aldive
Elite In Memoriam
- Joined
- January 17, 2001
- Messages
- 24,667
- Reaction score
- 28
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1999 XLT
No Mo Lo for me. I have had it with the God-awful harsh ride from my lowered Explorer. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the look and the handling of my truck since I added the X Spec lowering package several years ago. I use the truck in my business transporting people and scuba equipment and put a lot of miles on it each year.
I wanted to like it so much that “I” was blinded by the ride quality. Sure several friends repeatedly told me it “rides like crap” and other not so polite descriptions, but I ignored them because I wanted to like it so much.
Well, finally ( after several years and many comments, none good ) the crappy ride got to me. I decided to ditch the Edelbrock shocks in favor of Rancho 9000X shocks to improve the ride quality without removing the lowering; it worked ( to some extent ). The ride was immediately improved at least 100%, yet it was still rough and harsh.
Sadly, now all that could be done now was to restore the ride to stock height.
The truck was jacked up and put on jack stands. The 4 u bolts were unbolted and removed ( the rear end was supported with a floor jack ); thank God for air tools. The lowering blocks were removed ( and are for sale if anyone is interested, these are the good EE ones ). The U bolts were buggered up where they go around the blocks ( don’t ask me how, but they were, big time, so bad the nut wouldn’t even think about passing the bad area ). Finding new U bolts turned out to be an 8-hour undertaking; nobody, even two Ford dealers has any that would fit. I almost gave up but my son and I went to an “obsolete 4x4 and Jeep shop” in another County and while we were getting a part for the ’84 CJ7, I happened to see a huge selection of U bolts. They had the 4 that I needed and they are much beefier than the ones in the EE lowering kit. They were $ 19.75 each. This “free” mod just became an $85.00 mod.
The driver’s side measured 30.5 and the other side was 31.25 before removing the blocks – after removing, the driver’s side was 32 and the other side was 33.3 inches. The gas tank was half filled.
The 45-minute job turned into an all day project.
I decided not to do anything to the lowered front - yet. It measures on the driver’s side 30.5 and on the other side 31.5 inches.
After test-driving, the rear 9000x shock setting was determined to be “6” for the best ride and handling. I sincerely don’t believe the handling was degraded from the lowered version.
If I decide to keep the front lowered, I will have to to adjust the headlights. I have a thousand mile trip upcoming and will leave it like it is at least until that trip is over; who knows the nose down attitude might even improve mileage.
Conclusions: (1) even though I loved the look and handling of the lowered truck, the new ride quality is vastly supreme (2) I wouldn’t hit a wild dog in the arse with the Edelbrock shocks.
Even though the Explorer is a truck and rides like a truck, I forgot how nice it is; I am lo no mo.
I wanted to like it so much that “I” was blinded by the ride quality. Sure several friends repeatedly told me it “rides like crap” and other not so polite descriptions, but I ignored them because I wanted to like it so much.
Well, finally ( after several years and many comments, none good ) the crappy ride got to me. I decided to ditch the Edelbrock shocks in favor of Rancho 9000X shocks to improve the ride quality without removing the lowering; it worked ( to some extent ). The ride was immediately improved at least 100%, yet it was still rough and harsh.
Sadly, now all that could be done now was to restore the ride to stock height.
The truck was jacked up and put on jack stands. The 4 u bolts were unbolted and removed ( the rear end was supported with a floor jack ); thank God for air tools. The lowering blocks were removed ( and are for sale if anyone is interested, these are the good EE ones ). The U bolts were buggered up where they go around the blocks ( don’t ask me how, but they were, big time, so bad the nut wouldn’t even think about passing the bad area ). Finding new U bolts turned out to be an 8-hour undertaking; nobody, even two Ford dealers has any that would fit. I almost gave up but my son and I went to an “obsolete 4x4 and Jeep shop” in another County and while we were getting a part for the ’84 CJ7, I happened to see a huge selection of U bolts. They had the 4 that I needed and they are much beefier than the ones in the EE lowering kit. They were $ 19.75 each. This “free” mod just became an $85.00 mod.
The driver’s side measured 30.5 and the other side was 31.25 before removing the blocks – after removing, the driver’s side was 32 and the other side was 33.3 inches. The gas tank was half filled.
The 45-minute job turned into an all day project.
I decided not to do anything to the lowered front - yet. It measures on the driver’s side 30.5 and on the other side 31.5 inches.
After test-driving, the rear 9000x shock setting was determined to be “6” for the best ride and handling. I sincerely don’t believe the handling was degraded from the lowered version.
If I decide to keep the front lowered, I will have to to adjust the headlights. I have a thousand mile trip upcoming and will leave it like it is at least until that trip is over; who knows the nose down attitude might even improve mileage.
Conclusions: (1) even though I loved the look and handling of the lowered truck, the new ride quality is vastly supreme (2) I wouldn’t hit a wild dog in the arse with the Edelbrock shocks.
Even though the Explorer is a truck and rides like a truck, I forgot how nice it is; I am lo no mo.
