'04 Explorer XLT Lift Question's

[Syhper]

Hey guys for those of you who are still checking up on this thread:
There's a picture of my explorer. And that I'm buying a leveling kit from Brandon in 3 days, like you guys suggested. Thanks again guys, and I'll post pictures when the nittos come in!

 

[Kazer]

sypher, you have to upload your pictures to a host site like photobucket, then copy and paste the IMG code into your post

 

[Syhper]

 

[Syhper]

Hey guys, I have another question about the 1.5" Body Lift, I am getting the coil spacers put on by a local auto shop, and they said if I could find spacers they'd put them on when I get my nitto's. I mentioned to him about the body lift and he said he's not to sure if they could install the body lift, so how am I going to get around this problem? Thanks.

 

[Kazer]

The shop probably thinks the exploders are unibody like a trailblazer, which they're not. Any shop that does spacers installs can do bodylifts with no problems. If they won't do it, a 1.5" bodylift is fairly easy by yourself. For me, having never done a bodylift before, it took me about 7 hours on a Saturday to figure everything out by following the write up

 

[Syhper]

Thank you Krazer for answering my questions, and also if I got the body lift, would they know how to install themselves? Since they never had the lift for my explorer in the 1st place. Also, I have the same problem that you had, I've had no personal experience installing lifts at all, Thanks again Krazer.

 

[Kazer]

Yeah they should be able to do the body lift. I was originally going to have a shop install the lift spacers and body lift but instead I saw that as a chance to learn, so I went and installed the bodylift and spacers myself and gain the extra knowledge. I did my body lift in my garage with no air/power tools. If you change your mind and want to do these things yourself you can private message me and ill do my best to walk you through them

 

[Syhper]

Hey Krazer,
So I've asked around about not getting a body lift and just having coilspacers to fit my 285/70/18s and my friend who has a Black Z71 Tahoe:

who used to have a 2002 Explorer XLT said that I should be able to tuck 33"s with a 3" front coil spacers, and 1.25" rear coil spacers should be able to do the job. But he did say I'd probably be rubbing really bad and that I'd have to cut a lot of the fenders off. Would you guys suggest I do this? because I REALLY do not want to install a body lift on my Expo.

Thanks in advance for all the help this forum has given me!

 

[Ronin8002]

I'll let Kazer weigh in on the tire fitment since he's running 285's, but as for the 3" strut spacers I can tell you that you're going to have some major issues with ball joints and CVs with spacers of those sizes. If you can drop the front diff down a bit with some brackets and get BTF upper control arms that might help with those issues. Getting it aligned still might be difficult though.

Understand you want to avoid a body lift but it does give you a fair amount of clearance for larger tires without affecting the suspension geometry at all.

 

[Kazer]

N.Gardner runs a 285/75/r16 mud terrain tire with just 2.25" front, 1.75" rear coil spacers. his rims are 0 offset.

do you know what offset your rims are?

 

[Syhper]

No I don't know what offset my rims are, but I do know when I get my 33"s I'm getting a pair of new 18 rims.

 

[Syhper]

Thanks for replying Ronin, but do you think those issues with the ball joints or CVs will cause me major problems with my expo?

And Krazer what does the offset to my rims mean?

 

[Kazer]

with 3 inch spacers you would be going through ball joints and CV joints very fast.
and heres a pic to of a 3 inch spacer and what can happen to your truck

offset is where your rims sit in relation to your rotors and fenders. if you look at the previous pictures of my truck, do you see how far my rims stick out? my offset is -6. your stock rims are +44. the lower the offset the further the rims stick out from the truck. when buying your 18's i'd reccommend getting anywhere from 0 to -6 offset so you have more clearence between your tire and steering knuckle

 

[Syhper]

Yeah I see what you mean Krazer, and is it just the fact that it's a 3" spacer? Cause the Red Explorer up their that just has a 2.25" front spacers and fits 33's. If so, I'll just get 2.5" front spacer's and 1.25" or 1" rear spacers. And what would you suggest I do to fit 33's without a body lift? I'm really hating on the fact that I got to dig out most of my car just to install a body lift in ^^.

Thanks again so much for helping me dude, I really apperciate the fact that I can ask user friendly question's in a big supportive community.

 

[Ronin8002]

It's not so much that 3" is a magic number where things will go bad...any kind of spacer lift is going to put more stress on the ball joints and CV joints. If you intend on offroading it at all, most peoples' experiences show that 2.25" in the front is really the max that you should go. If you want it to be level then go with 2.25" in the front and 1.75 in the back, but you can do less in the back too if you don't mind the front being a little bit higher.

Like Kazer said, the offset of the wheels is important. Also, if you were looking at 33" x 12.50 remember those are a lot wider than 285/75 tires (11.22" wide) so that might make a big difference as far as rubbing. N. Gardner's red explorer is running 285/75's

Yeah I see what you mean Krazer, and is it just the fact that it's a 3" spacer? Cause the Red Explorer up their that just has a 2.25" front spacers and fits 33's. If so, I'll just get 2.5" front spacer's and 1.25" or 1" rear spacers. And what would you suggest I do to fit 33's without a body lift? I'm really hating on the fact that I got to dig out most of my car just to install a body lift in ^^.

Thanks again so much for helping me dude, I really apperciate the fact that I can ask user friendly question's in a big supportive community.

 

[Syhper]

Yeah I understand it's still going to put stress on my CV & Ball joints. But he made it seem like 3" was bad, but any how my Explorer is going to see a little mud & dirt. But not much at all, and my main concern is reliability, if I can get a 2.25" front spacer, and a 1.75" rear spacer with 285/70/18 Nitto Mudgrappler and go with Krazer's idea of getting 0 offset on the rims without getting any type of body lift, will I run into any problems like the tires not fitting correctly, etc...?

I feel like something is going to go horribly wrong with the lift & tires because no one at the place that's putting my tire's on have or ever done a 2004 3rd gen Explorer and they were clueless about tire fitting sizes and such. But hopefully this works out.

 

[Kazer]

2.25" front spacer/ 1.75" rear is max. when your front suspension is at full droop(limited out) your steering knuckle will be resting on/pushing your front coil into the frame of the truck, making steering harder. i've beat the crap out of my truck with these spacers in and so far, no negative effects. just be sure you replace your ball joints when you put the spacers in. use moog k80008's. if you want the added peace of mind of not blowing out balljoints, Brandon@BTF who makes the spacers also offers custom extended uniball upper control arms for $550

i'd strongly suggest taking the rims and tires and having them mounted and balanced at the shop, then bring them home and install them on your truck there, that way you can do all necessary trimming at your house as opposed to having them put on at the shop and gouging them up every time you turn to get home

 

[Syhper]

Is that Explorer the same year as mine? 2004? Cause that looks like an 02'.

 

[Kazer]

Yeah its an 02 xls

 

[Syhper]

Thanks a lot again Krazer,
Looks like I fell short of my dream, I cant 285/70/18 Nitto MudGrappler's on my explorer without a body lift I'm pretty sure Ordering my spacers from brandon soon and getting 255/55/18 Nitto Terra Grapplers. Again if anyone knows you can fit them or have any other tire suggestions please let me know. Thank you all for helping me out the best you guys could, espically Ronin & Krazer.