pics, let me know.

Nick26 · August 15, 2004

RangerX said:
Guess what, everybody. My truck has the exact body lift that Nick is thinking about! It was the first mod I did to my truck, so it's been on for nine years.

Off Road Warehouse in San Diego used to offer these specifically for 93-97 Rangers, to level out the stock truck. They did mine.

Sure it's a funky idea, but I've had no problems. I have over 200,000 miles on it, two plus rollovers, lotsa hard wheeling, etc.

Nick, if you still want to do this and need any pics, let me know.

haha! i knew it, it just didn't make sense how this would be any more dangerous than a regular body lift... everyone just likes to instinctively say no before they actually think about it...

as for actually doing it... right now anything offroading is on hold and i have my stock tires temporarily back on because recently my commute changed from 5 mins to an hour and i didn't see the sense it running 600 highway milles a week off the mud terrains... come winter time or my next outing I think I may definitely do this though. Thanks for the boost of confidence... btw was it actually a full 3" to 0" slope they had going for the ranger?

RangerX · August 15, 2004

Nick26 said:
was it actually a full 3" to 0" slope they had going for the ranger?

Yes, and by the way, they are not cut at an angle.

jimbo74 · June 10, 2005

doesnt sound right.... it could be done, but will increase pressure on the places where there is no lift to where there is lift...

do it right... i don't about bill's logic... bill is a little bit out there... im with alec on this one...... dumb idea

section525 · June 10, 2005

He already did it. You diggin deep tonight or what??

jimbo74 · June 10, 2005

just thought of something else... bill has a ranger... rangers have a flexible body... an explroer does not.... and beds and cabs can have differences without problems..... a solid body wont be able to do this... i have a bodylift on my toyota pickup... i didnt finish it and jsut had the bed lifted for a week... it was a problem because it was seperated from the cab that was not lifted.....

jimbo74 · June 10, 2005

oh.... i guess so..... didnt see that..... oh well... i think the search is broken, i swear i pressed new threads......

j602 · June 10, 2005

There's nothing wrong with doing this if it's done right. I talked to a guy today a Midas with an F-150 on D60's, 44's, and a built 460 and he's done more than one slanted body lift.

I plan on doing a 2" like this within a couple weeks.

Nick26 · June 10, 2005

jimabena74 said:
just thought of something else... bill has a ranger... rangers have a flexible body... an explroer does not.... and beds and cabs can have differences without problems..... a solid body wont be able to do this... i have a bodylift on my toyota pickup... i didnt finish it and jsut had the bed lifted for a week... it was a problem because it was seperated from the cab that was not lifted.....

haha yeah did it like 6 months ago... although I'm not sure your comment about the flexibility makes any sense anyway... if you think about it how would this be any different (worse) from a putting a ranger body lift on an explorer anyway. Thanks for looking out for me either way..

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