3 inch suspension 1.5 body lift tire size

[07offroad]

New member but been creeping the forums for a while now.

Looking for a pic of a 1.5 body lift and 3 inch suspension. What tire sizes is everyone running with this combo. I'm currently running a 265 70 without a body lift but I'm pretty sure I could clear a 285 70. I got a set of 315 70 that I can run if it will clear with minor trimming with the body lift and not look to toy truck like but I'm thinking that's not feasible.


My X:
Ebay 3 inch lift
265/70/17
2 inch wheel spacers
Just ordered everything to do a 1.5 body lift.

 

[Rick]

Have you looked through this thread:

4th Gen Explorer Pictures

Post them Up!!! Second Gen Sport Trac's are welcome as well (07-10) Comments are ok but please don't pollute it with off topic issues. Thanks and have fun! And many more pics of her like this on page 22 Now running 35's

www.explorerforum.com

 

[Bazz270]

Looks awesome but...

2 inch chinese aluminum wheel spacers will put extra shear load on your wheel lugs and hub bearings

You better find suitable negative offset rims for your own safety

And ,check your front upper balljoints more frequently with 3 inch strut lift .mine failed after a year with 2.5 inch lift.

 

[domct203]

As others have said, with 3” of strut spacer lift you need to stay on top of your front upper ball joints, as well as tie rod ends and CV joints.

I went with a 2” strut spacer lift and swapped my ball joints for greasable Moog ones, which I keep packed with synthetic grease.

Here’s my 2002 with a 3” body lift and 2” spacer lift, so about a 1/2” more than what you are doing. Tires are 265/75/16 (32”x10.5”) on 0 offset rims.

285’s and 315’s are going to put a lot of stress on your driveline, especially the transmission. What’s your axle gearing? If you have the standard 3.56:1 gears, I wouldn’t go bigger with tires than what you have now.

 

[Bazz270]

Minus 12mm or minus 10mm offset rims will be also leveled perfectly with gen4 fender edges.

 

[Charlie9755]

I'm an mechanical engineer and I had a thought, has anyone just relocated the mounting points on the upper control arm? Relocating should gine the same rotational point compinsating for the ball joint angle. The mounting pillars are the same thickness and should be able to take the relocation on the holes fine.

 

[Bazz270]

I dont think you will able to drill oval holes on welded shock tower

 

[Charlie9755]

Just oval the drilled round hole with a grinding stone on either the drill or an air grinder.

 

[Charlie9755]

I haven't taken the upper control arm off to see how long the existing mounting hole is but if it's long enough you can drill two holes and cut the steel between with a cut off saw, reciprocating saw or a hand held jig saw with a metal cutting blade. The frame isn't welded at the mounting points.

 

[Bazz270]

And what about concentricity between holes?you havent any clear sight and i am not sure about enough drill bit clearance.

Anyway.in my country,chassis changes are not allowed.

And as mechanical engineer too,producing oval holes with grinder or jigsaw or whatever in nogo chassis modify situation (since if something goes wrong you cant fix it) sounds terrible to me...LOL

Also..any kind of shock tower drilling/welding changes clearly prohibited in ford workshop manual.
Dont know why...fractures during grinder job,maybe bearing stress,maybe natural frequency changes.

And you can always purchase BTF uniball control arms...so..why going the hard way?

 

[Charlie9755]

You can weld a patch of plate on. Making a template and a center punch will locate the holes accurately, scribing a line on the upper and lower edges of the holes and carefully staying the lines can be done. People build many off road configurations here all the time and rock crawl. I was looking online and they even make third party setups modifying the upper locations in muscle cars. Enter "relocating upper control arms" on goggle. Sorry your not allowed to make any changes to your own vehicle, seems strange you can buy a new non-stock control arm and that's ok. Even if it's not approved by Ford.

 

[Bazz270]

Whatever

 

[Charlie9755]

No offense intended. I just enjoy figuring things out. It brings me satisfaction. Best of luck.

 

[Bazz270]

All good

Yea,there is couple of stupid local laws about no any problem with custom or aftermarket arms but chassis changes are still not allowed

 

[07offroad]

I have stock gearing currently but I am planning on changing that. I plan for a rear lsd and 4.56 gears.

I have decided to go with a 3 inch body lift with the 315s because I know it will fit. And I have been checking my ball joints weekly I do plan to upgrade to btf arms within this year at some point. I figured if I was going to go thru the headache of putting g a 1.5 on I might as well go three and know I'll clear the tires iv already got.

 

[07offroad]

Well got it done. 3 inch body, 3 inch suspension. 35s, stock wheels and 2 inch wheel spacers

 

[ThunderbirdSport]

I had 2" wheel spacers on my Expedition.

One broke.

In my driveway. It was pretty horrific. Had I been on the highway, I'm sure someone would've went to the hospital...if not worse.

Throw those ****ing spacers in the garbage. Either get you a set of wheels with the offset you need, or....spacers = accident soon, IMHO.


I was lucky that I was out a wheel and just the time it took to put my stock wheels back on. If I'd been at highway speed I'd likely have wrecked.

 

[Bazz270]

Since extremely growing up speed depended bending stress and overall low bearing stress capability of negative offset wheel spacers, they are strongly not recommended in any kind of road conditions.

even Chinese low quality noname rims will be relatively better solution for getting negative wheel offset.

 

[Posh07]

I'm an mechanical engineer and I had a thought, has anyone just relocated the mounting points on the upper control arm? Relocating should gine the same rotational point compinsating for the ball joint angle. The mounting pillars are the same thickness and should be able to take the relocation on the holes fine.

Did you ever do this. I was wondering the same thing about moving the a arms down. When you put a block. All your doing is moving the whole suspension down except that a arm. So throws the whole geometry of the suspension off. Let me know if you did it and how it came out and if do it any different.

 

[Charlie9755]

I did not do it. If I was to continue I believe it would be prudent to measure and make a scale (2x or 3x) model of the pivot points in the original locations and the modified positions to check the swings. CAD would be better if available.